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Houston expert: Navigating the energy transition is a dance between incumbents and startups

Energy innovation expert, Barbara Burger, shares how she sees the future of energy playing out as a dance between mice — the startups — and elephants — the incumbent corporations. Photo via Getty Images

There is so much good to say about the state of innovation toward a lower carbon future. All the necessary ingredients seem to be here – passionate, committed and incredibly sharp innovators, capital support from seed to growth, incumbent corporations that are looking to decarbonize their base businesses and build new ones, and government agencies that have developed the incentives and programs that are needed to help navigate over the traditional valleys of death.

Why then is this so hard?

I spend a lot of my time now listening and learning from the startups (the mice) and the incumbent corporations (the elephant) and then looking for ways to help them better collaborate.

The questions I frequently get asked from both sides reflect the different worlds they live in. Many mice don’t know who to engage within the elephants — or, more importantly, how to engage with them. Nor is it often clear what the elephant might want to get out of a collaboration. Many elephants envision collaboration with startups at the conceptual level but don’t know how best to find the most promising ones nor what to do once they locate a promising one. There could likely be an entire book on the dance but for this article, let’s focus on the very early part of the dance.

Let’s assume that some early diligence has been done on one or both sides. Of course, we all know that most relationships start by one party pursuing the other (rather than some magical meeting at the center of the dance floor). Knowing the why for both parties is one of the best starts. Here’s some questions that might help with this.

For the startup, are you looking for validation of your technology solution, investment, pilots, customers, a development partner, a commercial or operating partner, an ultimate exit, or maybe all of the above? What stage of development are you at? This collaboration is key to your success; how important is it to the elephant’s success? Would your tech live outside of their fence line or within? The answers to these questions can help pinpoint where in the elephant you want to target for your initial discussions as well as start to figure out the elephant’s why.

For the incumbant corporation, are you looking for potential solutions to problems in your base business? Possible new businesses? Understanding of the landscape with a view on both threats and opportunities? How important is this problem to solve in the priorities of your company? How does the startup’s problem definition align with one that your company wants to address? What is your experience with trialing new technology? Are you okay with a startup that is backed by one of your competitors? How easily will it be to make the argument internally to get resources to deepen a relationship? If, given the go ahead internally, do you have team members that have the time and capability to collaborate with the startup? Are you willing to have it known that you are collaborating with the startup?

There are lots of questions here and the why is often an iterative journey for both sides. It is as much mindset, influence, strategy, champions, and risk tolerance at individual levels as it about technology and economics.

Let’s hope these questions get you out on the dance floor with a promising partner.

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Barbara J. Burger is a startup adviser and mentor and serves on the board of directors for Greentown Labs. She previously led corporate innovation for two decades at Chevron.

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This arrticle originally ran on InnovationMap.

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A View From HETI

Houston-based Mati Carbon won the global XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, funded by The Musk Foundation. Photo via LinkedIn.

Houston-based Mati Carbon has won the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, backed by Elon Musk’s charitable organization, The Musk Foundation.

Mati was selected in 2024 as one of 20 global finalists. The company removes carbon through its Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) program that works with agricultural farms in Africa and India.

The 3-year-old startup accelerates the natural process of rock weathering (ERW) by applying pulverized basalt to croplands of partnered smallholder farmers, free of charge. Mati says the farmers it partners with are some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

“Winning this XPRIZE competition is an incredible honor and a definitive validation of our research and development, and building out the infrastructure needed to impact millions of farmers while delivering verifiable carbon dioxide removal at a gigaton scale,” Mati Carbon Founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal, said in a news release. “I couldn’t be prouder, not just of the Mati team, but of our collaborators, research partners and the thousands of smallholder farmers who let us be part of their lives. This XPRIZE recognition will allow us to collaborate with local partners to accelerate the use of enhanced rock weathering across the Global South.”

Mati reports that it plans to use the award to “scale its efforts working with smallholder farmers worldwide.” Apart from the XPRIZE funding, Mati plans to grow its model through the sale of CDR credits. According to the company, it counts Shopify, Stripe, and H&M among its early carbon credit buyers.

“Mati Carbon’s deployments bolster farmers’ livelihoods through improved soil health, reduced agricultural inputs, and increased income at zero cost to them. Mati Carbon’s team has developed a scientifically rigorous approach to monitoring and verification, and excelled across each of XPRIZE’s prize evaluation criteria – operational, sustainability, and cost metrics – giving the XPRIZE judges the highest confidence in Mati Carbon’s solution’s long-term scalability,” the XPRIZE judges wrote.

Houston-based Vaulted Deep took home the second-runner-up prize in the competition and $8 million for its organic waste storage process. The company provides permanent carbon storage by injecting nonhazardous organic waste deep underground. It spun off with $8 million in seed funding from Advantek Waste Management Services in 2023.

"Our approach is grounded in geomechanical injection techniques that have been safely deployed globally for decades by our team and predecessors," Omar Abou-Sayed, co-founder and executive chairman of Vaulted, said in a separate release. "XPRIZE recognized that this is a proven approach—already in use, delivering impact, and built on the kind of reliability the industry needs to scale responsibly."

Launched in 2021, the four-year XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition challenged global innovators to deploy scalable solutions for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans. More than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competed. XPRIZE finalists were required to remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO2 over a one-year demonstration period.

French company NetZero took home the first-runner-up prize of $15 million, and London-based UNDO came in as third-runner-up with a $5 million prize.

Since the announcement of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has cut climate funding for agencies, projects and research. While the Musk Foundation sponsored the XPRIZE event, it is not affiliated with the California-based organization, according to the Associated Press.

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