Rice University’s Leadership in Carbon Nanomaterials for Climate Technology: My Beyond The Hedges Podcast

I had a surreal experience this week. For nearly half my life, I’ve been running along the Rice Outer Loop—the crushed gravel trail shaded by 100-year-old live oaks circling the perimeter of campus—with podcasts streaming through my earbuds. But this time was different: I was listening to MYSELF on Rice University’s “Beyond The Hedges” podcast while retracing those familiar steps. There’s something profoundly circular about hearing your own voice discussing Rice University’s contributions to carbon nanomaterials and climate technology while running the same path where many of those ideas first took shape.

I was invited to join the podcast alongside the brilliant Professor Haotian Wang to discuss how Rice University is advancing carbon nanomaterials for climate technology and building a robust innovation ecosystem in this space.

The conversation, moderated by David Mansouri (current President of the Association of Rice Alumni), covered everything from my journey after Rice to the revolutionary carbon nanomaterials we’re developing at DexMat. Below are some key moments from our discussion that highlight the critical intersection of academic research, entrepreneurship, and climate action.

Rice University’s Legacy in Carbon Nanomaterials Development

When David asked about my journey from Rice degrees to nanotechnology work, I reflected on how my three degrees in Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering might seem disconnected from my current work with advanced carbon materials. But the seeds were actually planted during my time at Rice University, particularly through the visionary work of Dr. Rick Smalley, Nobel laureate and pioneer in nanotechnology who put Rice on the map for carbon nanomaterials research.

Smalley’s influence at Rice steered me toward entrepreneurship with a focus on energy and climate solutions. Like any entrepreneurial journey, mine has included both successes and failures, but each venture reinforced my conviction that we need deeptech solutions to address our most pressing climate challenges.

This realization led me to found Third Derivative, where we built the world’s largest climatetech innocation ecosystem. From that vantage point, evaluating thousands of promising climate technologies, I became increasingly convinced that transformational materials and chemicals would be essential to achieving our climate goals. That’s what ultimately brought me back to Rice University’s innovation ecosystem through DexMat, which is commercializing carbon nanotechnology co-invented by none other than Rice’s own Rick Smalley—bringing my journey full circle back to where it all began.

Rethinking the Building Blocks of Modern Society with Carbon Nanomaterials

One of the most compelling segments of our conversation focused on why we’re working to replace conventional materials like steel, copper, and aluminum with carbon-negative alternatives. I explained that modern society is built on billions of tons of metals annually, but their production comes with tremendous challenges:

  • Enormous greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption
  • Resource-intensive processes that convert tons of mined rocks into kilograms of usable materials
  • Limited potential for decarbonization even with green hydrogen (which remains expensive and constrained in scale)
  • Significant air pollution and toxic liquid waste generation
  • Critical conductors like copper increasingly becoming bottlenecks for electrification and digitization/AI infrastructure

At DexMat, we’ve taken Rice’s first-principles approach—focusing not on materials themselves but on the properties we need. By engineering carbon at the nanoscale, we’re producing Galvorn: the strongest, lightest, most sustainable, and ultimately most cost-effective conductor on Earth. These carbon nanomaterials represent a fundamental shift in how we can build our future infrastructure.

Rice University’s Role in Commercializing Carbon Nanomaterials for Climate Technology

David asked perhaps the most crucial question facing any deeptech innovation: How do we move promising technologies like carbon nanomaterials from research labs into real-world climate solutions?

I emphasized that it takes a village to grow a startup, especially when navigating the notorious “valleys of death” in technology commercialization. While faculty researchers at Rice University create groundbreaking innovations in carbon nanomaterials, commercialization typically isn’t their best use of time or expertise.

What works best is an ecosystem approach involving:

  • Experienced entrepreneurs who can translate technical innovations into market opportunities
  • Diverse sources of capital appropriate for different stages of development
  • Strategic partnerships with established companies for development and deployment
  • Universities like Rice taking a more active role in bridging the first valley of death

This is where I see tremendous opportunity for Rice University and the broader Houston innovation ecosystem to excel—by co-creating the future through deliberate collaboration between researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and industry partners focused on bringing climate technologies like carbon nanomaterials to market.

Rice’s Unique Role in Climate Innovation

We closed by discussing Rice University’s distinctive position in the climate and energy technology landscape. Situated at the intersection of energy, medicine, and aerospace industries in Houston, Rice has unique advantages for driving innovation in carbon nanomaterials and climate technology.

I’ve been fortunate to serve as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Rice, helping to commercialize promising technologies. This experience has reinforced my belief that universities like Rice can play a transformative role in addressing climate challenges by fostering collaboration between researchers, entrepreneurs, and industry partners who are developing breakthrough climate technologies like carbon nanomaterials.

Final Thoughts

The podcast ended with some lighthearted rapid-fire questions. My favorite spot on campus? The historic Rice Stadium, where JFK delivered his moonshot speech—a fitting symbol for the climate moonshots we’re undertaking today with carbon nanomaterials. The best book I’ve read recently? The “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy (starting with “The Three-Body Problem”), which offers fascinating perspectives on humanity’s future challenges.

When asked what image I would include in Rice’s application “Box” question, I described the iconic scene of Luke Skywalker gazing at the binary sunset on Tatooine—a perfect representation of the call to adventure and the quest for a life of purpose and impact that has guided my journey developing transformational climate technologies.

