Marketing Darwinism - by Paul Dunay
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
  • Press
  • Speaking
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Photos
  • Awards
  • Abstracts
  • Testimonials
Home
Bio
Books
Press
Speaking
Webinars
Videos
Podcasts
Photos
Awards
Abstracts
Testimonials
  • Home
  • Bio
  • Books
  • Press
  • Speaking
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Podcasts
  • Photos
  • Awards
  • Abstracts
  • Testimonials
Marketing Darwinism - by Paul Dunay
Fusion, Marketing, Technology

What does Marketing have to do with Nuclear Fusion?

At a recent conference run by WPP, I had the unexpected opportunity to lead a discussion on fusion and its relationship to marketing. A strange topic, perhaps, but the discussion was fertile and enlightening. I must thank those in the audience- thank them profusely- for their intelligence, awareness, and curiosity. A few years ago, such a discussion in such a venue would have been impossible. It is therefore encouraging to see fusion make the grade as a topic of interest even at a conference focused on other things.

As we framed the subject, fusion and marketing intersect in four crucial ways-

  1. Creating interest for investment.
  2. Generating palatability amongst the populace for fusion at scale.
  3. Reducing fusion marketing hype.
  4. Developing a digestible category and naming conventions for the industry.

A small note on each-

Investor interest– in the absence of a sensible-if-dreamy narrative about what a world of abundant, clean energy could look like, no investors would be interested in funding fusion research, development, and operations. To maintain interest, even through troughs, fusion firms must continue to communicate and frame their excitement. That is the role of marketers.

Palatability– research has indicated that fusion-at-scale will not be popular because of the overhang of negative “nuclear energy” stories in the past- like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. In addition, there is very little awareness of fusion’s “lack of” waste as compared to fission’s.  Lastly, there is the conflation of the horrors of nuclear weapons and civilian nuclear power generation. Fusioneers and fusion marketers must collectively launch an education campaign to help allay the fears about anything “nuclear.”

Less hype-There is a fine line between the sort of hype necessary to generate investor and customer interest and the sort of hype that creates a cycle of over-promise/under-deliver that leads to a jaded view of the industry. Already, fusion investors are asking about past declarations that have been unmet.

Category creation– This is the most challenging of the marketing challenges for fusion. For people to latch on and analyze an organization, they need to place it in a category; that is how the human brain works- creating a metaphor that is generalizable to a recognized entity. Put simply, fusion marketers must collectively determine what category will resonate with most with customers, partners, the public, and investors.

As we go down the path, in an accelerated fashion, to Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF), the role of marketing is real. Too much marketing and too much false PR does not help but the right balance will help propel the industry towards its task, which is nothing less than giving the world abundant, clean energy.

May 15, 2024by Paul Dunay
Fusion, Leadership, Thought Leadership

The Fusion Future?

A guest blog from Romi Mahajan, CEO ExoFusion

The demand for energy is insatiable as the population grows and consumption continues unabated. Legitimate stresses over anthropogenic global warming, diminishing resources, and energy inequality have governments, social bodies, and scientists searching for solutions and innovating relentlessly to secure a sustainable future. While some damage has already been done, the future is at stake.

Can we usher in a “Fusion Future?”

Nuclear Fusion is the grail of energy. Clean, abundant energy, harnessing the motive force of the stars, is the bogey. While fusion has been understood for eight decades, the rapid pace of change- powered by governments, labs, private fusion companies, and collaborations between all parties—has made the target visible for the first time.

There are still scientific, technical, and capital-based hurdles to Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF) at scale, but the prognosis is good, in fact great.

Keeping our eyes on the ball is necessary now, more than ever. When a critical mass of people, capital, and technology forms, good things happen, but so do bad things. Egos, inertia, competitive siloing, cliques, and rigid orthodoxies start to be “the story.” Public Relations becomes the form of communication versus, say, scientist-scientist communication and collaboration. The “Me first” attitude rears its head.

Some of these tendencies are natural. The animal spirits can animate any field, but they can also retard any field. The Fusion Future depends on us as an industry and community curbing our worst instincts and working openly towards the outcomes we all desire.

This doesn’t mean we have to do away with competition, IP, or closed-garden innovation. What it means is we must do so in a manner that builds the entire ecosystem and doesn’t create a single point of monopoly or failure. The daisy chain required to get to CVF is delicate and we must understand that and tiptoe around it so as not to hurt the enterprise as a whole. Relatedly, in a game of limited capital, it is important that money is divided across bets and not concentrated too deeply. Similarly, fusion “machine” companies must get enough funding but not to the exclusion of supply-chain or enabling-technology plays.

The Fusion Future is in sight. It is our choice whether we optimize and accelerate the path to CVF or if we let the worst tendencies of pure capitalism take over. A balance is needed and if we strike it right, we’ll be able to usher in truly a new world.

