MIT Tough Tech Summit

It’s usually intimidating for kids when they're the only ones in a room full of adults. And what if all those adults are next generation leaders and problem solvers? Forget about it. Most kids would skirt out of there — thats intimidating! Honestly, its intimidating for any outsider to the deep tech industry, no matter what age you are.

From 12:00 until 5:00 last Tuesday, I (a kid) found myself as one of the only kids in a room filled with hundreds of adults that are next generation leaders and problem solvers. All of the incredible people in this ‘room’ (it was virtual — we’re not playing roulette with COVID-19!), had been invited there by The Engine, a deep tech venture capitalist firm built by none other than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, possibly the most intimidating institution of all time. It was the annual Tough Tech Summit, a conference that brings together leading figures in “Tough Tech” industries (such as Pat Brown, founder and CEO of Impossible Meats, and Matt Rodgers, co-founder of Nest Labs), and the founders behind groundbreaking tech startups from all over the world, “to build the platforms that can create long-term, significant change”. Spoiler alert: I’m neither an industry leader or a startup founder.

What in the world was I doing at Tough Tech?

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m just such a highly trained and experienced industry specialist…just kidding! Until a week and a half ago, I had no idea this Tough Tech Summit even existed! The only reason I found out was through TKS, thanks to the efforts of the fantastic directors to hustle a group ticket. The other kids in the ‘room’ I mentioned above? They’re all TKS kids too!

Until two months ago, in my mind, smart people — smart adults — created startups to solve problems…and that was it. Just, “hey, I’m someone over 18 with a degree(s) in (insert fancy degree here) from (insert fancy school here), so I’m going to invent some tech to solve a problem and thats that”.

Theres SO MUCH wrong with this logic (should we even call it ‘logic’?). Of course, theres all the logistics around creating and sustaining a startup. A community of other start up rookies as well as veterans, especially in the tech industry, is an invaluable resource. Plus, Tough Tech was as much about building a solution to the worlds problems as well as investing in one — that was the focus of the entire second day. Money is vital for all of these startups — they require years of research using complicated, expensive machinery before they can safely put their products to market.

Most importantly, age is JUST a number! If you are a kid that’s passionate enough to put in the work to solve one of these problems, you’re just as qualified as that someone over 18 with a degree(s) in (insert fancy degree here) from (insert fancy school here). In fact, kids come at problems with a totally different perspective than adults. The Marshmallow Challenge is a simple example of this. At the end of the day, we need all the perspectives possible to solve these world-wide problems — age shouldn't be an obstacle in the way of a solution.

Are passionate kids really as qualified as all those insanely smart adults?

Well, yes. Those insanely smart adults become insanely smart by putting in hard work to learn about what they’re passionate about. School sure provides a good knowledge base, but if you want to help solve, say, climate change, whats stopping you from learning all you can from articles, videos, research papers etc., and applying that knowledge to create something groundbreaking? (besides social inequities around internet access, which is yet another problem that is VITAL that we solve).

Of course, this happens over a long period of time. I want to help solve climate change, and I’m particularly interested in recycling technologies, plastics, and renewable energy, so I spend a lot of my free time researching these fields. I’m don’t think I’m apply my knowledge to create a groundbreaking start up, but it sure helped me engage during the Tough Tech Summit.

After opening remarks, I went to a talk with Jennifer Holgrem, CEO of carbon-recycling company, LanzaTech. I was so excited for this talk — this is right up my alleyway, and as you can probably tell, I’m still pretty unfamiliar with the industry side of climate change solutions. This talk proved a perfect opportunity to learn more.

LanzaTech is able to take carbon emissions from say, steel mills, and through a complicated process that includes bacterial carbon-fixing, they create polyethylene terephthalate (PET), more commonly known as plastic, and ethanol, which can be used as fuel.

As Ms. Holgrem explained the science behind her company, I felt surprised that I could easily follow along — here was this insanely smart lady telling a bunch of insanely smart people how her insanely smart company works, and I could understand? Whats more, is I began to question the information that she was telling us. Not the validity of it, of course, but the effectiveness of LanzaTech in reducing climate change. For those of you unfamiliar with PET and ethanol, well, PET is a non-biodegradable plastic (like the plastic used in Poland Springs bottles). When thrown out, its not good for the environment. Ms. Holgrem addressed this very well — she pointed out that this is just a step in the right direction as less emissions have been released, and ideally, if we were to create reusable products with PET, there would be less thrown away in the first place. I was still focused on ethanol, though.

For those of you unfamiliar with the substance, it is a biological compound that can be extracted from organic material like corn and burned as fuel. Sourcing fuel from crops is not a sustainable option — theres already limited land for food. Ethanol is a lot cleaner than traditional fuels, but not an ideal alternative because it still releases carbon emissions when burned. In the case of planes, for example, that would use the LanzaJet ethanol as fuel, lots of carbon emissions would still be released into the atmosphere.

I waited for someone to ask about that. No one did. They asked other, really really insightful questions that I never would have even though of on my own, but I really wanted someone to ask this specific question. No one did, so I was like, “I’ll probably look like a dumb kid, but I’m just going to ask it.” To my surprise, Ms. Holgrem specifically answered it on air. I was in shock — I’m no pHD researcher-startup founder-industry expert, but I contributed to this discussion! She responded with an answer similar to how she addressed the PET issue (that this is just a step towards an ultimate emissions free goal), which was definitely appropriate in this situation, but also led into a discussion around the future of LanzaTech and carbon recycling technology in general.

So kids can be just as qualified. Of course, this is just one example, but it definitely solidified this idea for me! (Check out the TKS website for more incredible examples of passionate kids proving just as qualified as insanely smart adults!)

Overall Takeaways

My experience at Tough Tech Summit 2020 helped me to learn more about my worth and ability to make an impact.

• Its intimidating to be the only/one of the only kid in a room full of adults that are next generation leaders and problem solvers!
• That shouldn't stop me from learning and engaging!
• Age truly is just a number! If you’re a kid that’s passionate enough to put in the work to solve one of the worlds problems, you’re just as qualified as the smart adults!
• Age shouldn’t be an obstacle in the way of a solution to world-wide problems!
• With the right resources and connections, someone as young and as out of the loop as I was originally can have such a large ability to impact the world!