From Star Wars: Luke Skywalker gazes longingly at Tatooine's binary sunset, yearning for a quest and a life of purpose
From Star Wars: Luke Skywalker gazes longingly at Tatooine’s binary sunset, yearning for a quest and a life of purpose

What questions do you have about Rice University’s contribution to carbon nanomaterials and their role in addressing climate challenges? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Climatetech Crowdfunding Strategies: Insights from My Recent Panel

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion about effective climatetech crowdfunding strategies, speaking from my perspective as an investor in many crowdfunded climatetech ventures. I was particularly excited to join this conversation as it was hosted by Third Derivative, the climatetech innovation ecosystem that I founded and led as CEO for its first two years. The panel brought together investors and experts to share insights on how early-stage climate ventures can leverage crowdfunding to accelerate their growth while building loyal supporter communities.

Below, I’ve shared the key questions I was asked and my perspectives based on my experiences as a climatetech startup investor, board director, and advisor.

When asked about trends I’ve observed in successful climate tech crowdfunding deals, I emphasized two critical factors:

The 3:1 Planning-to-Execution Ratio: The most successful campaigns I’ve seen invest three times as much effort in preparation as they do in the actual campaign execution. This means months of building relationships, refining messaging, and securing early commitments before going live. I think of this as “setting up the dominos” before knocking the first one down as the campaign goes live.

Day One Momentum is Everything: Having a large audience ready to contribute on day one is crucial for triggering platform algorithms and creating the social proof necessary to attract additional investors. At ventures I’ve invested in and advised, we’ve found that campaigns that reach 30-40% of their funding goal in the first 48 hours are significantly more likely to succeed.

The Value of Crowdfunding for Early-Stage Climatetech

On the topic of how crowdfunding platforms support early-stage climate tech startups, I shared several observations:

While the average crowdfunding raise of $1.08 million isn’t substantial for most capital-intensive climatetech ventures, it serves several crucial purposes:

  • It provides runway to keep the doors open during challenging times – and, spoiler alert, we are currently in challenging venture capital times.
  • Normally the way to keep the doors open during such times is to “pass the hat around” within your network. Crowdfunding is a more efficient way of doing that, and then reaching supporters outside your network as well.
  • Crowdfunding is a way to access capital that is less susceptible to VC hype cycles.
  • Perhaps most importantly, it builds a supporter base that goes beyond financial investment—creating advocates who actively want to help your venture succeed

I’ve found that the true value of crowdfunding often isn’t just the capital raised, but the community built in the process.

B2B vs. B2C in Climatetech Crowdfunding

The panel raised an interesting point about B2B versus B2C companies in crowdfunding. While research shows B2B climate companies completing more crowdfunding rounds (57% vs. 41%) with larger average deal sizes ($1.5M vs. $1.1M), there’s still a perception that B2C companies perform better.

My perspective on this debate:

B2C climatetech companies have more to gain from the customer acquisition benefits of crowdfunding. These campaigns essentially function as pre-sales channels while building brand awareness.

B2B climatetech companies offer unique investment opportunities for retail investors who typically don’t have access to such ventures. This democratizes investment in technologies that are often reserved for institutional investors.

This dynamic explains why B2B companies might actually perform better in climatetech crowdfunding despite conventional wisdom suggesting otherwise.

Democratizing Investment in Emerging Climate Sectors

When asked about attracting investment to less familiar climate technology sectors such as emissions control and water solutions, I emphasized two approaches:

Storytelling is Essential: At Third Derivative and DexMat, we’ve found that effective storytelling bridges the gap between complex technology and investor understanding. Technical solutions need to be framed in terms of tangible impacts and benefits.

Breaking Free from VC Groupthink: One advantage of crowdfunding is that it’s more democratized and less susceptible to venture capital groupthink. This opens opportunities for funding technologies that might not fit neatly into current VC investment theses but have significant climate impact potential.

Long-Term Viability and Success Stories

With crowdfunding being relatively new (median time since raise is 2.3 years) and few exits to date (only 1.2% of all US crowdfunding raises), the panel asked about long-term success stories in climatetech crowdfunding.

I emphasized that successful campaigns view crowdfunding not as a one-time bridge but as part of an ongoing engagement strategy. I shared examples of companies like GIVEWATTS and Worldtree that have effectively used crowdfunding as one component of their capital formation strategy, building and maintaining relationships with their crowdfunding investors through subsequent growth phases.

Communicating Technical Innovation Effectively

One challenge unique to climatetech crowdfunding is translating innovative technical processes into approachable stories for retail investors. When asked about this, I shared:

Videos and Metaphors Work Wonders: Visual explanations and relatable metaphors can make complex technologies digestible. The best campaigns distill technical complexity into clear, compelling narratives.

Technical Details Are Often Secondary: I’ve observed that most crowdfunding investors don’t actually need deep technical understanding to invest. They’re more concerned with the problem being solved, the team’s capabilities, and the potential impact.

Balancing Transparency and IP Protection

On the challenge of providing enough information for investors while protecting intellectual property, I took a pragmatic stance:

For climatetech startups considering crowdfunding, it’s safest to assume that anything shared during a campaign will be in the public domain. This means being strategic about what you disclose and focusing on the problems you solve rather than proprietary details of how you solve them. The good news is that this is exactly what I would recommend to founders raising venture capital as well.

