#189 Sustainable Building Materials, Mycelium, Scaling Production, Navigating Market Acceptance & More w/ Ilya Gindin (COMU Labs)

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Mycelium is an emerging decarbonized building material due to its sustainability, biodegradability, and strength. It is cultivated by growing fungal networks, also known as mushrooms. Mycelium-based products can be used for insulation, bricks, and packaging.
Today, we have a ClimateTech Entrepreneur making waves with Mycelium. Ilya is CEO & Co-Founder of COMU Labs, bridging the gap between sustainability and affordability in furniture materials. They utilize fungi to transform agricultural waste into robust, machinable and fire-retardant material that looks and behaves like plywood.
Some of what we chatted about:
**How Mycelium can be pressed into high-density boards
**Why their material is substrate agnostic (and what the heck that means 🤔)
**Challenges that still exist with market acceptance
**Building a sustainable and healthy company culture
& more. 🍄
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Topics:
**01:31 Intro
**02:49 Discovering Mycelium
**09:09 Advantages of Mycelium as a Building Material
**11:43 Common Misconceptions about Mycelium
**20:31 Scouting New Talent
**24:58 Challenges Ahead for Comu Labs

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Links:
**Ilya Gindin | COMU Labs
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**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X
**This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.

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Chapter

1. #189 Sustainable Building Materials, Mycelium, Scaling Production, Navigating Market Acceptance & More w/ Ilya Gindin (COMU Labs) (00:00:00)

2. Intro (00:01:31)

3. Discovering Mycelium (00:02:49)

4. Advantages of Mycelium as a Building Material (00:09:09)

5. Common Misconceptions about Mycelium (00:11:43)

6. Scouting New Talent (00:20:31)

7. Challenges Head for COMU Labs (00:24:58)