Mastering the FOAK Journey: A Practitioner’s Guide to Scaling Cleantech

Building first-of-a-kind (FOAK) cleantech projects is the main thing we can do now to avert catastrophic climate change. We have all the innovations we need, but we fail to deploy them at a sufficient scale. FOAK projects are not about innovation - they are about execution in the most complex, high-stakes environment imaginable. 

Over the past year, I've documented this process, drawing from my own and other founders’ hands-on experience to create a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for cleantech founders and operators. This is still a work-in-progress, but enough material has piled up that I wanted to structure it and give it an overview. Here’s an overview of the key stages, each linked to detailed articles for deeper insights.

 1. Laying the Groundwork for the FOAK Journey

Why are you doing it? Will it make a noticeable reduction in CO2, methane, or other gases? Will it genuinely help avert climate change, or will it simply postpone it? How should you start? When do you know that you are ready? Every FOAK journey begins with a solid foundation. Understanding the unique challenges and opportunities in cleantech is crucial. Here, I cover how to move from an innovative idea in the lab to a scalable business model, aligned with real-world energy needs and market expectations. The key articles so far:

• When are you ready to scale? 

• The 1% check

• Why most climatetech startups don’t deliver 10x returns

• A framework for choosing scale-up business model

• Do you have a drop-in solution? 

 2. Financing FOAK 

Most of the online articles on FOAK contain funding advice and most of them are written by VC’s whose partners never had to execute a FOAK. In my posts, I examine VCs and strategic investors’ perspectives, provide actionable advice on how to de-risk FOAK, how to avoid strategic investors’ traps, when to take VC’s advice and when not. 

• From Series A to Series B

• What do VCs get wrong in cleantech?

• Navigating the capital stack from lab to NOAK

• The pitfalls of FOAK capital stack 

• How to de-risk your FOAK 

• How important is intellectual property for a scale-up

• What strategic investors are looking for 

• How strategic investors can kill a startup

•  When to listen to VCs and when not 

• Grants for FOAK

 3. Securing Off-take Agreements

Off-takes are revered in the FOAK space. They give investors certainty, validate your product, and reduce your next customers' anxiety. Off-takes are more than contracts. They’re signals to investors, anchors for financing, and roadmaps to NOAK. What most available articles fail to provide are the step-by-step instructions and insights to get an off-take. I’ve written a series of posts about each step you need to take to secure an off-take, and provided negotiating tips and tactics from my own experience and those of other founders. 

• What do you need to know about off-takes? A primer.

• The road to off-take - what are the main stages of getting there

• Step one - MOU

• Step two - letter of intent

• Step three - term sheet

• Step four - off-take term

• Step five - off-take price

• How to sell to utilities - a case study

 4. From Pilot to FOAK to NOAK: Scaling Up

You’ve validated the tech—now you need to prove it at commercial scale. These posts cover what it takes to build a pilot, transition to demo, and finally deploy your FOAK. I dive deep into each stage, providing actionable and clear frameworks for execution.

• What are the three key steps to build a FOAK?

• How big should your FOAK be?

• Pilot stage framework

• Demo stage framework

• Do you need an EPC for your FOAK?

• How to select an EPC 

• Beyond FOAK

 5. Building and Managing Your Team

You can’t FOAK alone. And your early-stage startup team is not up to the task. These articles share what I’ve learned about building teams that can execute when speed, risk, and ambiguity are all high. What skills are usually missing? Why is it important to hire a chief operating officer? What mistakes did I make in hiring for my FOAK? FOAK management means managing chaos. Are there ways to control it? I am still working on this section and will add new posts on hiring and managing FOAK teams soon. 

• What skills are usually missing in FOAK

• Hiring mistakes - my case study

• CTO - Why do you need him?

• Simplifying FOAK management 

• How ATOME built its leadership team

 6. Building a supply chain

It is said that modern warfare is defined by supply lines, and this is equally true for businesses. Simply managing your supply chain is a big challenge. Building it is a whole new challenge. Sometimes, mapping your suppliers and bringing them together will be straightforward. Sometimes, your supply chain might not exist yet, and you’ll have to build it up from scratch. 

• How to build a supply chain

• How supply chain chaos can sink a startup

 7. Real-World Case Studies: Lessons from the Field

Learning from others' experiences is powerful. These stories show what works—and what to avoid.

• FOAK lessons from nuclear energy

• Building wind turbines in the shadow of a nuclear giant

• Dangers of ramping up battery manufacturing - Fraunhofer report review

• Redflow - flow batteries failure

• Canoo - electric minibus failure

• DAC FOAK success story

• Vianode - sustainable graphite success story (video)

Explore the Full FOAK & Scale-Up Blog Directory

For a comprehensive collection of articles, case studies, and resources on FOAKing and scaling cleantech innovations, visit the full blog directory:

👉 FOAK & Scale-Up Blog Directory

Whether you're at the ideation stage or preparing for your NOAK deployment, this resource is designed to guide you through each step of the journey with practical, experience-based insights.

What would you like to see in an expanded version? What FOAK and scale-up challenges should I cover more?