In Houston, working in the lab isn't enough. A technology has to work in the field, and an operator has to agree to let you try it there.
During Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week (September 14–18), Activate Fellows showed up at every point on that path. Eight scientist-founders stepped onto the stage for the first time as Activate Fellows. Seven more returned a year into their fellowship. And two Activate Fellow alumni won pilot awards judged by leaders from Shell, NRG Energy, and Baker Hughes.
The community-organized week brought global energy startups, investors, and champions together around Houston's defining challenge: meeting growing energy demand while cutting emissions. Activate partnered with Greentown Labs, Halliburton Labs, Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Ion District powered by Rice University, New Climate Ventures, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, and TEX-E to power the week.
At Meet the Cohort, an anchor event for the week, Houston's community met Cohort 2026 for the first time:
Every one of these fellows faces the same hard first step: leaving the lab without a salary, a customer, or a playbook. That's the stage where Activate steps in. With 24 months of funding, training, mentorship, and community, Activate catalyzes the transition from scientist to entrepreneur.
Guests also caught up with Cohort 2025, now a year into the fellowship and pushing their technologies toward the field:
Midweek, at Greentown Labs’ Houston Climatetech Summit, the room saw how far that path can go. Jeremy Pitts, managing director of Activate Houston, introduced Activate Fellow alum Tim Latimer (Fervo Energy, Cohort 2018) for a fireside chat with David Baldwin, co-founder and executive director of OpenMinds and partner at SCF Partners.
On stage, Latimer focused on what comes after the breakthrough. Faster drilling is making geothermal power cheaper, cleaner, and available around the clock, and Fervo’s 500-megawatt deal with Google shows it can compete today. Scaling it, he said, takes learning from setbacks, the right team and partners, community trust from day one, and a new workforce, all drawing on decades of Houston’s oil and gas expertise.
Latimer was once where Cohort 2026 is now: a scientist with a promising idea but no clear playbook yet.
Across town, Energytech Cypher's 2026 Pilotathon put 16 pilot-ready startups in front of judges from Shell, NRG Energy, Baker Hughes, Aramco Ventures, and other industry and investment leaders. The judges scored each pilot on its technical foundation, objectives, and commercial relevance.
Two Activate Fellow alumni came out on top. Oleo (Kelly Redmond, Cohort 2024) won the Industrial Decarbonization category. Oleo turns local biomass waste into carbon-negative oil feedstocks for renewable fuel producers. Sunchem (Daniel Sun, Cohort 2022) shared the Critical Minerals and Resource Security prize. Sunchem uses nanotechnology to pull critical metals from waste and wastewater.
In Houston, a pilot award isn't just a trophy. It's a signal to the industry that a technology is ready for the field.
In one week, Houston saw the full journey. Fellows took the stage for the first time, pushed through the hard middle, and showed what’s possible when new technology redefines how an industry operates. Activate's role is to help more scientists make that trip, and to keep more breakthroughs from stalling along the way.
Thank you to Goodwin Law and Berkner Group for sponsoring Meet the Cohort.
If you're a scientist or engineer with a breakthrough ready to leave the lab, applications to become an Activate Fellow in Cohort 2027 are open through October 30. Over the two-year fellowship, Activate Fellows receive funding, entrepreneurial training, mentorship, and a lifelong community, and Activate takes no equity.