Category: 3. Business

In 2013, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship Managing Director Bill Aulet published “Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup,” which has since sold hundreds of thousands of copies and been used to teach entrepreneurship at universities around the world. One MIT course where it’s used is 15.366 (Climate and Energy Ventures), where instructors have tweaked the framework over the years. In a new book, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship for Climate and Energy Ventures,” they codify those changes and provide a new blueprint for entrepreneurs working in the climate and energy spaces.

MIT News spoke with lead author and Trust Center Entrepreneur-in-Residence Ben Soltoff, who wrote the book with Aulet, Senior Lecturer Tod Hynes, Senior Lecturer Francis O’Sullivan, and Lecturer Libby Wayman. Soltoff explains why climate and energy entrepreneurship is so challenging and talks about some of the new steps in the book.

Q: What are climate and energy ventures?

A: It’s a broad umbrella. These ventures aren’t all in a specific industry or structured in the same way. They could be software, they could be hardware, or they could be deep tech coming out of labs. This book is also written for people working in government, large corporations, or nonprofits. Each of those folks can benefit from the entrepreneurial framework in this book. We very intentionally refer to them as climate and energy ventures in the book, not just climate and energy startups.

One common theme is meeting the challenge of providing enough energy for current and future needs without exacerbating, or even while reducing, the impact we have on our planet. Generally, climate and energy ventures are less likely to be only software. Many of the solutions we need are around molecules, not bits. A lot of it is breakthrough technology and science from research labs. You could be making a useful fuel, removing CO2 from the atmosphere, or delivering something in a novel way. Your venture might produce a chemical or molecule that’s already being provided and is a commodity. It needs to be not only more sustainable, but better for your customers — either cheaper, more reliable, or more securely delivered. Ultimately, all of these ventures have to provide value. They also often involve physical infrastructure that you have to scale up — not just 10 times or 100 times, but 1,000 times or more — from original lab demonstrations.

Q: How should climate and energy entrepreneurs be thinking about navigating financing and working with the government?

A: One of the major themes of the book is the importance of figuring out if policy is in your favor and constantly applying a policy lens to what you’re building. Finance is another major theme. In climate and energy, these things are fundamental, and we need to consider them from the beginning. We talk about different “valleys of death” — the idea that going from one stage to the next stage requires this jump in time and resources that presents a big challenge. That also relates to the jump in scale of the technology, from a lab scale to something you can produce and sell in a quantity and at a cost the market is interested in. All of that requires financing.

At an early stage, a lot of these ventures are funded through grants and research funding. Later, they start getting early-stage capital — often venture capital. Eventually, as folks are scaling, they move to debt and project financing. Companies need to be very intentional about the type of financing they’re going to pursue and at what stage. We have an entire step on creating a long-term capital plan. Entrepreneurs need to be very clear about the story they’re going to tell investors at different stages. Otherwise, they can paint themselves into a corner and fail to build a company for the next stage of capital they need.

In terms of policy, entrepreneurs should use the policy environment as a filter for selecting a market. We have a story in the book about a startup that switched from working in sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. after the Inflation Reduction Act passed. As those incentives began disappearing, they still had the option to return to their original market. It’s not ideal for them, but they are still able to build profitable projects. You shouldn’t build a company based on the incentives alone, but you should understand which way the wind is blowing and take advantage of policy when it’s in your favor. That said, policy can always change.

Q: How should climate and energy entrepreneurs select the right market “stepping stones”?

A: Each of the “Disciplined Entrepreneurship” books talks about the importance of selecting customers and listening to your customers. When thinking about their beachhead market, or where to initially focus, climate and energy entrepreneurs need to look for the easiest near-term opportunity to plug in their technology. Subsequent market selection is also driven by technology. Instead of just picking a beachhead market and figuring everything else out later, there often needs to be an intentional choice of what we call market stepping stones. You start by focusing on an initial market in the early days — land and expand — but there needs to be a long-term strategy, so you don’t go down a dead end. These ventures don’t have a lot of flexibility as they build out potentially expensive technologies. Being intentional means having a pathway planned from the beachhead market up to the big prize that makes the entire enterprise worthwhile. The prize means having a big impact but also targeting a big market opportunity.

