Startup Series: Distributed Hydrogen with Fourier

Jul 31, 2024

Siva Yellamraju, Co-founder and CEO of Fourier, has a notable entrepreneurial history, with previous ventures sold to major companies like Apple and Google. He discusses his pivot from software to tackling climate challenges, focusing on making hydrogen accessible. Siva explores customer pain points, highlighting innovative applications for distributed hydrogen—especially in power backup for data centers. He emphasizes the efficiency of hydrogen over batteries for long-term energy storage, alongside the growing demand for green hydrogen in businesses.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

A Journey Through Tech Innovations

02:34 • 2min

From Tech to Climate: A Journey into Energy Innovation

04:05 • 3min

Navigating the Hydrogen Energy Landscape

07:12 • 11min

Innovative Hydrogen Generation Deployment and Financing Models

18:02 • 3min

Harnessing On-Site Hydrogen Solutions

21:26 • 14min

Innovations in Hydrogen Technology

35:21 • 10min

Navigating Fundraising and Team Growth in Clean Energy Innovation

45:14 • 2min

Siva Yellamraju is the Co-founder and CEO at Fourier.

Fourier's mission is to make hydrogen universally accessible with on-site and on-demand production. Fourier is not Siva's first startup, it's his fourth. He sold his last company to Apple the one before that to Google and the one before that to Polycom, so he knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship.

Fourier is barely two years old and they raised a seed round in mid-April led by General Catalyst. They've largely operated in stealth. In fact, there's nothing on their website at fourier.earth other than their thesis statement for starting the company, so we were excited to learn from Siva about why he transitioned from a very successful entrepreneurial career in software to tackle a business in the energy sector. We were also eager to learn specifically about what Siva’'s building in distributed hydrogen and what he's learned from the process thus far.

In this episode, we cover:

[2:01] Siva’s entrepreneurial background
[4:46] His decision to work on climate and energy
[7:35] Customer pain point understanding
[12:44] Potential use cases for distributed hydrogen, including power backup solutions and data centers
[15:04] Approaching hydrogen production as a data problem
[21:47] Customers working with Fourier as part of a broader movement around clean energy
[24:01] Potential use cases for distributed hydrogen, including power backup solutions and data centers
[27:14] Advantages of hydrogen over batteries for long-term storage and heavy transportation
[33:20] Geographic markets for hydrogen deployment; the US, Germany, India, and Indonesia
[35:33] Fourier's success to date and plans for commercial rollout
[37:12] The goals for Fourier's pilots in the US and India
[40:16] Siva's learning curves in building an energy company
[42:29] Potential for India to become a leader in hydrogen
[44:21] The name behind Fourier
[45:34] Fourier's current capital and hiring needs

Episode recorded on July 25, 2024 (Published on Aug 1, 2024)

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant