[00:00:00] Speaker A: Anywhere from LA to Vegas.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: It's called the alternative protein market.
[00:00:04] Speaker C: We sell the electricity to the end customer.
[00:00:08] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart.
[00:00:09] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. You've just heard some snippets from our show. Do you want to know more about starting your business? Stay tuned.
[00:00:17] Speaker F: Ramping up your business.
[00:00:19] Speaker D: The time is near.
[00:00:20] Speaker G: You've given it heart, now get it in gear.
[00:00:23] Speaker F: It's Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:28] Speaker D: I'm Richard Gearhart, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:35] Speaker E: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart, not an attorney, but I do marketing for Gearhart Law and I have my own startups and podcasts.
[00:00:42] Speaker D: Welcome to Passage to Profit, the road to Entrepreneurship, where we talk with entrepreneurs and celebrities who tell their stories about their business journey and also share helpful insights about the successes that they've had.
[00:00:54] Speaker E: Did you know that 2 in 5Americans want to start a new business or are business owners? Well, we have lots of information to help them too.
[00:01:02] Speaker D: And we also talk a little about the Internet intellectual property that helps them flourish. We have an amazing guy for our guest. His name is Zach Hirsch, and you probably already know him because he's just all over the place. He's a sports analyst, he's a podcaster, and he's just an amazing game picker. He predicts the outcomes of sporting events with high degrees of accuracy, which makes him very, very popular.
[00:01:27] Speaker E: And then we have two incredible entrepreneurs. We have Thomas Petzold with Lightcore Energy. Do you want to stay warm this winter? And then we have Maria Cho with Triple Bar Bile. This is some really groundbreaking research that she's doing with this company. Can't wait to hear from her.
[00:01:45] Speaker D: But before we get to our distinguished guest, it's time for your new business journey. Two in five Americans want to start a new business or are already business owners. And lots of times they have questions. And so we're here to answer those questions. And we're going to start with the question first to Zach. You're known as being an excellent podcaster. Is now a good time to start a podcasting business?
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say it absolutely is. The industry is exploding. You hear more and more about new podcasts every day. You see bigger and bigger brand deals as well. And in my case, which I'm in the sports betting lane, at least for a couple of my shows, it really couldn't be a better time. With the widespread legalization of sports betting, there's billions and billions and Billions of dollars getting poured into that industry and people want to know where the best picks are at.
[00:02:34] Speaker D: So how did you decide to start a podcast?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: I would say I would have to give a lot of credit to my first podcast co host, Jadakiss. He's one of the best rappers of all time. He was coming off of a big time rap battle win and some of my friends went to his block or his street and talked to him about me and told him I had the best sports picks and he facetimed me for my favorite rappers. I was like, oh my God. And he said we should do a podcast together. So I quickly got everything together. We, we shot a pilot, we sent it to World Star Hip Hop. They picked it up. We were able to get a sponsor from BetAlign AG and from there that was my first podcast. Wow.
[00:03:09] Speaker E: It is a good time to be a podcaster.
[00:03:11] Speaker D: I think so too. Thomas, you're in the business of solar energy and you're actually in Germany. Is now a good time to start a solar business?
[00:03:21] Speaker C: Solar energy is one of the most promising green energy branches right now. If you take a look at what the near future is having in store for us, energy in overall is very important and it's gaining more and more importance since other things are growing, like AI. Artificial intelligence is very energy intensive and it will influence our lives more than we can imagine right now. It's going to be part of the solution.
[00:03:48] Speaker D: So, Elizabeth, for your new business journey, question, when is a good time to start a podcast studio?
[00:03:54] Speaker E: When you have the space and the know how.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: So I think so.
[00:03:58] Speaker E: We have the space. We have a building with this top floor that's empty. We used it all during COVID for this show. So we have a lot of expertise in the area and I think there's a lot of demand for podcast studios. People can do podcasts by themselves wherever they are, but there's a lot that goes into it and there's a lot of marketing and a lot of decision making at the very beginning. Like Zach did it exactly right. You need a studio with somebody who knows what they're doing so that you don't get lost in the miasma of a million podcasts. So you can really figure out what to do, how to do it right and have a successful podcast.
[00:04:30] Speaker D: That's great. And for myself, I guess being in the intellectual property business, doing patents, trademarks and copyrights, I would say now is a great time to get into the field of intellectual property. If that's something that interests you, your.
[00:04:44] Speaker E: Heart, law has quite a young attorney. He's been doing a year now or so, and we've got lots of work to keep him busy.
[00:04:50] Speaker D: The demand is definitely increasing, so it's a great place to be. Anyway, now it's time for our featured guest, Zach Hirsch. Tell us a little bit about what your life is like right now. Where is your focus? Focus. And where are you going?
[00:05:04] Speaker A: I have a lot of different focuses. I think that's the add that allows me to multitask and focus on a lot of things. Currently, I'm home with my family, but typically I'm anywhere from LA to Vegas, all the way to Dubai to Saudi Arabia to London to. You name it, I've been there or traveled there, and it's definitely a very active life. And I have three different podcasts, Pack and Zach the Fight Guys and Keeping Up With Sports. Um, I have my technology company, Mozverse, always trying to brainstorm, come up with new ideas, and really make what I've been working on better, more cohesive.
