How OoNee Is Restoring Oceans with Sea Urchins | Aaron Huang, Flywheel Winner | Networked Podcast EP 7

Can sea urchins help save the ocean? In this episode, the answer just might surprise you.

Host David Mabee talks with Aaron Huang, Founder & CEO of OoNee and winner of the 2025 Flywheel Investment Conference, about how climate tech, marine restoration, and sustainable seafood are colliding in powerful ways.

Discover how OoNee is using land-based sea urchin ranching to regenerate kelp forests, strengthen coastal ecosystems, and build a resilient seafood supply chain—all while redefining what it means to launch a purpose-driven startup.

🎧 Follow Networked for real conversations with founders and changemakers across North Central Washington.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:32 The Mission Behind OoNee
• 11:30 From Vision to Venture
• 20:21 The Flywheel Experience
• 27:47 Scaling Impact + Looking Ahead
• 34:01 Signature Questions + Wrap-Up

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:19:23
David Mabee
Are you ready for network podcasts? Hey I'm David. Welcome back to network the podcast where we bring you real talk to inspire, invest and empower right here in North Central Washington and beyond.

00:00:19:23 - 00:00:30:16
David Mabee
Today's guest is someone who's pushing the boundaries of climate innovation and sustainable food systems. Aaron Huang, founder and CEO of Ooni. Aaron and his teams are pioneering a bold new approach to sea urchin ranching.

00:00:30:20 - 00:00:59:11
David Mabee
Yes, you heard that right. Sea urchin ranching using it to restore marine ecosystems, regrow kelp forests and build scalable seafood supply chains rooted in regeneration instead of extraction. Aaron took on the top prize last week at the 2025 Flywheel Investment Conference, earning over $200,000 in funding. But Beyond the Pitch is a deeper story, one that blends environmental missions, assistance thinking, and a passion for solving tough problems with creativity and precision.

00:00:59:18 - 00:01:18:27
David Mabee
If you're curious about what that looks like to design a company for both profit and purpose and what it took, you're going to want to stick around here as we get to talk to Aaron here. Aaron, how are you doing this morning? Hey, how's it going? I'm fantastic. Man. The crowd is stoked to have you here. Welcome.

00:01:19:00 - 00:01:43:23
David Mabee
And again, congrats on the Flywheel Investment conference winning. We'll get to that in a moment. I know you stuck around, in Wenatchee over the weekend, so, what did you get up to here? I went on a few hikes afterwards. Just, calm the mind. Hit up a winery actually, that night, and, actually played a few rounds of golf and challenges all the things.

00:01:43:23 - 00:02:05:09
Aaron Huang
You just relaxed my mind over the weekend. So nice. Did you actually play this land golf course or were you up at Bear Mountain? I played both, actually. Wow, you were amazing. Yes, sir. That's awesome. That's. That's amazing. So congrats. Welcome to Wenatchee. I hope you had a, I guess I should say, I hope you had a good time in Wenatchee while you were here.

00:02:05:11 - 00:02:27:17
Aaron Huang
The golfing and the lake. Did you jump in the lake at all? I didn't not jump in the lake. That'll be for next time. I did hear that. The, the lake is the third deepest lake in the US, I believe. That's correct. Yeah, and it's beautiful. So beautiful. Blue. It's the blue is is insane. If you notice that when you were golfing, deep blues.

00:02:27:17 - 00:03:03:13
Aaron Huang
I mean, the colors are always amazing. Yes, absolutely. So let's dive in here. What inspired you to tackle this sea urchin overpopulation and kelp forest restoration. How did you get into this? That is literally just it right there. David. Kelp forest populations are, collapsing. And as I mentioned in my in my talk last week, I call it an underwater forest fire because it literally is, and there aren't really, that many pathways to just pulling out, all these urchins.

00:03:03:15 - 00:03:37:15
Aaron Huang
We have to find a market based solution. Honey happens to be one of the favorite foods, that I've grown to love. And, I think when you love something, you want to find a way to protect it. You want to find a way to introduce it to other people? And you also want to link it to a broader issue that people, are not aware of, but could become aware of, once they decide that they, you know, that they really, really like to eat something, and want to keep eating it.

00:03:37:18 - 00:04:02:17
Aaron Huang
So a lot of these things just go into both. My honestly, my personal, love of food and nature and wanting to share it with other people and, and brought into that story, and so this, kelp restoration and urchin ranching, which is something that I've been studying for many years. I met my co-founder, down in Oregon.

