Pre-Zero Sports Talk
Pre-Zero Sports Talk is a sports leadership podcast exploring high performance, coaching, athlete development, sports business, faith, purpose, innovation, sustainability, clean progress, and life beyond the game.
Hosted by Sid Bensalah, with over 30 years of global sports industry experience, the podcast brings honest, long-form conversations with athletes, coaches, leaders, founders, innovators, and changemakers.
This is not only a podcast about sport. It is about what sport reveals about people, how we lead, how we handle pressure, how we pursue meaning, and how we build lives, teams, and communities with purpose.
Through real conversations beyond the game, Pre-Zero Sports Talk explores leadership, performance, faith and purpose, identity, resilience, human potential, athlete well-being, coaching culture, community impact, sports governance, clean progress, sustainability, technology, innovation, and the future of sport.
No filter. No bias. Straight talk.
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Pre-Zero Sports Talk
Beyond Plastic | Phil Cohen on Simplifyber, Leadership, and the Future of Manufacturing
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In Episode #107 of the Pre-Zero Sports Talk Podcast, Sid Bensalah sits down with Phil Cohen, Co-Founder and COO of Simplifyber, U.S. Air Force veteran, MIT Sloan MBA, serial entrepreneur, and former semi-professional hockey player.
This long-form conversation goes far beyond advanced materials. Phil shares how life is shaped by the questions we answer “yes” to, why luck follows commitment and work, and how hockey, military service, Afghanistan, MIT Sloan, China, startups, and fatherhood shaped his view of leadership.
Phil breaks down the lessons he carried from sport and the Air Force into entrepreneurship, including the importance of clear roles, trust, care, fast decision-making, and what he calls expectations, accountability, direction, guidance, and attention. He also explains why entrepreneurship feels like a team sport, and why startup leadership can bring more sleepless nights than military service.
The conversation also explores Simplifyber’s origin story with Maria Intscher-Owrang, the realities of fundraising, and how their cellulose-based liquid fiber molding platform aims to simplify manufacturing, reduce waste, localize production, and move sustainability from a marketing message to a performance outcome.
Sid and Phil also discuss sports event waste, the future of localized manufacturing, America, community, family, fatherhood, and Phil's advice to young builders: when people get in your way, go around them.
For full show notes, timestamps, and links, visit the episode page here: https://prezerosportstalk.com/podcast/beyond-plastic-phil-cohen-on-simplifyber-leadership-and-the-future-of-manufacturin/
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