March 7, 2024by Paul Dunay
Commercially Viable Fusion, Fusion

Innovative Fusion Company ExoFusion Announces Seed Funding and Technology Breakthroughs

Seattle, WA and Austin, TX- July 19, 2023—  ExoFusion, a startup focused on the shortest path to Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF) announces seed funding and ambitious plans for the “Super XT Divertor.”  Based in Seattle, WA and Austin, TX, the company will be expanding its focus on IP, licensing, and simulation in the hot area of Fusion.  ExoFusion believes that confinement is key to CVF.

ExoFusion was founded by Dr. Michael Kotschenreuther, Dr. Swadesh Mahajan, Dr. David, Hatch—all renowned physicists- and Romi Mahajan, a technology marketer and commercialization expert.  Doctors Kotschenreuther and Mahajan invented the Super X Divertor.  The company has a series of patents and a strong IP pipeline across divertor technologies, new materials, novel neutron sources, and a variety of other fundamental, fusion-related areas.

“Our company was founded on the notion that plasma confinement is key to CVF and our innovations have advanced the understanding of confinement a great deal,” said Chief Science Officer Mike Kotschenreuther.  “Our portfolio of patents, our roadmap, and our focus on simulation and licensing are the underpinnings of a powerful business model that will advance the fusion ecosystem and accelerate the path to CVF,” added CEO Romi Mahajan.

Asset Manager Russ Brown, a seed investor in ExoFusion, said “There are many promising fusion concepts out there, but cost-effective confinement remains a primary roadblock to commercial viability across the industry. ExoFusion’s patented “XF” technologies along with its Super XT Divertor will dramatically increase confinement for multiple concepts, enabling them to be smaller and more affordable—exactly what is needed to make fusion commercially viable.”

The private fusion space has garnered over $6 billion in investment over the past few years as the community seeks a way to provide a low-cost, carbon-mitigating, and relatively unlimited source of baseload power for the energy-hungry planet.  ExoFusion welcomes private partnerships and collaboration with public institutions as the path to CVF gets increasingly critical for humanity.

 “The team at ExoFusion created the Super X Divertor which we used for the MAST-Upgrade — this creative solution will be an integral part of future fusion plants,” said Dr. Steven Cowley, Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and former Head of the UKAEA.

The amount of the seed round remains undisclosed; ExoFusion will be moving towards a larger funding round over the next 12 months.

 

More about ExoFusion

ExoFusion accelerates the path to Commercially Viable Fusion. With the latest science and proprietary innovation in confinement, ExoFusion’s design, and simulations backed by IP, significantly reduces the cost, time, and scale to achieve CVF.

Led by world-renowned physicists, technology commercializers, marketers and
finance experts, ExoFusion is making significant breakthroughs in the goal to realize CVF.

July 19, 2023by Paul Dunay
Fusion, thermonuclear fusion

Bullish on Fusion


Romi Mahajan, CEO ExoFusion
Dr. Swadesh Mahajan, Senior Scientific Advisor, ExoFusion

The pursuit of nuclear energy through controlled thermonuclear fusion could easily qualify as one of the grandest scientific and technical ventures in history.  As with all such gargantuan endeavors, the challenge is Herculean and has been subject to ebbs and flows in confidence.

The era of this persistent oscillation between hope and despair may just have ended, however; cautious optimism prevails after a succession of events including major new advances in the science and technology of fusion and a fundamental societal restructuring of research and development.  We’ve matriculated from talking just about fusion “research” to real and fertile discussions on commercially-viable fusion (CVF.)

Why are we optimistic?

First of all, hats off to the enormous sponsorship of fusion by governments around the world.  Here, fundamentally understanding both the science and technology was paramount, with commercialization being secondary.  That is the nature of discovery.  The recent success at NIF in achieving “break-even” is more than symbolic.  It is the beginning of a new era built on a foundation of science sponsored by Government. The bend in the road has come.

Second, the recent animation of the private sector in Fusion, with over $5 billion being raised is exciting and important.  The public-private partnerships that have ensued add buoyancy to the goal of CVF.

Third, new technologies, like the high temperature superconductors used by CFS and new physics ideas pioneered by the physics community will be crucial in fulfilling this promise.

Fourth, the possibility of large-scale simulations of new physics regimes with advanced software is a boon to the cause.

These are exciting times for fusion- for the first time we have a coalescence of all vital elements to make fusion power a reality.  The time for bullishness has come!

URL:  exofusion.co

March 6, 2023by Paul Dunay

Search

Welcome to my blog, my name is Paul Dunay and I lead Red Hat's Financial Services Marketing team Globally, I am also a Certified Professional Coach, Author and Award-Winning B2B Marketing Expert. Any views expressed are my own.

Archives

  • May 2025
  • March 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • August 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • November 2023
  • July 2023
  • May 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • January 2020
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • May 2017
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006

“I started with Brixton to provide you with daily fresh new ideas about trends. It is a very clean and elegant Wordpress Theme suitable for every blogger. Perfect for sharing your lifestyle.”

© 2018 copyright PREMIUMCODING // All rights reserved // Privacy Policy
Brixton was made with love by Premiumcoding.