🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, founder edition.
Today, we are talking to Trevor Best from Syzygy
Today, we really got the juice for you 🍹
For us energy nerds, Trevor breaks down how their light-powered chemical reactors are 30x more energy efficient when compared to conventional reactors 🥵
For the aspiring founders, he walked us through his super data-driven approach to picking a technology to bet it all on ♠️
For those scaling, he broke down their headcount through each of their fundraises as well as their strategic investment partner strategy
Honestly — Trevor is kick-ass, and what they are building is super cool - especially if you’re an innovation junkie like me 🤪
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The Guest: Trevor Best
In university, Trevor completed a Triple Major that covered International Business, Management, Marketing, Supply Chain, and Technology, setting him up well for his future endeavors. Being from Houston, naturally started his career in the Energy industry working with Baker Hughes.
During his eight years here, he worked on the innovation team to come up with new technologies. Given all this exposure he possessed a strong foundational knowledge of the chemicals industry.
Trevor states openly that he had three other failed attempts at starting a company. As you’ll pick up in the interview, it’s clear he wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age.
Over time, he started having ‘Energy Lunches’ with his Co-Founder, Suman Khatiwada, PhD, to dissect startup ideas. Often, these were technical and based on research papers. Having learned from past failures, they put together a framework of Tech Comparison, Market, and Impact, which they used to kill ~80 ideas before they got to one they couldn’t kill.
Through a research paper published by a Rice University professor, they dug into the details. On the surface, it wasn’t much to look at, but after seeing further unpublished data, they found this catalyst technology was 30x more efficient than current industry standards, and they knew it was go time. They cashed in all their chips and started building.
Today, Trevor is the CEO of the company, and they are nearing the major inflection point to get past TRL 8.
The Company: Syzygy
Industrial Decarbonization, Green Chemicals, Green Hydrogen, SAF
One-liner: Developing chemical reactors that are 30x more energy efficient than current industry standards, using a new photocatalyst technology, thus massively reducing global emissions produced from the production of goods… (imagine putting that on your resume)
Context: Nearly all of the world's products are built using secondary materials, which are produced through catalyzing raw materials. This is done using chemical reactors, which today are primarily powered through heat combustion.
What: The Syzygy technology uses light (photocatalyst) instead of heat and is 30x more energy efficient.
Busienss Model: They licence out their IP and provide chemical reactors that they produce, making it a high margin business. However, there are product guarantees to take into consideration, meaning this is only possible when the tech is air tight.
Traction: When Trevor and Suman found the tech it was at TRL 3. From there a team of four took it to TRL 5. Fast forward, they have a team of 100 and have gotten to TRL 8. Once they get to TRL 9, hopefully later this year, they will blow the doors off of this thing. If they run into issues, it will be a rough road.
Future: Given their partnerships with some of the biggest chemical and energy industry corporates, they are well positioned to capitalize should all go well with their current demonstration.
📝 Show Notes:
Topics
1:30 Trevor's Story
4:00 What is Photocatalyst
9:40 The Idea Framework (Tech, Market, Impact)
12:55 How to Come Up w/ Ideas
17:30 Their Tech (Catalyst & Reactor)
24:45 ~5x Reduction in Energy Use
27:00 Impact on Everyday Life
29:35 Traction
32:50 From TRL3 to 8
36:05 Business Model
38:42 Fundraising Mistakes & Lessons
43:15 Culture | Missionaries > Mercenaries
Links
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Leave a comment with what you learned in today’s episode! 💭
🗓️ Asks
Here’s the thing: Somil and I both have day jobs, so if you’re in the helping mood, we both have an ask for you today.
Somil: I’m currently seeking to connect with founders in the built environment space for a project I’m working on. If you’re in that space, reach out!
Silas: As many of you know, my day job is solving people’s hiring headaches in climate - do you have a hiring headache? Well, let me be your Advil. (booking here)
🚨🚨🚨 Attention Hiring Managers!!! Are you struggling to find qualified candidates? Maybe getting candidates but can’t bring them across the line consistently? Or not getting sufficient applicants? — Reach out to our sponsors, NextWave Partners today to help solve that for you.
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🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in, and see you all next episode!
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