One trend we see over the last year at Amar is increasingly we are approached by startups in addition to our usual customers from the Chemical Process industry. It is an exciting time for us and this post highlights some of our observations in this area.
- It is an exciting time to be in the startup area. The major problems for the world lie in domains such as carbon capture, batteries and green hydrogen. All of these technologies have potential to mitigate global warming. All of them need good old process engineering to demonstrate techno commercial viability
- Building scale up rigs has become extremely expensive in the West. We find many great ideas never reach scale because the cost to build the first demo unit is too high. We feel Amar can be a part of the solution here. Our skid mount plants are extremely cost competitive. Give us a chance. You would be pleasantly surprised at your Capex estimates.
- Startups are (must be!) focussed on the fundamental science. In many cases the founders would prefer to be focussed on their core competence. Getting quotes, testing, assembly, certification are usually distractions for a startup from their core mission. Allow us at Amar to make this part easy for you so you can focus on what matters: the technology, fundraising and making an impact!
- Scale up can be often a one time activity for a startup. Many startups come out of Universities or Professors or recent PhDs. Building rigs requires a knowledge of which vendors offer what parts or what works and what does not. Often a vendor may advertise a capability but our engineers at Amar may know what’s outside of a particular vendor’s comfort zone. Scale up is all about making the right choices often with limited data. Our experience from past projects matters. This is an area where specialization helps and also our networks with vendors built up on decades of experience and hundreds of projects.
- Startups work on a very rapid time scale. The highest pressure at a startup is often timelines. VCs can be a very impatient lot. And the first mover gets an advantage. Often it is possible to build internally but going to a competent pilot plant vendor e.g. us at Amar just gets the project done faster.
- Startups have small teams expected to do a lot of work. Unlike a mature company a startup rarely has the luxury of dedicated departments or even dedicated staff for activities such as RFQs, negotiations, Quality Assurance etc. Given small teams it is imperative to leverage the help of trusted outside experts. Our observation is that scale up and building modular rigs is one such area. Do not try to do too much internally and overwhelm your teams. Focus internally on what matters and leave the other stuff to us at Amar.
We hope this blog post illustrates some of the opportunities we have at Amar to work with startups. Reach out to our experts for your next project! [email protected]