00:04:02:19 - 00:04:24:27
Aaron Huang
We decided that urchins were actually, adjacent to kelp. But obviously very, very important to the health of the kelp ecosystem. We decided that urchin ranching was a better business in the US, than farming kelp, for various reasons. And so we basically decided we were gonna take a go at it about two years ago.

00:04:25:00 - 00:04:43:02
David Mabee
That's amazing. How did you how did you find your love for the sea urchin? What was that for you? That uni? What? What drove you? Do you remember the exact like, like moment? You're like, damn, this is this is my jam. I mean, look at my face. David, this is, this is a very Asian face.

00:04:43:02 - 00:05:02:21
Aaron Huang
So we eat a lot of, nommy things, and I think it's, you know, it is. It is a cultural thing. I didn't grow up eating sushi. I don't think I had my first bite of sushi until I was in my early 20s. Unlike a lot of, kids these days that I see at a sushi restaurant, they're like 12, you know, they're eating more and more sushi.

00:05:02:27 - 00:05:24:10
Aaron Huang
We didn't get real, real sushi until we were, in our early 20s. I grew up in Arizona, the driest of all places, far away from the ocean. Right. But I always had this love of of seafood. I always had this love of fresh seafood. And obviously, once I ate uni for the first time, I was hooked.

00:05:24:12 - 00:05:48:11
Aaron Huang
And so that kind of led me down to this rat hole of seeing all the, things that were tired urchins, all the things that the urchins were tired of, the kelp and all the greater ecosystem, things that were basically happening, in, in the West Coast, but also globally. And it's been a kind of a, a sad but a beautiful journey at the same time.

00:05:48:13 - 00:06:07:00
David Mabee
Right? I guess so you're talking about how it touches the ecosystems, the economies and the food systems. How did you land on you're like a intersectional approach to this. Was that like something that came natural? I mean, talking about like how you just like we're going down the path of it, or was there like something that like an moment?

00:06:07:02 - 00:06:33:01
Aaron Huang
I don't think there was necessarily an moment. I just think it kind of hit all the kind of intrinsic criteria, that I was looking for. I think I've always had a connection to the ocean, which I'm not alone in that regard. I mean, when you when you crest over a hill, and you see that ocean for the first time when you're a kid, it just it there's just something inherent in all of us.

00:06:33:01 - 00:07:04:22
Aaron Huang
I mean, we all kind of come from New York. The this for primordial soup, if you will. So there's something deeply connective about it, I think when the oceans are sick, I think that we feel a little bit unwell ourselves, even though we can't articulate what it is. And I think it's just that sense of, you know, dis ease that, kind of led me to continuously search for something that I could be sort of find a way to alleviate.

00:07:04:25 - 00:07:28:12
Aaron Huang
And, it took a while. I mean, it's not one of those things that you kind of pop up immediately, but there have been, research studies for for over a decade on this issue. There have been various calls to action from researchers. And yet just very few people that decided they want to pick up the mantle of where research left off and where industry could begin.

00:07:28:14 - 00:07:46:04
Aaron Huang
And, you know, maybe it's just to kind of backtrack, maybe there was, one day an or, type of effort moment where it's just like, you know, if no one else is going to try it, like, why do I just take a crack at it? How hard could it be? Right. That's that's amazing. So do you do you spend a lot of time in the ocean?

00:07:46:04 - 00:08:04:24
David Mabee
Like, are you a diver or do you swim in it? I mean, you're talking about, like, your love for the ocean and kind of that, that primal, draw to it. But what what's your story with the ocean like? Is it because you grew up in Arizona? So. I would just say it's more just connective, emotional. Spiritual.

00:08:04:24 - 00:08:30:09
Aaron Huang
I mean, I know a lot of people want to get into it. I mean, certainly I've had my fair share of being inside the ocean. But I just think, even just being in the Pacific Northwest, being around a large body of water, I have access to, a beach around our house up here. And it is one of those things where it is just a very calming presence and, you know, through it, through the venture.

00:08:30:09 - 00:08:56:09
Aaron Huang
We have been on the water. We have been in the water. We have actually been training, divers through workforce grants that really get in the water and, and really try to alleviate the situation. So there's some of that. But I think a lot of it is just trying to think about ways to design the system while enabling others as well to, to sort of, you know, use their best skills for the costs.

00:08:56:12 - 00:09:14:22
David Mabee
Yeah. What what are some of the, like, biggest challenges in when the when the divers are down there, like, harvesting this. What what's that like? And have you done it or like, like diving underwater with, like, stupid, freaks me out. So, like, I'm just curious, like, how involved you are with it and, like, well, that process is.

