Podknife - Ep 60: Ilan Gur, CEO of Activate, Founder of Cyclotron Road by My Climate Journey

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Ep 60: Ilan Gur, CEO of Activate, Founder of Cyclotron Road

Podcast |: My Climate Journey
Publisher |: Jason Jacobs, Cody Simms, Yin Lu
Media Type |: audio
Podknife tags |: Climate Change,; Interview,; Science & Medicine
Categories Via RSS |: Business,; Science,; Technology
Publication Date |: Dec 05, 2019
Episode Duration |: 01:11:58

Description
iTunes Summary

Today's guest is Ilan Gur, the CEO of Activate and the Founder of Cyclotron Road. Cyclotron Road is an entrepreneurial fellowship program that pairs PhD fellows working on promising scientific breakthroughs with grants that pay their salaries. Access to a bunch of expensive equipment and showers them with mentorship to try to bridge the gap between early academic research that shows great promise and actually turning the corner to become a company. Prior to founding Cyclotron Road, Ilan launched two science-based startups including Seeo, an advanced battery company that was acquired by Bosch in 2015. He was also a program director at ARPA-E. He holds a PhD in material science and engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

In today’s episode, we cover:

Overview and origin story of Activate & Cyclotron Road
Ilan’s time at ARPA-E and key learnings
The 3 components of Activate’s entrepreneurial fellowship program
How it works, application process, etc
Relationships with corporate partners, government agencies, etc
How the organization is funded
Key learnings from initial cohorts
Expansion plans
What is missing that would help accelerate their efforts
How you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

Activate website: https://www.activate.org/
ARPA-E: e.energy.gov/">https://arpa-e.energy.gov/
Berkeley Lab: https://www.lbl.gov/
Opus 12: 12.com/">https://www.opus-12.com/
DARPA: https://www.darpa.mil/
Nicole Systrom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleschuetz/
Sanjay Wagle: https://lightsmithgp.com/team/sanjay-wagle/
David Danielson: t.energy/ventures/team/dave-danielson/">http://www.b-t.energy/ventures/team/dave-danielson/
Raymond Weitekamp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymondweitekamp/
Horst Simon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horst-simon-6b3417/
Cheryl Martin: e.energy.gov/?q=taxonomy/term/851/all">https://arpa-e.energy.gov/?q=taxonomy/term/851/all
Mosaic Materials: https://mosaicmaterials.com/
Bill McKibben: http://billmckibben.com/
Al Gore: https://www.algore.com/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

Get connected with MCJ:

Cody Simms X / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube

*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at info@mcj.vc, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Today's guest is Ilan Gur, the CEO of Activate and the Founder of Cyclotron Road. Cyclotron Road is an entrepreneurial fellowship program that pairs PhD fellows working on promising scientific breakthroughs with grants that pay their salaries, access to a bunch of expensive equipment and showers them with mentorship to try to bridge the gap between early academic research that shows great promise and actually turning the corner to become a company. Activate is an incredibly innovative and important organization, and one of the best examples I have seen of organizations taking meaningful steps to help more breakthrough technology reach its full potential. Enjoy the show!