Power to Hydrogen’s Advanced Materials Accelerate Transition to Clean Energy Economy
For entrepreneurs and technical founding teams, listening to Dr. Paul Matter tell his Founder’s Story is one of the best 40-minute investments you can possibly make.
As the founder and technical lead of two startups, Paul is a chemical engineer who talks about both science and business in ways that audiences of experts and non-experts alike can understand and enjoy.
Power to Hydrogen (P2H2), a leader in advanced electrolysis materials (AEM) technologies, has raised more than $18 million to scale and deploy the world’s first industrial-scale AEM technologies. Investors from around the globe joined the round.
Paul’s entrepreneurial journey is particularly compelling as he is building companies that make materials and machines—businesses that typically require long lead times and capital-intensive development cycles—realities that make the “standard” challenges that come with building a startup even more challenging.
Paul and his co-founder, Christopher Holt, went from sharing an office in a graduate school internship, to sharing a beverage at BW3’s to joining forces to make Power to Hydrogen a successful business and an industry first.
Top Lines and Takeaways
- On pivoting: Going from a project for rechargeable hearing aid batteries to a reversible fuel cell battery opportunity at the Department of Energy created a new path for P2H technology.
- On Market Validation: “A lot of people were using materials developed for other industries. They weren’t using materials that were specifically tuned for the application. That was something we knew how to do.”
- On Partnership: Doors swung open when Toyota and Shell heard about P2H2 and invited the young company to join an accelerator for startups spurring the hydrogen industry. “We saw this could be a huge opportunity—if we became a materials company. Then we realized that we were going to need to raise capital and hired differently.”
- On People – You can’t do it all yourself. You have to find the right people to help you get to that next step. Hiring the right people is the most important thing. That’s where most of the funding goes, and when you don’t have the right person, that’s where most of the mental anguish and wasted time goes.
This is a story you will want to hear. Tune in and learn more.
