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Ashish has been through more accelerator programs than most. As he is building his second venture in a foreign country, he shares his insights on what it takes to make a venture in a mature market within one of the “oldest industries in the world”: the construction business. However, we dwell on discussing that they are within the energy industry! Listen in to find out why!
Here’s a link to the YouTube video. The NotebookLM briefing dock and outline are below.
Briefing Doc: Interview with Ashish Mohita, CTO & Co-founder of Hyperion Robotics
Source: Transcript of an interview with Ashish Mohita on entrepreneurship and leadership conducted on November 6th, 2024.
Main Themes:
Entrepreneurial Journey: Ashish Mohita, an architect by background, shares his journey from art and academia to becoming a serial entrepreneur in Finland. He emphasizes the importance of passion, dedication, and shared vision within a team.
Challenges of Foreign Entrepreneurship: Mohita discusses the unique challenges of starting a company in a foreign country, particularly the added risk and lack of a safety net. He highlights the Finnish startup ecosystem as supportive but underscores the pressure due to strict visa regulations.
Hyperion Robotics and the Construction Industry: The interview explores Hyperion Robotics' focus on 3D-printing optimized concrete structures for infrastructure. Mohita explains the company's competitive advantage regarding carbon footprint reduction compared to traditional and carbon capture-based methods.
Business Challenges and Trust Building: Mohite acknowledges the construction industry's inherent conservatism and the challenges of gaining trust in new technologies. He emphasizes the importance of proving the effectiveness and reliability of Hyperion's solutions through successful projects.
Key Ideas/Facts:
Shared Vision and Passion: "The team and the vision- that sort of team has to share the vision right, so that is something very important, and the team also needs to have the same passion as you have."
Risk in Foreign Entrepreneurship: "So for us, the risk is even higher because there is no safety net, right? You start a company. If it's unsuccessful, you're just out of the country."
Importance of Community Building: "And then you create your own bubble, which in the end is like it's your own tribe, right? Your own tribe. So our tribe is the entrepreneur's tribe, so we are in this tribe, and this is our bubble."
Hyperion's Carbon Advantage: "What we do actually, we can reduce the CO2 by 50%, three times more. So we can, what we create, the structures, in the end, use less CO2 than if those structures were built with materials provided by a pebble or carbon cure."
Construction Industry Conservatism: "Construction is a very age-old industry which I think every new company who is making new materials or new technology is facing similar challenges because everybody who works in the industry is used to do it in a particular way."
Trust Building through Projects: "We have delivered now six projects this year. So that trust building is happening slowly, slowly. And then those smaller projects will become bigger projects, and bigger projects will become much larger ones."
Quotes:
On passion: "If you're not passionate about what you do then you're not you're in the wrong game."
On building a home in a foreign country: "After not being living in India for a long time, you're not Indian anymore. But living in another country, you will never be of that country in any way. So we are people who don't feel at home."
On the value of accelerator programs: "It's information on steroids, right? So you first of all have uh, let's say 10 12 different companies and then multiply that by two or three people who are into a similar journey of entrepreneurship starting at a similar point in life."
On the construction industry's need for automation: "Construction is also the least automated industry in the world, right, so every industry in the world in the last 50 years or 100 years since industrialization has become automated and has become less dependent on labor."
On competing on price: "Whatever solution we provide in the end has to be price competitive. It cannot be a price premium. This is at least our understanding that it cannot be a price premium to compete."
On building trust: "You need to be damn sure that it works, right? You know, a piece of technology, like if this stops working, it's not going to... The lives are not at stake the same way."
Actionable Insights:
Hyperion Robotics is leveraging 3D printing technology to create sustainable, cost-effective infrastructure solutions.
The company faces the challenge of gaining trust within the conservative construction industry.
Hyperion's success hinges on proving the long-term reliability and cost-effectiveness of their 3D printed structures.
Mohite's insights are valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those operating in foreign markets or disruptive industries.
Reflection notes
The following notes are not included in the recording. They have added reflections to the content discussed and some after-thoughts we covered with the guests after the recording.
A foreigner as an entrepreneur in Finland
Ashish has a unique take on entrepreneurship as a foreigner in Finland. As he explained, there is “no safety net,” which is a discussion I don’t personally feel is highlighted by the Startup Ministers, Timo & Jyri (Superstar VC investors in Finland), who have been highlighted multiple times here on Just Thoughts.
Quite coincidently, they discuss Finland's way to a brighter economic feature with Björn “Nalle” Wahlroos, an old-school business tycoon, arguing that it’s easier to invest in construction than in startups. Nalle is not saying they are mutually exclusive, but both are needed, and the ministers are saying they agree to the vision. If they seem misaligned, they are just talking about the same thing from a different angle.
So here we have Ashish and Hyperion Robotics, with 7M€ in secured European public funding, looking for another round, with 4,5M€ in public instruments to be matched by a private investor. In the construction industry…. that offers carbon-efficient solutions… it’s hard to operate because there are trust issues in the industry.
This particular investment opportunity sits at the intersection of the discussion Nalle & the ministers are having. It unites both the old and the new, and the efforts are led by someone trying to make Finland a home for himself and others like him. Can we please help Hyperion help the EU rebuild itself? At the very least, can we trust them and help them continue to innovate?
What market is Hyperion in, and how big is it?
While further digging into the perplexity search discussed in the podcast, it keeps referencing a number for the total global construction market: 687.2 Billion. NotebookLM gives a different insightful statement. It seems to be better at picking up context from the given input than perplexity;
Based on your podcast transcript, the best reference point for market sizing your startup would be the precast concrete market for infrastructure, specifically within the energy sector.
Here's why:
The company featured in the podcast, Hyperion Robotics, focuses on this market. They use 3D printing to create optimized concrete structures and elements for infrastructure projects, particularly in the energy industry1.
The energy infrastructure market is experiencing significant growth due to the global energy transition. Germany alone plans to invest €100 billion in energy infrastructure over the next decade. This growth translates into a substantial need for concrete foundations for energy towers, cables, and plants, benefiting companies like Hyperion Robotics.
Focusing on a niche market like precast concrete for energy infrastructure provides a more targeted and manageable approach for a startup. While the construction industry is enormous, it's also highly competitive and slow to adopt new technologies. Specializing in a rapidly growing subsector with a clear need for innovation offers a greater chance of success.
Further digging revealed this number: Global energy investment is growing substantially. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that it reached $2.4 trillion in 2022.
2.4 Trillion, I guess only Food, Banking, Defense, Cloud infrastructure, and AI development have more significant numbers attached to their market sizes.
What to improve in the podcast?
Ashish would’ve hoped they would be a bit longer so we would deep-dive into the nitty gritty. However, it is not as deep as Lex Friedman goes. Personally, I could work on the intros and outros. They're not smooth in terms of word choices and sentence structure.
Until the next podcast! Next week, we’ll feature another exciting entrepreneurial story! Subscribe for more Just Thoughts!
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