The Future of Climatetech Crowdfunding

Looking ahead at the role crowdfunding might play in the climatetech ecosystem, I shared two key predictions:

Geographical Diversification: Crowdfunding has tremendous potential to support ventures outside traditional investment hubs, accessing innovative climate solutions from regions often overlooked by mainstream venture capital. Like all investors, I have biased networks, so crowdfunding is one of the tools that best helps me access dealflow from more diverse geographies – and led by more diverse founders!

Challenges in a De-globalizing World: However, this potential faces headwinds due to the current trend away from globalism toward isolationism, with increasing regulatory fragmentation across jurisdictions potentially limiting cross-border investment.

Implementing Effective Climatetech Crowdfunding Strategies

While crowdfunding currently represents only 2-4.5% of global early stage climatetech investment deals, its importance extends far beyond the capital raised. For the right ventures with the right approach, climatetech crowdfunding strategies can build community, validate market demand, and create pathways to larger institutional investment.

Moreover, the state of the art of crowdfunding technology is improving rapidly. As we face the urgent challenge of climate change, innovative funding mechanisms like crowdfunding will play an increasingly important role in supporting the diverse ecosystem of solutions we need. Many of th most successful climatetech startups will strategically incorporate crowdfunding into their broader capital formation and community-building efforts.

Have you implemented crowdfunding strategies for your climatetech startup? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

For more insights on building and scaling successful climatetech ventures, check out my other posts like lessons learned from climatetech entrepreneurs.

Tecmo Super Bowl: The Perfect Play in Sports Gaming History

As millions gather today for Super Bowl LVIII, I find myself thinking about a different kind of Super Bowl – one that, for me, represents the perfect distillation of football into pure joy. Some say you can’t go home again, but they’re wrong. All I need is an NES controller, that distinctive click of the power button, and suddenly I’m 12 years old again, sprawled on the carpet of my my den in 1991. Tecmo Super Bowl isn’t just a game – it’s a time machine.

The Making of a Sports Gaming Legend

The original Tecmo Bowl was revolutionary, introducing millions of kids to the idea that sports video games could be fun rather than just simulations. But its sequel, Tecmo Super Bowl, achieved something magical: it managed to add depth without sacrificing that pure arcade joy. More plays, bigger rosters, full seasons of stat tracking – yet it remained simple enough that anyone could pick up a controller and start playing within minutes.

Rewriting NFL History in 8-Bit

What made Tecmo Super Bowl truly special wasn’t just its gameplay – it was how it let you reshape football history. While everyone remembers Bo Jackson’s unstoppable runs (immortalized years later in that famous Family Guy sketch where Peter uses Bo to humiliate Quagmire),

my own football fantasies centered on a different player: Art Monk.

In real life, Monk was a quiet workhorse who shared time with other stellar receivers. But in my Tecmo Super Bowl universe? He became the most dominant force the digital gridiron had ever seen. I still remember the season where he hauled in 107 receptions for more than 3,000 yards and 49 touchdowns. This was “fantasy football” years before that concept went mainstream – a way not just to play the game, but to reimagine it through the lens of your own heroes.

A Living Legacy: 30 Years of Tecmo Super Bowl

How do you know when a game has transcended its era? When, thirty years after its release, it still has a thriving community of dedicated players. Today, Tecmo Super Bowl enthusiasts travel the country for tournaments, update rosters with current NFL and college players, and create ROM hacks that expand the game in ways its original developers never imagined.

Perfect as the Original: Why 1991’s Version Still Matters

But here’s the thing – I have zero interest in those updates and ROM hacks. For me, professional football peaked in 1991. The era of free agency changed the game forever, making it harder to form the same emotional connections with teams and players. Modern sports games mirror this reality with their constant roster updates and focus on current players.

However, in my original Tecmo Super Bowl cartridge on the Nintendo Entertainment System, it’s always 1991. My favorite players never retire. Art Monk always runs that perfect post route. Bo Jackson remains unstoppable. Joe Montanta is the greatest QB ever. The simple sprites and catchy 8-bit music create an experience that’s more football than any modern simulation could ever be.

Some games need remakes, remasters, or updates to stay relevant. But sometimes, rarely, a game captures something so perfect that it becomes timeless. Tecmo Super Bowl isn’t just a great football game – it’s a portal to a moment when sports gaming found its perfect play.

And all it takes is pressing that power button to go home again.

Art Monk breaking all kinds of records in Tecmo Super Bowl

Magical Technologies at DLD Munich: A Vision for Materials Revolution

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke

I’ve just returned from the DLD Conference in Munich, where I presented DexMat‘s magical technologies in a featured session exploring how today’s seemingly magical innovations will shape tomorrow’s world. The 2025 DLD Munich conference brought together visionaries and innovators from across the globe, turning the city into a temporary hub for breakthrough technologies. While my trip was brief, it was packed with moments that showcased how Munich itself embodies the intersection of tradition and technological innovation.

Munich’s Magical Contrasts

My temporary home was the luxurious Bayerischer Hof hotel, across from which stands perhaps the most unexpected sight in Munich: a Michael Jackson memorial where devoted fans still leave notes and mementos. This juxtaposition of old-world European elegance and pop culture devotion somehow perfectly captures Munich’s character – a city that seamlessly blends tradition with innovation, much like the magical technologies featured at DLD.

