This video features an interview with Kendall, the first employee of Greenwave, a New Haven-based non-profit dedicated to supporting regenerative ocean farming. Kendall discusses the organization's mission to promote the cultivation of ocean crops like shellfish and seaweed, highlighting their environmental benefits such as carbon absorption and water filtration. Over five years, Greenwave has evolved from a small startup of three people to a professionalized organization with 19 staff across six states. The interview delves into Greenwave's scaling strategies, including the transition from intensive one-on-one farmer training to a broader online learning platform and market development programs aimed at building a robust supply chain for the nascent US seaweed industry. Kendall also shares insights on team growth, emphasizing the importance of strategic hiring for transferable skills in a new field, and concludes with a reflection on the non-linear, dynamic nature of organizational development.
Scaling Greenwave: From Startup to Industry Catalyst in Ocean Farming
0:14 Greenwave's Mission: Kendall, an alumna of Yale School of Environment, discusses her role at Greenwave, a New Haven-based non-profit supporting regenerative ocean farmers who cultivate crops like shellfish and kelp.
0:46 Environmental Benefits of Ocean Farming: Greenwave promotes farming practices that have positive environmental impacts, such as carbon and nitrogen uptake, water filtration, and growing food without significant ecological impact, particularly focusing on bringing kelp to the US domestic market.
1:33 Greenwave's Growth Journey: As the first employee hired after the two co-founders, Kendall has witnessed Greenwave grow from 3 people to 19 staff members across six states over five years, transitioning from a startup phase to a more professionalized organization.
3:00 Catalyzing Industry Growth: The core mission is to catalyze growth in the ocean farming industry, highlighting its benefits, such as not requiring fresh water, fertilizer, or arable land, and exploring diverse market opportunities for kelp.
3:41 Scaling Training Programs: Initially, Greenwave offered intensive, high-touch training to a small number of farmers (8-10 annually) in southern New England over two years.
4:08 Transition to Broader Reach: To scale impact, Greenwave launched an online platform in April for self-directed learning and developed a market development program to coordinate the value chain, connecting growers with buyers and processors.
5:35 Trade-offs of Scaling: While scaling to reach thousands of people (from 8-10) involves some loss of direct interaction, Greenwave mitigates this by fostering an online community space for farmers to connect and solve technical issues.
7:01 Evolving Organizational Structure: The leadership team has expanded significantly, with co-founders becoming co-directors, and new director roles created for partnerships, infrastructure, market development, training support, fundraising, and communications.
8:26 Organic Team Building: Greenwave's team growth involved a combination of strategic hires and organic expansion, with many individuals initially joining as consultants or project managers before becoming full-time staff, allowing for adaptive program development.
10:01 Hiring in a Nascent Industry: Given the newness of the US seaweed farming industry, Greenwave prioritizes hiring individuals with transferable skills and experience from similar fields (e.g., commercial fishing, land-based agriculture, supply chain coordination) rather than specific seaweed biology knowledge, as many skills are trainable.
12:28 Future Vision: Greenwave aims to catalyze broader industry growth, with a goal of directly training and supporting 10,000 people by 2030, hoping they engage in the industry. The organization anticipates its own role will continue to evolve.
13:59 Key Takeaway on Growth: Kendall concludes that organizational growth is non-linear—a "zigzag" of expansion and contraction—requiring endurance but also offering an interesting and fun process.