00:09:14:24 - 00:09:41:12
Aaron Huang
Well, I will give all credit to my, partner Brad, who has been in Urchin Diver for for decades. And it's not easy. It's something that I would say if you've been in the water in Hawaii or, in the tropics, you definitely have a very romantic notion of what it is. But up here in the Pacific Northwest, you know, the water is cold, it's turbid.

00:09:41:15 - 00:10:05:23
Aaron Huang
Visibility is very low. There is a certain beauty about it, as I, as I think I shared in some of the video during, during the pitch, a kelp forest is basically a living, breathing organism. And when you see the waves moving the kelp back and forth, you can definitely feel, you know, the, the reef breathing in a way.

00:10:05:25 - 00:10:27:07
Aaron Huang
And then almost as sort of feel like you're, you're in an aquarium, you're basically inside that ecosystem. The water is quite turbid and the, the ability to become a good urchin, diver and harvester, it does take an amount of time, and it does take a certain amount of grit, in the Pacific Northwest.

00:10:27:07 - 00:10:49:13
Aaron Huang
But there are a lot of folks since we started this venture two years ago that really do want to learn and get those skills passed out of them. They're really just looking for the right opportunities. And that has also been really validating. I emphasize this because part of our mission really is to train that next generation and to give them a sustainable livelihood.

00:10:49:14 - 00:11:24:19
Aaron Huang
So they stay on the coasts. Right. And there are already folks there that are trying, to make a livelihood, either artisanal spearfishing, and working side jobs elsewhere, fishing in the commercial fishing industry or harvesting. Already there is a big culture of both harvesting, foraging and fishing. In the Pacific Northwest. So we do feel like this is almost like a the next generation version of what it means to sort of do a sustainable, fishery without, you know, completely extracting, all the biomass in the ocean.

00:11:24:21 - 00:11:48:00
David Mabee
Yeah. That man crazy. That's intense stuff. You worked across fintech. I've seen you did health tech. You've done marketing. What led you in that as climate tech? And how is your journey along the way through all these different ventures? Look at on your LinkedIn. It's crazy. You've got this like this crazy hodgepodge of all these things. So what kind of led you on this adventure and what were those leaps?

00:11:48:03 - 00:12:09:11
Aaron Huang
Were they strategic or how did that all happen? I think it's actually more common these days for people's LinkedIn to not make a ton of sense. Extrinsic. Lee. It's no longer the case that you would obviously stay in a job for 40 years and get, you know, get a gold watch and a pension, that's for sure.

00:12:09:13 - 00:12:33:01
Aaron Huang
And I think you see a lot and even more people in younger generations trying to move around and try different things at work. I will say the one binding glue that holds all of my experiences together was the fact that a lot of them were basically building things from the ground up that were highly complex and highly uncertain.

00:12:33:03 - 00:12:56:27
Aaron Huang
And I think that teaches you a few things. It teaches you to deal with complexity. And the more senior you get within an organization, it teaches you to basically manage that complexity, manage yourself and then be able to shelter not just as a shelter, but like drive, certain goals with with a team, with a larger team.

00:12:57:00 - 00:13:21:11
Aaron Huang
It also teaches you a certain modicum of equanimity because there are real high highs and real low those. And I think a lot of this just comes into if you are going to do anything in this day and age around what people are calling climate tech or just something more sustainable, you yourself have to be more resilient than the next person.

00:13:21:13 - 00:13:44:00
Aaron Huang
And some of that does come with experience, some that comes with age, some of that comes from just learned experience. But a lot of those past roles have just taught me that, that, failure is probably 90% the, the, the, the, the base case for a lot of these things. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you shouldn't do something right because of those probabilities.

00:13:44:06 - 00:14:06:22
David Mabee
Right. And so, I mean, you've you've climbed the ladder pretty high in a couple of those spots. It seems like those would be pretty good jobs. So what I'm assuming that money isn't your driving force. What's your driving force and and how that leads you to, like, start uni? Was there like any other companies you started and tried, or was uni like, this is it, and let's go from here.

00:14:06:24 - 00:14:33:27
Aaron Huang
I have, I have started a few companies and in fact, when I was in Asia working in corporate finance, the first company I started was actually an urban clothing company that was trying to sell, hoodies and streetwear for the luxury market. And, maybe that's the binding, sort of like story there, which is I always try to sell to the highest market.

00:14:34:00 - 00:14:59:07
Aaron Huang
But, so we have kind of I've kind of forced this journey where I've used, you know, my day to day, lived experience to try different things by myself or with other co-founders. I did work on, a language, speech recognition, app a while ago. That was kind of a competitor to a lingo.