We have an example in the book of a company that can turn CO₂ into useful products. They knew the big prize was turning it into fuel, most likely aviation fuel, but they couldn’t produce at the right volume or cost early on, so they looked at other applications. They started with making vodka from CO₂ because it was low-volume and high-margin. Then the pandemic happened, so they made hand sanitizer. Then they made perfume, which had the highest margins of all. By that point, they were ready to start moving into the fuel market. The stepping stones are about figuring out who is willing to buy the simple version of your technology or product and pay a premium. Initially, looking at that company, you might say, “They’re not going to save the planet by selling vodka.” But it was a critical stepping stone to get to the big prize. Long-term thinking is essential for ventures in this space.

In Fairfax County Public Schools, the district is scaling participation to reach all high school students. In Washington, DC, Amazon and PlayLab hosted a two-day immersive workshop with 60 middle and high school students from Friendship Charter Schools, where students built and tested AI-powered solutions to real challenges in their communities. Other partners are focusing on educator professional development, student innovation projects, or district-wide AI adoption strategies aligned to local priorities.

Press Releases

12/22/2025

Attorney General Tong Leads Opposition to Trump Rollbacks of PFAS Regulations

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today led a coalition of 15 attorneys general opposing the Trump Administration’s efforts to gut data reporting and recording keeping requirements for PFAS forever chemicals.

In a comment letter sent today to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, the attorneys general oppose rollbacks to PFAS reporting requirements mandated by Congress in 2019 under the Toxic Substances Control Act and promulgated by EPA in October 2023. Under the reporting requirements, manufacturers and importers of PFAS are asked to report whatever information they already know about the PFAS in their products, during a one-time reporting requirement currently scheduled to begin in April 2026. This would include information such as the identities and amounts of PFAS chemicals manufactured, any known effects on human health or the environment, and how many workers are exposed to these chemicals.

PFAS are a group of thousands of manmade chemicals that have been used in numerous consumer products since the 1940s, including clothing, non-stick cookware, food packaging, car seats and strollers, stain resistant furnishings, and floor waxes. But certain manufacturers spent decades hiding that their PFAS were toxic and contaminated human blood; state and federal regulators are still uncovering the chemicals in our everyday household items and the PFAS reporting rule is an important tool to do that.

“PFAS forever chemicals are a toxic menace to human health and our environment. Trump’s latest effort to gut PFAS regulation is an insult to the families, workers, and especially the firefighters who have been disproportionately exposed to these dangerous chemicals. We urge the EPA to abandon this proposal,” said Attorney General Tong.

If adopted, the Trump Administration proposal would shield from reporting over 98 percent of entities that are expected to have relevant, vital information about PFAS under six new carveouts that had been previously considered and rejected by EPA. The proposed new exemptions include: (1) a de minimis exemption for articles with PFAS concentrations below 0.1%; (2) an imported articles exemption; (3) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as byproducts; (4) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as impurities; (5) an exemption for PFAS manufactured as non-isolated intermediates; and (6) a research and development exemption.

Today, nearly all humans have PFAS in their blood. PFAS chemicals are toxic and can persist in the environment indefinitely. PFAS chemicals can travel through the environment, including into drinking water sources, and accumulate in human blood. Even modest releases of PFAS can cause widespread pollution and damage. EPA itself has concluded that many PFAS are known to cause severe adverse human health effects, including increased risk of kidney, breast, pancreas, prostate, and testicular cancers, liver damage, decreased birth weight and birth defects, decreased vaccine response, high cholesterol, and infertility.

TSCA requires manufacturers and processors of chemical substances to maintain records and submit to EPA reports regarding the production, importation, use, and disposal of chemical substances, as well as reports of all existing information concerning the environmental and health effects of each chemical, and information regarding individuals who have been or will be exposed to those substances. Through these mechanisms, TSCA directs EPA to ensure that chemical substances entering or already in commerce are subject to oversight commensurate with the hazards they may pose.

