Dennis Calvert, President & CEO of BioLargo Inc., was recently a guest on Benzinga's All-Access.
BioLargo is a cleantech and life sciences innovator and engineering services solution provider. Its core products address Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) contamination, achieve advanced water and wastewater treatment, provide safe, long-lasting battery energy storage, control odor and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), improve air quality and control infections and infectious diseases.
Mr. Calvert spoke of his company's ability to weather turbulent markets through its technological innovation.
BioLargo is a cleantech and life sciences innovator and engineering services solution provider. Its core products address Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) contamination, achieve advanced water and wastewater treatment, provide safe, long-lasting battery energy storage, control odor and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), improve air quality and control infections and infectious diseases.
Mr. Calvert spoke of his company's ability to weather turbulent markets through its technological innovation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00hey Dennis how's it going hello and welcome to all access Kevin thanks for having me what a day
00:11to be on the show holy cow oh I know you're telling me it's a lot's been going on in these
00:16markets I know the world I know you know we've got we've got comments on some of that stuff how
00:22it impacts us how it doesn't how we get through it all but you know our business just keeps cranking
00:27along we've been doing this for so long and we've overcome so many market resets I can't even explain
00:33it you know but I think it's really a testimony to the technology the diversity capital conserving
00:39strategy right and so so we've got some staying power here so it's a good time to take good deep
00:45dive on bio Largo yeah that's great so I know you've been on all access before but for all the
00:50viewers who haven't seen you or don't really know much about the company why don't you give us a
00:54little brief overview of what you guys do it's awesome you know we've been innovating for over
00:5916 years we've got four deep assets in the portfolio think it was sort of like a an investment
01:05group except we go we go vertical right so we have about we're now up to 45 employees I don't know
01:1250 something people as a team deep in science engineering focused on sustainable solutions of
01:19high impact for human health and the marketplace and the environment sustainability anyway some of
01:25those assets have gone commercial they're really hitting some nice home runs and heading to major
01:29success got a couple assets that are coming to market now we're watching early adoption and so our
01:35financial condition just continues to improve I think it's in the last four years it's over 600 percent
01:40growth this last year was 40 percent growth we just filed our 10k and had an earnings call just a couple
01:46days ago and of course some of our assets are now making really good money and we're deploying those
01:52in venture stage investing but the thing to remember about BioLargo is that in the portfolio each of the
01:59technologies that create the cornerstone of our commercial focus there's four right now battery tech
02:05PFAS removal from the environment medical device for infection control and then this odor control
02:14product that's really generating you know massive cash flow for us that allows us to continue innovating
02:19in all these other spaces the thing you remember about that portfolio is that in each case the
02:24technology represents what we believe is best of class transformative tech for a marketplace and so
02:31you know easy to say really hard to do it's taking us a long time but the strategy is to invent proven
02:39partner invent proven partner what that means is that we can really conserve a lot of capital we
02:44can use our precious time and capital to focus on the innovation side the rounding of a patent
02:49portfolio the strategy of how to get these technologies seated in the market and then partner our way to
02:55significance for high impact on a global scale and again you know it's such an unusual portfolio it's not an
03:03easy flyby you got to peel the onion and focus on the business and look deep and here's what happens
03:09when people look deep they love our company especially in these troubled times of the open market
03:14you know we're just a consistent steadfast developer of innovation that can change the world for good
03:21and it's just a matter of time as those technologies find their way to market that's great and you know what
03:27when you say things take time everything that's worth it does take time you know you know i'm always
03:33amazed at how much money and how much time in fact my only apology for our journey is i'm just so sorry it
03:39took so long and it you know it wears some people out and here's the thing though today is a moment where
03:46we watch the fruit bear out from planting seeds and nurturing these technologies for literally over a decade
03:53i mean it's taken a long time to get to this spot and so all the insiders are long nobody's a seller
03:59we've been long since inception i always tell people if you're a seller you can't work here i mean we got
04:04to we got to make everybody some money and so that really bears out when you look at the portfolio
04:09and again this last year is a record year every year has been a record year for about the last eight
04:14years and we just keep climbing up and again you're on the otcqx right so that puts us in the top like
04:20200 out of 10 000 firms and thank god we're not on the big board yet because i think we would have
04:26gotten routed just like everybody else so look at our stock it's stable it's got a lot of support in
04:32this range a lot of support and that's very important because we've got breakthrough commercial
04:38efforts you know most recently we just talked about our medical device company and this last year