00:14:59:09 - 00:15:25:14
Aaron Huang
I worked, for a while on, applications for clean tech. And so, uni is definitely one of those other manifestations where it's regardless of whether it's a project, a venture, or a venture backed venture or a successful company, it always stems out of some curiosity that I need to scratch and that I will push probably farther than the next person.

00:15:25:18 - 00:15:42:20
Aaron Huang
Right. But I think that's what usually comes down to is philosophically, it doesn't matter whether it's your own company or not, it's how willing are you to kind of keep scratching, the proverbial itch and see how far it goes. Right? That's amazing. So, yeah, you're you're driven by the what's next and how far can I take this?

00:15:42:20 - 00:15:57:16
David Mabee
It sounds like. So what challenges have you faced launching a company that's been blending this science and food? How has this journey been like? What was the biggest challenges to get this off the ground?

00:15:57:19 - 00:16:20:14
Aaron Huang
I think the biggest challenge for me is when you go into an entirely new landscape, you don't know number one, you don't know how the chessboard is laid out and you don't know what pieces you have. You also don't know what other pieces are on the board already. And that's to give you the most simple way of explaining it is it takes a while to understand the landscape.

00:16:20:16 - 00:16:56:28
Aaron Huang
It takes a while to understand who your supporters are, who your detractors are, and how to build those alliances. It takes a while to understand the funding ecosystem and how you would basically build a capital stack, that has both impacts and economics, market economics baked in. And honestly, right now it takes a lot of time to figure out in real time how to synthesize the, political, dynamics of larger, impacts of the macroeconomic regimes that are happening and how that impacts your business.

00:16:56:28 - 00:17:19:12
Aaron Huang
So there's almost like continual synthesis once you've understood the landscape. But it takes a while to understand the landscape nonetheless. So you need time to understand the landscape. It takes a long time and then you need to react almost in real time to things that are happening. Unfortunately, in terms of the political environment, to figure out how you're going to adjust and, and iterate.

00:17:19:14 - 00:17:43:16
David Mabee
Right. And have you had, mentors along the way and how did you how did you connect with your, co-founder in this, in this journey? I have not had a specific mentor, although I would say, in hindsight, it would have been helpful to find someone that was a near future version of myself or who I wanted to be.

00:17:43:18 - 00:18:12:09
Aaron Huang
I think that's really challenging in this day and age, but if anything, I would recommend finding a near future version. Not not trying to put, like a Steve Jobs on a pedestal. My co-founder and I met on a workshop restoration and a kelp farming website called Green Wave. It's actually one of the biggest national, platforms out there for networking around, around kelp restoration and kelp farming and, we connected immediately.

00:18:12:12 - 00:18:31:04
Aaron Huang
I drove a few hours down to the Oregon coast. We basically discussed very high level, what it was he wanted to do. And I think we made a decision pretty quickly that we wanted to do it because both of us have kind of arrived, at a certain juncture, and already decided we wanted to do it many years ago.

00:18:31:11 - 00:18:49:21
Aaron Huang
So it was just really synchronicity that happened that we kind of arrived at the juncture, and then we sort of continued forward together. The past two years in this journey. Right. And I met met a lot of that just has to do with your your past experience to building up to that. It's like you, you've seen all the all the hard times and everything else.

00:18:49:21 - 00:19:10:09
Aaron Huang
So you probably see somebody with the passion and somebody can help you out. Yeah, absolutely. I think he recognizes the same sort of, thoughtfulness and intention in other people. And I think sometimes you just want to find people where you can align that energy. And knowing that they can also operate in different environments that you can't.

00:19:10:10 - 00:19:37:02
David Mabee
So, right. I mean, anybody diving down into the dark ocean ranching sea urchin is probably pretty badass, so. Oh, for sure. I mean, badassery is correct. I mean, these are basically people that I have, like, such a deep respect for, and I want to see that way of life continue for people, for those types of people, they're not.

00:19:37:02 - 00:19:58:08
Aaron Huang
Everyone is meant to sit in front of a desk all day, and, and and talk to, AI or GPT three. There are so many people out there, including myself, that want to be out there doing things with our hands. And I think we want to continue to, do things that kind of fill us, fill us up.

00:19:58:10 - 00:20:18:15
David Mabee
So, yeah, for sure, I know I got laid off, and at 40 plus years old, I was out building mountain bike trails because I couldn't get another job. And I just wanted to do something. And it was actually the pay wasn't the best, but rewarding wise, like being out in nature and like, giving back and building something that's I ride by all the time now is actually really rewarding.

00:20:18:18 - 00:20:34:09
David Mabee
Absolutely. So last week you are at flywheel. What was the how? Well, first off, how did you find out about flywheel and then what was that experience like for you last week or the whole process actually, because you guys you guys have to I don't know if people know this, but you can probably talk through this too.

