01. Will you please tell me your elevator pitch on how you describe your startup, Dirt Dive?
We bring dirt to life. Most people prop up plant health with synthetic fertilizer. A few add organics like biochar and compost. And a very small number add microbes to their dirt. At Dirt Dive, we picked out key microbes that act as levers in nitrogen cycling and ecosystem function. Not bacteria, not fungi, but protozoa. They're the third key piece of the microbiome.
They eat more bad bacteria than good ones, and pee out excess nitrogen in a form that plants love.
Essentially, they strengthen the microbiome and provide nitrogen to plants. This means healthier plants, fewer chemicals, and less disease.
02. So, what led you to work on developing this product for plant soil health?
I always loved tiny things — bugs, dirt, microbes. My parents bought me a microscope at 13, and I'd spend hours after school looking at pond water. It was like watching TV, drama unfolding in a single drop with colorful characters, swimming around and sometimes eating each other.
Then I studied protozoa in soil in undergrad, and amoebae in cockroaches in grad school. People always asked me why it mattered. At that point, I was driven by pure fascination — I got to study amoebae and bugs at the same time.
After that, I worked in biopharma for five years as an R&D scientist. Learned a lot about business and what it takes to move science to application at a swift pace. After that, I sketched out what I wanted to do next. I laid out a dozen paths before picking one.
Kind of obvious once I saw it, but I had to lay out the options to get it.
Protozoa make up a huge chunk of biodiversity, but only a small group of people study them.
And there's an even smaller number, essentially 0, of commercialized applications. I had watched the research grow on the huge impact they have on plants. But nobody was translating this to application. So, I found myself at the perfect intersection of what I knew best and what would have an impact.