Despite the winter chill, I couldn’t resist exploring the snow-covered English Gardens during my morning runs. There’s something magical about running through the world’s largest urban park as snowflakes drift down around you, following the river’s path through this winter wonderland. It’s a reminder that even in highly industrialized cities, where breakthrough technologies are born, nature can still claim significant space.

From Palace to Panel

My first evening began with a state reception at the Residenz Munich – a setting that could make anyone feel like they’ve stepped into a historical drama. This was followed by a dinner specifically for innovative materials companies, where conversations about the future of manufacturing flowed as freely as the excellent German wine.

Residenz Munich for the state reception, the evening before Magical Technologies DLD Munich

The DLD Munich conference itself was a feast for the curious mind. Before my session on magical technologies, I found myself inspired by visionaries across multiple disciplines. When it was my turn to share DexMat’s “magical” innovation, I presented our vision for the materials revolution:

Let’s talk about materials. We like to talk about energy, but energy and materials are inexorably tied together. It takes tremendous amounts of materials to generate energy – and it takes tremendous amounts of energy to produce materials. Today’s materials – like steel, aluminum, and copper – consume more than 12% of global energy and account for more than 8% of global CO2 emissions.

Quick show of hands: who here believes that steel, aluminum, and copper will be decarbonized by 2030? 2040? 2050? Actually steel, aluminum and copper will NOT be decarbonized by 2050 – because, by 2050, they will be completely obsolete. It’s a trick question, because they are not actually today’s materials; they are yesterday’s.

I’m Bryan Guido Hassin, the CEO of DexMat, where we produce Galvorn, an advanced nanomaterial made of pure carbon. Galvorn was invented by Nobel-winning scientists at Rice University. It is many times stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum – lighter than carbon fiber even – as conductive as copper, and produced not by combusting carbon, but by capturing it.

We produce Galvorn in many forms; this is a small sample of 13,000 meters of our industrial fibre. This is 20x stronger than most grades of steel, and I would challenge you even to attempt to pick up a spool of 13,000 meters of steel cable, or copper wire. And, by the way, when this fiber reaches end of life, it can be scalably and efficiently reformed into new Galvorn materials with no loss of properties over and over again; it’s a truly circular material.

One of the first questions people often have is: great, so it’s a magical material with incredible properties, but what can it do? The mundane answer is: what can steel, aluminium, copper, and carbon fiber do? Galvorn can generally do the same things, and often do them a lot better, because of its better properties. For example, we can build Galvorn bridges 10-20 times as long as bridges that are constrained by the weight of steel.

What interests us more, though, is what Galvorn can do that these incumbent materials can’t! For example, advanced power transmission lines that are stronger, lighter, more conductive, and more resilient to extreme weather; next-generation data centers that process heat more efficiently and use much less energy; and lightweight, flexible garments that provide cut and ballistic protection while keeping you warm or cool and simultaneously collecting and transmitting your vital signs.

The application space is huge, but the challenge for Galvorn has traditionally been cost, because we were producing it at a small scale for niche applications in space. However, Galvorn production enjoys a very steep exponential learning rate – steeper than solar and batteries, even.

To put that in context, when Galvorn was invented in the lab at Rice, the cost to produce it was on par with mythical materials, like Unobtanium. Since spinning out from Rice a few years ago, DexMat has scaled up production capacity 3,000x and reduced cost 99.6%. This has brought Galvorn to cost parity with exotic materials like gold malibdunom and bismuth telluride, already enabling applications like thermoelectric power generation, and other exotic applications that have traditionally been constrained by such legacy materials – for which we were recently featured on the cover of the journal, Science. When we scale up another 3,000x, we will be at cost parity with specialty materials like carbon fiber and Kevlar. When we scale up a further 3,000x, we will have lower cost than even commodity materials like steel, aluminum, and copper.

Better properties and lower costs are traditionally the mix of conditions that render incumbent materials obsolete and lead to widespread materials revolutions. So, while we ask “How will we power the future?” we must simultaneously ask “With which materials will we build that future?” It won’t be with yesterday’s materials. It will be with materials that today seem like magic, but tomorrow will be as mundane and ubiquitous as, well, carbon.

The Evening’s Encore

The DLD conference’s Chairman’s Dinner brought an unexpected treat – a special appearance by Nile Rodgers, the legendary guitarist, producer, and songwriter behind some of the most iconic hits of the past five decades. From co-founding Chic (“Le Freak”) to producing for David Bowie (“Let’s Dance”) and Madonna (“Like a Virgin”), Rodgers has shaped the sound of popular music. He played some of his songs and talked about the innovation process that transformed then from ideas into enduring hits.

The night continued at what might be the most unique party venue I’ve experienced: Occhio, a luxury lamp showroom. However, my body clock had other plans, so I checked out early. In an effort to reset to American time, I found myself pulling a work all-nighter in the hotel – though I suspect this wasn’t quite what the Bayerischer Hof’s designers had in mind for their elegant spaces.

Munich Impressions

Although my visit to DLD Munich was brief, the city revealed itself as a perfect backdrop for discussions of magical technologies, with its fascinating contrasts: industrial might alongside natural beauty, historical grandeur next to cutting-edge innovation. While I would have loved to explore more, my thoughts were already turning homeward to Katie and our children. After all, even the most magical technology can’t replace family time, and I was eager to relieve my partner from single-parent duty.

