Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) Podcast: Transcripts
#219:
Mukesh Chatter, CEO of Alsym Energy – $110M for Non-Flammable, Low-Cost, Non-Cobalt Batteries. Former Entrepreneur of the Year. Meditation and Intentional Pauses. Non-Linear Thinking.
Podcast Introduction
Chris Wedding:
My guest today is Mukesh Chatter, CEO and co-founder of Alsym Energy. Alsym Energy is developing a new generation of high performance, low cost, non-flammable batteries to help enable a zero carbon electrified future for all. Using readily available materials that are inherently non-toxic, their breakthrough battery technology is an alternative to lithium-ion at less than half the cost with the same performance and no lithium or cobalt. In addition to being CEO, Mukesh was previously co-founder of Nexabit Networks and CEO there until its acquisition by Lucent Technology. He also co-managed Neonet Capital and was named to Red Herring magazine's top 10 entrepreneurs in 1999 and Rensselaer's entrepreneur of the year in 2001. He received his Master's degree in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In this podcast we talked about things such as the role of energy storage in emission reductions, and contrasting that to the emissions reduction from EVs being much lower. We talked about safety risks and overheating from batteries, examples of lithium-ion battery failures, their market positioning, and their success in raising $110 million from investors, which is a lot, but also far less than competitors. And he talks about how they've made more progress in lots of ways than those better funded competitors. We cover the motivation behind the company's founding, which included the passing of his mother, leading him to focus on solving problems that at least impact a billion people. Finally, we talked about his entrepreneurial mindset and personal philosophies around thinking non-linearly, embracing pivots, developing a meditation practice and having intentional pauses between tasks.
Hope you enjoyed and please give Mukesh and Alsym a shout out on all socials. Thanks so much. All right, before we hop in, I've got a challenge and I guess an invitation for you all. First, the background. My goal is to empower 250,000 entrepreneurs, investors and university students to tackle climate change through startups, finance and personal growth. Is that enough? I don't know. It's a lot. Maybe it'll grow. Anyway, the podcast is one way to do that. To that end, the sector needs more inspiration, tools and tips from CEOs and investors in this space. Conveniently, as you may guess, these folks are precisely my guest on this podcast. So here is the challenge.
If you and five of your friends rate, review and follow this podcast on Apple and Spotify and share your efforts with me on LinkedIn or in response to my newsletter on Substack, I'll hop on Zoom and brainstorm a climate tech business or investment challenge or opportunity with you. Now. Is that a reward? Is that punishment? I don't know. There it is. This is the best way for new folks to learn from the CEOs and investors on this podcast. If the process is unclear, as it was to me, in the show notes, you will find a link explaining how to do this. I read every single review. So please tell me and all of us which guest insights you like the most. Thanks so much. Hope you enjoy it.
Podcast Interview
Chris Wedding:
Mukesh Chatter, co-founder and CEO of Alsym Energy, welcome to the podcast.
Mukesh Chatter:
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.
Chris Wedding:
All right, so let's start with why what you're doing matters so much in terms of relative GHG emissions. We touched on this before the call and I think the percentages you use are pretty helpful to highlight the importance of what you're doing, right?
Mukesh Chatter:
I mean, the emission is a huge issue and probably one of the most burning problems is beyond reproach, the question is the pace and the focus at which efforts are being made. So let's take specifically as an example, today there's a lot of emphasis on electric vehicles, which is great that emission has to be reduced. But all the passenger cars in the world combined together only produce 7% of grand total emission. Whereas industrial emission, for example, from metal processing, chemical plants, mining companies, oil extraction, gas exemption—that's like what, 26%. So the question is, if you look at the relative importance of these sectors, a huge undue emphasis in my mind, or maybe not sufficient, has been placed on EVs. Let's take even dig deeper. There are about 800 million, give or take some, cars in the world, all over the world.
