ClimateClean EnergyScaling
Scaling a Climate Tech Startup Without Sacrificing the Mission
Maya Chen built Aether Energy from a garage prototype to a Series C clean-energy company. She shares how she balanced investor expectations with a stubborn commitment to impact.
Maya Chen|Co-Founder & CEO|Aether Energy| 42 min June 15, 2026
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About Maya Chen
Maya Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Aether Energy, a company designing modular battery systems for emerging markets. Before Aether, she spent six years as a mechanical engineer at Tesla and holds a master's in energy systems from Stanford.
Key Takeaways
- 1Mission and margin can coexist if you design the business model around both.
- 2The hardest hires are the ones who can operate in ambiguity while staying values-aligned.
- 3Raising capital is a storytelling exercise; unit economics are the sequel.
Transcript Excerpt
“We started with one question: what if the places that need power the most could also generate it the cheapest? That led us to a modular battery architecture that could be assembled on-site without heavy tooling...”