A founder - CEO is by definition a wide and evolving collection of roles. At Bolt I have had many parts to play in developing a platform of biomaterials (leather from mushrooms and silk from spiders) to power sustainability in the things we wear every day. We make way better materials for a way better world. This role started with me holding a box of live spiders and nothing else, and has built to major launches of desirable products in museums, on the Paris runway, shops around the world, and all over social media.This role has included:- Raising Investor Capital (>$300M)- Closing deals with customers (adidas, lululemon, Stella McCartney, Tsuchiya Kaban, Kering, Vegamour, and more)- Building teams of experienced leaders at multiple levels and domain expertise- Coaching and developing talent to meet our key execution goals- Setting strategy for the business in technology, product, operations and commercial- Making consequential decisions and changes to pivot how we operate the business- Giving presentations and interviews for outward facing marketing and talks, including TED, websummit, bloombergTECH, BoF Voices, the Today Show, Live tv and more. - Last but not least, a founder does everything that has to be done: I've also been a lab researcher, a patent inventor and writer, written research grants we've won, mover, party host, clean up crew and many more.

Advise on deep tech, synthetic biology, sustainability and materials

Providing insights and analysis to the synthetic biology, biotechnology, sustainability and materials sectors.

Advise the company in management, strategy, financing, technology and other topics

Advise CEO on strategy, fundraising, management, and other topics

Advising the founding team on management, strategy, fundraising, and other items

Advise management team on positioning of company plan and on fundraising strategy (ultimately successful)

Graduate student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology PhD program. Graduate thesis focused on the the use of synthetic biology to reprogram natural functionality in living organisms and carry out designed functionality. Projects include the production and secretion of spider silk protein and metabolic engineering the production of methyl halides from microorganisms. Thesis Advisor: Professor Christopher Voigt.

This role focused on technician level analytical biochemistry working in a GLP laboratory. Primary responsibilities involved supporting active protein pharmaceutical ingredient scale-up for clinical studies.

Planned and conducted a research project in the laboratory of Professor Erkang Fan to carry out solid phase small molecule synthesis to discover novel cholera toxin beta subunit inhibitors. This position was advised by Professor Fan and directed by a graduate student in the lab.