Friedberg says Ohalo has proven theorized gene editing approach to dramatically increase crop yields.
“And then seeing this outcome that we had theorized, all of that has now been proven with this business.”
Friedberg says Ohalo took four and a half years of investment before proving its big idea worked, resisting rational hedging.
“But because we remained committed to the bigger idea, this bigger experiment we had, this big project, We had a shot at it, and we got there, and this thing worked.”
Friedberg invested in Ohalo for four and a half years despite uncertainty before seeing results.
“And we had to get multiple things right in a row over time to see if this thing even worked. And fortunately it works, but it took us four and a half years.”
Friedberg explains Ohalo's core technology converts meiosis to mitosis to stack plant traits without trade-offs.
“But you don't have to make the trade offs like you do in plant breeding today, where you give up other good traits in order to try and stack those two traits together.”
Friedberg reports Ohalo successfully changed genetic circuits controlling cell division across multiple plant species last year.
“We were able to change the genetic circuits that control for meiosis and mitosis and make this happen. We did it across multiple plant species.”
Friedberg reports Ohalo experiments consistently showed yield increases through hybrid vigor as predicted.
“in every experiment we ran, the results were incredible. The yield goes through the roof. Everything we expected would happen happened. The genetic diversity creates hybrid vigor,”
Friedberg says Ohalo's system creates uniform potato seed, allowing a handful to replace warehouses of potato.
“So now we can take that seed and farmers can use it to plant. So eventually, a handful of seed replaces warehouses of potato”
Friedberg explains Ohalo's system produces uniform potato seed, eliminating need for warehouse storage of seed potatoes.
“With boosted, with our system, not only can we breed potato, but we can then make uniform seed. So every seed that comes out of that potato is the same.”
Friedberg explains Ohalo's core idea: making sex cells carry complete DNA from both parents, which occurs spontaneously in nature.
“what would happen if we could get the sex cells to have all the DNA of the mother and all the DNA of the father, the complete genome?”
Friedberg reveals Ohalo is named after a 23,000-year-old archaeological site showing early seed cultivation.
“The company, Ohalo, is named after a site discovered next to the Sea Of Galilee called Ohalo 2. It's an archaeological site.”
Friedberg describes realizing Ohalo's technology could be applied to nearly all crops humans grow.
“We got it to work. We got the results that we predicted, and we were blown away. It's, like, consistently positive results, consistent performance.”
Friedberg's non-engineer chief of staff used AI to write a Python script in hours to screen hundreds of resumes.
“Laura asked AI to write a Python script for her, to download all the resumes from Greenhouse, scan them, score them, and give her results. She did this all in a couple of hours.”
Friedberg explains Ohalo's system replaces 2.5 tons per acre of leftover potatoes with less than 10 grams of seed.
“They're farmed vegetatively, so you actually chop up leftover potatoes and put them back in the ground in order to grow potatoes, like Matt Damon does in The Martian.”
Friedberg's system replaces two and a half tons of potato planting material with less than ten grams of seed.
“And with our system, you can put less than 10 grams of little tiny seed to replace that two and a half tons of potato.”
Friedberg's non-engineer chief of staff used AI to write a Python script that screened hundreds of resumes in hours.
“So Laura asked AI to write a Python script for her, to download all the resumes from Greenhouse, scan them, score them, and give her results. She did this all in a couple of hours.”
Friedberg explains Ohalo successfully applied boosted breeding across multiple plant species by converting single cells back into plants.
“We did it across multiple plant species. We were able to grow the plants back into plants because you're doing this to single cells at a time and you try and get those single cells to think that they're plants and grow back and then start to phenotype them or measure them.”
Friedberg reports Ohalo experiments achieved breakthrough yield increases across multiple plant species as predicted.
“The yield goes through the roof. Everything we expected would happen, happened. The genetic diversity creates hybrid vigor, creates faster growing healthier plants, bigger plants.”
Friedberg reports every Ohalo experiment showed dramatic yield increases and hybrid vigor across the board.
“And in every experiment we ran, the results were incredible. The yield goes through the roof. Everything we expected would happen. The genetic diversity creates hybrid vigor, creates faster growing healthier plants, bigger plants.”
Friedberg reports Ohalo experiments achieved dramatic yield increases and hybrid vigor across multiple plant species.
“And in every experiment we ran, the results were incredible. The yield goes through the roof. Everything we expected would happen, happened. The genetic diversity creates hybrid vigor, creates faster growing healthier plants, bigger plants.”
Friedberg says Ohalo's true potato seed replaces 5,000 pounds of chopped potatoes with a handful of seed, launching spring 2025.
“Farmers are planting our true seed, world's first world's first true seed of potato. Instead of planting 5,000 pounds of chopped up potatoes, you plant a handful of seed.”