Skill Baby Skill: The world’s top bio Sherpas advise on bio-Extraction and bio-Innovation 

The wind is rising on the South Col. Nepalese prayer flags snap in the gale, storm clouds boil above the ridgeline, and avalanches echo down the Lhotse face. Above Camp Four, climbers are stalled—tents battered, oxygen running low, radios crackling. Is there a climbing window or not? Which rope teams are pairing, and which are stranded?

It’s a first ascent for this group, and the margin for error is razor-thin. That’s the 2025 innovation climb: Series A is the new C. The capital air is thin, the pressure high. Only those who move fast, light, and precisely have a chance at the summit.

This climb is not about software or bits. It is about atoms — the reinvention of plastics, cement, fertilizers, magnets. Ninety-nine percent of a sustainable future, as IndieBio’s Alex Kopelyan and Berkeley Lab’s Todd Pray remind us, comes from rethinking what we already know. This is the Atoms>Bits ascent. And these are the masters of the ascent.

Climbers cache supplies before the final push; innovators cache tools. Among the most vital:

•Biomining and selective extraction — microbes pulling lithium and rare earths from unconventional brines and waste streams, a route that DOE values as critical to economic security.

•Optogenetics — IndieBio bets on using light to control cells for pharma and novel materials, like climbers using headlamps to guide them through the dark.

•Low-CAPEX, distributed manufacturing — lighter packs, smaller hardware, scale-out models instead of $200M mega-facilities.

•CO₂ and waste valorization — Opus 12 turning atmospheric CO₂ into fuels, Cal Organic Ammonia capturing nitrogen, Industrial Microbes and Mega Materials working with dirty feedstocks.

Each is a ladder lashed across an icefall crevasse. Without them, no path upward exists.

The old expeditions carried too much gear, too much weight, and left wreckage in their wake. In the energy world, that was Drill Baby Drill—a blunt-force approach that filled base camps with waste but left climbers gasping in the thin air of carbon overload.

Those days are gone. At 26,000 feet, no one survives with brute force alone. Today it’s Skill Baby Skill. Climbers—and innovators—rely on precision, speed, and technique. The rope must be set exactly right, the pack stripped of every unnecessary ounce.

That’s the ethos of new extraction technologies. Biology is the ice tool that bites cleanly into the face where crude drilling slips. Microbes recover lithium from low-concentration brines and mine rare earths from tailings once considered worthless. Enzymes turn mining waste streams into sources of critical materials. Dairy waste gases yield hydrocarbons, and agricultural sidestreams become feedstock for ammonia or sugars.

Where yesterday’s climbers scarred the mountain with fixed ladders and discarded oxygen bottles, today’s skill-focused teams move lighter, cleaner, faster. Extraction still matters—but in the service of persistence, not depletion.

 On the ‘pharma climb,’ where margins are high, climbers could afford to carry dirty gear — inefficient processes, impurities tolerated, so long as the drug was safe and effective. But the ‘industrial climb’ is far harsher. Here, even a 1% impurity can collapse a summit bid. Margins are thin, purity must be absolute, and precision is survival.

Every team looks for proof a route is possible:

•B Flow — active pollination management, boosting yields up to 40% across 10+ crops. A tent staked securely at Camp Three.

•MycoWorks — scaling Reishi leather, first launch with AGI Denim, a summit photo already sent back from the ridge.

•Lingrove — carbon-negative fibers lighter than carbon fiber, stronger than aerospace fiberglass, scaling to millions of square feet. The fixed rope is in place.

•Cyclotron Road/Activate — 109 fellows, 84 companies, $2.74B raised, 1,400 jobs createdPray- LBNL
. A caravan of climbers already on the move.

At altitude, strategy matters:

•Hybrid companies — combining hardware with AI, like climbers pairing oxygen with crampons.

•Platform companies with focus — not just “best in the world” claims, but choosing a single peak to summit.

•Capital-conscious entities — designing low-CAPEX systems to survive the thin-air economy.

