Biofuels 2.0: Sustainable Startups – from Garage to Gargantuan | VLAB, California
February 16th, 2010 (6pm - 8.30pm)
Arbuckle Lounge and Bishop Auditorium at Stanford Business School
Palo Alto, California, USA
Topic: Energy, Renewables, Biomass
Event Type: Networking/Meetup
Tags: AE Biofuels, BayBIO, Biofuels, BioFuels Digest, environmental impacts, Eric McAfee, Jack Oswald, Jim Lane, sustainability, SynGest
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Biofuels 1.0 focused on using traditional techniques to derive ethanol from food crops. While many companies saw initial success, increases in the cost of food combined with falling oil prices sent ripples through the entire biofuels industry. A new generation of startups, Biofuels 2.0, is once again tackling the opportunity in liquid fuels. Some innovative technologies also offer alternatives to the use of fossil fuels for plastics, fertilizers, and commercial chemicals — creating additional ways to leverage investments and diversify markets.
Armed with lessons learned, new business models, advancements in biotechnology, and an evolved understanding of how to minimize and control social and environmental impacts—all eyes are set on claiming a substantial portion of the global $3 trillion+ petroleum-based fuels market.
A panel of industry leaders, including early-stage biofuel CEOs, will discuss whether biofuels 2.0 can really provide sustainably better solutions, and how a new generation of companies are going from Garage to Gargantuan.
- Sustainability of business models, scaleability, and environmental impacts
- Opportunities for small, bootstrap startups in the biofuels value chain
- How failures in biofuels 1.0 are creating new opportunities in 2.0
- Counterpoint: The dark side of the revolution
- How to know if a company is sustainable
- Exit strategies and cheap oil: What models are most viable? What do VCs think about Biofuels 2.0?
- Industry partnerships: How best to use them to scale
- Informatics and genomics: Exponential drivers for development
This event is co-sponsored by BayBIO.org, the voice of the Bay Area biotechnology community, and CleanTech.org, the preeminent local investment community focused on game-changing technologies.
Cost
$15-$40
Organizer(s): MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB)
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