[00:05:41] Speaker E: You know, podcast, I think it gets addictive. It's like you do. You do one, and it's really fun to do a podcast, right? Especially if you have a great podcast partner, and then you want to do another one, and then you want to do another, and then you have this idea. So I can totally identify with what you're doing. I love your Instagram handle. I pick wins. Can you spill the secret sauce a little, or how do you do that?
[00:06:03] Speaker A: I fooled around, making some of my own advanced stats coaching. EPA was one of them. CEPA when I was 17, 18. And that's certainly a big part of it, but I would say my biggest strength has been my eidetic memory. I've had that since I was a kid, and I'm able to really visualize and hold on to every play that I watch in the NFL or, you know, mixed martial arts at every fight or boxing, you know, every punch that's thrown. So I think that's really been my biggest strength as far as picking weight wins.
[00:06:32] Speaker E: Oh, my gosh. You know, my grandpa had a photographic memory, too, and he used to go to Vegas and count cards, and he'd always win a bunch of money.
[00:06:40] Speaker D: So would you get into the card stuff, too? I mean, since you have the memory for that?
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I can. You know, I've done it a little bit. You can't do it on Strip, but off Strip, it's a little bit easier.
[00:06:50] Speaker D: The casinos actually prohibit people who have this photographic memory from coming in and playing at the casino.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah, like if you're at like the foul blue or a nice place like that on the strip, they're constantly shuffling. There's no, no room to count. But I do have the skill set to do that.
[00:07:08] Speaker E: That's amazing. I find it really cool that you were able to take talent that you were born with that not a lot of people have and use it to make a successful business.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: When I was younger, before I was 18, I was giving pics to a lot of celebrities, kind of like a VIP list, and that was for free. And I really just wanted the access. So I was able to do big time interviews with them and really open doors that shouldn't have been openable for someone my age. And that was my strategy, was to get as much publicity out of the picks as possible rather than selling a subscription or something like that. And I wanted all my picks to be public. I wanted them to be out there. I wanted my record of success to not be questioned. And my ultimate goal was to be an ESPN commentator or something like that. But I feel like the podcast game, I swallow that up. My ultimate goal is to create my own podcast platform rather than be a broadcaster on tv. But yeah, so I never sold pics to the public per se. Had a lot of celebrity and VIP clients, stuff like that, who I've done interviews with, and still to this day, you know, still hit me up for pics and stuff like that. And that was always my strategy and I was always just trying to fit in any way I could. I mean, when I was with the Paul brothers in their training camp, I would do the stopwatch or bring them their water or whatever silly think it was. But I would always try to provide value to people and I think that that helped a lot in people wanting me around them.
[00:08:36] Speaker E: That's awesome. So are you making money from the podcast then?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah, well, my revenue would come from the podcast. You know, I'm sponsored by BetAlign AG.
[00:08:46] Speaker D: That's great.
[00:08:46] Speaker E: That's every podcaster's dream.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Zach Hirsch, sports analyst, podcaster and an amazing game picker. Does your memory extend to things besides sports? I mean, do you also remember other things or is it just kind of in the sports area?
[00:09:03] Speaker A: What I'm passionate about, I'm like an encyclopedia of rap knowledge too. Also something I like. But yeah, the sports knowledge ranges from, you know, NFL, mixed martial arts, boxing. I've done tennis picks, basketball. But yeah, it's mostly what I'm passionate about. I'm pretty add, so if it's not something I'm Interested in, I don't pay any attention. Which some teachers didn't like that growing up so much.
[00:09:26] Speaker E: But what advice would you have like? So for our son, he wants to do a website where he does his predictions and I guess he would maybe put up some sort of paywall so people would subscribe or something to see what his predictions are. Is that the way you would say somebody should go now? What advice would you give someone like that?
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Sure, it's all about their skill set. I thought I had a really strong skill set in connecting with people and that's ultimately what I was able to leverage. But if his skill is going to be more on the software side of things and predicting winners and, you know, putting that behind a paywall makes a lot of sense. And I think my advice would be to put himself out there as soon as possible would not be to try to perfect it or anything like that. I kind of had that mindset when I started, now 17, and ultimately I worked through it by getting criticism from people that were watching it. And you know, it's a lot more valuable than your parents or your loved ones who aren't going to be quite as honest with you. And yeah, really established that he has a track record of success. And from there you can definitely sell subscriptions if you're legitimate.
[00:10:27] Speaker E: So would you suggest someone be on social media to build that size on Instagram? You're like blowing it out of the water. I can foresee maybe starting something like this by putting your predictions on Instagram the day before the game or something and then eventually working that into something paid or maybe getting sponsors from that.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah, Instagram, TikTok. I think the short form content, the reels are what are really putting people over the top right now. There's a lot of creators out there who are doing a great job on X as well. And there's definitely a way to do it and to go viral. And I think the main thing is people have set short attention spans. You've got to catch them quick. So you got to have a catchy thumbnail, lots of colors, a lot of things flying at you and then a quick video, you know, right to the point.
[00:11:09] Speaker D: There you go. So we were talking yesterday about your upcoming show with Caitlyn Jenner and Lamar Odom. That's got to be very exciting because those are super well known celebrities. Tell us about the program. When is it going to be available and what can people expect?