And taken together, not even 1% are somewhere there. 2% are EVs. If it's a total 7% emission produced by passenger cars in the world, that means all the EVs that are on the road today are helping reduce 0.07% of the emission. Doesn't even move the needle. Like if you look at the clock, even the second dial isn't moving there. Forget about minutes here. So that's the fundamental challenge. And what we need to do is to not make 0.07% incremental change every year. The world would be long gone by then. If we go at that pace, it has to be more in 3, 4, 5% change, something like that every year. And the only way to do it is to target the key areas, and one of them clearly is transportation, but also industrial emission. That's a huge one.
Chris Wedding:
One that makes a lot of sense, I think, for me and others listening who drive EVs. Hooray. But lots more to do. You know, what you bring up reminds me of a bar chart in the state of climate tech that PWC produces each year. And some listeners will be familiar with this, but it shows on the left side it shows percent of GHG emissions coming from various sources, just as you were describing, not as granular but kind of big categories. And then on the right it shows the allocation of venture capital dollars into climate tech by sector. And guess what? They don't align at all. You know, which you know, like in a way, duh. Obviously that's true because VC investors, their job is not to solve climate change per se. It's generate great returns for, you know, pensioners, etc.
Let's go to your company, Alsym Energy. What exactly do you all do in part to meet the challenge of addressing these industrial emissions?
Mukesh Chatter:
So at the very basic level, what we have done is developed an alternative chemistry. Alternative chemistry does not contain lithium, does not contain cobalt. It's made of inherently non-flammable materials that are also non-toxic. So we attribute the key challenges. So let's define the problem for a minute. Lithium batteries do a great job when they're in small concentration. For example, it's in our cell phones, it's in many other things around the home, even maybe perhaps EV, right? 50, 60, 70 kilowatt-hour. But when you start concentrating into 100, 200, 300 kilowatt-hour beyond, into megawatt hours or gigawatt hours, these are ticking time bombs. So many fires have happened related to this and people are not focused on it. And that has been one of the challenges.
So if you look at it, for example, when Los Angeles fires happened, I think that's the one that brought into consciousness more people made aware the challenges related to lithium-ion, where they perhaps, according to Wall Street Journal article, contributed further fueling the fire. Same thing with the batteries that were deployed, lithium batteries at home. So when homes are burning, that becomes a bigger problem. Same thing at the Mass Landing fire. A huge park in California, for example, the energy storage park basically blew up recently, requiring evacuation in the neighborhood and worries about hydrogen fluoride gas, which can turn people blind in 10 minutes if there's a reasonable exposure and things like those, and then all kinds of other toxic gases that were coming out.
I mean, there could be example after example, like the fire in California that burned for days and days and weeks, requiring, I think, about 8 million gallons of water—a precious resource to begin with. So things like those in South Korea when a car blew up in the parking lot, and then in cities or other cars blew. A bottom line is the fundamental problem with lithium-based batteries is they are inherently flammable. You cannot engineer your way out of a problem that belongs to science, if you will. So we as a company, 10 years ago, when we started, along with Professor Kripa Varanasi, Professor Koratkar and Dr. Al Mukherjee, decided we are going to build a battery that's made of inherently non-flammable, non-toxic materials, and also has to be affordable.
So those were the key things we started out with. And then along the way, we developed additional features. For example, our battery not only works at the lower side of the temperature, but also actually works very well at elevated temperatures, which is a worldwide phenomenon. As we all know, temperatures in India routinely hitting 48, 49 degrees Celsius or 50 degrees sometimes in summer, and in the Middle East sometimes hitting 50, 52 degrees. Even in Europe, temperatures are hitting—forget about that. I mean, look at Texas and California and some places, or Arizona. So temperatures are progressively going higher. Lithium batteries require a lot more cooling for a simple reason; otherwise, they will blow up. So the challenge is we need a battery that doesn’t blow up at elevated temperatures, works well, and that’s what we bring to the table.
