John Ivan Busulwa

Class of 2025-2026

Makerere University, 2024
Law

Capstone Project Abstract:

Good Fibes is a biotech company building the next-generation of performance textiles that are fully bio-based. Conventional high-performance textiles are manufactured using petroleum-derived feedstocks and energy intensive processing with limited biodegradability. This limited biodegradability results in microplastics currently being ubiquitous in the environment. Synthetic materials have dominated global fiber production since the 1990s. There is a need for scalable high-performance bio-based materials that are biodegradable, non-toxic, derived from renewable resources, and produced using sustainable agroecological practices.

Current strategies for producing recombinant raw materials for next-generation fibers have challenges related to scaling up to commercial scale due to costly purification processes, genetic instability of proteins with highly repetitive amino acid sequences, transcription and translation errors, and high-volume protein production can be associated with metabolic burden.

This Capstone Project seeks to explore the a sustainable commercialization strategy for elastic non-woven textiles. This could provide end-of-life solutions for the fashion industry, create competitive alternatives to petroleum-derived elastic textiles and drive transformation towards a circular textile economy.

Why did you choose ESTEEM?

I chose the ESTEEM Graduate Program to bridge the gap between my technical foundation and the business acumen needed to scale impactful solutions. Having experienced both the promise and pitfalls of entrepreneurship, I recognized that passion and technical skills weren't sufficient on their own. ESTEEM's community of innovators, expert mentorship, and faculty offered me exactly the education what I needed to transform my drive for creative problem-solving into ventures that could create sustainable impact in Africa and beyond.

What do you hope to do after ESTEEM?

I plan to work as a Product Manager at a startup or join a Venture Capital firm as an Associate, where I can leverage my entrepreneurial experience to help founders build impactful companies and bring innovative solutions to market.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I like to listening to music and reading books on Finance.