Reflections on Tough Tech 2023

At MIT The Engine’s Tough Tech Summit, my favorite perspective came from Bob Mumgaard, CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

He mentioned these 6 insights from his journey commercializing fusion, since starting in 2018.

(1) When he started building CFS investors didn't know if he was the right CEO since he didn't have any experience running a company or working for one doing fusion. So, Bob opened the role up for interviews and made a deal that if they couldn't find someone that the team approved within a few weeks, he'd remain CEO. Each new CEO was brought in for a week and the team reviewed the pros/cons for each. After every interview the team would agree "Bob is the CEO." There were two positive things Bob saw about this experience: (a) it gave his team confidence that Bob was the best person for the job (b) he met a board member and advisor out of the process.

(2) In a company, there are hundreds of thousands of decisions being made but only a single digit, he gave the example 12, that really matters for the direction of a company. Meaning, if any one of those twelve decisions are wrong, the company moves off course and can die. It could be a technology decision, operations, research, etc. He didn't talk explicitly about how to think about what the most important decisions are but did mention "crafting the room" of technical people who understand the technology and people who understand the market is important.

(3) It's important for a CEO to know what phase the company is in and redefine their role accordingly. He asks the question "What do I need to be for the company to succeed?"

(4) Katie asked him what happens in times where he gets frustrated and he responded that he simmers in the emotions. Failure sucks but that "state of failure" isn't going to change. Keep going. He's a frequent note taker and spends his Saturday mornings reading through his notes particularly his daily updates. Each day he gives himself a score on a criteria he created.

(5) Bob's a historian of technology. He's spent a fair amount of time learning about how the world became industrialized and thinking about what people and systems affect the world's development. This is important because his company is defining a new category and in doing so there's an ecosystem that'll be created to help support fusion. Important to know what this consists of. Part of this history perspective is helpful for storytelling about how the building of fusion plants relates to past things humans have built.

(6) Katie mentioned Bob spent time with battery researchers a few days before the conference and asked him how he's innately curious. His response was: "If you're going to think about something, make it cool. So spend time around cool people." He fundamentally loves picking things apart and seeing how they work. Part of this comes from his background as a physicist and engineer.

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Many of the insights Bob shared are because of his daily reflections aggregated over 5 years of building a company and 9+ years as a researcher. And, as someone who's been following Bob's journey and aspires to create a company at CFS' scale, my main action item is to continue closing the loop between building and reflecting.