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really different from any other show I've done. It's nothing really Sports betting related. It's not even really about current sports. It's more of a look into the athletes lives that we're interviewing. Some people have described it as like therapeutic for them and it's really just an open space for them to talk about, you know, their journey and what they've gone through and the obstacles that they've overcame. And obviously Caitlin has a lot of knowledge in that area as well as Lamar. It's really special. Some of the conversations that we've been able to have with some athletes, of course, Sugar Ray Leonard, we brought my buddy Jadakiss on. We had a roboxing champion, Zap Judah and list of others. And Zap Judah had emergency brain surgery. So, you know, he spoke to us about, you know, the feeling of him going into the emergency room without his family there. Right. And getting to hear that type of stuff is really deep and really puts a new light on the athlete that we're interviewing.
[00:12:27] Speaker D: So do you feel like there are common threads through the people that you're interviewing and talking about? I mean, are they all one way or another? I mean, I guess they're all driven, they're all passionate. But have you noticed other things as you've taped these shows about their personalities?
[00:12:45] Speaker A: I would say they all like us enough to redo the show. That's that would be probably the biggest thing they have in common. We had Steve O. On, we had a Bryce hall on. We've had from 20 years old to 60 years old to, you know, every type of sport, every type of opinion. So I would say there isn't really a common thread. Just trying to get the best content and I think provide the best conversations to the viewer.
[00:13:14] Speaker E: Do you ever ask them, like especially boxers, how do you mentally prepare yourself to get the stuffing beat out of you? I mean, how do you prepare yourself mentally for that pain? Have you asked them that?
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. I think every fighter is different. I grew up in boxing since I was 4 years old. My father had a boxing gym. I box myself. So I would say every fighter is different. And some fighters go to that dark place the entire fight week and you know, they're serious the entire time and they feel the energy. And some like my buddy, you know, Corey Spain's fight time world champion is dancing on his way to the ring. So you really get a wide range of people and personalities from, you know, we saw Mike Tyson's walkouts, we saw Lloyd Mayweather's walkouts, and I think everyone's different and everyone approaches it in a different way. There's nothing right or wrong, but you definitely have to go to a dark place at one point because your life really isn't aligned. Every year, boxers die in the rape.
[00:14:12] Speaker E: Yeah, it's kind of a brutal sport.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Really brutal. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's really a lot more brutal than mixed martial arts, because in mixed martial arts, one, you're fighting for, you know, less time. But two, in boxing, when you knock someone down, when you give them time to recuperate and get back up and then get beat up some more, and mma, once you get knocked out, you know, ground impalance, submission, whatever it is, you can kind of finish the fight if they're hurt. But boxing just allows a lot of opportunities for guys to recover and continue to get beaten. Yeah, it's very dangerous, for sure.
[00:14:44] Speaker E: I will say that we went to some fitness camp and we did boxing, but we. I never hit anybody. It was. The exercise of boxing is really fun. Like bouncing around and punching. It's fun.
[00:14:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:55] Speaker D: We were punching hands. Right. You know, I don't think we were boxing each other.
[00:14:59] Speaker E: No, I. I don't.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: But it could be good couples therapy. I don't know.
[00:15:04] Speaker E: Do you do the same type of interview questions? Say you have five boxers in a row, or do you try to dig deep and find different questions for each person during these interviews?
[00:15:14] Speaker A: No, of course. You know, you try to dig deep and find, you know, different interview questions. And everyone's had a different career, and everyone has a different perspective and outlook on their career and life in general. And everyone has just had, you know, many different life experiences. Sugar Ray touched on. He was molested by one of his traitors. You know, I mean, that's like a personal thing that obviously, you know, you wouldn't be able to get out of any other fighter, particularly. But, yeah, you know, every. Every story is different, for sure.
[00:15:44] Speaker E: And that's the hallmark of a good interviewer, is what I've heard is that if you can get somebody on your podcast or during your interview to reveal something about themselves that they haven't really talked about before. Yeah.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: For that show in particular, it's a great format for them to be vulnerable. It's a very open set, and Lamar and Kaylin are very open about their past struggles in life, and, you know, Lamar about his mental health and former drug addiction, stuff like that. So when you have hosts that are so open and honest, it allows them to have an open floor. And it's my job to facilitate that in one point and try to get the most out of everyone.
[00:16:21] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhart and our very special guest Zach Hirsch. And he'll be back right after this. Commercial break.
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That's 802-491-2084. Now back to passage to profit once.
[00:18:32] Speaker E: Again, Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart and our special guest, Zach Hirsch. Zach is an amazing predictor of outcomes in sports. He uses a lot of different resources to do what he does. We want to talk a little bit about Mozverse, which is his AI tech company, and how AI is going to Impact things going forward. So, Zach, can you say a little bit about what you think the role of AI is going to be?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Sure. And yeah, Moz Verse is going great. We're doing a lot of motion assisted interactive media, which is really going to start to enhance streaming audio and podcasts and things of that nature, which is really exciting to me because that's kind of been my bread and butter and it's right in my wheelhouse. And AI in my space, in the sports betting space definitely has a role and definitely has some value and it definitely can help with certain predictive markers. But at the end of the day, it is a lot of eye test. It is knowing the game or whatever it is for football. I was the youngest Division 1 coaching intern when I was 16 with FAU football and getting to learn the X's and O's, you know, helping us all. The playbook with coach D.J. mcCarthy I think served me more value than an AI could could gather just from looking at pure analytics there. There is certainly an eye test to it as well, especially in the other sports. I do boxing and mixed martial arts styles make fights. So it would be tough to find an AI predictive model that could really identify that information.