As my plane lifted off from Munich’s airport, I couldn’t help but reflect on how this city, like the technologies showcased at DLD, represents a perfect blend of the magical and the practical. Sometimes the most revolutionary ideas come from places where tradition and innovation dance together – just like snow falling on ancient gardens in a thoroughly modern city.

DexMat Was Featured On The Cover Of Science

Not very humble brag here, but I think readers of this blog will find it interesting: recently DexMat was featured on the cover of Science, one of the most preeminent academic journals in the world!

Based on patented IP from Nobel-winning scientists at Rice University, DexMat produces a sustainable nanomaterial (nerdily called Galvorn) that is many times stronger than steel, lighter than carbon fiber, and as conductive as copper.

The Science article is about a very niche Galvorn application (circularly polarized black body radiation), but we are already gaining wider spread adoption in aerospace, defense, automotive, power transmission, and data centers, and we hope one day to render metals completely obsolete.

If successful (which our investors are betting on!), this can be industrial revolution-scale innovation with gigatons of positive climate and environmental impact. An early-career mentor of mine once advised me to surround myself with people much smarter than I am, and I am certainly delivering on that here! Fortunately, I became very comfortable being surrounded by people much smarter than I am at TJ, Rice, and IMD!

It’s A Celebration

To celebrate, I had genAI write a song about how DexMat was featured on the cover of Science to the tune of “Cover of the Rolling Stone” by Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show:

“Cover of the Journal Science”
(to the tune of “Cover of the Rolling Stone”)
Verse 1:
Well, we’re workin’ real hard in the climate tech game,
Buildin’ stuff with carbon, and we’re changin’ the frame,
Galvorn’s the name, it’s sleek and strong,
A nanotube fiber that’s been here all along,
But now we’re struttin’ our stuff, not playin’ defense,
‘Cause we made it to the cover of Science!
Chorus:
Science! (Woo!)
On the cover of the journal Science!
We’ve got Galvorn rockin’ in defiance,
Talkin’ breakthroughs on the cover of Science!
Verse 2:
We’ve spun those fibers thin as a dream,
Stronger than steel, with a sustainable theme,
Engineers and dreamers all take note,
Our material’s a marvel—you can quote that, folks!
We’re weaving the future, it’s got no pretense,
And it’s sittin’ on the cover of Science!
Chorus:
Science! (Yeah!)
On the cover of the journal Science!
Changing the world, it’s not just reliance,
We’re innovators on the cover of Science!
Bridge:
We’ve been to labs from Houston to Rome,
Pushing boundaries with carbon alone,
And when you see Galvorn, you know it’s fate,
We’re building tomorrow—it’s really first-rate!
Verse 3:
So here’s to the team who made it so fine,
From the drawing board to that journal’s shine,
Galvorn’s in the spotlight, it’s got that flair,
Now every researcher’s stopping to stare!
And we’re only gettin’ started, folks, no suspense,
This is just the first of many covers for Science!
Chorus (with gusto!):
Science! (Yeah!)
On the cover of the journal Science!
We’re showin’ the world carbon nanotube alliance,
Look at us now on the cover of Science!
Outro:
Yeah, we’re DexMat, and we’re takin’ the crown,
Galvorn’s the fiber that’s the talk of the town,
From Houston to the labs in every province,
You’ll find us on the cover of Science!

In case you aren’t familiar with the song, here’s the melody:

DexMat’s Epic Progress During A Challenging Year

With the holidays and the new year upon us, it is the perfect time to reflect on this year’s lessons and accomplishments (as I did last year). Pressure is a privilege, and we felt that with gratitude in 2024. It was a hard year for climate tech, and startups in general. But it didn’t slow down DexMat’s epic progress that will carry us through 2025… 2030… and beyond.

Since DexMat’s founding we have achieved a 3000x scale increase while driving down cost 99.6%. We are on track to continue that exponential scaleup, so this year we shifted our focus to building a pipeline of market demand and customer off-take to match it. Our testing and application development with customers and prospects makes us particularly proud—and excited about the years ahead.

DexMat’s Epic Market Development

  • Market Development: ↑25% YOY: In 2024 we organically increased our number of deals with scalable commercialization potential by 25%. 
  • Negotiating 1st multi-year, multi-million dollar offtake agreement: We have negotiations underway for a multi-year, multi-million dollar offtake agreement with a leading automotive supplier and long-time customer who is using Galvorn to enter the $1.4 B thermoelectric generator market with a new flexible, non-toxic thermoelectric device. You can learn more about this type of application here.
  • Traction Across 90% of our $580B+ Target Market Segments: 
DexMat_target-markets-bottom-up
  • We have a growing base of customers and prospects testing Galvorn and developing their applications, currently accounting for 90% of the target market segments we’ve identified for Galvorn (totaling just over $580 billion). This includes:
    • Four power cable manufacturing companies that are testing Galvorn to develop stronger, lighter conductive cables. With these partners, we can enter the $80B power line and transmission market within 4 years, demonstrating the need for high-performance Galvorn in truly high-volume applications.  
  • DexMat’s epic progress includes more near-term market entry opportunities:
    • An industry-leading textile mill testing Galvorn to develop an antistatic fabric (a $6.7B market) for defense applications. With its high conductivity, initial tests showed that just 4 pounds of Galvorn would be required to displace 1000 pounds of the incumbent material, carbon etched nylon!
    • A leading product design firm for outdoor gear and sport brands testing Galvorn to develop a cut-resistant fabric for safety in hockey and other sports (an $8.4B market). You can learn more about Galvorn in this type of application here. 
    • An innovative golf equipment company testing Galvorn to improve the performance of their golf shafts. This could potentially be our first sports composite application! 

