Sean WarnerCo Founder

United States - Atlanta, Georgia

I am a creative, perceptive, and intuitive entrepreneur that excels at both concrete and abstract problem solving. A mindset for learning, and the notion that any problem can be overcome with perseverance and determination, led my co-founder and I to start breeding flies in our college laundry room at Georgia Tech. If you are asking why - this stemmed from the fascination of the insect industry and the positive impact that it could have on the environment. In summary:

- Black Soldier Flies breed and lay eggs
- Eggs hatch into larvae (Grubs) and are raised on food waste diverted from landfills
- Food waste is eaten and converted into a quality fertilizer (grub poop)
- The mature larvae are then processed into fats and proteins to be used in animal feed
- This prevents overfishing by replacing fishmeal, a common fish-based protein used in animal feed
- Some larvae are allowed to metamorphizes back into flies to continue breeding

This soon evolved into Grubbly Farms: a fly and larvae farm pursuing a more sustainable future by providing a solution to overfishing while tackling the problem of food waste produced in the United States. Did you know over 50 million tons of food waste is landfilled every year? Here, it decomposes into methane, a greenhouse gas over 20x more harmful to the environment than CO2. Did you know that 15% of the oceans catch every year is processed into fishmeal and fish oil to be used in animal feed?

For 4 years Grubbly Farms focused on the breeding and growing of the insects and scaled into an 18,000-sf pilot facility designed to recycle 5 tons of food waste per day. Ultimately, we spread ourselves too thin and in late 2018, we pivoted to what we were excelling at – branding marketing, and product development. We moved out of our warehouse and began purchasing raw insect ingredients from other producers and incorporated it into our products – currently catering toward the pet chicken industry.

Grubbly Farms has been named one of the top 50 disruptive startups by Kairos Society, won the 2016 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open, participated in the NYC TechStars accelerator, made the 2017 Forbes 30 under 30 for manufacturing and industry, and have closed multiple rounds of fundraising.

Before Grubbly – I was born and raised in Georgia, worked as a vet tech throughout high school, attended Georgia Tech and graduated with a degree in Building Construction.