Alumni Interview: Scott Shibata

Scott Shibata is co-founder and CEO of Diagenetix, a biotechnology startup developing products to detect microbial contamination and diseases in food industry. Scott and his team are Techstars program alumni.

As a Techstars program alumni, how did your company benefit from the program?

Scott: The Techstars program surrounded us with like-minded entrepreneurs and mentors. This network of support has a broad set of experience and knowledge that uniquely helps overcome the multitude of barriers that every startup experiences.

Would you recommend a Techstars program to a friend? Please, tell us why!

Scott: Absolutely. There are few programs and opportunities where you can gain such a valuable and memorable experience.

Which startup did surprise you in 2014?

Scott: Yeasts historically have been used in vaccine production, but not for food products. Clara Foods is changing that. They are developing unique yeast strains that when fed sugars express proteins that can be formulated to replace the common egg. They are similar to Hampton Creek, a famous food technology start-up, but producing the proteins themselves.

Any pastime when you are not busy with startups?

Scott: Food fermentation (wine, cacao, vinegar, etc.).