00:20:34:10 - 00:20:53:18
David Mabee
You guys have to submit a, through a job form or whatever, what your company is. Yeah, it's a quick video. And then you're going through all these, investor meetings. So kind of tell us what that process is like and how you found out about flywheel. I'll give full credit to, Virginia Emery, who was who was one of our advisors.

00:20:53:21 - 00:21:23:18
Aaron Huang
She actually has been super, supportive of our entire mission and actually helped with, USDA grants. Last year, she was one of our grant advisors. You know, honestly, I think I was a little bit, gobsmacked, winning and the whole process going in, I honestly wasn't sure if folks, that were residing outside of the coast, would really buy into this, this story.

00:21:23:20 - 00:21:58:13
Aaron Huang
But the the experience was amazing. And I think if anything beyond just like, the monetary, value of the investment, just the validation of, of people from all different walks of life that I met that understand, like really core principles of, like, food sustainability, domestic food production. Environmental restoration, you know, economic resilience with, with coastal communities, and small communities that rely on, on producing commodities.

00:21:58:16 - 00:22:23:01
Aaron Huang
I think that universal message that I kind of brought out, it is heartening to see that, that it resonates amongst a whole host of people, that was the biggest takeaway from this entire conference. That's awesome. I mean, well, a small town and here in Wenatchee, like, so people are it's it's tight knit community. And I think people understand, like a good business plan, even if it doesn't resonate with our valley.

00:22:23:04 - 00:22:42:06
Aaron Huang
There's a lot of people that are from outside of here. Absolutely, absolutely. So I think when you recognize something, you recognize something. So designing, what does it look like designing resiliency in your systems? On the practice,

00:22:42:08 - 00:23:11:13
Aaron Huang
I would say the first thing is that, as I mentioned earlier, I mean, Brad, I'll talk about Brad first because he's basically had to be resilient his entire life. I mean, you don't get into the water, and get pounded by the waves for decades and not not be resilient. I think if you met anyone that's basically they're farmed or fished a commodity, they've had to deal with the vagaries of market prices, and downturns and upturns for years.

00:23:11:13 - 00:23:41:04
Aaron Huang
I think these are some of the most resilient people you ever meet. I think people that I've also grown up on the coast and have sort of, forged that way of life. A lot of the younger generation that have grown up with, with the fisheries, they are quite resilient as well. And I honestly think working out in nature, makes you resilient, sort of see how both how delicate, nature is and how, how, how, how strong it can be.

00:23:41:06 - 00:24:10:29
Aaron Huang
And it can, you know, one year can be good to you, the next year it can be bad. And it really just does reflect the real, essence of reality. And so finding those folks, firstly builds a resilient organization. Those people already coming in resilient. I also think one thing about just kind of struggling through this journey is that it's like I mentioned earlier, it's not it's not a standard, you know, VC packable, venture.

00:24:10:29 - 00:24:50:21
Aaron Huang
You know, I'm not I'm not pitching $100 billion. Tim. But I am pitching a model that I think is sustainable. I am pitching a model that I think can get a pretty decent, return. And I am pitching something that, from our standpoint, we've been able to do a lot, a lot with a little. And that's that last sort of principle that I think I've taken from a lot of my, past experience is how do you basically make sure you can do a lot with a little so that when you get the money, you can continue that sort of principle and make sure you're resilient?

00:24:50:24 - 00:25:15:06
Aaron Huang
I've been in a lot of organizations where it's been the complete inverse and we've, over capitalized. And we did a very little with a lot. Right. And that's, that's one thing that I've sort of taken, with our journey, not the fact that we want to starve forever, but that, we knew going in that this was already going to be a hard journey.

00:25:15:08 - 00:25:34:17
Aaron Huang
And I think everyone that we're working with has steeled himself. For the fact that it's going to be hard. But by God, the mission itself is what really gets people super excited and, right. You know, that's coming from them. Not for me. So I know that the mission resonates with them as well. Well, it's got to be validating to be in it.

00:25:34:17 - 00:25:55:07
David Mabee
You guys just just went flywheel. And there was the good reception there for your team. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, prior to that, we had been getting a lot of validation in the previous year. We had gotten a few investments. We had one, pretty large, Grant from the USDA. So we know that there is definitely a there there.

00:25:55:09 - 00:26:16:08
Aaron Huang
And I think as long as we just keep, collecting those validation points, you know, we know, we'll sort of figure it out, so. Right. So besides winning, the flywheel conference, what was, I guess the best part of it or the most memorable part for you? Besides, besides getting the check and and that part of it I know that was memorable for you.