In 2019, Congress established specialized reporting obligations for PFAS under TSCA. Attorney General Tong supported the proposed rule ultimately adopted by EPA in 2023. Now, just two years later, EPA is seeking to gut the rule.

In their comment letter, the attorneys general urge EPA to preserve the integrity of the rule and to continue collection of PFAS data without further delay.

“If EPA adopts its proposal as a final rule, vital information about the types of PFAS used in American commerce and the risks these chemicals pose will remain hidden away, needlessly undermining States trying to protect human health and the environment and undermining EPA’s mandate under TSCA to evaluate and minimize chemical risks, in violation of the APA,” the attorneys general write.

Attorney General Tong has two pending lawsuits against 28 chemical manufacturers responsible for knowingly contaminating Connecticut waters and natural resources and harming public health with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals.” The complaints seek both injunctive and monetary relief—compelling the companies to dispose of their toxic chemical stocks, abate all pollution in Connecticut, disclose all research, and to compensate the state for past and future remediation and testing expenses. The complaints seek tens of thousands of dollars per day in penalties for widespread violations of numerous state laws dating back decades.

The attorneys general of California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin joined today’s comments, led by Attorney General Tong and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Assistant Attorney General Christopher Kelly and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine, Chief of the Environment Section assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

Consumer Inquiries:

860-808-5318
attorney.general@ct.gov

Press Releases

12/22/2025

Attorney General Tong Leads Nearly $150 Million Multistate Settlement with Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler AG Over Emissions Fraud

Connecticut to receive $4,989,276

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today led a coalition of 50 attorneys general announcing a $149,673,750 settlement with Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler AG for violating state laws prohibiting unfair or deceptive trade practices by marketing, selling and leasing vehicles equipped with undisclosed emissions defeat devices that illegally circumvented Connecticut’s strong emissions standards. The settlement also includes more than $200 million in potential consumer relief.

“Mercedes-Benz and Daimler hid devices inside their vehicles to cheat emissions tests, knowingly pumping out toxic emissions far exceeding legal limits. Their deception hurt their customers and harmed air quality for all Americans, and we’re holding them accountable. This settlement, as with others previously reached with Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler, sends millions of dollars back to states as well as comprehensive relief for consumers who purchased these defective vehicles. Connecticut led the nationwide coalition reaching today’s settlement and will continue to lead in protecting consumers from bad actors who defraud and deceive the American people,” said Attorney General Tong.

“Consumers deserve to know exactly what they are purchasing, and they should be able to reasonably assume that any new car they buy is in compliance with all laws and regulations,” said Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli. “This deception was unfair to consumers and a clear violation of public trust. Thank you to the Attorney General’s office for their work to hold companies accountable for their advertising and marketing practices.”

Beginning in 2008 and continuing to 2016, the states allege Mercedes manufactured, marketed, advertised, and distributed nationwide more than 211,000 diesel passenger cars and vans equipped with software defeat devices that optimized emission controls during emissions tests, while reducing those controls outside of normal operations. The defeat devices enabled vehicles to exceed legal limits of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, a harmful pollutant that causes respiratory illness and contributes to the formation of smog. Mercedes engaged in this conduct to achieve design and performance goals, such as increased fuel efficiency and reduced maintenance, that it was unable to meet while complying with applicable emission standards. Mercedes concealed the existence of these defeat devices from state and federal regulators and the public. At the same time, Mercedes marketed the vehicles to consumers as “environmentally-friendly” and in compliance with applicable emissions regulations.

Today’s settlement requires Mercedes-Benz USA and Daimler AG to pay $120 million to the states upon the effective date of the settlement. An additional $29,673,750 will be suspended and potentially waived pending completion of a comprehensive consumer relief program.

Connecticut will receive $4,989,276 through today’s settlement. It is estimated that there are 3,181 impacted vehicles registered in Connecticut.