Application Development

This foundational testing and development we’re doing with customers and prospects is showing that Galvorn can beat the competition across wiring and harness, advanced textiles, and composite applications.

“Breaking” News – testing 30% higher than target: A couple DexMat customers have been challenged with Galvorn breaking their testing equipment because it is so strong, as was the case with one of our power line and transmission partners. But not before getting results that were 30% higher than target!

It forced us to look into different testing solutions with partners more familiar with testing super-strong textiles, like Kevlar (vs. rigid steel and carbon fiber). Without any refinement or optimization, our first test demonstrated more than 20% higher tensile strength than a carbon fiber composite core, building believers at the company that acquired one of our incumbent material competitors in 2022 for $1.5 billion.

Structural composite testing – coming soon! We are continuing our development work to secure critical 3rd-party testing of Galvorn structural composites (expected Q1 2025) that will allow us to re-engage other interested prospects in the sports composites market ($6.61B), as well as interested prospects in the aviation carbon fiber ($2.67B) and automotive carbon fiber ($45.76B) markets.

Continuous structural composite health monitoring sensors – happening now! Even without the testing of Galvorn structural composite, we have customers developing continuous structural health monitoring sensors with Galvorn; one company is focused on composites in airplane wings, while another is focused on composites in industrial deep sea applications.

Bottom-line: more customers are testing and developing applications with Galvorn, making key progress on the path to commercialization (confidential customers redacted in the pipeline image below).

DexMat_commercialization-pipeline

And as we engage with these customers we pay particular attention to the price and volume requirements that will support market entry, especially which customers have the potential to support our next scaleup milestone of a market development plant producing tonnes of Galvorn. 

DexMat_customers-with-price-volume-targets

Growing Our CNT Supply Chain

  • We cultivated 3 new fiber-grade carbon nanotube (“CNT”) suppliers (with kilotons of aggregated production capacity).
  • One of our new CNT suppliers is priced 90% lower than our top supplier.
  • We completed a techno economic analysis (TEA) to demonstrate that CNTs can be produced for exponentially lower prices.

DexMat’s Epic Scaleup

  • We doubled Galvorn production speed.
  • We 5X’ed our maximum production run volume.
  • We set a new record for our longest contiguous fiber produced: 5,400 meters!
  • We produced more than 2,000,000 filament-meters in total this year!
  • We completed another TEA to demonstrate the capital efficiency of our further scaleup.

It is easy to focus on how much more we have to do, but it is also important to pause sometimes to reflect on just how much we have already accomplished. Working with more customers this year and developing more applications to secure more letters of intent and off-take agreements has been a huge step toward our next scaleup milestone of a market development plant, producing many tons of Galvorn.

DexMat’s epic progress, combined with further expansion of our CNT supply chain and scale up of production, we will shape and scale the broader carbon nanomaterials value chain. The demand for high-performance sustainable carbon is real and growing. Our customers are proving it.

Wishing you and yours happy holidays and a successful and fulfilling 2024!

Quick Trip To London

I’m on the flight back from a quick trip to London, where I shared the DexMat story with investors, reconnected with friends, and savored the Dickensian Christmas vibe.

An Unexpected Party

The primary purpose of my trip was to participate in a small holiday party organised by Azeem Azhar of The Exponential View. If you haven’t read Azeem’s bestselling book, don’t subscribe to his newsletter, don’t follow his podcast, etc., stop what you’re doing right now (well, as soon as you finish reading this post), and do so. He is incredibly thoughtful about exponential technologies, what enables them, and the societal impacts that come from them. In a rapidly changing, exponential world, Azeem is the guide that we all need to see around corners and prepare ourselves for the next big thing.

Azeem is also a prolific investor in exponential startups, which includes DexMat. During his holiday party, which included entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists, he asked a some of us to say a few words about what we were working on. Below is a rough transcription of my remarks:

I’m Bryan Guido Hassin, the CEO of DexMat, where we produce Galvorn, an advanced nanomaterial made of pure carbon. Galvorn is many times stronger than steel, lighter than aluminium – lighter than carbon fibre even – as conductive as copper, and produced not by combusting carbon, but by capturing it.

One of the first questions people often have is: what can it do? The banal answer is: what can steel, aluminium, copper, and carbon fibre do? Galvorn can generally do the same things, and often do them a lot better, because of its better properties. For example, we can build Galvorn bridges 10-20 times as long as bridges that are constrained by the weight of steel.

What inerests us more, though, is what Galvorn can do that these incumbent materials can’t! For example, advanced power transmission lines that are stronger, lighter, more conductive, and more resilient to extreme weather; next-generation data centers that process heat more efficiently and use much less energy; and lightweight, flexible garments that provide cut and ballistic protection while simultaneously collecting and transmitting your vital signs.

