Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

This week, I go briefly into the key factors behind determining the term of your off-take

Your First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) project is where your climate tech startup is a startup no more. Investors, customers, and even your own team won’t fully believe in your technology until they see it in action at scale. So, how do you get it right? 𝟭. 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 Murphy’s Law is real. FOAK projects never go as planned - delays, supplier failures, site issues, regulatory holdups. How do you prepare? • Use real-world data: Look at similar completed proj

Do acquisitions of climate tech startups by Big Oil help or hinder energy transition?

I have no idea. Still, the question has been popping up in my head now and again for the last year. Every time I see some “hydrogen mobility” startup raising money or investors piling in some EV-charging solutions business, I hope that it's just me being wrong about the industry's future rather than hype-guided investors throwing cash at the most charismatic founder whose only plan is to spend investor’s cash.  Viktor Pelevin, in his cult classic “Generation π,” colorfully de

Investor's pressure to go big might have had a hand in it.

The stationary energy storage market tripled in 2023. But with the sector maturing fast, not every corner is ripe for VC-backed disruption

A Pilot is your first real-world test—where you prove that your technology works outside the lab.

The 4-step framework for choosing climate tech scale-up business model

De-icing a frozen water tower in the middle of nowhere is not on anyone’s job description. However, this is a reality that you can come up against when you are scaling up your climate tech and building your FOAK.  Most climate podcasts focus on finance, policy, or shiny new tech. But real stories of scaling climate hardware? Rare. That’s why The Green Blueprint episode, “𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱’𝘀 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗔𝗖 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆,” caught my attention. Host L

Over 37% of climate investors decide not to invest in hardware companies because of the business model and long sales cycles. These are the results of a survey, carried out by Planet A, Norrsken, and Speedinvest. The survey also highlights investors' preference for X-as-a-service and licensing business models over others. So, choosing a business model can make or break your startup.   The business model aims to determine how exactly you will make money. There are many ways fo

Venture investors watch the world burn and seek refuge in virtual worlds

The best guide so far on scaling up climate tech from Breakthrough Energy Catalyst

2024 was a brutal year for hardtech climate startups.

Main FOAK risks

Why should you avoid Green Premium and look for 10x value?

A Climate First VC artile got me thinking

Review of Clean Tech ScaleUp Manual by Climate Brick

Hydrogen is like real estate, there are three main criteria for project success: location, location, and location.

Q3 VC investment data from Pitchbook Inc shows otherwise.