I spent this past Tuesday afternoon at the Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, DC. There my fellow audience members and I heard representatives from 20 startup companies deliver two-minute pitches before a four-judge panel. The startups, which are based in 11 different countries and whose businesses all had something to do with energy or sustainability, were competing in one of four semifinals of the Challenge Cup.
Organized by a DC-based startup accelerator called 1776, this year's Challenge Cup involved 70 entrepreneurs, who vied for a total of $650 000 in prize money. The two winners of the energy semifinal went through to Friday's final to go up against victorious semifinalists from the three other business sectors: education, health, and urban challenges.
One of the cofounders of 1776, Donna Harris, kicked off the energy semifinal. Like its counterparts in Silicon Valley, 1776 aims, in Harris's words, "to find, fund, and grow startups." But not just any startups. She pointed out that one could find in the Challenge Cup’s four business sectors some of the world’s biggest problems.
As was the case at last year's energy semifinal, this year's set of startups offered a mix of products and services. Five out the 20 were energy-use consultants of one kind or another. Four sold solar-based systems for generating and distributing power in poor countries. Of the remaining 11 semifinalists, four applied physics in what struck me as especially interesting ways.
Lucelo Technologies of Austin, Texas, is developing photovoltaic devices for powering what the company's cofounder and CEO, Aaron Chockla, anticipates will be a world of ubiquitous sensors and other networked devices. Lucelo's power sources are printed on thin flexible substrates made from plastic or paper using roll-to-roll fabrication. For some applications, even artificial ambient light is sufficient to serve as an energy source.
Miito of Berlin aims to reinvent the electric kettle. In their joint presentation, founders Nils Chudy and Jasmina Grase pointed out that regular kettles waste energy because just about everyone heats more water than they need. Miito's kettle saves energy by using electromagnetic induction to apply heat directly to the contents of a cup or glass. Although Chudy and Grase conceded under the judges' questioning that their induction heater is likely to cost more than the cheapest electric kettle, it can heat milk, soup, and other liquids, not just water.
Miito's reinvented kettle. The base plate emits an oscillating electromagnetic field, which induces eddy currents in the metal wand placed in the container. Heat generated by the currents is transferred to the surrounding liquid.
Based in Chicago, SmarterShade uses thin-film polarizers to control the transparency of windows—for safeguarding privacy, reducing glare from outside, and keeping homes and offices cool in the summer. The application of thin-film polarizers to windows dates back about 30 years. In the original systems, the relative orientation of the two polarizing films was controlled by an electric current. In SmarterShade’s system, the orientation is controlled mechanically, thereby reducing the cost and energy requirements. Oddly (to me at least), SmarterShade’s CEO, Michael Stacey, did not mention that innovation in his pitch.
The most surprising presentation was that of Exergyn of Dublin, Ireland. As founder and CEO Alan Healy explained, the company makes a heat engine that generates electricity from low-grade waste heat, such as the heat emitted by decaying refuge in landfills. What makes Exergyn's heat engine special is that its moving parts are made from nitinol, a bimetallic compound of nickel and titanium. Like other shape memory materials, nitinol undergoes a solid-temperature-dependent crystalline phase transition. When it's heated, it flexes.
One of the judges pointed out that nitinol-based heat engines have been around since the 1970s, although none have made it to the market. "What makes yours different?" he asked Healy. "We did the thermodynamics," was his glib reply.
Interestingly, that question was one of the few to address the startups' underlying technologies. Most of the judges' questions were about markets, competitors, revenue models, financing, and other aspects of running a business. At first, that emphasis surprised me, but then I realized that none of the startups I heard from on Tuesday used truly new technology. In business, what matters is profitably selling a product or service that people need, want, or think they want.
Two companies progressed from the energy semifinal to Friday's final: BaseTrace of North Carolina's Research Triangle Park and Radiator Labs of New York City. BaseTrace's product is a line of DNA-based chemical tracers that can identify when and where industrial fluids are leaking. The DNA sequences are biocompatible and robust. And thanks to their biochemical richness, different sequences can be used at the same time to trace the flow of fluids through complex systems, such as power plants.
Radiator Labs addresses a problem that frustrates the inhabitants of old apartment buildings that are heated—or, rather, overheated—by steam radiators. Its radiator cozy is an insulated sleeve that covers the radiator. When your apartment is too hot, the cozy absorbs the heat. When your apartment needs heat, the cozy's thermostat activates a built-in fan that expels the hot air that would otherwise be trapped by the cozy.
The judges' nod to Radiator Labs mystified me. The energy bill and carbon footprint of an apartment building are not reduced when its overheated tenants stop opening their windows and rely instead on cozies to absorb the unneeded heat.
The winner of the final will be announced after this blog post is published. Once I know the result, I'll provide an update.
