Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲?

2024 was a brutal year for hardtech climate startups.

Main FOAK risks

Twice in my career, I’ve dealt with intellectual property (IP). Both times, I came out with one big realization: IP isn’t the holy grail investors think it is—especially when scaling hardware. The first time, I was buying a license to manufacture wind turbines. It looked promising: a ton of encrypted files, sent to our HQ with much fanfare. But when we finally cracked open the IP treasure chest, we discovered it only explained how to build one  wind turbine. The know-how to m

As 2024 wraps up, it’s time to reflect on a year that was anything but dull for the climate tech world. A buzzword dominated this year— FOAK (First-of-a-Kind).  It symbolizes the growing realization that proving your tech in a lab is one thing, but scaling it to a factory is a different beast. Many startups found themselves stuck in the dreaded Valley of Death  between proving a pilot and scaling up. I’ve written a few epitaphs on those who didn’t make it this year ( here , h

A Climate First VC artile got me thinking

Review of Clean Tech ScaleUp Manual by Climate Brick

$𝟭𝟮 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻/𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿? $𝟯 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 $𝟭 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁ion

Why read my blog?

Some VC investments are head-scratchers, right? I thought so too. So, I took a deep dive into the world of climate VC investing.

🎙️ Reflecting on the Latest Climate Insiders Podcast with Nadav Steinmitz 🌍

Who do you go to for the money and when? When you're scaling up from Lab to Nth-of-a-Kind (NOAK), understanding the capital stack is crucial. The picture from the Sightline Climate FOAK guide is a useful rough guide to the funding types available at different stages: 💡 Catalytic Capital:     - Stage: Lab and Pilot     - Description: Patient, risk-tolerant, and flexible investment capital that supports high-risk, innovative technologies. 🏛️ Government Funding:     - Stage: L

What kind of problems should you be looking to solve as a startup founder? Here is a funny example from the heat pump market.

In 2016 I convinced Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear corporation, to invest $1B in wind energy and wind turbine manufacturing. Why did they agree? Let's break it down: 1. Significant Margins from Energy Generation:  The margins were substantial enough to cover all possible losses and penalties, even in a worst-case scenario. 2. Existing Industrial Base in Rosatom:  The company had some confidence in its ability to handle wind turbine manufacturing, as it was currently manuf