The challenge for Galvorn has traditionally been cost, but that’s because we had traditionally taken the linear view. However, with the help of investors, advisors, customers, and storytellers we met through The Exponential View, we saw that Galvorn production has a very steep exponential learning rate – steeper than solar and batteries, even. We have scaled up production capacity 3,000x and reduced cost 99.6%. When we scale up another 3,000x, we will be at cost parity with specialty materials like carbon fibre and Kevlar. When we scale up a further 3,000x, we will have lower cost than even commodity materials like steel, aluminium, and copper.

Better properties and lower costs are traditionally the mix of conditions that lead to widespread materials revolutions, so the sky is the limit – as long as we maintain the exponential view!

It was an excellent party, full of very interesting people, and I was pleased that so many of them wanted to learn more about DexMat and Galvorn. I had with me a spool of 5,000 meters of Galvorn fiber, and everyone wanted to touch it to see how soft it is and hold it to marvel at how light it is.

A Chance Encounter

I actually highly recommend everyone to take a spool of Galvorn to Christmas parties or to bars/clubs, as it’s a great conversation starter! On my way out of the party, I encountered a random woman in the stairwell, and this is a rough transcription of our conversation:

Random woman: “What is that you’re holding?”

Bryan: “It’s an advanced nanomaterial, many times stronger than steel, lighter than aluminium, and as conductive as copper.”

Random woman: “Of course it is, but what’s it doing here?”

Bryan: “Isn’t it obvious? Don’t you walk around with advanced nanomaterials?”

Random woman: “Har har, but seriously, what’s it doing here?”

Bryan: “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you.”

Random woman: “I must know! What’s it doing here??”

Bryan: “I have to go now.”

Random woman: “AHHHHH! What’s it doing here???”

I like to think that 30 years from now she’s going to wake up and realize that everything is made from Galvorn. She’s going to try desperately to convince her friends that she knew about it 30 years prior when some international man of mystery refused to tell her more about it in the stairwell of a club, but nobody’s going to believe her.

Savoring London

Although this was a very quick trip – just two days – I packed in as many meetings and catch-ups as I could. This included climatetech investors, fellow entrepreneurs, the head of a major energy company, and IMD classmates. It was wonderful to see so many people in person whom I haven’t seen for years – and some of whom I had never met in real life before.

London welcomed me with cool, gray weather. It was so consistently gray that it reminded me of the scene in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves in which Azeem, trying to find East so that he can pray, laments, “Is there no sun in this accursed country?!”

It was dry, though, so I was able to walk all over the city, and even go for a run in The Regent’s Park. When time between meetings didn’t allow for walking, it was trivially easy to use public transportation. Google Maps navigation is real-time integrated with The Tube and local buses, and they all accept “tap” contactless payment by phone or credit card.

The entire city felt very much in the Christmas spirit: magnificent trees in every square, festive lights over many streets, and the airport security personnel were even wearing ugly holiday sweaters. This combination of London weather, Christmas trappings, and old buildings felt very Dickensian.

I hadn’t visited England since before the pandemic, but it was reassuring that the city really is timeless. Although it was just a quick trip to London, I was able to do a lot that simply can’t be done on Zoom – with people, places, and food – and it felt really good to be back!

My Career Has Come Full Circle

In rereading a post of mine from a trip to Kenya in 2008, I was blown away by how prescient it turned out to be, and how full circle my career has come since then! Consider the following excerpt:

The problem with such a plan is two-fold. First, these renewable energy technologies are expensive and the political climate in Africa is somewhat volatile. Investing in such projects is therefore risky.

Furthermore, to export power—or even to distribute it around such a huge continent—would require major advances in transmission technology. Current power lines are very lossy, losing a significant percentage of the power transmitted over them over long distances. This is especially important for centralized solar and wind, which A. are usually located far away from power consumers (in areas with the least obstruction of their power sources) and B. are bursty—we can’t control when the sun will shine or the wind will blow.

More efficient transmission (and storage, for that matter) technology would allow areas that need power, regardless of weather conditions there, to draw energy from areas where the sun is shining or wind is blowing around the world. This problem of energy transmission and storage is the main theme addressed by the vision of Nobel laureate (and Rice professor!) Dr. Richard Smalley. His proposed solution naturally uses nanotechnology, his principal area of research.

As I am no great nanotechnologist, this leads me to the fundamental question that drove me to IMD and that still drives me today: what can business leaders do to address this energy/environment challenge? We can certainly enforce responsible energy usage within our companies but that won’t be enough. It will barely make a dent in consumption and won’t address any other social issues.

To effect more profound change, business leaders will need to invest (either by starting up new ventures or by launching initiatives within their own companies) in R&D of renewable technologies (reducing renewable production costs and increasing efficiency), R&D of energy transmission and storage technologies, and development of renewable operations in places like Africa.

It was one of Rick Smalley’s lectures that set me on the path of working on the energy transition in the first place. Here I am, 16 years later, and not only am I working on the energy transition, but I am leading a company that is commercializng one of Rick Smalley‘s nanotechnology inventions to do so! Moreover, one of the killer app’s for DexMat‘s product, Galvorn, is advanced power transmission lines, for which we recently won a grant from the US Department Of Energy.

