{"id":12695,"date":"2025-10-31T13:54:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T17:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/?p=12695"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:20:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T19:20:44","slug":"from-spider-man-to-spidey-tek-how-roberto-veloso-is-spinning-the-future-of-sustainable-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/startups\/from-spider-man-to-spidey-tek-how-roberto-veloso-is-spinning-the-future-of-sustainable-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"From spider-man to Spidey Tek: How Roberto Velozzi is spinning the future of sustainable materials"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"embed-megaphone\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TLFIE9321590460\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><!-- Megaphone -->\n\n\n<p>What if Spider-Man\u2019s web were real? For Roberto Velozzi, founder and CEO of Spidey Tek, that question turned into a lifelong pursuit, and eventually, a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Originally from El Salvador, Roberto\u2019s journey from comic-book fan to biotech innovator has been anything but ordinary. After decades of research, his team discovered how to produce spider silk proteins at scale\u2014creating a material that\u2019s stronger than steel, lighter than carbon fiber, and completely biodegradable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, Roberto shares how Spidey Tek went from lab experiment to a company attracting attention from aerospace giants, automotive manufacturers, and materials science firms across the world. With a production model built on alfalfa plants and partnerships that remove traditional manufacturing barriers, Spidey Tek stands at the edge of a sustainable-materials revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re an investor, innovator, or anyone fascinated by nature-inspired technology, this conversation is a masterclass in turning impossible science into scalable impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What you\u2019ll discover today\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(02:10) The \u201caha moment\u201d that turned science fiction into science fact<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(05:00) Early adopters and investors who believed before mass production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(06:30) Scaling spider silk using an alfalfa-based production platform<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(11:40) Partnerships, fundraising, and the $5 million scale-up plan<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(18:00) The power of building the right team and leadership under pressure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(18:50) Refugee roots, resilience, and redefining what \u201chard\u201d really means<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(19:50) Advice for scientists and engineers building hard-tech startups<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(23:30) The five-floor elevator pitch that sums up Spidey Tek\u2019s trillion-dollar potential<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Siemens for&nbsp;Startups Program<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Siemens, we understand the struggles of early-stage startups. Let us remove the barriers on your startup journey by helping you transform your engineering ideas into real, marketable products with industry-leading software solutions. Join the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sw.siemens.com\/en-US\/digital-transformation\/xcelerator-startup-solutions\/design-simulation-startups\/?linkId=300000018765775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Siemens for Startups Program<\/a>&nbsp;to grow your startup to its full potential. Want to get in touch?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/resources.sw.siemens.com\/en-US\/launch-your-engineering-startup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reach out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"bio-block row\">\n    <div class=\"col-3 order-last bio-pic\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/Spidey-Founder-Image.jpg\" alt=\"Guest: Roberto Velozzi\" \/>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"col-9 bio-info\">\n        <div class=\"bio-header\">\n            <h4 class=\"speakerintro\">Guest: Roberto Velozzi<\/h4>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-biography\">\n            <p>Roberto Velozzi is the CEO at Spidey Tek, Inc. He previously worked as Director of Special Projects and Sustainability at Group Lotus. He completed his education at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Harvard Business School.<\/p>        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-contact\">\n            <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/roberto-velozzi-0355813\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Connect with Roberto<\/a><\/p>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"bio-block row\">\n    <div class=\"col-3 order-last bio-pic\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/Peng-Square.png\" alt=\"Host: Peng Cau\" \/>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"col-9 bio-info\">\n        <div class=\"bio-header\">\n            <h4 class=\"speakerintro\">Host: Peng Cau<\/h4>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-biography\">\n            <p>Peng Cau is a seasoned entrepreneur and innovation leader in advanced manufacturing and industrial automation. She co-founded Transformix Engineering, scaling it into a global automation powerhouse acquired by ATS Corporation in a substantial eight-figure valuation deal. Today, she leads the Startup Program at Siemens Digital Industries Software, supporting deeptech and hardtech founders in scaling transformative technologies. A recognized voice in Canada\u2019s tech ecosystem, Peng serves on several boards, including Reko International Group and the Kingston Economic Development Board. A refugee from Cambodia, her journey from survival to success has earned her national accolades and a respected place in Canada\u2019s business and innovation landscape.<\/p>        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-contact\">\n            <p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/peng-sang-cau\/?originalSubdomain=ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Connect with Peng<\/a><\/p>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"bio-block row\">\n    <div class=\"col-3 order-first bio-pic\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/Spidey-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"col-9 bio-info\">\n        <div class=\"bio-header\">\n            <h4 class=\"speakerintro\"><\/h4>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-biography\">\n            <p>Spidey Tek is a biotech company with a sustainable, alfalfa-based novel protein synthesis platform. They are dedicated to mass producing spider silk proteins for a wide range of transportation, aerospace, engineering and medical applications. They have succesfully created a proprietary and scalable method to generate aqueous solutions of recombinant Spider Silk proteins (rSSps). From these easily generated aqueous solutions of rSSps, they are able to create a wide variety of materials: fibers, films, hydrogels, lyogels, sponges, and adhesives with studies of their mechanical and structural properties. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spideytek.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"bio-contact\">\n            <p><a href=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/p>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if Spider-Man\u2019s web were real? For Roberto Velozzi, founder and CEO of Spidey Tek, that question turned into a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89293,"featured_media":12699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[754],"class_list":["post-12695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startups"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2025\/10\/Hero.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89293"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12695"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12915,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12695\/revisions\/12915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12695"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=12695"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=12695"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}