Made of inherently non-flammable, non-toxic materials. Performance close to LFP batteries—the lithium-ion batteries—and it is affordable with a good footprint. Because the challenge has been, when everybody looked at finding an alternative to lithium-ion, those who are aware and sensitive to it, there was none. I mean, you have a choice: either you get something flammable or you get something so inefficient and with such low energy density that you need container after container, acres and acres of containers, hundreds of containers, thousands of containers. So it was like this duopoly. And what we have done is find the right chemistry and develop it. It’s going out to customers who are testing now. That bridges that gap. That I would say is probably the best way to describe what we have done. I'm really excited about it.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, super helpful. And for listeners, you can't see Mukesh smiling very big after describing the solution you guys are working on. Look, for sure, lithium is not a perfect solution. Very good in many ways, but no solution is perfect. This is a portfolio approach to energy storage as well as to GHG solutions. A couple of follow-ups—you mentioned in some of the wildfires when lithium batteries combusted, there was the release of hydrogen fluoride gas that is the result of all lithium batteries being burned, if you will. I'm just not aware of that.
Mukesh Chatter:
Yes, it's organic electrolytes that are used and also the materials that are used. And the unfortunate part is that when hydrogen fluoride comes in contact with water, it can produce hydrofluoric acid, which is sometimes used in labs to dissolve bones. So I always tell all my friends who have EVs that if it catches fire, instead of trying to use the hose in your garden to douse the fire, it’s safer to run off and get away by 100 yards, if you will, and let it burn. It’s much safer that way. I mean, look again, lithium batteries have done a great job in finding an alternative. It’s only in higher concentrations—once it gets to 100 kilowatt-hours and beyond—that it’s really a major problem.
Chris Wedding:
Yep, yep. You also referenced several professors, I believe at MIT, maybe beyond, who were co-creators, co-founders of this technology. How did you find them? Did they find you? How did you form a partnership to launch this business?
Mukesh Chatter:
It’s somewhat of a longer story but look, I lost my mother to late-stage ovarian cancer in 2012. I’ve done a number of companies, I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 30 years. I’ve had meaningful successes. But once I lost my mother, I realized that no amount of money could save our life. No matter what I did, at the end of the day. And that led me to think that I’m on a treadmill. All material needs in life have been filled. Why am I doing it? Why am I doing more and more and more? It wasn’t clear to me. But the purpose became very clear at that point: to focus on problems that impact at least a billion people around the world.
And the tagline became, it’s not a billion-dollar problem, it’s a billion-persons problem. And let’s identify the problem that impacts at least a billion people. The idea is not to create social enterprises, but to create economically very attractive, innovation-driven enterprises that solve a problem impacting at least a billion people. So that was the genesis. Then I went around looking for people with the same mindset, and that’s how we met in Boston. It’s easy to meet professors at MIT. I’m also an alum of RPI. So I met with Professor Koratkar, Professor Kripa Varanasi, and one of Professor Koratkar’s students who is also my co-founder, Dr. Rahul Mukherjee. That’s how it started. Initially, when we began, everybody said it’s a fool’s paradise. Everybody said it’s nearly impossible to do.
So we all agreed it’s going to be a tough challenge. We didn’t know what the solution was going to be. All we knew was it’s a problem that has to be solved. Because at that time, around 2012, there were about 2 billion people in the world who did not have electricity or only had electricity part of the time, condemning them to cycles of poverty. Kids who are not in the cities basically couldn’t compete with their city peers. Families would be condemned to generations living the life of the 18th and 19th centuries. Our goal was to create a battery that’s again non-flammable, non-toxic, but also affordable so everybody in the world could get two lights, one fan, a small refrigerator to keep their produce from going to waste.
