Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

An intro to short fantasy novella.

Adaptation and mitigation are often viewed as competing for capital. In fact, they are not.

We need more capital to bridge the FOAK “valley of death” in climate tech — but not at any cost. Lately, I’ve seen two worrying ideas gaining ground: crowdfunding that asks ordinary people to “invest like VCs,” and proposals to channel pension money into the riskiest stage of startup growth. Both sound democratic. Both are dangerous.

Climate VC funding fell more than 3x from its peak in 2021

What founders sometimes fail to realise is that as you scale up, you will spend less and less time working on your product and more and more time with your investors.

My full breakdown is now live: What’s working, what’s missing, and what scaleups, especially in cleantech and manufacturing, can do today without waiting for Brussels.

Check out my review of Dr. Funk's book, where I highlighted some key takeaways, like why hype has replaced productivity, why consultants always win first, and what it means for anyone evaluating early-stage tech in climate and beyond.

Can you find unicorns in water? There is a hype around water tech startups. Climate is changing, and some countries, such as Turkey, where I currently reside, could face severe water shortages. The recent documentary by Sir David Attenborough spurred more enthusiasm for investing in water startups. I am all for Sir Attenborough’s art and insights. But art is one thing, and investments are another. The only possible unicorn in a water business would resemble Water and Power Co

How can you hype up, raise investments, burn the money, and do it all again? I have no idea, but life proves that it is possible, again and again.

We don’t have a cleantech innovation problem — we have a FOAK execution problem. Over the past year, I’ve been building something I wish I had when I started scaling my first climate tech venture: a practical, experience-based framework for getting First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) projects off the ground. In my latest article, I’ve pulled together my 50+ posts into a structured overview that maps the FOAK journey—from the moment you decide to leave the lab to the day your NOAKs are r

Data shows that 10x returns are extremely rare in the climate tech

Where do you get FOAK Expertise? From FOAK advisors, who have done a FOAK before. Meet the new branch of cleantech ecosystem - the FOAK assi

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

The 4-step Framework for Building a Demo Project: Your Critical Step Between Pilot and FOAK

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

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

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