00:26:16:10 - 00:26:49:18
Aaron Huang
Yeah. I mean, like I said, it was the validation. I think just having people that you just that over the course of, you know, two days, two, three days, telling you how excited they are about, you know, what, what you're doing, personally how how much they support, you know what what I'm doing as a person, I think just not to get too big of an ego, but it definitely helps the ego when you've been slogging away for for weeks and months at a time.

00:26:49:20 - 00:27:14:24
Aaron Huang
And that that sort of pick me up is really nice. I mean, I went into the weekend, you know, this week and hopefully the next few weeks kind of riding this, this wave of support and, that feeling is, is way more valuable or just as valuable as, as the money is just making sure, you know, that there's people out there that that think about you and that want you to succeed.

00:27:14:26 - 00:27:30:15
David Mabee
Right? I mean, because money, success, it sounds like it doesn't really drive you. I mean, it's nice to have it, but like getting that validation and seeing you're actually making change and moving forward, is important. Important for me too. That's that's like building trail was, like, so cool to me. Oh, yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong.

00:27:30:21 - 00:27:49:08
Aaron Huang
We have to make money. Yeah, right. You got to pay the bills, keep the lights on, I guess. But I also get what you're saying, that, like, I'm catching on to some of your themes about, like, the grind. Yeah. The resiliency that it builds, which will make you a stronger company when the bigger money does come. So slowly talking about that, what is what does success look like for union in five years?

00:27:49:08 - 00:28:17:09
David Mabee
And your vision? I think the first thing is that the environment that we have to show that the environment is, is sort of showing progress towards restoration. I think if nothing in the environment happens, I think, you know, we probably won't have succeeded in our mission. I think we have to show that the Pacific Northwest can host a scalable, land based aquaculture facility.

00:28:17:11 - 00:28:42:15
Aaron Huang
And I will point out, unlike a lot of ocean based aquaculture that's been getting a bit of negative press, there's really, very little downside to land based. There's no sort of danger of sort of polluting, waterways, there. So the very strict sort of intake and outflow system, we're not threatening commercial for, commercial fishers because we're not in the water.

00:28:42:18 - 00:29:06:03
Aaron Huang
So I think there's also an interesting kind of thesis here that if we want to develop land based, sustainable, domestic food production for, for seafood, starting with urchins, that there is a case we made it in five years. It could be a lot of other things that we could decide as a country and as a region, that we want to start doing our land sustainably.

00:29:06:05 - 00:29:25:29
Aaron Huang
And so I'm really hoping that this is, a case study, that can be used and can be scaled so that we can point to this and say, oh my gosh, like, we always knew that the northwest had a really good, have really good, conditions, for this type of thing. And we want to invest more money into this ecosystem.

00:29:26:01 - 00:29:45:16
David Mabee
I got you. So you're also saying that. So if I got that right, that this is something that potentially could be done on the land, like through a, like a container aquarium, how would, how would that go about? And then your vision or is that just well, we're already doing them on. We're really doing them on land and containers.

00:29:45:19 - 00:30:07:11
Aaron Huang
The prototype that we have is actually inside of a shipping container. And so we can stack it, we can make it modular, and we can scale it. And I think if you take that modularity approach to other, land based, aquaculture, you could similarly apply that to, to a whole host of species commercially.

00:30:07:13 - 00:30:30:01
Aaron Huang
That could be, could be ranched, or farmed on land. Gotcha. Well, what would it look? Is there like a specific environment on land that would that would be best for this? Like, you know, out here we have cheap power. So it's like all the, server farms and things like that. What what would be like the keys, to have a successful on land, ranch.

00:30:30:03 - 00:30:50:27
Aaron Huang
Yeah. I mean, the paradox. I think when I went into this, I thought that hydropower would actually be quite sustainable and somewhat cheap. But the prices of hydro have actually been going up the last few years. I think there's a blend there. Of solar. I think you can integrate solar into a lot of these systems, and you can lower the cost of power.

00:30:50:27 - 00:31:11:29
Aaron Huang
The cost of power is actually one of the biggest input costs. I think the other thing you can do is actually cluster, certain, species that could be ranch or farm together. It's kind of what I would call a stacking function. You take what you see inside the reef and you try to mimic it on land. I'll give you an example.

00:31:12:02 - 00:31:37:12
Aaron Huang
Even in our current shipping containers right now, we have sea cucumbers that are, basically consuming the urchin waste. The sea cucumbers can actually be, ranch in that manner. They can be dried, and then they could be, sold and shipped to Asia for, a few hundred dollars a pound. So it's almost like all these synergies that you see in the reef, can be mimicked on land.

