On November 4th the EDI Fellows met virtually with Mr. Cody Hegel to learn about his journey to the company Apeel Sciences, and their mission to create a more “sustainable way of life”. Mr. Hegel graduated from UC Santa Barbra with a chemical engineering degree and soon started as a processes engineer intern at Apeel. Hegel helped to create a new organic coating for produce that doubles the shelf life. After six years with the company, through lots of successes and failures, he was able to work his way up to senior project engineer. Hegel explained how working at a startup allowed him to have greater responsibility and role in the company, giving him more experience and improving his skillset. He also described the budget challenges startups face, and the creative solutions needed to complete their scaled production. 

Hegel’s presentation gave us an insight into the startup phase in a company and the process of manufacturing a product and delivering it to the consumer. His talk taught us that the experience we gain in EDI Fellows, managing and completing our projects, has real world applications and can serve us well into the future. Apeel’s mission shows how a company can solve a sustainability issue and help the global community, while also turning a profit.