And, and an internet connection so no matter where in the world kids are, they could study and dream of becoming somebody. To me, that was the most powerful motive. That’s how we started. And lo and behold, as time went by, we realized that’s not the only application that remains near and dear to our hearts. But reducing and creating not only small-scale energy storage solutions but some of the largest-scale solutions which can help the steel industry, chemical industry, aluminum industry, data centers, and more. We are focused on stationary storage. We are not focused on electric vehicles, at least in this generation of the product, and or shipping. For example, shipping specifically is closer to our heart as well. But right now, it’s stationary storage, and that’s how we started.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. What a great answer. I certainly did not expect your answer to be so personal. Certainly sorry for the early loss of your mother. And what an immersive story to think, look, in a sense, what’s the meaning of life, especially with material needs met. You raised the topic of a fool’s paradise, which makes me think of another—referencing a fool’s choice. I’m currently reading a book called Crucial Conversations, which highlights this false choice of, “Hey, look, pick between these two things. They’re the only options in the world. You got to pick one of those.” It’s, it’s a...
It’s or not, and I think you know, smart folks, smart in relationships or smart in strategy or entrepreneurs, and no, no, it’s not or, let’s figure out an and solution here to get both to be true, right? Low cost and in this case, non-flammable as well. On your energy poverty angle for how this product could be used—I just want to echo what you said. I don’t have probably the same firsthand experience that you do, but I can tell you, taking teams of MBA students from UNC where I teach, to Ethiopia and parts of India to work with some of the biggest off-grid solar companies in the world and to see the power of those things you just mentioned, right? Some light, some basics, but the safety that comes from that.
The ability to study, the ability to produce goods to sell, and so forth. Not just those basics but also refrigeration, fans, air conditioning—or at least fans—and truly life-changing. And the cool thing is, those folks don’t talk about climate change and motivation. It’s part of a climate solution but also a safety, quality of life, and education angle as well. Super powerful. So nice to hear that’s part of your story as well. You talked about right now customers are testing out your solution. I think listeners have already seen the title of what this podcast will include, which is a reference to things like I think it was $78 million for your Series C. Yeah, which means your aggregate capital raised is much larger than that.
Mukesh Chatter:
It’s about $110 million to date. I’m a firm believer in raising minimally sufficient money and being frugal about it. Only two things to invest money in: hiring A-plus players with low ego coefficients, and second, hiring the best equipment so we are most efficient. Outside of that, we are a very low expenditure company. And what it does is it allows us to do things with small teams and deliver much larger results. Some competitors in the non-lithium space have raised as much as $800 million or a billion dollars. Some have raised even more. So I’m fond of saying we’ve raised about a tenth of that. We have a tenth of the team, and we are about ten times ahead of the curve at this point.
So we’re very excited about it.
Chris Wedding:
Well, again, listeners can’t see, but all those parts of this will be on video to see a smile with your whole being when you say those things. Talk to us about what got investors comfortable with what you’re building. Given that there are lots of solutions out there in the battery storage space—different versions of lithium-ion, long duration, different chemistries and so forth—how did you or maybe why were they excited about how you all stood out among lots of competition? We’ll say.
Mukesh Chatter:
I mean, if you parse the industry, you know, at a macro level—and then we can go down to micro—the word is 90% plus of the companies are in lithium-ion space, if not more. And there are very few who are in non-lithium-ion space. And the companies that are in lithium-ion space, regardless of claims, every single lithium battery is made of inherently flammable material. So flammability is a concern, which is becoming increasingly evident as the public becomes far more aware of it, especially after discussing fires in mass landings and others. Very few people want to deploy large-scale lithium batteries as stationary storage in metropolitan areas. In remote areas out in the boonies, it’s perfectly fine, like in Australia or the Midwest.
But anything close to the city or where the population is, it’s a bad idea. So now, the solution then comes down to, okay, what’s my option in the non-lithium space? In the non-lithium space, there are companies working on, for example, zinc-bromine type of technology. People are. There’s always good old lead-acid batteries. All the consequences are well known. All the zinc-bromine flow batteries, for example, and iron-air batteries. But there’s a fundamental issue with all of them, which is low energy density. Support a 100-megawatt plant, for example—a 400-megawatt-hour installation—you need a huge number of containers. For zinc-bromine, about 500 containers.
