DAY IN THE LIFE OF PAUL RUTTEN, CEO OF DEEP TECH START-UP CONCERT BIO

I-HUB-based Concert Bio is harnessing the power of the plant microbiome to transform greenhouse performance for hydroponic crop growers. Powered by the world’s largest database of greenhouse plant-microbe data, the team helps growers to recreate the delicate balance of microorganisms found in soil – essential for plants to survive and thrive – and provide an optimal nutrient solution environment to promote crop growth, quality and resilience. The result? An impressive 9.9% improvement in yield reported during recent grower trials.

Here, CEO Paul Rutten shares an insight into his life at the deep tech startup, the value of a supportive innovator community – and why anyone interested in the controlled environment agriculture industry should brush up on their Dutch...

What is a typical day like for you?
I spend most of my time in meetings – usually with customers and potential customers about our work, but also with other members of the team coordinating our R&D, commercialization and other operations. A lot of my time is on the road too – visiting customers in the Netherlands (where my Dutch comes in handy) and in the US.

What do you love about working in White City Innovation District – in three words?
Community, support, convenience.

Why did you chose to be located here?
I’m an Imperial alumnus and biotech in the UK is a surprisingly small community. So there were lots of people I already knew in the building, like Dr Marco Storch who runs the London Biofoundry and who I was supervised by during my Masters at Imperial. All the other startups, many of them run by people I knew before we moved in here, means we’re always helping each other out with materials, equipment and other favours. I know we’ve saved and been saved from quite a few things that would otherwise have been major emergencies! All the services offered by the community in WCID are also very convenient for us and lets us as a team focus on the things we’re best at.

What does ‘innovation’ mean to you and how does your company contribute to it?
For me it means building things that are useful for people or the planet (ideally both). In our case, we’re helping growers all over the world who are adapting agriculture to the ever-increasing challenge of climate change, whilst simultaneously trying to be more sustainable. It’s a very hard challenge that neither they nor we can solve on our own, but it’s been hugely rewarding to help them solve one of their biggest problems.

What are you most proud of in your current role?
That we’ve made a product that our customers are using and getting major, measurable benefits from. Many deep tech start-ups never make it to that stage, so I’m extremely proud of the team for having achieved that.

What is the hot topic in your business?
Growers getting painted into a corner because more and more of the fungicides they need are being banned, but environmentally-friendly, biological alternatives aren’t coming on the market fast enough. Everybody knows biologicals are the future of disease control – as they already are for most insect pests – but they’re not on the market yet, and growers are already starting to have major issues with diseases they used to be able to manage but now can’t find any solution to.

What’s the best business advice you have for people looking to break into your specialism?
Learn some Dutch! Most greenhouses in the world are built and run by the Dutch, so it’s a major asset to speak their language. On a more serious note, there are lots of researchers in the UK, US and Netherlands who’ve spent their whole careers working with the greenhouse industry to build solutions for them, so they’re a great place to start if you’re looking to get into the industry, or just some good advice on what solutions are needed.

What would Plan B have been on the career front?
I spent some time working at WHO during my PhD as a consultant, and international humanitarian work like that still really appeals to me. Although not necessarily at WHO, that was a bit more bureaucracy than I think I could handle in my career!

Interested in helping to build next-gen microbial solutions to help greenhouse growers reduce inputs, boost yields and grow more sustainably? Get in touch with the Concert Team for news of their upcoming job vacancies.