[00:19:59] Speaker E: My son played football for many years, high school, junior high, while starting in like third grade, and he learned things, deep intrinsic things about how the game is played that I'm not sure can really be programmed into AI. Like, can AI really get it?
[00:20:15] Speaker A: They probably get it pretty well, but I don't think it can do 100% of the job. Like you said, there are X's and O's that come from playing it, learning the sport, I would say, you know, coaching the sport, stuff like that. We've had NFL coaches who really only played up to high school football, but were able to get assistant coaching jobs right out of high school or college and learn as much about sport as anyone else.
[00:20:36] Speaker D: Yeah, I think though, that AI is going to be predictive.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: You would also also have to remember that Vegas is going to have the same access to the same AI when they're determining their betting lines. And the only thing that Vegas is trying to do when they're setting their betting lines is get 50% of people to bet on one side and 50% of people to bet on the other because they make money in the middle, because it's not exactly even.
[00:20:57] Speaker E: Oh, all the way. But I gotta ask you, Zach, do you take into account bad calls, like, are there some refs that you think are half blind or something?
Always make a Bad call.
[00:21:10] Speaker D: So just for some background on this, Elizabeth is a Seahawks fan and every single game, the refs always make bad calls and they don't catch the fouls that the the other team is making against the Seahawks.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Just for your information, football games where.
[00:21:27] Speaker E: I don't have an interest in either team and I feel like there's bad calls.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And the unfortunate thing is with the spread of sports betting, you have to wonder if the refs have any interest in that.
[00:21:40] Speaker D: Elizabeth has been saying this for like the last seven or eight years at least, right?
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not impossible.
[00:21:46] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't think it is either.
[00:21:47] Speaker E: Some of the calls are so egregious and everybody gets upset.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: We've had NBA refs caught and stuff like that. But yeah, I would say the referee, you know, gang is definitely something that can be considered. Sometimes you'll see a stat where it's like a quarterback is like 0:17 with that set of refs. Like, huh, that's really weird. Especially NBA, they're always like, beefing. He's ejected him like three times. So there are times where the ref, you know, has to be taken into account. But I would say things like, you know, the coaching history, the weather, a variety of stuff that you have to consider when making a sports pick.
[00:22:23] Speaker D: Zach Hirsch Sports Analyst Podcaster Zach, what.
[00:22:27] Speaker E: Is the best place for people to find you?
[00:22:28] Speaker A: The best place for people to find me is on Instagram at. I pick wins.
[00:22:33] Speaker E: Love that name.
[00:22:34] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt. Now it's time for Intellectual Property News. So we're staying on the theme of sports betting here. This is a recently filed lawsuit by the Major League Baseball Players Association. They sued two sports betting companies, the DraftKings and Bet365, because the soft software that these companies use are using player images as part of their software.
[00:23:03] Speaker E: This was published by Christopher Atwood and it was a blog post that he.
[00:23:08] Speaker D: Did for University of the University of Buffalo Law School.
[00:23:12] Speaker E: University of Buffalo Law School. These betting sites, they have all the stats, everything, and then they have pictures of the players, but they don't own those pictures of the players. The stats are common knowledge. They're able to use those. So this has been going back and forth in the course.
[00:23:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, it's a relatively recent lawsuit, of course. The Major League Baseball Players association wants these betting companies to license the photos. The question that I'd like to put to the group is as well, what do you think about this, Thomas?
[00:23:38] Speaker C: I do think law should be directed towards what is the public benefit.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:23:45] Speaker D: Maria, what are your thoughts?
[00:23:47] Speaker B: I think IP as a protective device really should only be used if it's harming a business or an individual or it could put somebody out of business. And I think in the case of players images being used to actually elevate those players, I think it actually helps them across the board to elevate their players.
[00:24:04] Speaker D: Zach, what are your thoughts?
[00:24:06] Speaker A: The same way the mob isn't hurting for money. I promise you DraftKings isn't either.
[00:24:12] Speaker D: We're going to have to take a commercial break. We'll be back with more Passage to Profit right after this.
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That's 800-410-5914, paid for by the Health Insurance Hotline. Passage to Profit continues with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:26:21] Speaker D: And of course, this is the part where I brag a little bit about our show. Passage to Profit can be heard on 38 radio stations across the country. And if you miss us there, you can catch us on our podcast, which is available anywhere that you get podcasts. And Passage to Profit is ranked at the top top 3% on listen notes and also has been recently found to be a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast on Feedspot database. So we're very proud of our little achievements here, and it's time for Elizabeth to tell us what she's been up to.
