INERGIO: The Venture Leader Cleantech developing a green alternative for diesel generators

03.10.2022 09:00, Tracy Woodley

The Swiss National Startup Team welcomes new members: A jury selected 10 startups for the Venture Leaders program dedicated to the cleantech sector. During their roadshow, the Venture Leaders Cleantech will meet international investors and industry leaders and access industry-specific expertise and networks to grow their companies. Allow us to introduce you to each of the Venture Leaders Cleantech 2022 ahead of the October 2022 roadshow in Munich: Meet Mahmoud Hadad, the CEO and founder of INERGIO.

Name: Mahmoud Hadad
Location: Lausanne
Nationality: Iranian
Graduated from: EPFL Ph.D. (2017)
Job title: Founder and CEO
Number of employees: 9
Money raised: CHF 3 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Business Creation program in 2014

Explain what your startup does and why: We are introducing a green alternative for diesel generators that are free of pollution and noise. 
 
How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
The idea behind INERGIO came from my Ph.D. studies at EPFL. But prior to that, I always wanted to take on the challenge of building a new product. That's why, from my first day in the lab, I thought about how I could turn this idea and concept into a prototype. I have to say that it put a little bit of pressure on me and my motivation was tested from time to time, but today I am glad I did it. Just to say, I started my Ph.D. in October 2013 and went to the Venturelab startup program in February 2014, only 3 months later. That's how the idea was developed, but the actual startup and product development began when I started working there with my co-founder, Luc Conti, and the team. 
 
What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
We now have three major steps ahead of us, the first being the commercialization of our first units, most likely through pilot tests, the second being the beginning of the industrialization of the product and the last being the preparation of the opening of our first investment round. The Roadshow will give us the opportunity to find partners, and investors and meet potential customers -- essential points and figures to reach our milestones. In addition, it will give us a better overview of the energy market, trends, needs, and specifications. 

Who does your product or solution help, and how?
Our product could bring value at different levels. It can bring reliability to end users. It can reduce operating costs for service providers. And above all, it introduces green, environmentally friendly power to the market. By deploying our systems, we could save several million tons of CO2 emissions per year.
 
What are you most excited about at work right now?
The most exciting factor is working with an extremely talented team on a solution that can have a great impact.

How did you build your team?
It took us a while to build a team with a common vision, motivation, and mindset. And I think one of the most important, but also most difficult aspects of creating a startup is to build the right team. Now, there are three of us in the core team, so in addition to myself and Luc (co-founder), we have Ines Richard, and we knew each other before. For the rest of the team, we try to carefully go through an interview process to make sure we're bringing in talents that fit our company culture. 
 
Which market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup?
Well, our products can be used almost everywhere. It could deliver reliability to off-grid installation for instance to telecom antennas or pipeline control systems, it could be used as an auxiliary power unit during camping and for RVs, it could extend the autonomy of for instance the delivery drones and it could also be used as the emergency power system in households. Our current focus, or better to say our beachhead market, is an off-grid market. We are following a B2B business model. We are aiming at becoming a global leader in miniaturized and lightweight power systems.

What are your key achievements to date?
Our main achievement from a technical perspective is that we have an MVP in-house. From a business development point of view, we have more than 25 letters of intent from customers waiting for the first product release. From a financial point of view, we can be considered as one of the award-winning startups in Switzerland, and, to date, we have raised almost 3 million Swiss francs. Last but not least, we have built an extremely talented team that is doing its best every day to bring clean technology to the market. 
 
What is one thing not many people know about you?
Big fan of football and on top of that Real Madrid. I watch almost 80% of their matches. 

What is your favorite book and why?
My all-time favorite is 1984 by George Orwell. Recently, after all the news about Theranos, I really enjoyed reading Bad Blood by John Carreyrou.
 
How did you come up with the name of your startup?
I think we are all convinced that to accelerate the transition to green energy, we need innovation. That's why we added the "IN"novative part to "energy" and ended up with INERGIO. The O at the end represents the power button, which also appears in our logo.

Which startup do you wish you had founded and why? 
The Wright Company. They showed that it's not necessarily about the money, that it's important to have a vision, and that they were more motivated by the potential impact of their founding on the world. Unlike their direct competitor, Langley, who stopped working on the issue when they realized that he wasn't the first to solve the problem (perhaps was more motivated by money and fame).  Of course, money matters, but it's not the only thing.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder?
You are never off. Whether you're in the office or at sea, there's always something in the back of your mind.  

What is the most rewarding aspect of being a founder?
Personal development. Every step and every challenge has a new thing to show you. Whether you're closing an investment round, trying to sell your first unit, or simply managing the concerns of your team, you need to learn quickly and perform at the highest level.  

What is something you wish you had known about being a founder?
It not getting any easier. You should enjoy building it otherwise, there is no end point to say, voila it’s done!

Venture Leaders Cleantech is organized by Venturelab and supported by Alpian, AMAG, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, EY, Helbling Technik, Romande Energie, Canton Vaud, and VISCHER and Venture Leaders alum Patrick Maillard.