00:31:37:15 - 00:32:17:22
Aaron Huang
Even more broadly or broadly than that, broader, broader than that. There, there's, precedents in other countries, specifically Scandinavia and Iceland, where they've, created this notion of an ocean cluster, which is why don't we basically provide the baseline infrastructure, for sustainable, aquaculture on land? But why don't we cluster all the infrastructure and all the businesses together so they can, utilize and exploit each other's economies of scale and that's also something that we've been exploring the Pacific Northwest, which is can we create an ocean cluster, in Oregon or in Washington?

00:32:17:24 - 00:32:35:26
Aaron Huang
That is a pilot demonstration of what's possible here in the US as well. That's amazing. I mean, it just makes sense for companies that are doing, like things that could benefit each other to, to cluster together. I mean, the oceans are super important to us. We all know that. Like it's just stuff happening there. That'd be awesome to see.

00:32:35:26 - 00:32:56:26
Aaron Huang
So that that excites me and I hope that works out. Like I started thinking as like, if you figure this out in the process is going is potentially could be a way to like, regenerate reefs on land and then maybe find a way to to plug that back into the ocean. You know, that's sort of like regrowth, but like in a, in a better, more sustainable environment.

00:32:56:26 - 00:33:31:23
Aaron Huang
So you can make sure it's going, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, you see initiatives across the world now and you're exactly right. Instead of just, restoration through extraction, which was our sort of our first, our first sort of, effort, you would then proactively go back in and, and seed the reef, either with kelp or in a lot of places in the world, like in Australia, they would also reseed, had to be rebuilt and reef fast and, coral that have been, genetically modified to withstand higher temperatures.

00:33:31:26 - 00:33:54:09
Aaron Huang
So there's a lot of that going on now. And, obviously monitoring a lot of those efforts across the world. I hope that in the next few years, you know, we in the United States also start to sort of, scale and invest in more of those efforts here. Yeah. And make that shift from consumer, get rid of to, like, figure out how to reuse.

00:33:54:12 - 00:34:05:03
Aaron Huang
I think we've gone absolutely too far one way. But anyway, so we were kind of wrapping up here. We're coming towards the end. We're getting into like, our signature part. We we aspire, we invest, we empower. So under inspire,

00:34:05:03 - 00:34:15:16
David Mabee
what's one piece of advice, you'd give to someone starting a purpose driven company? Purpose driven company?

00:34:15:19 - 00:34:40:11
Aaron Huang
I would say I, I would have put too much weight on purpose. Extrinsic leave. Because it can mean so many things to so many different people. The only thing I would say is whether it's this, this Harvard index of human flourishing, the other has a Sustainable Development Goal rubric. There's a Japanese philosophy of ikigai, where you find a passion over the last of the sail.

00:34:40:11 - 00:35:03:24
Aaron Huang
Need. The only thing I would say is that you just have to find out what makes you tick. I think I have talked to so many people that gets, influenced by what others say because they haven't spent enough time, by themselves trying to figure out what makes them tick. Right. And you see this a lot? I was the same way when I was young.

00:35:03:24 - 00:35:26:21
Aaron Huang
It's like before you found it. You just try to listen to as many people as possible. I think there's something good about that. But I think without, an anchor point, it's really hard to find your cornerstone, in life. And, it might seem counterintuitive, but just like the time you spent on the mountain biking trail, those are actually the times, when you do find your cornerstone.

00:35:26:24 - 00:35:52:02
Aaron Huang
Right? And if you have the privilege, and the luxury, spending that time for yourself. The only thing I would recommend is just, taking the time to find your Northstar before you jump into something where you don't have, a solid baseline. If you don't have a solid baseline, number one, you will not push as hard as you normally would.

00:35:52:04 - 00:36:15:08
Aaron Huang
Number two, you will change your thesis based off of what the most important person or the richest person in the room says. And number three, you just won't feel fulfilled. You will feel like you're going in the direction that, you, you might regret. And at that point, if you've taken money, if you've gotten your business partner, if you've got employees, you will feel stuck.

00:36:15:11 - 00:36:37:10
Aaron Huang
Right. And so my only recommendation is just to take the time to understand, like, your cornerstone. Yeah. And like you said, I think that cornerstone piece comes as you start getting older. You you think you're cornerstone something. And as you get older and you experience different things, at least for me, it's. Yeah, it's shifted drastically. And you deal with lot when you deal with life, like people dying and things like that.

00:36:37:10 - 00:36:39:24
David Mabee
That's kind of what shifted mine. But,

00:36:39:24 - 00:36:48:08
David Mabee
what, skill or mindset are you still developing as a founder?