[00:26:56] Speaker E: Like Zach, I find so many things I want to do and I try to do them all, and I do as many as I can. Yes, I'm still doing the Jersey podcast podcast with Danielle Woolley. Love her. She is an amazing podcast host. And then I working with Stacy Sherman, we have podcast and YouTube creators community meetup, which is in person and online. So it's a hybrid meetup. We had Chris Krimitsas, who's the founder of PodFest, talking about PodFest that's coming up in January, and how video affects your podcast. It's really fun for us to go to these podcast conferences because we learn a lot. It's changing so quickly. You know, Zach was talking about how his company is going to change it even more.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:37] Speaker E: So there's always new software, there's always improvements in podcasting, so you really have to keep up with it. So that's a lot of my job. And we use it for Passage to Profit too. And then also, Richard and I are remodeling our podcast studio in Summit, New Jersey, and I am helping coach somebody on starting a podcast. I have a lot of people interested in using the studio. We just have to get that done. So now I am so excited to introduce Maria Cho with Triple Bar Bio. This is amazing stuff. Welcome, Maria. Tell us all about it.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me. And you can also read more about
[email protected] we're trying to make impact in both food as well as in healthcare. And the impact is really around making products that actually do the things that we need them to do and are also sustainable. We leveraged some pretty cool tech to do it. It's been a really incredible journey building this business and excited to share more about it.
[00:28:28] Speaker E: You have two different subjects here on the notes that I have. One is food and nutrition, and the other is biologics. Do those work in conjunction with each other?
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Yeah, they're kind of related, you know, food and nutrition. There's elements of food and nutrition that are important for basically maintaining health. So, you know, if you, you kind of prevent yourself from getting sick, you don't necessarily need the sick things to, or the medicines to help you and when you're sick. And so we're focused on proteins that are called bioactive proteins. These are proteins that are typically isolated from natural sources like cow's milk, but they're very expensive to make, make and isolate from cow's milk. And so what we do is we make these proteins using fermentation. So it's kind of like how you make beer or wine, but instead of fermenting to make alcohol, we're actually making these proteins. And so these, these microbes, like little microorganisms, actually produce these proteins. And then we bring down the cost of those proteins by making it in this way. It's a much more sustainable way to make those proteins. And then their proteins are incorporated into things that we consume every day, like infant formulas, adult supplements, sports nutrition, things like that. And so we work at a very specific part of the value chain and then partner with large organizations to get those products to market.
[00:29:46] Speaker D: How do these proteins, for example, differ from the protein source you'd buy at the grocery store? You know, that big jar of protein that people buy but never actually use.
What's the difference between the two?
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Those kind of protein powders or proteins, those are called whey proteins. I'm sure you're familiar with that. So whey proteins can either be, again, isolated from cow milk sources or marine sources, or even vegan sources. And so it's one of the types of proteins that we make. The other types of proteins that we make are things like the protein called lactoferrin. Lactoferrin is usually incorporated into early life nutrition in infant formulas. It's, it's found in human breast milk, but it's not actually found in very high quantities in cow's milk. And so it's usually augmented into formulas. And it's a very important protein for gut maturation, immunity, reducing inflammation. There's also been, you know, some aspects of it that it can be used to, like, offset the effects of COVID things like that. So it's a really important protein. It's just very expensive to make and it's hard to make using biotech. And so that's kind of a difference. So the whey proteins are examples of different types of proteins, but then there's kind of an additional layer of those that have kind of health benefits as well.
[00:31:05] Speaker E: Well, do you think you'll be able to bring the cost down. I mean, I would love to see your proteins replace soy. I'm intolerant to soy and soy is in everything. And if you want a protein bar, it's soy. You think you'll ever get the price down where it'll be more feasible to use every week?
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. I mean that's part of the goal. It's called the alternative protein market. I kind of call it the complimentary protein market. You know, the main cost of these things are if you're isolating it from natural sources, it's not sustainable. The costs are high. But using biotech to make those proteins is also a challenge because, because, you know, organisms are hard to work with and we have a particular kind of platform that uses the algorithm of evolution to evolve those cells to do the things we want them to do. That evolution already figured out. We just have to find it. So. So it brings the cost down. We want these things to be, you know, more broadly incorporated plant based proteins or particularly soy, probably over utilized, overcropped, over commoditized and, and they're actually, you know, the absorption of those proteins is actually not even 100%. It's only like 60 or 70% of the actual protein that's there. So absolutely that's one of the main goals. I think we're a few years away from that, but you know, you have to start somewhere.
[00:32:15] Speaker D: So is there a difference in characteristics between the proteins you're making and off the shelf grocery store whey protein?
[00:32:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean we want them to have the same efficacy, we want them to have the same kind of structure and function as those proteins that are isolated from natural sources. And so the term is called biosimilar or bioidentical to the those. So. So depending on the protein, it will be either of those two things. And the goal again is to make it so that it's either at cost parity, so the same price as those things you find in the grocery store. Although I think some protein powders are pretty expensive, to be honest. And so we're getting it down to the cost that, you know, everyone can, can achieve. And that also, you know, hopefully tastes good too.
[00:32:59] Speaker E: That sounds great. I do want to change the focus a little bit to your other part of the business. Yeah, and that's the T cell engagers that are tailored to a person's tumor if they have cancer. What is that all about?
