AI-Driven Discovery: 1 Trillion Materials for Low-Carbon Fuels & Chemicals — Jeff Erhardt, CEO of Mattiq

Jeff Erhardt shares how Mattiq is harnessing AI and electrochemistry to screen one trillion materials, accelerate cleaner fuels and chemicals, and scale breakthroughs through joint ventures with major energy and chemical players.

⭐ My guest today is Jeff Erhardt, CEO of Mattiq.

Mattiq is a materials discovery startup delivering innovative electrochemical solutions to decarbonize the fundamental building blocks that power the world. By 2024, they plan to have screened one trillion materials for deployment in real-world systems, such as cleaner fuels and chemicals.

In addition, Jeff is the former…

- Executive Vice President of Intelligent Systems & Industrial AI at GE

- CEO of Wise.io

- COO of Revolution Analytics

- Creator of two sabbaticals, the last one lasting two years

🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:

- How they are commercializing the work of a leading scientist at Northwestern University, Chad Mirkin

- Their focus on minimizing and mimicking larger systems in order to speed up novel chemistry discoveries with real-world applications

- Why culture eats strategy, and how startups need to hire fast and fire fast

- What it means to include AI and machine learning in their processes

- Similarities between their work and genomics and synthetic biology

- Their business model of going to market with big chemical and energy partners via joint development agreements that allow for some cash up front, plus revenue or profit sharing down the road

- Recommended books from his two-year sabbatical

- Why you can’t be a good executive unless you understand history

- And lots more

🙏 Hope you enjoy it!

📣 And give Jeff and Mattiq a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

---

👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.

---

🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.

Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.