Ben Soltoff is an Entrepreneur in Residence and the Ecosystem-Builder in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. He has extensive experience in the area of climate technology and was previously the Environmental Innovation Manager at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment as well as an Innovation Fellow at the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale.

Bill Aulet is the Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management and the Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. He has over 45 years' experience in entrepreneurship and business. He is a bestselling author and an award-winning educator.

Tod Hynes is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and a co-founder and long-time instructor in the MIT Climate and Energy Ventures course at MIT. He has been working, investing, volunteering, and advising in climate and clean energy since 2002. In 2008, he founded XL Hybrids and served as CEO for 11 years. The company went public in 2020 as XL Fleet and today is Spruce Power.

Francis O'Sullivan is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and long-time instructor in the MIT Climate and Energy Ventures course at MIT. He holds a PhD from MIT and was the Director of Research for the MIT Energy Initiative where he authored numerous seminal reports. His industry work experience includes senior positions at McKinsey, Ørsted and currently as Managing Director at S2G Investments.

Libby Wayman is a Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and long-time instructor in the MIT Climate and Energy Ventures course at MIT. She holds a Master's in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Her industry and government work experience includes Sun Power, Alion, the U.S. Department of Energy, and General Electric (GE), and she is currently a Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Foreword xiii

Introduction 1

Step 1

Explore the Problem Landscape 15

Step 2

Understand the Solutions Context 26

Step 3

Begin Primary Market Research (PMR) 34

Step 4

Find Founder- Problem Fit 44

Step 5

Build the Right Initial Team 51

Step 6

Start Brewing the TEA (Techno- Economic Analysis) 62

Step 7

Segment the Market 75

Step 8

Plan for Policy Sticks and Carrots 83

Step 9

Get a Grip on Your Business Model 92

Step 10

Select Market Stepping Stones 100

Step 11

Profile Personas Across the Decision- Making Unit (DMU) 110

Step 12

Define the Solution 119

Step 13

Quantify Your Unique Value Proposition 131

Step 14

Build Out Enterprise Financials 141

Step 15

Consider the Full Life Cycle Impacts 155

Step 16

Measure Your Climate Value Proposition 166

Step 17

Make a Long- Term Capital Plan 175

Step 18

Pursue the Right Non- Dilutive Funding 185

Step 19

Build Proof of Concept 195

Step 20

Demonstrate Initial Market Traction 207

Step 21

Pursue Early- Stage Capital 216

Step 22

Expand and Lead the Team 225

Step 23

Build a First- of- a- Kind Project (FOAK) 234

Step 24

Scale Up 243

Conclusion 253

Acknowledgments 255

About the Authors 259

Glossary 263

Index 267