00:36:48:11 - 00:37:14:28
Aaron Huang
I think the thing that I am trying to continuously develop, is two things. One is this, skill of equanimity. Which basically means that when I win an award, I don't get too excited, but also when something hits me and it's a disaster, I, I don't get to, depressed or sad. It goes both ways.

00:37:15:01 - 00:37:35:17
Aaron Huang
And I think that kind of has helped me through my life. Because I think you have to again, be reminded of sort of what? Why you're doing something. I think the hard skill that I continuously work on and I think I'm getting better is that I'm trying to be able to articulate really, really complex things.

00:37:35:19 - 00:38:00:00
Aaron Huang
Very simply, for, for a specific audience. And that type of skill is going to always be in, in demand. You know, you can you can use AI all you want, but once you get up on stage, you know, it's your job to to sort of still articulate and tell the story. The storytelling thing is the thing that I think is going to be, a lifelong thing.

00:38:00:00 - 00:38:21:29
Aaron Huang
But I, I, I have gotten feedback from people because I asked them and, and people do say that it's, it's, you know, increasingly more and more, my superpower is just, you know, explain, complex things, business ideas or ideas that are holographic, in a way that just makes sense to a lot of people. So. Right.

00:38:21:29 - 00:38:44:15
David Mabee
And then there you go. You just got into the next one was, what do you think, I'm super powers? And you answered it. So, I guess I'll do a bonus one here. What's your, go to, like, brain break? Or creative recharge? Do you have a a place you go or something you do to to escape?

00:38:44:17 - 00:39:11:27
Aaron Huang
A long, long, many years ago, I took a year off to study Buddhism, and I. It wasn't necessarily an escape, but it was one of those practices that helped me to figure out a way to sit by myself for as long as I could. And it served me very well. Again, I would say, like, I call it a privilege to be able to take a break for a year, but I knew I needed it.

00:39:12:00 - 00:39:35:15
Aaron Huang
And I can't articulate back then why I needed it, except that my body and my mind were telling me I needed it. But the just the skill of being able to sit by yourself, maybe even for an hour, without doing anything. Yeah, it's definitely something that's that that's serving very, very well. Increasingly as, as we kind of go into, more and more of what we're doing now.

00:39:35:15 - 00:39:53:03
David Mabee
So. Yeah, that's amazing. That's why I like mountain biking so much. It's, I like myself a lot. I don't put on music or anything. I just go pedal and out in the woods and, like, listening to that and just kind of taking in the aura of all that is really, really. Yeah. And being being in nature.

00:39:53:03 - 00:40:15:20
David Mabee
Absolutely. Yeah. Helps me out a lot. If uni was a reality TV show, do you have a do you have a name for it? I don't know, I, I was thinking like some combination of, like survivor or Naked and Afraid. That's just how I feel every single day. Probably more of a naked and afraid part than a survivor, but it's like a combination of those two.

00:40:15:22 - 00:40:30:06
Aaron Huang
Yeah, I don't, I don't I mean, the only survivor shows I will in reality shows I watch these things, these crazy ones where they plot you on a desert island and tell you to basically survive for like three weeks, so that that's how I feel. I mean, those those divers down there got to feel kind of that same way.

00:40:30:08 - 00:40:50:21
David Mabee
Exactly. Go down in the dark with everything else around you. How can, people follow OoNee's journey as we're wrapping up here? You can follow us on Instagram if you like. I'm personally running on the handle right now, so I can. I can promise you it's not spammy. You know, you can follow us on LinkedIn. I'll be on LinkedIn.

00:40:50:21 - 00:41:11:04
Aaron Huang
Happy to connect. I try to be as useful as possible. So everyone that connects with me, if I can. And if I can't, then, I always try to find some of my network that can. So I've in general, if you think that I can be helpful and useful in some ways, definitely connected. Great, awesome.

00:41:11:06 - 00:41:31:22
David Mabee
Well, Aaron, thank you so much for sharing your vision and with us today. Uni's mission and your approach to innovation, is a powerful reminder that we don't just have to adapt to climate challenges. We can build systems that regenerate and thrive. So everyone out there listening, you can follow any journey. Unicom, there's a, no need.com.

00:41:31:25 - 00:41:55:04
David Mabee
He also told you you can follow him on LinkedIn and things there. And, we'll have, everything there in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to network on your favorite podcast platform. Or YouTube, and share this episode with someone who's passionate about climate solutions, entrepreneurship, or great ideas that's going to do it for today. Until next time, keep showing up, keep imagining bold futures, and stay networked.