Where’s the space? Five acres, ten acres of space in downtown Boston, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Mumbai, London—it doesn’t exist. When you go to iron-air batteries to deliver 100 megawatts, you need 5,000 containers. Think about it. That’s the state of the art. Yes, there are many companies, but the question is, who can meet the performance targets of lithium batteries while remaining non-flammable? That’s the core challenge. And that’s where I believe, with some luck and effort, we have come far ahead of the curve so far.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I like that you used the word luck, which recognizes—I think most of us know—that’s required, right? For these breakthrough technologies to materialize. Despite the tech, the team, the timing, all the rest, luck is part of it. Can we do some other math? You gave examples of other non-lithium solutions for a 100-megawatt, 400-megawatt-hour project of 5,000 or so containers. How many containers would your solution require? Is that a fair comparison?
Mukesh Chatter:
Yes. Oh, absolutely. First, we can stack our containers because, in the case of lithium, if one burns, you cannot put a second on top—only one layer. We can do two layers, actually 118 containers, to give you an idea. Lithium would be somewhere between 80 to 134 containers. So we’re in a comparable range, as opposed to 500, 1,000, or 5,000 containers. That was the issue—the duopoly—and they were too far apart. That’s the point I’m making—that we are coming up with a solution that does both. It’s not this choice or that choice. It’s not A or B. Whoever thought you cannot have your cake and eat it too?
I’m fond of saying I want to have my cake and eat it too. And yes, I can. There’s nothing wrong with it. Why couldn’t I do both?
Chris Wedding:
And that is the mindset of many entrepreneurs. It’s like, well, why not, right? Why can’t I do both?
Mukesh Chatter:
It’s like saying I cannot be intense and humorous at the same time. Sure, I can. There are times in life where you have to be very intense and focused, and other times you can be, you know, self-deprecating, fun, relaxed. It’s not mutually exclusive. There is no one formula for life. It’s an evolution in response to situations.
Chris Wedding:
That’s a great example. Taking it from business to personal, I’ll share a funny anecdote: when my wife talks to her friends, who have some knowledge of who I am but not in detail—they’re like, “Wow, your husband is so chill, so relaxed.” And they think, oh, you know, long hair, he meditates, whatever. She’s like, “No, no. He’s super type A. You have no idea how much he loves spreadsheets and timelines.” And it’s possible to be both, I think, is what you're saying. Thank you for the permission.
Mukesh Chatter:
I genuinely believe exactly what you said—that you can be an alpha male at the same time, and in the next breath, you could be the laziest sloth. One is not mutually exclusive. In fact, one is a way to relax and step back from that intensity. I love meditation. I meditate every day as well.
Chris Wedding:
Wonderful. We’re going to get into that in just a second here. Maybe one last question on business before we switch to the personal side. What is one of the biggest pivots you’ve had to make when you hit a wall that you didn’t know was there in developing the company?
Mukesh Chatter:
Sure.The first chemistry we started with, we thought it was an excellent idea based on intuition, hunches, and other things. It worked for the most part but didn’t quite fully work. We had a choice: continue working on it and make it work or pivot. The original solution was a single solution that applied to stationary storage, shipping, and transportation, and also to EVs. Then one of our board members said, “Look, let’s focus on one—stationary storage.” About four or five years ago, Dr. Mark Little, former head of GE’s power division and their CTO, told us, “Stationary storage is a much bigger market than people are realizing.” It was prophetic. He pointed out the industrial base and applications.
EV is far smaller compared to all the attention it’s getting. That’s what we did. We pivoted from there. It’s painful to pivot no matter what you do. Everyone, including myself, often perceives entrepreneurship as a bed of roses, right? Every kid coming out of college wants to be an entrepreneur. But I always remind them: yes, it is a bed of roses, except somebody forgot to take out the thorns.
Chris Wedding:
So.
Mukesh Chatter:
Which you learn along the way, and you remove them one at a time. Pivoting is one of those where you want some thorns on your bed of roses and say, “I got to make a change.” That’s such a great expression.
