by Katie Liu
Mentors offer industry perspectives, connections and access
Having been a clean tech entrepreneur and founder for 13 years, Catherine Von Burg has been through the gamut: innovating technology, scaling manufacturing, positioning her company in competitive markets, and even attending intensive accelerators on her own. Now, she shares her experience navigating these entrepreneurial trials and tribulations with the next generation of up-and-coming founders, thanks to programs like ChargeUp Accelerator.
“It’s gratifying, for me, because I listen to them and realize I was struggling with the same foundational issues and can in turn reassure them, through my own experiences, that the uncertainty inherent in the struggle, is an essential part of the creative process. In that way, I can help them to embrace the struggle and uncertainty as a valuable resource to question and find the answers through trial and error, as they develop their tech, go-to-market strategy and fundraising pitches,” Von Burg said. “Very often, this is their first founder experience, and identifying the magic grounded in an operational and development process that is riddled with uncertainty, as they build a viable company and try to attain certain metrics, benchmarks and targets, is critical to success.”
Von Burg, who founded the company SimpliPhi Power in 2010 with a successful exit in 2021, is one of several mentors working with ChargeUp to guide companies in their journey to become investment-ready. ChargeUp Accelerator is the only program of its kind in the U.S. to focus exclusively on the battery and energy storage sector, providing over 200 hours of virtual and in-person curriculum on top of connections with seasoned experts.
From jumpstarting new connections to offering advice on how to navigate an ever-changing market, ChargeUp’s mentors bring a wide range of expertise and skills to support entrepreneurs on their way to exit.
“My goal is to have them feel as safe as possible, so they can talk about some of the disquieting underbelly, the worries that they have, and help them work through it — because in my experience, that’s part and parcel of the process,” Von Burg said. “If your nose isn’t at the water line, you’re probably not striving and challenging the status quo enough. In other words, it’s an uncomfortable process, but to find some sort of comfort in that discomfort is really critical.”
A six-month journey
This year, seven visionary battery startups based throughout the U.S. have just finished their six-month intensive program. In that time, ChargeUp co-chair and Binghamton University alum Balki Iyer has seen many of them come out with new outlooks on how to best manage their business plan, whether it’s in terms of how to best raise capital or pivot creatively.
“A lot of companies are pretty much buried in their own work that they’re trying to do. This is a time where they get to click up and get asked the tough questions, to not lose the forest for the trees,” said Iyer, CEO of the battery recycling startup BridgeGreen Upcycle. “Otherwise, they’re just sitting there and clanking away. That’s the big value addition that this group does for them.”
Cohort members also get the chance to interact with industry veterans, including Nobel Laureate M. Stanley Whittingham, who co-invented the lithium-ion battery so many of these startups are iterating upon. That allows them to grow more knowledgeable about the world their technology is going into, according to ChargeUp mentor Susan Schofer.
“They’ve learned a lot just in terms of the landscape and have gotten to ask good questions about how to think about the competitive landscape of their technology, and what they can do to start demonstrating product-market fit,” said Schofer, who is a partner at the venture capital firm SOSV.
At ChargeUp, mentors are typically personally assigned to a few specific companies. For many of these scientist-entrepreneurs, it’s their first time dipping into the world of business: It’s an entirely different learning curve to not just experiment and invent a new technology, but also figure out market competition, compare financials and land commercial investors.
“One of the real advantages of an accelerator like this is that all of the mentors can really fill some gaps and skill sets that perhaps the entrepreneurs haven’t necessarily developed yet,” Von Burg said.
As a mentor, Von Burg encourages her fellow founders to work through problems with her, even if they might not agree on the same approach all the time — finding, she said, “magic in the give and take.”
“I just find even in the discourse — beyond the introductions, beyond creating spreadsheets, beyond looking at their presentations to raise funds — this give and take, and having a sounding board, seems to be very valuable for them,” she said.
Connections for life
The primary goal of ChargeUp isn’t merely to coach businesses into investment-ready shape by the time they leave the cohort. On top of that, added Iyer, the purpose of ChargeUp is to ensure founders are successful in business at large.
“It’s not just about capital or anything like that. It’s about the overall business model and overall technology. What are the big things that they’re trying to solve?” Iyer said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do: ask them some of the tough questions in an easier forum, if you will, because they’re going to face that outside.”
