As Nathan Hart-Hodgson begins his Master’s this fall, he balances classes in Pure Mathematics with the busy schedule of a startup founder. His recently formed venture, Andromeda, investigates the use of economic incentives to improve the welfare of aquatic animals.
Hart-Hodgson has long been passionate about animal welfare. In recent years, he became involved in advocacy, attending conferences and participating in student groups while completing his undergraduate studies at Boston College. Through those experiences, he noticed a striking gap in the conversation: almost no one was talking about the welfare of farmed fish and other aquatic species.
"Of all the philanthropic money in the world going towards animals, 98% toward animal shelters and companion animals,” says Hart-Hodgson. “Yet farmed animals far outnumber companion animals. When including farmed fish and other aquatic animals, the total number of animals killed for food each year likely reaches into the trillions.”
Farmed aquatic animals are often kept in overcrowded tanks with poor water quality, leading to stress, disease and premature mortality. Yet breeders have little economic reason to prioritize animal welfare. The benefits of improved conditions, such as healthier fish and stronger breeding populations, often take too long to materialize to drive change today.
Hart-Hodgson and his Andromeda co-founder hope to address this incentive gap. Currently, they're exploring the use of different incentive models, including advanced market commitments, where funders pledge in advance to reward anyone who demonstrably solves a defined problem, and milestone payments, where funders provide funding at predetermined stages as a solution is developed.
He met his cofounder at an effective altruism conference in Washington, DC, where the idea for Andromeda emerged from brainstorming and discussion. Recently, they applied to a prestigious incubator and were accepted. Now, they’re looking to refine the idea, build a team and raise more funding.
“We see this as a very neglected problem,” says Hart-Hodgson. “As a result, even small wins could make a massive difference.”
The influence of mathematics
While Andromeda emerges more directly from Hart-Hodgson’s learning in economics, which he took as a minor for his undergraduate degree, his approach to problem solving is strongly influenced by mathematics.
"One of my biggest takeaways from studying mathematics is that I cannot always trust my intuition,” says Hart-Hodgson. “Intuition is a wonderful starting point, but really, I ought to be as agnostic about it as I can be.”
He notes that human intuition has an unimpressive history of identifying suffering in beings that “look or communicate differently than we do.”
“For centuries, prominent philosophers believed animals were essentially just biological machines that couldn't feel pain,” says Hart-Hodgson. “Even more recently, up until the 1980s, many medical practitioners believed human infants couldn't feel pain, and surgeries were routinely performed on them without anesthesia. Our intuitive ‘gut feelings’ often have massive blind spots.”
Two possible futures
As he steers his startup through the early stages of growth, Hart-Hodgson is excited to connect with his fellow students and professors at Waterloo and begin his Master’s work in Pure Mathematics.
Mathematics is Hart-Hodgson’s first passion. “I find it beautiful in a Platonic sense,” he relates. “I would love nothing more than to do mathematics for the rest of my days.”
But he also feels compelled to continue contributing to animal welfare, particularly in overlooked areas like aquaculture.
“I do worry that, if no one else is going to replace me on this neglected problem, it could be selfish of me to prioritize what I want over the good I could do,” says Hart-Hodgson.
For the time being, he's keeping both options open and is just happy to be at Waterloo, a top university for both math and entrepreneurship.
“Waterloo is this incredible innovation hub,” he says. “I don’t think there is a better place I could have gone.”