#18: Trevor Best - Syzygy Plasmonics

<p>Trevor Best is the CEO and Co-Founder of Syzygy Plasmonics, a startup pioneering a new type of chemical reactor driven by light rather than heat, enabling the potential for dramatically more efficient chemical manufacturing. Trevor and his co-founder, Dr. Suman Khatiwada, commercialized this novel photochemical tech out of Rice University. Trevor covers how he and Suman gained experience evaluating R&amp;D while workign together at Baker Hughes, the methodology they developed to assess new technologies he calls TMI - technology / market / impact - and how to poke holes and find the big hairy problem that's going to kill your business. He covers everything from the very beginning - how they started reading journal publications looking for interesting technologies to commercialize, through their engagement with the inventors at Rice and their process in negotiating a license with the tech transfer office (TTO). Trevor goes into his past startups and why the failed and lessons learned. This convo is rife with good advice for grad-students and entrepreneurs looking to commercialize and I found it personally inspiring. With the right work ethic and the will/stamina to see things through, getting an impactful deeptech invention out of the lab and commercialized is achievable. Enjoy!&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>More about Trevor</strong></p> <p>At Syzygy, Trevor has successfully raised three funding rounds. He is currently focusing on bringing Syzygy’s revolutionary photochemical technology to market. Before starting Syzygy, he worked for Baker Hughes. &nbsp;There he steadily progressed into management, where he gained expertise in quality assurance (Six Sigma Black Belt), regulatory compliance, technology development management, project and personnel management, supply chain management, internal/external communications, and business process architecture.</p> <p>Connect with Trevor on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorwbest/">LinkedIn</a>.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>More about Syzygy</strong></p> <p>Developed at Rice Uni