Episode Details

Here is a link to get more information about The Ocean Age Walk & Talk and join the waitlist.

Getting the science right turns out to be the easy part. Catarina Ricca trained as a biotechnologist and spent years in the lab before crossing over to the commercial side of the business. At Ínclita Seaweed Solutions she takes seaweed-based active ingredients into cosmetics, an industry with long buying cycles, gatekeepers at every stage, and firm ideas about what a product should look and smell like. This is a practical walk-through of how that market actually works and what it takes to get an ingredient into it, with many of the tactics being transferable to many other B2B go-to-market strategies. 

Catarina's bio:

Catarina Ricca is Business Development Manager at Ínclita Seaweed Solutions in Porto, where she has led the commercial side of the business since 2023. She trained as a biotechnologist at the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and holds an MSc in Technology, Science and Food Safety from Universidade do Porto. She started her career in the lab, running yeast cultures in the beverage industry, before moving into genetics and preclinical work, then crossing over to the commercial side selling genetic tests to hospitals.She then spent thirteen years in software, mostly SaaS, doing business development and product management.

Ínclita was founded in 2018 as the first spin-off of CIIMAR, the marine research centre at the University of Porto. It develops seaweed-based active ingredients using green extraction methods and a biorefinery approach aimed at zero waste, starting with cosmetics and expanding into nutraceuticals, pet care, food, and biostimulants. The company reports five patents submitted, full traceability from sea to factory, and opened its own biorefinery in Portugal in 2026.

Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Introduction
00:02:29 - Deciding at fifteen to become a biotechnologist
00:20:24 - The three-hour conversation that led to Ínclita
00:23:50 - What Ínclita does and why it started with cosmetics
00:26:27 - Building a second revenue stream through co-development
00:38:45 - The emerald green extract nobody would buy
00:43:23 - Rebuilding the roadmap around colour and scent
00:49:21 - The green premium and who ends up paying for it
00:58:05 - Why distributors will carry most of the revenue
01:07:46 - Formulators, marketing, and the people who sign the order
01:26:21 - Pastéis de nata and the small things buyers remember
01:46:43 - A call for unity across the seaweed industry

Useful Links & Resources:

The Ocean Age Walk & Talk - Link to join the waitlist

Catarina Ricca on LinkedIn

ISS - Ínclita Seaweed Solutions: Website, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Derek Sivers on the CD Baby order email Fed mentions: The most successful email I ever wrote

Derek Sivers' book Anything You Want

Ínclita at Cosmetorium, Barcelona, 21 and 22 October

Get in touch with The Ocean Age's host Fed DeGobbi on LinkedIn, X or by emailing directly at fed@oceanage.co

The Ocean Age Podcast is edited by Nebojsa Lešević. Sarah Carpenter and Giulia Leanza are our research assistants.

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