Growing Social Capital

Domain Expert: Erik Stenn from Algagen LLC

Erik is the CEO and President of Algagen LCC. His company specializes in the study, control, and reproduction of macro-algae and micro-algae. Their team has worked with several coastal communities to control Red Tide Blooms throughout the United States. Erik's has a masters in Marine Ecology form the University of Oregon and has spent most of his career studying algae bloom patterns. I found Erik through my father who had funded research in the early stages of Algagen when they were researching algae as a potential biofuel source. I asked him to examine my plan to use biocontrol instead of chemicals to prevent and limit Red Tide blooms. After reviewing my plan, he referred me to my next expert, Dr. Richard Pierce.

Important Supplier: Dr Richard Pierce of Mote Marine Laboratory

Dr. Pierce is the Associate Vice President for Research at Mote Research Laboratory. He has been working at the Mote Lab since 1981 when he was a research assistant. He has more than 60 peer reviewed publications on this research and he remains involved with students as Courtesy Graduate Faculty at the Univ. of South FL, College of Marine Science and FL Gulf Coast Univ. College of Arts and Sciences. He has a PhD in Chemical Oceanography. His research involves breeding organisms that can feed on toxic algae like Red Tide. Currently, he is examining how creatures can break down the toxins that cause sickness in humans. His research is being licensed to private companies and government agencies that are currently working to reduce Red Tide outbreaks. I asked him to meet up and share his research with me on organisms consuming toxic algae. I have not received an email back from him, but he did inform me that he takes several days to respond to emails when we spoke on the phone. I believe that his research is the key to formulating an effective and environmentally conscious protocol for Red Tide management.

Expert on the Market: Dave Berkman, Mayor of Indialantic

Dave Berkman is the mayor of Indialantic, a town less than ten minutes from where I grew up. During his term as mayor, he has had to deal with several Red Tide outbreaks and the impacts of them. He is exactly the type of person that I would be targeting with my business. As a politician with a vested interest in the health of coastal communities, he would be interested in purchasing a solution to Red Tide. I contacted him through the mayors office and he returned my call in 3 business days. I asked him to introduce biological control as a possible method for limiting Red Tide outbreaks to the department tasked with this problem. He informed me that increased funding had allowed him to create a department specifically tasked with investigating control methods for Red Tide. He told me that he would have his team look into my plan and return to me with their findings. Establishing relationships with local politicians will allow me to get my foot in the door when I launch Algae Solutions. 

After this experience, I will definitely be more aggressive in my networking. I realized the importance of social capital and how hard it is to come by during this assignment. It took me over 10 hours of work just to get a few minutes on the phone with these individuals. In the past, I did not actively seek out people to add to my network.