04:43it was the number one spend in the portfolio we spent about 3.7 million that's a lot of money for us
04:49okay it's a lot of money for us advancing the technology for for global scale adoption with
04:54a major partner we so we had to invest in infrastructure we put a couple million dollars
04:59in manufacturing capability to ramp up to about a million units and now we're just at that that
05:04moment at which that product can finally find its way to market now that's been ready 20 million
05:10dollars in 14 years wow hey no dennis i'm so sorry you mentioned products now i wanted to ask you
05:17about a product poof now poof has been a hit for you guys do you mind telling us about the products
05:22development and how you got it to the market and how sales are going so far this year yeah poof is a
05:28big revenue producer for us for sure and a great testimony to the technology so that's over a year
05:33excuse me over 10 years development work we went industrial first and we landed all these national
05:37accounts for industrial odor control and and the key to the science behind this great science by the
05:43way is that it it performs an oxidation reaction redox oxidation reaction so as oxidation is this idea
05:50of breaking down molecules right so it breaks down molecules and eliminates the source of odor so when
05:56it comes in contact with an organic molecule right uh it breaks it down when it breaks down it can't
06:02come back so it eliminates the odor on contact a dose for dose make it work and it does so without
06:08harm no stain no environmental issue no sensitivity no long-term chronic issue for people or the planet
06:15or animals right safe on everything all right so we went through this grind to develop that product and
06:20a marketing group called ikigai marketing works came to us and said you know we think you got a
06:24potential of a billion dollar product here and we said yeah we just we did a business deal
06:28and and we're the we're the supply chain and the technology provider and then the two the team
06:34created poof and now they're building this global brand so in three years right three years they're
06:40now in 40 000 approximate 40 000 retail outlets all the major brands in the world one of the fastest
06:45growing pet products in the marketplace and that is our core one of our core inventions in the
06:50portfolio and that's a great way to monetize the asset now here's the trick of that one tip
06:55not only do we make a little money for manufacturing a little money on the technology
07:00but we bargain for 20 of the brand equity that is building value on a daily basis okay and so that's
07:09one of those assets in the portfolio that underlies the top view you have to peel back and say what's
07:14going on here hey we're partners over there this product is going to go big and in fact you know most
07:20people think it can be a billion dollar a year kind of product category so and then and this is
07:24a very testimony to the strategy technology and then finding great partners that do what they say
07:29wow that is that's something man that's great you got a great product going i could really see it
07:34expanding and maybe even hitting that billion dollar per year that's going to take a while
07:38billion take a while time yeah but it is it's got such great reception in the market you know and
07:46the idea that you eliminate so safely eliminate so safely that's huge that's one of the biggest
07:52concerns of everyday americans is you know can we get rid of this safely especially if it's odors
07:57cleaning material situations like that so i do have another question how big of an issue is pa
08:02pfas contamination and how prevalent is it and how damaging is it to humans well so pfas is forever
08:09chemicals right that's the chemical that's the chemistry that's used to make non-stick coatings
08:14but used for 50 years big players big lawsuits there's a movie called dark waters if you haven't seen it
08:19you got to watch it it's on netflix and it's like an aaron brock of its story all right about robert
08:24balott who takes on the big boys wins in a big class action and sort of breaks the camel's back of
08:30exposing the environmental and the human health risk linked to birth defects and cancer of course
08:35all right so we got a way to take it out of the environment and we believe we're number one in
08:39the market all right and we're still defending that not trying to trick anybody but and we've got
08:44evidence to support that for early commercial adoption technical support highly technical
08:48technical play estimated to be a global you ready 17 trillion dollar market
08:53yeah yeah yeah this is like if this is gonna look it took 50 years to get there it's gonna take 50
09:00years to get out now just recently our company and me on behalf of our company was invited to join
09:06environmental technology trade advisory committee to the secretary of commerce
09:10the only reason we're there is because of that technology and and and the reason we're there is
09:16because this is an item this is an issue that's of global importance and i think from an export
09:21perspective you know creating commerce uh in in line with the administration's agenda of buy america
09:28build america right this is a great example of how innovation technology can actually move the needle
09:35for not just the industry but for our country and for the world this is a breakthrough technology yeah
09:42now we've invested almost four years almost five years gosh and we've got early adoption and so we
09:48just now did a case study where we can show that we can reduce the total life cycle cost by as much
09:53as 90 percent over the incumbent technology wow so it's just improvement on top of improvement you've
09:59explained how does your tech extract the pfos well it's funny you know when when that industry first got
10:05uh you know when you talk about policy right there's a carrot and a stick the stick is you got to
10:10comply or you get fined as epa and the carrot is incentives well the sbir small business innovative
10:16research grant came out and we got one it was nice it was nice good start to get started in the market
