Puremotion Creative Client - Mycocycle
Consulting, Strategy & Design
3M+ Secured
in seed rounds
3M+ Secured
in seed rounds
Enterprise-level
clients secured
Green-tec Leader
in innovation
The Company
Mycocycle is a biotechnology startup using mycelium — fungal root networks — to break down toxic construction waste, primarily asphalt shingles, into valuable raw materials. The science worked. The challenge was everything else: making it legible to investors, scalable in the field, and commercially viable beyond a basic service model.
I came in as a strategic and creative partner to the founder, working across brand, narrative, business model, and investor strategy.
The Core challeange
Waste management is an old-school industry dominated by incumbent institutions. The technology was genuinely novel—which made it both compelling and hard to sell. Investors couldn't visualize it at scale. Clients found "mycelium remediation" abstract. And the existing business model — charging tipping fees to dispose of waste — left the most valuable part of the equation untouched.
Key Decisions
Brand identity
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Clean, approachable visual identity that invited stakeholders to see possibility—turning a complex biological process into a relatable industrial tool
Bridging the technology gap with investors
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Positioned the pitch as a product "over our heads" to position the treatment of asphalt shingles, before introducing the science and scale of the problem. Resulting in an award-winning pitch.
On-site scalability to reduce the need to transport waste
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Conceptualized the "Frankendumpster" —an environmentally controlled shipping container that brings the lab on-site.
Revenue capped by a service-based tipping fee model
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Collaborated with the owner to identify the transformed material as a high-value byproduct—shifted the model from waste removal to raw material manufacturing
Skeptical old-guard industry difficult to enter as a disruptor
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Advised a founder-first PR strategy—leveraged her storytelling ability to build authority as a thought leader before approaching institutions
High-value seed investors needed more than a deck
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Paired the investor narrative with a focused website and eco-friendly outreach materials—a tangible expression of the brand promise
Four areas of work
Visual identity as a strategic tool
Steered the brand away from clinical and technical toward clean and approachable. The goal wasn't aesthetics—it was reducing resistance. A friendly visual language meant stakeholders engaged with the potential rather than getting stuck on the process.
The insight
Simple, inviting visuals functioned as an open question: could this work for my waste stream?
Lead with the problem, not the science
Authored the award-winning pitch deck. The strategic choice was to open with asphalt shingles—a material almost every building owner has dealt with—before introducing the biology. Making the problem human-scale gave the science something to solve.
The result
Won prestigious incubator recognition and provided the momentum that led to $3M+ in funding.
The Frankendumpster
Worked closely with the founder to solve the on-site scalability problem. Conceptualized a modular, environmentally controlled shipping container that could be deployed directly where waste was generated—removing the cost and logistics of transporting heavy materials to a lab.
The impact
Shifted the model from a centralized facility to plug-and-play onsite service — enabling enterprise-level client relationships.
From service to product
Identified that the market saw a waste removal company, but the real opportunity was a raw materials manufacturer. The mycelium-transformed material was often more valuable than the cost of remediation. Establishing ownership rights over that output changed the entire financial logic of the business.
The shift
Service-based tipping fees → high-margin circular economy product company.
