How Land Raising Works | Laurence Allen, Terranova
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Laurence Allen, co-founder and CEO of Terra Nova, explains how his startup is revolutionizing flood mitigation by injecting wood chip slurries underground to lift land out of flood zones. Unlike expensive seawalls that cost hundreds of millions or disruptive demolish-and-rebuild approaches, Terra Nova's solution can lift an acre by a foot in a single day at a fraction of traditional costs. (27:00) The company uses robotics and AI to make the process autonomous, targeting everything from highway subsidence to entire city-scale flood problems. Allen discusses the technical challenges of scaling deep tech, lessons learned from his SpaceX internship, and his vision for licensing the technology globally to solve what he calls "the anti-subsidence" problem affecting cities worldwide.
Speakers
Laurence Allen
Co-Founder and CEO of Terra Nova, a company developing underground injection technology to lift land out of flood zones using wood chip slurries. Allen previously interned at SpaceX working on Dragon thermal protection systems and Raptor rocket engines, where he gained experience in high-stakes manufacturing and rapid iteration. He started as a bioengineering student at UC Berkeley before switching to mechanical engineering to pursue Terra Nova full-time.
Key Takeaways
Start Early and Embrace Intensity from Day One
Allen emphasizes the importance of introducing engineering and entrepreneurship concepts to children as young as kindergarten. (66:20) His father showed him square roots in kindergarten and encouraged hands-on building projects, leading Allen to start an electric skateboard business in sixth grade. This early exposure to both technical skills and sales created a foundation that proved invaluable when building Terra Nova. The key insight is that maker backgrounds often provide more valuable experience than traditional credentials - engineers who've been building things their entire lives outperform those with impressive corporate resumes but no hands-on experience.
Solve Problems Others Can't or Won't Address
Terra Nova succeeded by tackling a massive global problem - land subsidence and flooding - that had no scalable solution. (01:15) Traditional approaches like seawalls cost $500-900 million for small municipalities, while demolish-and-rebuild projects are prohibitively expensive and disruptive. Allen identified that wood chips, a free waste product, could replace expensive cement in underground injection, making the solution economically viable. The lesson is to look for problems where existing solutions are inadequate or non-existent, then find creative ways to make the economics work.
Leverage Existing Infrastructure and Data
Rather than building everything from scratch, Terra Nova leveraged existing geological data and partnered with established contractors. (26:30) Allen trained AI models on 900,000 geological cores in California to model underground geology without extensive on-site testing. They also chose to license technology to local contractors rather than vertically integrating everything, allowing rapid international expansion. This approach reduces capital requirements and regulatory burden while accelerating market penetration.
Prioritize Autonomy Over Manual Control
Allen learned that manual operation of complex systems leads to consistent failure. (27:07) Their early concrete pump would clog every time without autonomous control, forcing them to develop robotics and AI planning software. This autonomy became essential for scaling - contractors couldn't reliably operate the system manually, but with autonomous control, the technology could be deployed anywhere. The takeaway is that complex technical solutions often require removing human variability through automation.
Build Where the Best Talent Exists
Despite considering cheaper locations, Allen chose to build Terra Nova in the San Francisco Bay Area because of superior talent density. (54:05) He argues that while manufacturing labor costs more in SF, the quality of both software and mechanical engineers far exceeds other locations. The company secured 16,500 square feet in Berkeley for just $1 per square foot, proving that deep tech companies can find affordable space while accessing world-class talent. The key is optimizing for talent quality over cost savings.
Statistics & Facts
- Terra Nova can lift an acre of land by one foot in a single day using their modular system of three Prometheus injection units and one ARC processing center. (06:31)
- Florida produces enough waste wood annually to lift the entire city of Miami by the amount needed in one year, with trees growing three times faster than other regions. (16:01)
- The predicted damage from cascading levee collapse in the Bay Area is approximately one trillion dollars, according to discussions with state treasurer Fiona Ma. (03:34)