The “Devil Wears Prada” environment means Series Seed climbers are asked to perform at Series A level. To summit:

•Accelerated path to revenue — early pilots, six-digit B2B deals even with tiny teams.

•Strategic focus — climate claims alone won’t keep you alive; oxygen is performance, cost, and stability.

•AI as accelerator — comms gear, not magic rope. Useful for optimization, not a substitute for grit.

•Feedstock challenges — dirty waste streams are avalanches waiting to happen. Smart climbers go upstream, finding purer caches like keratin or feathers.

Markets are the jet stream. Climbers wait for a gap:

•Bimodal funding — outliers or capital-scarce models; no middle path.

•Corporate partnerships — big, slow teams like Cargill or ADM can provide scaling oxygen, but only with patient, precise pitches.

•Federal priorities — DOE’s LEEP expands across labs, aligning climbers with national security and energy storage.

•Impurity risk — one percent impurity can collapse a summit bid. Better analytics and AI forecasters are essential.

Securing a corporate fixed line isn’t a quick anchor; it’s a slow process of setting multiple ropes in parallel, knowing that most will take a year or longer to hold. Climbers must keep moving while patiently tending these lines, advancing conversations across multiple ridges until one finally catches.

1. Adopting the B2B Model: Successful companies prioritize B2B work to collaborate with large legacy industries, using corporate strengths for scaling and distribution. This strategy involves finding ways to effectively work within the capital streams of bigger companies.

2. Early Revenue for Proof: Startups are seeking out early pilot deals, even with only two founders, that generate six digits in revenue. These deals are not focused on large-scale product delivery initially but on proving the concept and economic model by helping partners make their existing pipelines faster or more economically feasible, often with potential future royalty agreements.

3. Managing Bureaucracy: Founders must understand the conservative cultures and “big, slow bureaucracies” of large corporations (like Cargill or ADM). Successful partnership requires persistent, parallel conversations that can take a year or longer, paired with a highly precise value proposition that addresses the partner’s immediate needs.

Sectors and Early Revenue Use Cases with Traction:

1. Critical Minerals and Extraction: This sector holds immense promise, leveraging hybrid biological and chemical methods to extract valuable substances like lithium from geothermal brines or rare earth elements from EV waste and tailings. The political and economic need to “reshore” critical infrastructure supports this sector.

2. Advanced Agriculture and Ingredients: While agriculture VC saw a large inflow of money, high-traction areas remain, including specialized applications like pollination management (B flow) and high-value, specialized ingredients. For example, cell-cultured cacao that features higher inclusion rates of beneficial molecules (flavanols) appeals to specific large companies, providing a necessary wedge into the market even before achieving price parity.

3. Industrial Waste Valorization: Focusing on turning dirty feedstocks into higher-value products continues to be a major trend, often targeting agricultural, dairy, and animal byproducts for products like ammonia or low-cost sugar streams.

4. Drop-in Materials: Companies are finding traction by focusing on materials that solve specific problems beyond climate benefits, such as supply chain issues or performance advantages. Examples include drop-in textiles derived from wasted protein or carbon-negative fiber materials that surpass existing aerospace-grade fiberglass.

The climbers push on. Oxygen is scarce, but the peak is in sight. Flags are planted: biomining scaling up, MycoWorks leather hitting the market, Lingrove fibers proving performance. A first ascent completed. But as Ed Viesturs reminds us: “Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” The true measure will be safe descent: scaling plants, navigating regulation, enduring capital storms. Only then will the route be secure for the next wave of climbers.

If the descent holds, the payoff is not just survival at altitude but the long-term reinvention of the materials that shape our lives: plastics, cement, magnets, fertilizers. The new routes will be fixed for the next wave of climbers, ensuring Atoms>Bits delivers a future both sustainable and resilient. So we watch as the teams descend into the mist, ropes taut, Sherpas steady. If they make it, the ladder holds. And a new path into thin air is open.