#188 Decarbonizing Steam, Drop-In Replacement, Building in Stealth, & More w/ Ashwin Salvi (AtmosZero)

Are you ready to blow off some steam? (how’s that?) 🌎 Welcome back to CleanTechies, founder edition. We are The #1 Podcast For ClimateTech entrepreneurs. Each week, we publish 2x hour-long conversations with leading Founders, Investors, Operators, and Thinkers in ClimateTech to share their insights and tips for you. On top of that, we publish other written content like our Companies to Watch series, where we highlight early stage startups operating in the spaces of our guests. That way, if you find yourself bullish on a space after an episode, you might find a deal you can chase! Whether you’re an active ClimateTech entrepreneur, an aspiring one, an investor, a service provider…anything that touches supporting early stage climate tech, this is the place for you. Subscribe today.Today, we are talking to Ashwin Salvi from AtmosZeroToday we get the chance to tackle a discussion around one of the biggest trouble makers in industrial production: Steam. As you’ll find out, steam is a huge part of most industrial production today. We need to decarbonize all of it, so Ashwin discusses with us * How their tech is doing that * Why they chose to build in stealth initially * How they validated the idea * And he finishes us off with some business ideasIt’s truly an inspiring conversation because it shows how, with a lot of forethought and diligence, you can avoid many big mistakes—something every climate entrepreneur wants to hear. 📺 Watch on YouTube | 🍎 Apple Podcasts | 🎧 Spotify | 🗣️ Join the Slack Channel🚨Attention! 🚨 We interrupt your regular programming for an important message.ClimateTech founders are taking on a huge challenge. Building a climate startup is highly complex but also SO NECESSARY if we are going to save the climate. Founders not only need to understand how to build a startup, but you also need to understand how to deal with hardware, have a strong handle on climate policy, know how to fundraise from diverse investor types, etc. etc. etc…It’s a lot.That’s why we make CleanTechies, the #1 Podcast for ClimateTech Entrepreneurs.In addition to our jobs, we devote all of our spare time to producing this podcast for you. This way, you can learn from others’ mistakes, successes, and gain insights on navigating the complex ClimateTech world.If this mission resonates with you, we are asking for your support. It takes a lot of effort, and it’s not free. Your support helps us keep this going.If you’re already a subscriber and want to contribute financially, click “Upgrade to Paid” at the top right of your screen.If not, follow the steps once you click “Subscribe Now” below to help us out. Thanks for helping us help all the climate entrepreneurs like you. 🙏 🌎The Guest: Ashwin Salvi* After graduating from the University of Michigan with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Ashwin ended up at ARPA-E, a place all of us energy nerds are somewhat familiar with. * After a couple years of that he ended up at Achates Power where he was innovating on the internal combustion engine to make it much more sustainable. * Eventualy, he and some former colleagues realized how big of a problem steam was, and they put all of their PhDs together to solve it. * After some validation, they went all in and founded AtmosZero. The Company: AtmosZeroOne Liner: Decarbonizing steam boilers with a cost effective drop in solution. Industry is responsible for around 37% of global emissions. Producing steam is a huge part of that because steam touches so many things. Food and Beverage, Pharma, Chemicals, Textiels, Pulp and Paper, Metals and Mining, Automotive, Rubber and Plastics, Construction Materials, Cosmetics, etc. Yet most of us don’t even know about it. They knew that solving this problem was critical to the decarbonization of industry. So they took a look at existing decarbonization methods. The two major options are either too expensive to operate, or too expensive to install. So, they decided to make a commercial scale unit that can be set on-site, or nearby, and piped into existing infrastructure. This drops the install cost substantially. As for the operating costs? They’ve managed, with a little secret sauce of their own, to get their boilers highly efficient. Today they are working on their inital pilot project with New Belgium Brewery with many other demonstrations lined up after. Do you have suggestions on future guests or topics? Leave a comment!Unable to support financially but still want to help? Share this post w/ 3 ClimateTech (or aspiring) entrepreneurs. Sharing is super helpful to us, and it costs you nothing.📝 Show Notes:Topics* 1:58 Introduction and Background* 10:03 Creating a Standardized Solution for Decarbonization* 24:03 Return on Investment and Future Plans* 25:42 De-risking and Mass Manufacturing* 29:23 Challenges and Objections* 39:32 First Commercial Deployment* 48:48 Opportunities in Electrical Availability and Funding* 51: 38 TakeawaysLinks* Ashwin Salvi | AtmosZero* Connect with Somil | Connect with Silas* This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.Asks 👋👉 Listeners Survey* We would love to hear how we can improve the show and what you like most.👉 Fundraising for Founders* If founders are looking for funding in the ClimateTech space, reach out & schedule a chat here!👉 Early-Stage Founders Hiring* Silas just started his own recruitment consultancy tailor-made for early-stage ClimateTech startups. He does this by offering heavily discounted headhunting services for companies at Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A companies. If you need a hand finding the best talent on the market, and you don’t want to sell your kidney to pay for it, let’s chat. (booking here)👉 Meet Top Founders* Interested in getting in front of hundreds of ClimateTech VCs and Founders each month, reach out to [email protected] to learn more about becoming a sponsor.If you couldn’t already tell, we care a lot about ClimateTech founders 😂🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in, and see y’all next episode! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe