Chlorella

Chlorella was the first algae to be grown commercially at scale, starting in Japan in the 1960s. This single-celled green alga doubles its population every 24 hours under optimal conditions - one of the fastest reproductive rates in any photosynthetic organism. It's now a billion-dollar industry spanning food, cosmetics, and biofuel research.

Chlorella's commercial success came from solving the scaling problem: how to move from laboratory cultures to industrial production. The business parallel is crossing the 'valley of death' between proof-of-concept and commercial scale - the transition that kills most promising technologies. Chlorella's story shows that patience and process engineering can eventually crack scaling challenges.