Chris Wedding:
That’s a wonderful point. Let’s switch now to the personal side of the podcast. Mukesh, looking backwards, if you had to give your younger self some advice—the 21-year-old version—what are two or three pieces of wisdom you might pass along?
Mukesh Chatter:
Look, one thing is, it’s all about team. There is truly no front of the boat, no back of the boat. We’re all in the same boat, and it’s easier to preach than do. For example, let’s say you’re flying on a 16-hour long flight. As CEO, should I be sitting in front of the plane while my other team members sit in the back? Is that right? A lot of people say we are in the same boat, but executing it is different. Do we all get the same vacations? Do we all get the same parking spots? To me, when we say we are in the same team and the same boat, then we must behave like it. We should lead.
That’s one thing I think is very important. Another is, having had some successes and making money is only half the problem. The other half is putting that money to good use. I’ve seen many entrepreneurs who make the first half of the journey and then, in the second half, they give out money for charity. I wish they’d be as involved with the same intensity that made them successful in the first place. It’s not just about giving money, but about getting involved to the eyeball level and making it happen.
That’s what I’m doing now. Material needs were filled long ago, but being involved to make a difference—doing it with the same level of intensity—is what matters. And only then do I realize: it’s no fun being rich alone, and your friends. I didn’t appreciate that before. A mentor of mine mentioned it, and I didn’t understand it then, but I do now. The other thing I’d suggest is to think nonlinear. Thinking linearly, those who are considered experts tend to think that way because they’re at the tail end of their careers. But think nonlinear.
In fact, no matter where you are in life, I once asked during a talk: if you had a choice of playing with lots of toys as a kid or just one toy, what would you pick? Everyone raised their hand—grad students, undergrads, faculty. Oh, lots of toys. Nonlinear thinking allows you to explore that arena—lots of toys, lots of solutions—rather than just the first one that pops into your head. It requires training your mind: just because that’s the first thing that came to you, that’s not necessarily the answer.
Train yourself to ask: “What if I find two more options?” Then evaluate. That’s the proverbial “think outside the box.” Inside and outside are both parts of a spectrum—not binary. Thinking nonlinear doesn’t mean every nonlinear answer is right. Sometimes, linear is better. All I’m saying is, explore options.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I think part of what I hear there is, and this is what we teach, for example, in the strategy course I teach at Duke: first diverge, then converge. Get way more options on the table before choosing which to pursue. It’s a muscle—repetitions of generating more ideas. And on the wealth side—material resources versus relationships—you’re in the Boston area, and there’s the Harvard study, or the longest study on happiness. The outcome was clear: relationships are the key determinant of happiness in life.
So you’re on the right track there. Regarding the second half of life, if you will—not necessarily half, but what I hear you saying is, capital is great for investing or donating, but the entrepreneurial mindset—efficiency, efficacy, urgency, bias towards action, the ability to mobilize resources for long-term impact—those skills could be even more valuable than capital if used to support a few key organizations.
Mukesh Chatter:
Undoubtedly. Right now, hundreds of billions of dollars are given away annually—especially by top entrepreneurs—pledged to charity. I’d suggest pledging a smaller percentage, say 9% instead of 90%. Whatever you choose, what’s far more important is the approach and intent. The same qualities that made you successful early on—drive, focus, urgency—are needed to solve the problems you donate to. Sadly, that isn’t as prevalent as I’d like to see.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, cool. Next, tell us about some habits or routines that keep you healthy, sane, and focused—especially while building, again, Mukesh.
Mukesh Chatter:
When there’s a crisis or challenge, staying calm is crucial. Our natural reaction is to get worked up, which clouds thinking. Meditation teaches you to remain calm amidst storms. It’s a practice—I'm not perfect, but I try. Context switching is also key. As CEO, I’m involved in many things. Even within the company, switching from one task to another involves a bleed. For example, if I was upset with someone on a call, I shouldn’t carry that emotion into the next call. It’s like going from a funeral to a wedding—impossible to do with the same approach. I take a 30-second pause, even during calls, to reset. Sometimes, I do something completely different—share a joke, stare outside, or take a break. That helps clear my mind.