Like the proverbial frog slowly boiling in a pot of increasingly hot water, it hasn’t been obvious to me how full circle my career path has taken me, but re-reading this blog from early in my journey really crystallized it for me. As a young computer science major, I never would have imagined running a nanomaterials company in pursuit of solving energy and climate, but now I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Empowering Rice Engineers with an Entrepreneurial Mindset

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of Masters in Engineering Management and Leadership students at Rice University—my own alma mater. Stepping back onto campus, now as a mentor rather than a student, felt like a full-circle moment, especially since this seminar was hosted by RCEL, where many years ago I was Rice’s inaugural Entrepreneur In Residence. Reflecting on the highs and lows of my own career journey, I shared how entrepreneurial principles have helped me build a career resilient to an ever-changing world. My goal was to provide these emerging engineers with tools to shape adaptable, impactful careers, especially in a dynamic landscape where technology, sociology, and innovation change more rapidly than they ever have before.

Engineering + Entrepreneurship: The Keys to a Future-Proof Career

The starting point of my presentation was a challenge familiar to anyone pursuing a technical career: building a path that remains relevant as industries evolve. With predictions that 85% of the jobs students will encounter in the next decade don’t even exist yet, creating a “future-proof” career requires a different set of tools and mindset—one centered around entrepreneurial principles. Although I started my own career in computer science, today I lead a nanomaterials company, DexMat. This non-linear path highlights how an adaptable mindset and a willingness to pivot can valuable assets in a technical career.

Three Entrepreneurial Principles to Guide a Resilient Career

  1. Seek Solutions to Problems, Not Job Titles
    I emphasized to the students that successful entrepreneurs don’t just pursue roles—they identify problems and create opportunities by solving them. My own career journey exemplefies this pattern: in oil & gas software I learned that traditional energy was unsustainable ,so I began working in energy transition software; in energy transition software I learned that it would take more than 1s and 0s to solve the climate challenge, so I pushed into climate deeptech; in climate deeptech I learned that commercializing, deploying, and scaling deeptech was hard and slow, so I founded Third Derivative to accelerate it; at Third Derivative, I learned that we had a key gap in our climatetech innovation pipeline – low-carbon, high-performance materials to decarbonize heavy industry – so I joined DexMat. Identifying a pressing problem and dedicating yourself to solving it often leads to a career path that’s both rewarding and resilient to shifts in the job market.
  2. Expand Your Resources Through Partnerships
    Another key aspect of my journey has been building partnerships that complement and amplify my abilities. By working with experts across academia, finance, industry, and government, I’ve been able to extend my reach far beyond what I could accomplish alone. For students, I highlighted the importance of networking and building alliances early on. Seeds planted today may yield opportunities a decade down the road.
  3. Set Affordable Losses and Embrace Learning
    Entrepreneurship inherently involves risks, but success is often about managing those risks wisely. I shared my own experiences with risk—deciding which ventures to pursue, which investments to make, and, critically, when to pivot. I urged students to think of their careers as ventures in themselves: invest time, effort, and resources where you see the most potential but be prepared to pivot if necessary. This approach has taught me that failure is not only a learning opportunity but often a necessary step on the path to success.

DexMat: From a Climate-Focused Problem to a Career Solution

My career and DexMat’s story are intertwined, illustrating how entrepreneurial principles apply to both business and personal growth. DexMat’s mission is to replace traditional, high-emission materials with sustainable alternatives. To do this, we leverage advanced carbon nanotube materials, which offer strength, conductivity, and resilience without the environmental cost of traditional materials like steel and copper. Transitioning into a a materials venture wasn’t something I initially anticipated, but it was a move that aligned my skills with a high-impact problem—a lesson in itself for building a career that is both meaningful and enduring.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Value of Giving Back

One of the most fulfilling parts of the presentation was the opportunity to “pay it forward” to a new generation of engineers. These students are stepping into an industry and a world that will likely challenge them in ways they can’t yet imagine. My hope is that by fostering an entrepreneurial mindset early on, they can approach their careers with confidence, curiosity, and resilience. After all, entrepreneurship is a form of self-efficacy: the best way to predict the future is to create it!

In the end, I was reminded that while career success is gratifying, the real reward comes in sharing the journey and lessons with those following behind. Speaking to the Rice students gave me a renewed sense of purpose and connection—both to my alma mater and to the larger mission of empowering future leaders to co-create the sustainable, prosperous, equitable future.

Critical Minerals and Materials Transitions

Last week I was honored to be invited to speak at the Rice Baker Institute‘s Annual Energy Summit on a panel about critical minerals and materials transitions. The panel was capably moderated by Michelle Michot Foss, a topical expert, and I joined some top-notch fellow panelists from the lithium, batteries, and legal fields.

If you would like to see just my section, here is an abbreviated edit. During my introduction and in response to a few questions, I covered:

  • Why energy and materials are inextricably intertwined and you can’t have an energy transition without a materials transition.
  • DexMat, Galvorn, and new applications enabled by a material that is stronger than steel, lighter than aluminum, conductive, flexible, recyclable, and sustainable to produce.
  • Why there is no better place than the United States to scale up production of such carbon nanomaterials.
  • Why there is no such thing as “green steel.”
  • My “policy prescription” for the US government to build and extend leadership in the materials on which the next century will be built.

Give it a watch and let me know your feedback. What do you think, will critical minerals and materials transitions play a significant role in the energy transition?