[00:33:11] Speaker B: It's a concept that is really, I think, the next generation of how we treat disease for humanity. So you know, there's lots of products on the market that doesn't necessarily work for everyone, but it's prescribed to everyone. The concept that we're trying to tackle Is really a personalized medicine approach. And so this is taking a specific, in the case of oncology or cancers, Taking a specific patient tumor, and then creating in our system an immune synapse. So how your immune system actually functions, it recruits these things called T cells, which are like the quarterback of the immune system. And that T cell actually goes and it tries to attack the cancer cell and get rid of it. But the problem is, when the immune system is not functioning In a way that is working correctly, the cancer starts to spread, and it proliferates because those T cells aren't effective. So what we're doing is we're actually identifying kind of novel therapeutics that allow that called T cell synapse. So recruits the T cell to the patient tumor cell and actually activates the functional killing mechanism. And it's specific to each patient. So, you know, if a patient has, let's say, colorectal cancer or, you know, a different. A rare form of ovarian cancer, for example, usually the way their tumors look are different than everybody else, and so it's hard to actually treat that cancer. And then that's when the cancer starts to spread, and then, unfortunately, the patient passes away. And so in this case, we can actually target what does that specific tumor look like? Let's treat that specific tumor and then essentially cure the cancer. Right. So that's the goal.
[00:34:50] Speaker E: How far along are you?
[00:34:51] Speaker B: We're in the early stages of this, so we'll probably have, I think, by mid next year, Some initial targets that we'll be able to start testing. And we're excited to be along this journey. It's very NASA. It's a very early field, but it's a very progressive field. And I think it's where the future of medicine is going.
[00:35:11] Speaker D: I've heard of a technology called CAR T. Is this what you're talking about, or is this a different technology?
[00:35:17] Speaker B: It's slightly different. So CAR T technology is actually leverage a different type of system where you try to change the genetics of the T cell to make it more effective. Here, what we're actually doing is kind of boosting the natural immune system to do what it needs to do. And so we're not trying to change genetics. We're actually just trying to make that actual natural, innate function of the immune system more effective.
[00:35:45] Speaker D: It really seems like your company has kind of two different thrusts. Right. You know, on the One hand you're making proteins, you've got this vat of protein that you're fermenting, right. And then on the other hand you're doing this kind of sophisticated biologic type of technology. So how did you end up going in these two different directions? Isn't that kind of confusing sometimes?
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah, sometimes it can be. I think, you know, the mission of Tripwire is to feed and heal people and planet. And so while the two areas feel disparate, they're actually are very mission aligned with Triple Bar. You know, we started in the food space and realized that the technology that we were leveraging in the food space really was relevant also to these pharma applications. And so it was kind of a natural transition for us. Us. I would say that what's really exciting, I know we were talking earlier in the, in the show around AI, during the course of running the natural programs that we're running here at Triple Bar, we are able to generate incredibly large amount of high quality specific genomic data. And so the genome is basically the code of life and it links to what a cellular function is. So what does a cell do? Why does it do what it does?
And we have the ability to create incredibly large amounts of genomic data. I know we talked about ChatGPT earlier. You know, ChatGPT was trained on all of the publicly available language data and the algorithm basically has this predictive function and emergent properties.
[00:37:17] Speaker E: I so admire people that are trying to solve our health problems. I mean that is like if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Right? Class a lot. So are you using the food business to fund the biologics business or are you getting grants? Yeah, yes.
[00:37:32] Speaker B: I mean we are a venture backed company. We closed our Series A financing last year. We're actually just now going to market for a Series B to build out this genomic language model. All really focused on finding medicines that can also be produced at lower costs. I think that's the biggest challenge is that we can make these life saving medicines. But you know, payers don't want to spend $500,000 to actually treat a disease. They're like, let's go through this regimen and by then it's too late. So it's like, well, let's bring those costs of those medicines down, make them more broadly applicable, you know, to treating each patient and then you know, you're not paying for hospitalizations and all that other stuff. Yeah, I can go on and on about the healthcare system both in our country. And other areas. But really the cost is one of the key drivers. And so yeah, so we're revenue generating business on the food side and it really sparked where we can also make an impact in human health from the treatment therapeutic space. And then based on kind of building out this genomic generative AI model for predictive function, we'll be able to make a much broader impact with that as well.
[00:38:40] Speaker E: This is groundbreaking and it's triplebar.com if people go to your website, what are they going to find?
[00:38:45] Speaker B: They'll find a bit more about the company, they'll find more about the technology and the products that we're working on. A bit about our team also highlight we, we just onboarded our chief snuggle officer. Her name's Bea. She's our office dog and brings lots of joy to the, to the team as well. So we're also on LinkedIn and X as well. It handles that triple bar bio excellent.
[00:39:06] Speaker E: Well, thank you, Maria.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: Passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gerhart.
[00:39:11] Speaker E: And now we have Thomas Petzold with light core energy. And energy is so important. All the stuff Maria's doing takes a lot of energy too. Right. So we have to find a way to provide for everybody's needs with the energy that we have. So Thomas has a solution for that. Welcome Thomas. Can you tell us all about what you're doing?
[00:39:29] Speaker C: Our company is a relatively new company in the field of solar power plants. On an industrial level, we build solar block power plants. We are taking care of funding it, handle all the legal aspects to be able to build those power plants. And then we sell those to customers and administer for investors those power plants. And then with the idea, then the end result is that we also sell the electricity to the end customer. That's basically the foundation for the future.
[00:40:02] Speaker E: Wow. So do you have to build them only in sunny areas?
[00:40:06] Speaker C: Fortunately, the sun shines everywhere on planet Earth, but in some areas more and in some areas less. And there are actually models which calculate where is it profitable to put those solar panels and where is it less means like where some areas more in the south, the sun, you have longer sun, you have more intense sun. And by that measure you can do the calculations and tell the customers, well, that's a good investment here.