ChargeUp incorporates dedicated pitching practice into its program, whether to Binghamton University students or potential investors, many of whom hear about 3,000 pitches a year on average.
On top of regularly scheduled check-ins and offline meetings, ChargeUp mentors also work to keep themselves available for any questions or issues founders may encounter, as much as they can.
“We offer so many different types of assets and access that they wouldn’t otherwise have, and we offer them up freely. Essentially, even outside the structured calls, the intent is to be there when you need something, have a question, need to process something,” Von Burg said. “As an entrepreneur myself that did not have anything like that, I have found it to be really valuable for their progress and ability to move forward as I’ve worked with these founders.”
Among the assets that mentors offer is the ability to work with companies to identify specific action items they need to achieve — from raising capital to landing first customers — as well as critical connections.
“For example, with my background working with the Department of Defense, specifically the Army and Air Force, I make introductions that these startups would never really have access to without a lot of work to get to these people,” Von Burg said. “Because in our past lives, or some mentors’ current lives, we’ve worked with them for many years.”
The access that entrepreneurs have to ChargeUp’s mentors and resources don’t end after leaving the cohort either. Von Burg and Iyer continue to keep up with their first cohort companies — though receiving less calls means that they’re doing something right, which is good news, said Von Burg. She has even referred some of her own staff and customers to these founders.
“I think the idea is like going to a college. You study in a college for four years, but you’re alumni for life,” Iyer said. “That’s really what it is, and this is what these companies are. They just come to the program, spend half a year as a cohort, but they’re alumni of this program for life.”
Preparing for a third cohort
The battery industry is experiencing its own changes and growing pains, but the importance of energy storage in creating a more secure, sustainable world remains. Power is what connects global communities and economies, Von Burg said. The ability to effectively store and distribute energy when needed, power healthcare clinics in remote areas without the grid, or create completely safe batteries without the threat of fire, lies in this generation’s innovators and entrepreneurs.
Amid this, ChargeUp Accelerator sits in an ideal niche in upstate New York, positioned with the potential to create what Iyer calls the East Coast’s equivalent of the Silicon Valley for battery innovation.
“Silicon Valley becomes very vibrant not because something happens in Washington, D.C. It’s because of what happens in Silicon Valley. To me, that’s exactly what we have, as an opportunity to create a Battery Valley here in Binghamton,” Iyer said. “There’s a combination of so many things that need to happen, and one of them is attracting some of the best innovators and entrepreneurs, and giving them the right guidance, platform, tools and techniques.”
ChargeUp is now gearing up to recruit its third cohort. Mentors like Von Burg are constantly on the lookout for new technology that could present real breakthroughs in the energy storage industry.
“That’s what excites me about being engaged in the ChargeUp Accelerator specifically, because they are focused on this critical enabling technology,” she said. “So many of these founders are focused on increasing safety and eliminating costs. Being a part of helping them to get to market, to make this critical impact on people’s lives, not just in the U.S. but all over the world — that feels pretty significant to me.”
Iyer encourages companies interested in joining ChargeUp’s next cohort to think about the bigger picture when they apply.
“How are they solving the bigger energy transition story with batteries? If that’s something they have clarity on, and they have some kind of model or technology or innovation to solve a small piece of that puzzle, what can we help with here, as mentors, is to say, ‘How do we help you accelerate through that journey?’” he said.
Schofer also hopes that startups can take advantage of the inherent geographical advantages that accompany setting up shop in upstate New York.
“If you’re doing something within the energy storage sector or with batteries, this is a really specifically focused program. I don’t think you’re necessarily going to get these kinds of experts focused anywhere else,” she said. “Really take advantage of being immersed in this ecosystem and geography, where there is a Center of Excellence [at Binghamton University].”
In some ways, Iyer likens his role as a mentor to that of a venture capitalist: only he’s not putting checks in, but time. But having worked under big corporations and gone through the journey of envisioning then exiting as an entrepreneur himself, four times over, Iyer is proud to act as a sounding board for fellow founders who are in his same position from years ago.
“If you look at human beings as a species, we’re not built with the best physicality. We don’t have claws or the biggest fur to protect ourselves. But what makes human beings unique and dominant as a species is our ability to learn from each other,” he said. “To me, that’s really what this is about.”