The consumer relief program extends to the estimated 39,565 vehicles that had not been repaired or permanently removed from the road in the United States by August 1, 2023. Mercedes must bear the cost of installing approved emission modification software on each of the affected vehicles. The companies must provide participating consumers with an extended warranty and will pay consumers $2,000 per subject vehicle.

The companies must also comply with reporting requirements, reform their practices, and refrain from including a prohibition on any further unfair or deceptive marketing or sale of diesel vehicles, including misrepresentations regarding emissions and compliance.

Today’s settlement follows similar settlements reached previously between the states and Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler and German engineering company Robert Bosch GmbH over its development of the cheat software. Automaker Fiat Chrysler and its subsidiaries paid $72.5 million to the states in 2019. Bosch paid $98.7 million in 2019. Volkswagen reached a $570 million settlement with the states in 2016.

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland led the multistate investigation and settlement, and were assisted by Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Texas. The final settlement was also joined by Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico.

Assistant Attorneys General Brendan Flynn, Scott Koschwitz, and Rebecca Quinn and Deputy Associate Attorney General Michael Wertheimer, Chief of the Consumer Protection Section and Deputy Associate Attorney General Matthew Levine, Chief of the Environment Section assisted the Attorney General in this matter.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

Facebook: CT Attorney General

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov

Consumer Inquiries:

860-808-5318
attorney.general@ct.gov

•      New system successfully transforms simple carbon molecules into acetyl-CoA
•      A building block of life, acetyl-CoA can be used to make a variety of materials
•      To build the system, scientists screened 66 enzymes and 3,000 enzyme variants
•      Enzyme screening and system use molecular machinery outside of living cells

EVANSTON, Ill. — In a breakthrough that defies nature, Northwestern University and Stanford University synthetic biologists have created a new artificial metabolism that transforms waste carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful biological building blocks.

In the new study, the team engineered a biological system that can convert formate — a simple liquid molecule easily made from CO2 — into acetyl-CoA, a universal metabolite used by all living cells. As a proof of concept, the engineers then used the same system to convert acetyl-CoA into malate, a commercially valuable chemical used in foods, cosmetics and biodegradable plastics.

Unlike natural metabolic routes, the new system is entirely synthetic and operates outside of living cells. The engineers built the system, called the Reductive Formate Pathway (ReForm), from engineered enzymes that performed metabolic reactions never before seen in nature.

The work marks a major advance for synthetic biology and carbon recycling, opening the door for developing sustainable, carbon-neutral fuels and materials.

The study was published today (Dec. 22) in the journal Nature Chemical Engineering.

“The unabated release of CO2 has caused many pressing social and economic challenges for humanity,” said Northwestern’s Ashty Karim, who co-led the study. “If we’re going to address this global challenge, we critically need new routes to carbon-negative manufacturing of goods. While nature has evolved several pathways to metabolize CO2, it is unable to keep up with the rapid increase in the amount of atmospheric CO2. Inspired by nature, we sought to use biological enzymes to convert formate derived from CO2 into more valuable materials. Because there isn’t a set of enzymes in nature that can do that, we decided to engineer one.”

“ReForm can readily use diverse carbon sources, including formate, formaldehyde and methanol,” said Stanford’s Michael Jewett, who co-led the study with Karim. “This is the first demonstration of a synthetic metabolic pathway architecture that can do so. By combining electrochemistry and synthetic biology, the ReForm pathway also expands possible solutions for generalizable CO2-fixation strategies. We anticipate that hybrid technologies that integrate the best of chemistry and the best of biology will provide transformative new directions for a carbon- and energy-efficient future.”

An expert in synthetic biology and biotechnology, Karim is an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and a member of the Center for Synthetic Biology (CSB). Jewett is an adjunct professor at Northwestern, founding co-director of CSB and a professor of bioengineering at Stanford.

