The Sherpa & Sandbox: Navigating the Realities of Energy Scale-Up (In-Person)
If your only customer is "humanity," you don't have a business. And if you’re working with a global energy incumbent, you need more than great tech.
On the next SOSV Deep Tech LIVE, we’re talking about how industrial systems actually work. This is the practical, behind-the-scenes path from promising science to full-scale deployment.
Dr. Susan Schofer (SOSV HAX) will be joined by Dr. Barbara Burger, widely known as the “Godmother of Energy Investing.” With a Caltech PhD, a Berkeley MBA, and as a “graduate” of Chevron (finishing as VP, Innovation and President, Chevron Technology Ventures), Dr. Burger has spent decades acting as an "Industrial Sherpa” - a guide who helps breakthrough science survive the realities of industrial scale. She now advises and sits on boards including Bloom Energy, Energy Impact Partners, and Syzygy Plasmonics.
Together, they’ll pull apart what it actually takes to graduate from the lab bench to commercial operation:
The Sandbox Protocol: How to Test Tech Inside an Incumbent’s Environment Without Breaking the System. Learn real industrial operational constraints, how to prove reliability under these conditions, and how to work inside infrastructure that cannot fail.
The Sherpa Mindset: The Guide You Need (or Need to Become) To Navigate The Corporate World. From translating between startup speed and industrial systems, to understanding system-wide tradeoffs (grid stability, true cost of renewables, regulatory nuance), to staying grounded when valuations race ahead of deployment timelines, learn how to avoid the pitfalls that kill most scale-up attempts.
This conversation is for founders building in energy, VCs evaluating industrial-scale tech, and anyone who wants a clear-eyed view of how real deployment happens.
Date: February 26 Time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM ET
Seats are limited. Register early to save your spot!
This is an in-person event. Location will be shared after you register and are approved.