Community, Collisions, & Camaraderie: The 2022 Activate Summit

June 25 was a banner day for the Activate community. For a few jam-packed hours, we reconnected with friends and partners, celebrated the graduating Cohort 2020 fellows, welcomed the incoming 2022 fellows, and marveled at the gorgeous San Francisco Bay from our perch at the Exploratorium. It was our first Activate Summit since 2019 and it included a very special guest. More on that below…

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We were honored to welcome Arati Prabhakar, President Biden’s pick to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and serve as his top advisor on science and technology—and a longtime friend of Activate. She and our CEO Ilan Gur discussed the state of science innovation in the U.S. during a riveting on-stage chat. Given Arati’s bona fides—she is the former head of DARPA and NIST, worked in venture capital, and recently launched a startup—Ilan said it best: “There is no better voice to speak to our community.”

Arati Prabhakar, nominated to direct the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), speaks with Ilan Gur, Activate’s CEO.

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A handful of graduating 2020 fellows also shared brief TED-style updates on their startups.

Leah Ellis

Leah Ellis (Cohort 2020) spoke about her past two years as a fellow and scaling Sublime Systems from its first gram of low-carbon cement to now producing nearly one ton.

Chris Eiben

Chris Eiben (Cohort 2020) described how Perlumi is fundamentally improving photosynthesis to create more bountiful harvests on less land.

Cheri Ackerman

Cheri Ackerman (Cohort 2020) celebrated Concerto Biosciences’ progress in leveraging beneficial microbes for products to improve human and planetary health.

Carl Hoiland

Carl Hoiland (Cohort 2020) explained how his drive for exploration is rooted in his family history and how it shows up in Zanskar’s mission to scale geothermal energy.

Brendan Smith

Brendan Smith (Cohort 2020) shared how the Activate Fellowship transformed him from a scientist to an entrepreneur.

Noemi Bonessio

Noemi Bonessio (Cohort 2020) argued that METAseismic’s mechanical metamaterials can fundamentally improve infrastructure, and showed a remarkable video clip to prove her point.

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And Andrew Ponec (Cohort 2018) updated the community on Antora Energy’s remarkable progress since he, Justin Briggs (Cohort 2018), and David Bierman (Cohort 2017) co-founded the startup. ”Antora Energy would not exist without Activate,” he said. 

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This was also our first Activate Summit since we expanded our reach and impact from Berkeley to Boston, to New York, and to fellows across the country through the Activate Anywhere Community. What a thrill to welcome and introduce our team of stellar managing directors, including our newest: Jill Fuss, a Cohort 2018 fellow who is now back, leading the Activate Berkeley community as managing director!

“I've known since I was a fellow that Activate's community is its superpower, but I felt it acutely when I heard the cheers and whoops after announcing I was the new Berkeley MD,” Jill Fuss says.

Randy Allen joined Activate as executive-in-residence and is now the managing director for Activate Boston—a huge win for Activate and Activate Fellows.

Executive managing director Aimee Rose celebrated her world-class team of managing directors and, in absentia, Hannah Murnen, MD of the Activate Anywhere Community.

Andrew Chang, managing director of the Activate New York Community, described the important innovations that the first fellows to join this new community are advancing.

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There was so much to celebrate. Here’s to a safe and fruitful year—until we meet again.