Meet Josué López: An Activate Success Story

Activate Updates

Aug 23

Josué López (Cohort 2020) is modeling a new kind of success story as the first Activate Fellow alum to become a venture capitalist. An MIT-trained electrical engineer and nanoscientist, López founded Kyber Photonics, a chip-scale semiconductor company building sensors for autonomy, which he led for two-and-a-half years. Now he’s enriching the innovation ecosystem in a new way, bringing his experience as a technologist, science entrepreneur, and diversity and equity leader to venture capital.

Even though a vast majority—86 percent—of Activate Fellows continue with their companies after the fellowship, that is not the measure of success for an Activate Fellow. As a fellow-first organization, Activate prioritizes investing in people—developing fellows’ knowledge, skills, and mindsets—rather than cultivating the highest-return companies.

For López, this new chapter is more of a culmination than a departure from his previous path as he deepens his roots and grows his impact in the innovation ecosystem. “It is an opportunity to hopefully work with some subset of the awesome entrepreneurs and scientists I know,” he says. Most importantly, López says, “In my new venture role, I am able to become the investor that I hoped I would interact with as a founder.”

“I hope I'll always have the founder-first mentality—I'm here for you as a fellow entrepreneur, scientist, person, but I can put on the VC hat and help you through navigating fundraising and what comes next,” he says. “It just adds another dimension—it doesn't have to completely change the relationship that I have with folks.”

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Activate Fellow companies Antora Energy (David Bierman, Cohort 2017; Justin Briggs and Andrew Ponec, Cohort 2018), Fervo Energy (Tim Latimer and Jack Norbeck, Cohort 2018), and Twelve (Etosha Cave and Kendra Kuhl, Cohort 2015) were named on Norrsken’s 2023 Impact100 list, a recognition of the world's most promising impact startups.
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During the two-year fellowship, Activate Fellows learn how to network strategically, acquire funding, commercialize products, build high-performing teams, develop as leaders, and much more.

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