Pivot, not Panic: Chain Reaction Innovations is Driving Startup Success

By focusing on the needs of founders, Argonne’s Chain Reaction Innovations program provides startups with funding, expertise and laboratory resources to turn innovative clean-energy technologies into market-changing companies.

As a result of his work at Argonne, Gary Ong, founder and CEO of Celadyne Technologies, is developing durable fuel cells for trucking and efficient electrolysis for green hydrogen production. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)
Gary Ong calls it ​“The Pivot.”

Gary Ong works at Argonne
As a result of his work at Argonne, Gary Ong, founder and CEO of Celadyne Technologies, is developing durable fuel cells for trucking and efficient electrolysis for green hydrogen production. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.)

COVID-19 had ground the development of his innovative hydrogen fuel cell startup, Celadyne, to a halt — along with the rest of the global economy.

But while other high-tech startups scrambled and sweated (and burned through their seed funding) to survive, Ong and his team did not panic. Instead, they used the pause to methodically re-evaluate Celadyne’s product strategy.

“At that time, we were trying to create a hydrogen fuel cell that could perform at higher temperatures, provide more durability and generate less humidity,” recalled Ong. ​“We used the COVID pause to reach out to every potential customer we could identify and asked them which improvement was most important to them right now. They told us durability. So, we recalibrated our strategy so that we could go to market with a product that fit the current market need.”

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