[00:40:34] Speaker D: Well, that's interesting. So like the atmospheric quality, if you have a lot of smog or a lot of moisture in the air, then that can affect the efficiency of the solar panels. Right?
[00:40:47] Speaker C: Very technical. Yeah, it becomes very technical. For instance, like here in Germany, you have in the North Of Germany, actually you have less sun, but you have better production because the temperature is a little bit less intense in the summer. Because when these solar panels become extremely hot. And everybody knows if you leave your car in the sun, you can fry an egg on it. And that's detrimental to the solar panels for the electricity production.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: So.
[00:41:16] Speaker C: And if you have a fresh wind that cools those panels down. So and here in Germany, in the north of Germany, it is actually better even though you have mathematically less sun, but because of this cooling effect, you have more energy production.
[00:41:31] Speaker E: Are you storing the energy in batteries then and taking them where they need to go for the customer, or are you sending it through electrical lines?
[00:41:38] Speaker C: The storing in batteries is a very expensive undertaking at this point, but it will be more and more point in the future. One of the downfalls of solar electricity, solar produced electricity, is that you have the electricity only then when the sun is there. And if you, if you like looking at yourself, I have a solar panel on my roof. But when, when the sun is shining, you're at work and when you're coming back and want to do your dinner, the sun is gone. Usually there it makes sense to use better. But on an industrial level, it is still a bit too expensive at this point. But it is becoming more and more common, especially in Germany as the technology evolves.
[00:42:22] Speaker E: You lose a lot through the power lines, right? I mean, I know there have been a lot of people working on superconductors so that you lose less as it goes through the power lines. How is that coming along?
[00:42:32] Speaker C: It's actually a point that's negligible. The customer who says, I invest in a power plant, they have a measuring point at a point of entrance where the solar power plant connects with the grid and there it gets measured how much energy is being injected into the system and then it gets regulated from there. So it's, it's negligible. It is a point. You are totally right, but not something.
[00:42:55] Speaker E: You have to worry about. So it would be going more from the grid to the houses.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: Exactly. It's more maintenance of the grid and. But the grid is generally more the huge energy providers state run.
[00:43:08] Speaker D: I remember solar bursting on the scene a long time ago. I mean, it's been a technology that's been available for a while, but my impression is that over time it's gotten more efficient as an energy generator. What are some of the things that have happened that have improved the solar energy efficiency?
[00:43:31] Speaker C: Well, the technology has evolved. It hasn't like done any, anything spectacular or quantum Jumps. But yeah, for instance, you know, you improved. You can get a little bit more wattage out of per square yard, basically. So the research has been done on that. And one aspect that is also they can have vertically standing panels which I have plating on both sides. So basically you can't. The sun goes through the solar panels and reflects on the other side and therefore you increase the efficiency by a couple of percent. This is being done. And also one of the problems that's being solved at the same time is in Germany it's becoming a point where you have agri photovoltaic systems where you can basically put those fields and you can put those solar panels up and still use the soil for animals or for growing crops. Oops.
[00:44:27] Speaker E: That's a huge improvement. I was going to ask you too. Is there ever a problem with getting the minerals that you need for the solar panels?
[00:44:35] Speaker C: That's more of a global problem, to.
[00:44:37] Speaker D: Tell you the truth.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: You know, like we are at this point, we are purchasing the majority of the solar panels we are purchasing from China. They get delivered here on ships. So we don't have that problem. We pay for it. But if you look at the future right now, if you take a look at it with what is globally happening, the governments are already competing for lithium resources and rare minerals, et cetera, et cetera. You can feel those effects by global conflicts that we can visit right now.
[00:45:08] Speaker D: How big are your plants compared to say a standard electrical plant?
[00:45:14] Speaker C: The power plants that we build are ideally like 1 megawatt. You have a couple of thousand square meters. We have like huge production facilities which have a roof anyways. We ideally use only the roof for that. So there isn't really any secret juice that we're using that we are doing that others can't.
[00:45:33] Speaker E: Are you harvesting any wind power at all? I mean, you kind of think wind power and sun power go together and maybe you could do both of them.
[00:45:39] Speaker C: If you take a closer look at wind power, it isn't actually as beneficial in the long run as it appears to be. You have windmills. Many people don't know that actually, but windmills are going to become a huge problem. Let's say you can have a wind turbine that has blades, plates that are 100 meters long each and after 10 years they have cracks on it and they're made of carbon fiber, et cetera, et cetera. And you're going to have a problem to getting rid of those economically because they don't disintegrate. There are huge wind power plants in the Ocean, One of the side effects you have, it harms the ecosystem there because those windmills, these are also, just imagine those wings. Each windmill has a wings, three wings at least, which are 100 meters long. And the bigger the wingspan is, the more efficient and the more high you can build it and the more efficient the production is. But what you have, and it produces sound, subsonic sound. And if you have the standing in the water and the fish, they cannot close their ears, if you have more and more groundings of fish, of whale because they lose sense of their orientation.
[00:46:52] Speaker E: So solar panel doesn't have those particular problems, but do they last forever?
[00:46:56] Speaker C: They erode over time. After 20 years, you still have about 80% of usage capacity. And it depends on where you put those and what materials you use. But they are lasting quite a bit.
[00:47:09] Speaker D: So are you optimistic that alternative energy sources would be able to replace carbon based energy sources?
