Turnover Labs, an early-stage climate tech company building solutions for the chemicals industry. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Turnover Labs founder and CEO Dr. Marissa Beatty to learn more about the company.
Dr. Beatty’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Dr. Beatty said:
“Sure! I’ve worked in Electrochemistry for the last 10 years – I started by getting my bachelors at Michigan State University (go green!) and then did my Masters & PhD at Columbia University. During that time I got to work at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, probing some of the fundamental behaviors of this technology that we’ve now built a company around.”
Formation Of Turnover Labs
How did the idea for the company come together? Dr. Beatty shared:
“I fell in love with this technology during my PhD and wanted to continue working with it. It has a massive potential, and the best way to get it into industry hands is to do it yourself. It’s been challenging to transition from an academic to an entrepreneur, but getting recognition from organizations such as Forbes 30 under 30, the Activate Fellowship, and CleanTech Open has been incredibly rewarding.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dr. Beatty explained:
“Turnover is developing next-gen ultra-durable electrolyzers for the chemicals industry. Our systems can transform dirty CO2 emissions into valuable chemicals, such as those used in making plastics, solvents, fuels, and more. We’re directly integrating into existing facilities, enabling them to turn their waste streams into revenue streams.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your work sector recently? Dr. Beatty acknowledged:
“Big time! This is a very conservative and risk averse industry, so it hasn’t been easy to introduce new technological solutions to existing problems. But by framing it from a purely economic standpoint, as well as gathering information on what downstream customers are interested in, we’ve had success in working with industry incumbents.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Dr. Beatty about customer success stories, she highlighted:
“Our solution is currently in R&D – collaborating closely with our target customers. We’re getting real data and emissions samples from industry partners, which is allowing us to test our product in real-life environments.”
Funding
Could you share more about your latest (and total funding) announcements? Dr. Beatty revealed:
“Turnover Labs had their preseed round co-led by Pace Ventures and GC Ventures for $1.4 million.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dr. Beatty assessed:
“We target the petrochemicals industry, which is massive in both market size ($425 billion) and in carbon impact (around 8 billion tons of CO2). In that industry, we’re looking to make the basic feedstocks for many products such as plastics, solvents, fuels, and more. By making chemicals on-site from waste streams, we can increase revenue while decreasing emissions.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dr. Beatty affirmed:
“When it comes to sustainable chemistry, our fundamental approach is to leverage existing infrastructure rather than building something from scratch. This means we work directly with industry incumbents, which definitely has its own challenges, but has the advantage of immediate access to enormous scale. Instead of having to build an entire facility or pipeline from the ground up – we can build directly for existing needs. This industrial focus has revealed the importance of system durability, which is the primary metric we aim to optimize.”
“We’re doing on-site deployment of our technology, because our systems are durable and adaptive to multiple needs of different facilities. On-site deployment greatly reduces the cost of transmission or storage of emissions, which makes our product easy to integrate for companies looking to reduce their carbon footprint without breaking the bank.”
“Lastly, our economic models are intentionally agnostic to government subsidies. They’re a boon if and when we can utilize them, but we aim to provide value to companies regardless of the political or economic context. For instance, by producing chemicals on-site, we decouple from transportation costs, which can be incredibly volatile. With more stable pricing, customers can more confidently forecast future costs, and operate with higher margin.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Dr. Beatty pointed out:
“Our value proposition comes from our system durability – so for the next 6 months we’re running our technology through the gauntlet of different real life emissions samples to get durability as high as possible. Next, we’ll run a pilot in a number of customer facilities, and gather data to refine our approach. Since each industrial facility is unique, our endgame is to create a fully adaptable system, with a well-lit path for integration, that lowers the cost-of-entry to this technology, while maximizing economic efficiency and output.”
Experience As A Female Founder
What is your experience as a female founder? Do you have any advice for other female founders out there? Dr. Beatty concluded:
“Coming from engineering I’m well acquainted with being the only woman in the room – but combined with being a first-time founder coming from academia, it’s easy for Imposter Syndrome to creep in. My advice is to find people that share experiences and support your goals, and lean on them as a support system. Being able to find that your experience is valid is so reassuring, which can keep you going when times get hard, or when self-doubt rears its head.”
