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Science. Innovation. Impact.

Stories of science shaping our future.

The Idea Lab

Our Activate Blog and News Hub

Activate Fellows on Hiring, Company Culture, and Open Roles

Activate helps scientists develop as leaders, mature their ideas, and learn what it takes to build a viable, scalable business. AeroShield co-founders Kyle Wilke and Elise..

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From Zero to One to Many: How Richard Wang Built the Cuberg Team

Science Innovation X Job Creation Check out our July hiring features: Activate Fellows on Hiring Richard Wang's Hiring Tips Activate's Job Board After earning her Ph.D. in..

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Richard Wang’s Tips for Effective Startup Hiring

Science Innovation X Job Creation Check out our July hiring features: Cuberg: Zero to One to Many Activate Fellows on Hiring Activate's Job Board When he launched Cuberg in 2015,..

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Welcome, Cohort 2021

We are excited and proud to introduce Cohort 2021. These 23 scientists are launching what promise to be hugely consequential businesses, across key industries and markets, that..

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Values, Focus, Fresh Ideas: Advice for Founders from Matt Rogers

Incite.org founder and Activate board member Matt Rogers is a builder at heart. He started at Apple, where he was one of the first engineers on the original iPhone and played key..

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Learning to Lead: A Fellow Shares ‘Wisdom from the Future’ with Her Younger Self

Editor's note: Leadership is a perennial topic of discussion among Activate Fellows, and we weave it through our fellowship curriculum. In the process of making critical business..

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Tom Boussie Set 50 Founders—and Our Fellowship—On a Path Toward Success

Managing director Tom Boussie joined Activate right alongside Cohort 2018. His first day on the job coincided with the cohort’s orientation retreat in Santa Cruz. In that relaxed..

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Climate Reflections from the Activate Community

Activate was founded by entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors who believe science has an outsized role to play in addressing climate change, the defining challenge of our time...

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Questions Entrepreneurs Should Ask If They Want to Cut Industrial Emissions

By Cody Finke, Ph.D., CEO, Brimstone Energy Industrial processes—that is to say, the steps that go into making stuff—account for around 32 percent of global greenhouse gas..

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Why Decarbonizing Industry Can’t Wait

Photo: Jung Getty A year ago, global carbon emissions were in a steep decline as pandemic-related shutdowns gummed up the wheels of commerce. After ticking back up as lockdowns..

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Cohort 2016 Fellow Richard Wang Sells Cuberg to Swedish Battery Manufacturer Northvolt

Richard Wang When Fellow Richard Wang joined the Activate Fellowship, he was on a mission to turn his graduate research into a new type of battery that would advance..

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Sea Change: Activate Fellows and the Blue Economy

Photo: Nora Carol Photography Any discussion about climate change is a discussion about our oceans and vice-versa. Oceans are at once the victim of our consumption patterns and..

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