BIGGEST RISK with Seth Jones

Commercial Real Estate Pro Network

J Darrin Gross

I'd like to ask you. Seth Jones, what is the BIGGEST RISK?

Seth Jones:

Well, I have what I think is an interesting answer, because being in the space of health and chemicals regulation and compliance is from the federal government is a huge risk. And that was always the biggest risk of our company, especially because we we set out to do something different, new. It was extremely high risk when we started for many reasons. You know, many reasons, as as all startups are, but particularly because we were entering, you know, a highly regulated space and trying to do something a little bit different. And that risk, actually, we had the EPA shut us down last year, in December, after about three years of building the company, and they shut us down for what they deemed compliance issues with certain things we were saying on our labels, and that's because the EPA regulates very tightly anything related to mold, bacteria, any chemicals that you use to mitigate what they deem or pests. And there were, there was no awareness about mycotoxins, and there were no products, no registrations, you know, no acceptable levels, very little information even out there about mycotoxins. And, you know, I had hired all sorts of Consultants and attorneys to try and guide us and tell us, you know, help show me where that risk was, and then so I could make a decision on how to position our products and our company within that landscape of risk.

But what I found out was they were not well, let me say it a little bit differently. No one really understood that landscape, and I had to, I had to learn it myself the hard way. So the biggest risk for for us, I would say there's a lot of risk, but that's whether it's the biggest, it's, it's, it was the most pertinent to us, because it wound up, you know, actually being an issue that we navigated successfully through and through that process, we wound up de risking our company, because now we know the regulators, and we shook their hands, and they've told us what's acceptable, you know, we were able to ask those questions and and that has given us a much clearer path forward In terms of, you know, how we speak to customers, how the EPA, you know, essentially wants us to behave, and what they want us to say, and where they want us to stay out of without, you know, certain registrations and things. So, yeah, I would say that would be the BIGGEST RISK.