10:21and we did a lot of work and what we discovered we had an idea and it was just an idea right it's just
10:26an idea when it starts and the idea was that we believe pfos has a charge it has electric charge and if
10:34you can if it has a charge you have the ability in a flow of water to migrate the molecules to an
10:41opposite attraction opposite attract and and isolate and selectively extract the molecule in the flow of
10:48water okay that sounds pretty easy get an electrode get electrode flow the water through attack and then
10:53hit a membrane chemically bind it to a membrane so you can selectively extract so simple right not so
10:59simple actually really complicated the art of its practice is pretty amazing but we proved it to be
11:05true so what so now what's happened with that refinement is that we can achieve non-detect status
11:10so we're the most efficient selective isolate and and um selective extraction and isolation technology
11:18because once you once you do that destruction is pretty easy and so so one of our uh lead inventors
11:25brandy he's brandy more he says look if you're the most efficient collector you win we're the most
11:31efficient collector and we believe we believe in the world that's great so i got two last follow-up
11:38questions before we wrap it up and i really appreciate your time thank you for being here today what
11:42great information fantastic company and i'm glad it's led by such a smart person like yourself
11:47oh how was it trying to shuffle around all those smart guys brother i'm telling you i work with the
11:52smartest people not that's great yeah that's great how was how was 2024 for biolargo i know you
11:58mentioned earlier you just released your year-end report could you give us some hindsight uh some
12:03highlights on it just real briefly yeah well 40 growth we came in about 18 million bucks right so
12:08that's not too bad of course we just you know 18 million i think to myself it should be hundreds of
12:13millions we're not there yet literally okay and so so you know as i always say proud but not
12:19satisfied grab not satisfied but but the key for that performance is that when you look at the
12:24conservative way we conserve capital the very very methodical very careful and stick with the business
12:32model which is don't be the bank don't be the bank okay come up with great innovation and leverage
12:39core competency what's our core competency innovation science and technology high impact purpose capital
12:44conserving strategy we stick with that model and so as a result where most people fail right right
12:50let me just ask rhetorical how many companies come to market and survive well 90 fail okay how many go
12:56to 10 million a year in revenue uh you know another one percent okay how many go to 100 million recurring
13:02revenue as a startup that's us that's us okay no we're not there we came into 18 million but what
13:10we've shown because we diversify portfolio and we leverage technical assets through partnership
13:15we have the ability to scale in a way that most companies can't so we're just now at that that
13:21that launch pad of significance and that's why you want to take a deep dive and really peel the onion
13:26and understand the technical claims that we're making because they're astonishing and in fact the
13:31biggest issue i deal with in the market is they say it can't be it's too good to be true i'm like no
13:35it is true we've proven it over and over and over and we've showed discipline in the way we get this
13:41position this company position for massive success so we're pretty excited and bullish of course
13:46and especially now with so much pressure in the market you know you really we're a good alternative
13:51for people to look look for a place to park their capital you know that that's phenomenal things
13:55you mentioned how you leverage things differently how these other companies the 90 don't those are
13:59the ones who fail those are the ones who don't go up and beyond to make sure things happen
14:04so i did notice something else recently you guys were named the u.s department of commerce
14:09environmental technologies trade adversary committee quite the mouthful but congratulations
14:15what's your role and what do you hope comes from that your presence
14:19yeah yeah yeah that advisory position is really quite a compliment to us and i you know i wish i could
14:24tell you it was all my charm and charisma but it wasn't it was definitely our technology and in fact
14:30um we were we were identified as an up and coming important technology for this global problem and
14:37so we're honored to be there and the first thing we're in that we're in the circle of great companies
14:42about 42 companies involved and trade associations is billion dollar companies it's a handful of innovators
14:47like us who bring a unique perspective to the group and our mandate really is to look very carefully at trade policy
14:54you know because technology commerce measures its success by net export dollars right in order to
14:59do net export dollars you have to have success in america you got to find a way to have innovative
15:03technology find adoption so after the first couple of meetings we've had about four meetings i think
15:08we just started this term it's a two-year service term and i was actually appointed as the uh subcommittee
15:15chair to the enabling innovative technologies to the group which is really awesome because it gives me
15:20access to understanding policy understanding this idea of carrot and a stick right the combination of
15:27regulatory enforcement and incentives to see technology and so i think for bio largo our stakeholders
15:33our employees and our technology it couldn't be a better spot i mean it is just it's just the usual moment
15:43you guys sound like you're really on that in that good area at that good point that you're really
15:48getting your feet firm on the ground you have good capital behind you you guys are starting to build
15:52even stronger fantastic dennis i can't thank you enough for your time today