[00:47:18] Speaker C: To honestly answer that question, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration. As I said, solar energy has some downfalls and it depends on how we can cover up or how we can catch up for those downfalls, like the storage of energy and also the transmission of energy. At this point, the numbers say no. Nuclear power plants are so efficient, but they also have their dangers that have to be taken into consideration.
[00:47:45] Speaker E: Yeah, there's always a trade off, isn't there? Nothing's 100% perfect.
[00:47:49] Speaker D: Just use less electricity. Turn your lights off when you leave the room.
[00:47:53] Speaker E: Thomas Petzold, Lightcore Energy. Thomas, how can people find you?
[00:47:58] Speaker C: On my Instagram profile, Lightcore Thomas Petzold. And Also on my LinkedIn profile, Lightcore.
[00:48:06] Speaker E: Thomas Petzold Light and then C O R E. Exactly.
[00:48:09] Speaker C: Fancy name for an energy production company.
[00:48:12] Speaker E: I like it. Yeah. And then Thomas Petzold. That's P E T Z O L D. So look for Thomas.
[00:48:19] Speaker D: Passage to Profit with Richard and Elizabeth Kerhart will be back with Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind right after this.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: I'm Jack, CEO and co
[email protected] when.
[00:48:31] Speaker D: I left my job as a Wall street banker back in my 20s, I felt completely lost trying to navigate the process of hiring a financial advisor. I thought it should be easy to find the right financial advisor. So I created a place where young families could feel understood, understood and their unique needs would be met with empathy and expertise.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: That's why I started usehabits.com where we help you find your financial advisor free of charge. Use habits.com it's passage to Profit.
[00:48:59] Speaker D: Alicia Morrissey is our programming director at Passage to Profit. And she's also a fantastic jazz vocalist. You can scroll to the bottom of the passage to profitshow.com website and check out her album.
[00:49:13] Speaker E: We've had some fascinating conversations with these guests, but now it is time for Secrets of the Entrepreneurial Mind. Zach, I'm going to start with you, Zach Hirsch. What is the secret you can share with our audience?
[00:49:26] Speaker A: Biggest secret that I've had and the thing that's by me the most success is finding where I can provide value in relationships, and that's knowing that you can't just take and you have to give as well. So finding how you can help others, that's really been my greatest strength, is providing value to people that can, you know, provide value for me and having it be an equal energy exchange.
[00:49:49] Speaker D: There you go.
[00:49:49] Speaker E: Excellent.
[00:49:50] Speaker D: I like that. I think too, if you can even provide more value, if you can provide a little bit more value than you think you might be getting back, I think that's a good strategy. So I like your comment. Thank you.
[00:50:03] Speaker E: So, Maria Cho, what's the secret you can share?
[00:50:06] Speaker B: I think the biggest secret is build a winning team. And all the different things that you do if you have a winning team around you and they're all kind of mission aligned, all bring kind of different, different diverse skill sets and knowledge to solving the same problem. You get to the outcome that you want to achieve and I would say quickly move on from people that don't want to be a part of that vision. So that's the other, the other thing people focus is important.
[00:50:29] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:50:30] Speaker D: One of my mentors once said, when it comes to hiring people, pick people who want to win. So when you said winning team, that's what popped into my head. Do you want people who want to win?
[00:50:42] Speaker E: So, Thomas Petz, sold. What is a secret you can share?
[00:50:46] Speaker C: My experience is you have to find something that you can be passionate about because I think to really be successful in any given business, you have to be able to work hard and that is easier and only possible if you can be passionate about it. And then I can only add to what Zach and Maria said, give more than you take and surround yourself with good people who are good for you and have a winning team.
[00:51:13] Speaker E: Absolutely. Richard Gearhart, Gearhart Law what is your secret?
[00:51:17] Speaker D: Don't lose your curiosity. Staying curious is probably one of the best things I think people can do because it keeps new horizons in front of you and just experiencing new things and trying new things. Like recently I've been in the habit of watching YouTube videos that I would never Watch, watch. Just to see what is going on there. And sometimes I realize why I wouldn't watch them. They're totally boring. But every once in a while, I'll stumble across something that kind of gives me a little bit of a pause. And I think, you know, actually that's kind of cool. I think I should look into that a little bit more. And I think that helps my creativity.
[00:52:00] Speaker E: Very good. Mine this week is going to be open every piece of mail. Don't just dismiss it if somebody reaches out to you. So, for instance, the three guests that we have today came through, Danielle Robbins and Nadia Atwal. And that relationship that we have with them started because Daniel reached out to me with one sentence on LinkedIn. He said, I like your podcast. The people he sends us for this show are phenomenal. Anyway, what I'm just saying is don't just dismiss things and throw things away without kind of looking at them first. Now, obviously, if you get a piece of mail, you know it's junk, then forget it.
[00:52:32] Speaker D: Well, that's it for us, everybody. Passage to Profit is a nationally syndicated radio show appearing in 38 markets across the United States. Passage to Profit has also been recently selected by Feed Spot Podcasters Database as a top 10 entrepreneur interview podcast. Thank you to the P2P team, our producer, Noah Fleischman, and our program coordinator, Alicia Morrissey. And Rishiket Bus. Sorry. Look for our podcast tomorrow anywhere you get your podcasts, Our podcast is ranked in the top 3% globally. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram X and on our YouTube channel. And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark, and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
