Ep 58: Founder & CEO, Titan Advanced Energy Solutions

Today’s guest is Shawn Murphy, Founder & CEO of Titan Advanced Energy Solutions.

Titan is an advanced battery management system technology company, which is revolutionizing the renewable space by lowering the cost of lithium ion batteries by at least 30 to 40%, and doubling their expected life.

Titan's technology uses ultrasound to measure and determine the state of health, and state of charge real time and is about 100 times better than the current state of the art. This technology will eventually be implemented in electric vehicles, stationary storage and consumer electronics. Previously, Shawn was the founder and CEO of multiple successful startups, the former head of Space Science and Technology for Draper Labs, and was also the founder and former director of Shell's innovation center called Shell Tech Works.

We have a wide ranging discussion in this episode, including Titan, where it fits in the broader battery landscape, how the battery landscape fits in terms of the grid, and the rise of things like solar and wind, and also how to think about all this in the context of climate change. We then come back around to have a great discussion on the proper sources of capital for this type of innovation, the role of startups versus incumbents, and of course, the underlying motivators that make Shawn get out of bed every day and give him purpose in his work.

In today’s episode, we cover:

Overview of Titan Advanced Energy Solutions Shawn’s background leading up to starting the company, including at Draper Labs, Shell, and several startups Titan founding story, long vision, traction to date, and next steps How Titan’s product fits into broader climate fight, and what success looks like at scale What else can be high impact in climate fight Shawn’s advice for how you and I can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

Titan’s website: https://www.titanaes.com/ Greentown Labs: https://www.greentownlabs.com/ Shell TechWorks: https://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/innovating-together/shell-techworks.html Second-life EV batteries: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/second-life-ev-batteries-the-newest-value-pool-in-energy-storage MassCEC: https://www.masscec.com/ Energy Innovation Capital: http://energyinnovationcapital.com/ Schneider Electric: https://www.se.com/us/en/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!