A Q&A With Pitch to the Pack’s Inaugural Winner

Textiles could be the answer to a problem that costs the global economy an estimated $3.4 trillion each year and poses a threat to both water quality and aquatic environments.

That’s the basic premise for the winning pitch of the inaugural Pitch to the Pack competition, hosted by the Wilson College of Textiles and supported by Wells Fargo. 

The problem? Nutrient pollution: a condition that occurs when an excess amount of phosphorus, nitrogen or other nutrients exist in a body of water. This pollution has a variety of causes and can ultimately kill the plants and animals in that water. 

Ceretune LLC uses nonwovens (textiles created through chemical, mechanical or thermal processes) made of hollow fiber as the base for floating islands. Seeds are then planted on these islands (or floating bio scaffolds). As these plants grow, they pull excess nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. That means when the plants are harvested, the pollution is removed.

The company’s founder, Reid Barnett, first started toying with the technology for Ceretune as a Centennial Scholar and textile engineering student at the Wilson College. He’s now earning his Ph.D. in fiber and polymer science, where he can devote his doctoral research to building an even stronger foundation for his business. 

While Ceretune has the potential to make a worldwide impact, Barnett found the idea for the first phase of his business close to home. As the grandson of a hog farmer in Eastern North Carolina, he’s familiar with the nutrient pollution that results from hog waste runoff. 

He plans to work with these hog farmers to place these floating bio scaffolds on the more than 3,400 hog lagoons across the region.

“We can not only remove massive amounts of pollution, but also do so at no cost to the customer,” he explains. 

Ceretune will split the revenue it makes from the carbon credits and nutrient offsets with these farmers in exchange for permission to install the scaffolds on their properties.

Judges chose Ceretune LLC over 11 other finalists. As the winner, Barnett will receive an Andrews Launch Accelerator sponsorship (worth $10,000), as well as $10,000 towards prototyping and testing within the W. Duke Kimbrell Flex Factory. 

Below, he shares the story behind his business, how NC State and Pitch to the Pack have shaped him as an entrepreneur, and what’s next for Ceretune LLC. 

What was the inspiration for your business?

It was the summer before my senior year of undergrad, and I was in textile engineering. I knew I wanted to do some research and explore something that was outside of my comfort zone. 

I knew a professor, Dr. William Hunt, in the Bio and Ag Engineering Department at NC State. He works with the stormwater group. And I called him up and said, “Hey, can I work for you this summer?” He said yes. 

So I show up for my first day in June. I’m in an NC State polo, jeans and boots because I’m thinking we’ll be in an air conditioned lab. I was sorely mistaken. 

Instead, I was told to hop in a panel van with no AC to help a grad student replant some floating wetland islands. And I didn’t know how long we were going to be out there, so I barely brought any food with me. We ended up being out on the property for the entire day and I spent five hours in a kayak that was way too small for me. 

I got done that day and I said, “I’m not doing this again. There’s got to be a better way.” 

“I started thinking, ‘How can I apply my textiles knowledge to this environmental engineering problem?'”

And so I started thinking, “How can I apply my textiles knowledge to this environmental engineering problem?” Because the only people who’d approached it so far had been civil engineers, biological engineers, and they have a very different academic background. 

I did a round of prototypes, and they failed, so I kind of wrote it off.  But then, during my second semester of Senior Design, I ended up having to pick up a new project. I thought, “You know what I can do? This could be fun.” So I did a round of prototypes: failed. Did a second round of prototypes: failed. But, before I gave up on the project, as I looked back at that second round, there was one square inch of one island that worked perfectly. 

And I realized what I had done differently: I’d gotten lazy and I hadn’t mixed the seeds in. I’d put them on top. 

And so I decided to do one last round of prototyping with the last bit of material I had. I made four prototypes. I put one in a swamp by my house, one in a hog lagoon, one in a fish pond and the other one in an ornamental pond. When I came back two weeks later, the islands were growing better than the native plants. That’s when I knew I had something that might be worth moving forward with, and it’s all history from there. 

How has your time at NC State shaped your success as an entrepreneur?

A lot of what the beginning development of this has been with Senior Design. Ceretune really started with that research in the summer of 2022, and each step that I’ve taken since then – each class, each mentor – has added something to it. 

What did you learn from Pitch to the Pack ahead of this competition?

So the organizers had some coursework for us to do, and we went to weekly meetings for about the last month. We also were given some time in the Flex Factory to try and make prototypes. 

The most helpful part for me was learning about the pitch process. With each pitch, the judges want something completely different. Some people want to hear a lot about the technology. Some want to hear about the financial component. So what was nice about this competition is that we really had the chance to learn about what the judges were looking for and what we needed to do in order to prepare for that.

The program also pushed me to really delve into the financials of the business, which I had not done yet. And I’m very thankful for that.

How did it feel to be chosen as the winner?

If I had to choose one word, I would probably say relief. I was sweating bullets, and I knew if I could just get through the awards ceremony, win, lose or draw, it would at least be over.

What do you plan to use your project budget for?

I’m planning on using this to make more of my material and to do a lot of the testing. We’re working with The Nonwovens Institute and renting their equipment. These funds from Pitch to the Pack are going to go a long way towards getting our material made and manufactured so that we can do the testing.  

Hopefully we’ll have enough left over to do the mechanical testing that we need to do to validate whether or not the material will survive in its intended environment before we go and make 100 million units of something that isn’t fit for its intended setting.