Looking beyond nature

As researchers search for solutions to help fight the ever-warming atmosphere, many have sought to upcycle captured CO2 into valuable chemicals. Because it’s easy to make from electricity and water, formate has emerged as a promising starting point. Then, biological systems could perform the work needed to convert formate into useful materials.

But, unfortunately, living cells struggle to use formate efficiently. Only a few rare microbes can digest formate naturally, and those microbes are difficult to engineer for large-scale production.

“Cells naturally use metabolic reactions to convert one chemical into another,” Karim said. “For example, cells can take glucose, or sugar, and convert it into energy. But, in nature, nothing can turn formate into acetyl-CoA. There are some enzymes that can act on formate, but they cannot build it up into something useful. So, we started with a theoretical pathway design and the need for enzymes with functionalities that did not exist in nature.”

Testing thousands of enzymes per week

Before building the metabolic pathway, the research team needed enzymes that could perform these non-natural reactions. To rapidly express and test large numbers of enzyme variants, the team turned to cell-free synthetic biology. In this approach, scientists essentially remove a cell’s wall, collect its molecular machinery (enzymes, cofactors and small molecules) and put it all into a test tube. Scientists then can use this machinery — outside of a living organism — to make a product in a safe, inexpensive and rapid manner.

“It’s like opening the hood of a car and removing the engine,” Jewett said. “Then, we can use that ‘engine’ for different purposes, free from the constraints of the car.”

Using a cell-free system enabled the team to rapidly screen 66 enzymes and more than 3,000 enzyme variants to find the ones that worked best. This process was much faster and more flexible than using live cells, which would have been slow and laborious.

“Typically, people will test a handful of enzymes, and that takes months or more,” Karim said. “The cell-free environment enabled us to test thousands per week.”

How it works

With this process, the researchers engineered five distinct enzymes. The final pathway design comprises six total reaction steps, in which each enzyme performs one step. Together, the series of reactions successfully transformed formate into acetyl-CoA.

Much like the enzyme testing, the entire system is run outside of living cells. That means the team could precisely control enzyme concentrations, cofactors and conditions — something that’s nearly impossible to accomplish inside a living organism.

After establishing the system, Karim, Jewett and their teams used ReForm to convert acetyl-CoA into malate. The team also demonstrated ReForm can accept other carbon-based inputs, including formaldehyde and methanol.

“From here, we can imagine this work going in a couple different directions,” Karim said. “We would like to further optimize this pathway and explore other designs to make one-carbon conversions more efficient. We also can imagine using the tools that we developed to engineer all kinds of other new enzymes and pathways. It gives us hope for a future where we can combine multiple technologies, both biological and abiological, in unique ways to find new solutions.”

The study, “A synthetic cell-free pathway for biocatalytic upgrading of formate from electrochemically reduced carbon dioxide,” was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (award number DE-SC0023278) and the National Science Foundation.

In the welcome area, a digital “History Wall” enhances the introduction to the brand’s rich heritage. Vitrines showcasing models of all watch families, as well as curated historic pocket watches, emphasise Lange’s craftsmanship. The manufacture’s visual identity unfolds in stately black and grey tones, offset by soft white walls, textured finishes, and plush furnishings. The spatial layout organically guides customers through the reception and consultation areas. Meanwhile, a discreet bar behind the sales counter offers a private space where customers can try on timepieces in comfort.

A sweeping staircase leads to the upper floor, where the boutique transitions into a luxurious private area. This space comprises two sales salons, a lounge, a presentation and theatre section, as well as an exclusive watchmaking experience corner. Surrounded by elegant bookcases, objets d’art, and rare timepieces, the upper level is designed to inspire conversation and discovery.

“We are delighted to welcome watch enthusiasts to our new flagship boutique at ION Orchard. This location not only represents a milestone in our retail journey, but also beautifully articulates our motto “never stand still”. At A. Lange & Söhne, we are constantly innovating– both through our watches, as well as with the experiences that we offer – for watch lovers and Lange enthusiasts here in Singapore and across the region,” says Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of A. Lange & Söhne.