Loading the dishwasher during a busy day, or taking a moment, is a break from constant activity. It prevents us from circling the same thoughts and helps us see things differently. We need to drain that mental headset.
Chris Wedding:
I like that. The analogy of a tree—branches blown around, but the trunk or roots stay steady—meditation helps us be the trunk. It’s like during exercise, you can’t do zero breaks between sets; otherwise, you risk falling on your chest. Breaks help us keep going.
Finally, Mukesh, tell us about books, podcasts, quotes, or tools that you think listeners might find valuable.
Mukesh Chatter:
By the way, I love your analogy of the trunk. I’ll use it if I may. Very insightful. One thing I’ve learned through meditation and spiritual practices is that we can only control our actions. We cannot control what’s handed to us—that’s beyond our control. Once we realize that, calmness follows: this is the hand I’ve been dealt. I can only act forward from here. The trunk analogy fits well.
Chris Wedding:
Let me build on that, Mukesh. Recognizing we can only control ourselves preserves our agency—the ability to act. The opposite is feeling that the world happens to us, that others control us, which diminishes responsibility and power.
Mukesh Chatter:
I always say, some people claim it’s all luck. Only partially. It’s also what I’ve done—partly. It’s a combination. Agency is crucial. When we act, we’re not just reactive; we weigh options, think, and choose the right path. That’s what sets us apart. People often forget: even in sports, watching a game, they get worked up. But you shouldn’t take yourself so seriously.
Chris Wedding:
True. Before the sports analogy, there’s Viktor Frankl’s quote: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose.” That choice shapes our growth and identity. How do we lengthen that space—between stimulus and response?
Mukesh Chatter:
I know someone accomplished who keeps a list of individuals he hates the most. Holding grudges, he says, is not growth. At some point, you realize people’s actions are just their actions. You can’t be a slave to those instincts forever. We should learn to let go. I’d love to discuss this more offline. It’s a fascinating topic.
Chris Wedding:
Absolutely. Let’s continue that offline. Now, final question: books or podcasts you think listeners would enjoy?
Mukesh Chatter:
I’m an avid reader of history and cosmology—two very different domains. I love pondering who we are as humans, where we come from, where we’re going. But more than any book or quote, it’s the observed experiences over time that inspire me. Seeing others face challenges, suffering, and still helping others—that’s the real inspiration. For example, in Japan, some school kids picked up trash without being told. Small acts like sharing 50 cents when you have two bucks—those headset moments, they matter. That’s what drives me.
It’s about the little things—small acts of kindness, resilience. I can’t give you one quote or one book, but experiences—seeing how people act against adversity—those are my greatest teachers. Meditation, for example, is very different when experienced than just read about. It’s how I’m wired.
Chris Wedding:
Great answer. I see your bookshelf behind you—full of books. Essentially, you’re saying—how do we be students of life, learning from direct experience rather than passive consumption? Mukesh, this has been a delightful conversation, a surprise in many ways. I often record these podcasts with no pre-knowledge of the guest. I just show up, build rapport for ten minutes, then press record. It’s wonderful to go from a deeply technical company to life philosophy.
Anyway, I’m sure we’ll continue this conversation outside the podcast. Mukesh, rooting for your success at Alsym Energy.
Mukesh Chatter:
Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity and your efforts in spreading awareness. It’s very important. Looking forward to catching up another time outside the podcast.
Chris Wedding:
Thanks for listening. If you’re not tired of hanging out with me yet, please subscribe to our newsletter—over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators—about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. You can subscribe on Substack or at EntrepreneursforImpact.com. Follow me on LinkedIn, where I post about climate tech startups, impact investing, habits, and lessons from Buddhism. Okay, that’s all, y’all. Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice. And P.S., if you’re curious, that’s not my kids’ favorite thing I say most mornings before school, but it’s still true. All right, take care.