An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
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This week we connect with Imprint Energy Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Christine Ho, who holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Ho is the primary inventor of the technology behind a set of flexible zinc-based batteries, a technology that she invented while a graduate student at Cal-Berkeley. Recognized for her leadership and innovation, in MIT Technology Review's Innovators under 35, Business Insider's 21 Emerging Leaders Transforming the Future of Clean Energy, and the 2019 Class of Young Global Leaders, Dr. Ho remains an innovator to watch. During the pandemic, Imprint Energy’s track-and-trace solutions have successfully been deployed on COVID-19 vaccines.
Currently designed for IoT devices, sensors and wearables, Imprint Energy’s ultrathin, flexible, printed batteries’ unique technology addresses the energy needs of today's and tomorrow’s electronic devices at lower costs. ZinCore’s customizable, scalable, printed manufacturing process allows for the large-scale production of batteries that fit the shape and size required by unique project design needs and deliver on the promise of lower costs per cm3. Resilient in adverse conditions with its operating temperature range of -35° C to 60° C, ZinCore is also fully submersible underwater. This resiliency, coupled with ZinCore’s ultrathin, flexible and lightweight properties, allows for use in nearly any smart label track-and-trace solution. The customizable nature of ZinCore provides immediate solutions for the smart labeling, medical device and IoT wearables design sectors.
Imprint Energy’s exclusive high conductivity polymer electrolyte technology enables scalable print-based manufacturing of energy dense and ultra-thin batteries based on non-Lithium, earth-abundant materials. Under Dr. Ho’s guidance, Imprint Energy continues to improve portable power by offering the performance of lithium-based batteries at significantly lower costs and by removing form factor limitations and safety concerns.
I had the pleasure to connect with Dr. Ho via email to learn more about zinc, green batteries, supply chain transparency, innovation in manufacturing, printing, entrepreneurship, mentoring, women in STEM, career advice, taking risks and core values. Our interview follows.
EKMH: Let’s meet at the intersection of electrochemistry, entrepreneurship and sustainability. What is your vision for Imprint’s proprietary ZincPoly battery and high-volume process technologies?
Dr. Christine Ho: Zinc is an inherently safer, non-toxic, and earth-abundant material. Making Imprint Energy’s batteries, using these batteries, and disposing of these batteries is inherently safer, greener, and easier to handle. Historically, lithium batteries have had lots of issues with reactivity and reactions to moisture in the air, so they need to be sealed hermetically. Because of this, lithium batteries are often enclosed in metal cans or in metalized bags as even a trace amount of moisture or exposure to the environment can cause major problems like explosions. With zinc batteries, we don’t have that risk at all. They’re inherently safe batteries. As more electronics become more ubiquitous and blended into all aspects of our lives — on our bodies, on packaging — we have to consider all these safety issues and risks. Zinc is just a much better choice for the battery that's going to be powering all types of electronics, including the IoT sensors that Imprint Energy is focused on today.
Earth-abundant zinc itself is an easier material to mine: zinc is 12x more available than lithium. In terms of energy, intensity, and greenhouse gas emissions, mining zinc is also a greener, more sustainable process. If we start thinking about that accumulation into making batteries themselves, another advantage is that Imprint Energy sustainably operates at low process temperatures and very little overhead and a small footprint. Imprint Energy prints batteries in ambient conditions, using low temperature ovens, whereas traditional lithium batteries and many other types of batteries oftentimes use higher temperature processes that are inherently energy intense.
These other batteries must be kept in dry rooms and glove boxes because moisture and environmental components must be kept away from very reactive and sensitive materials. This itself requires more processed steps to make a working, viable battery because the battery must be sealed well. These considerations contribute to our sort of sustainability footprint on the production side being substantially lower.
Another piece of Imprint’s sustainability footprint relates to battery printing. Printing is age old, known technology and process, which means that our manufacturing equipment already exists globally and can be deployed in huge volumes. Imprint Energy doesn’t have to create new factories and expand our physical footprint for manufacturing. Many people are already skilled in the art of printing: we approach manufacturers that already have existing equipment and leverage that to print our batteries. In general, we're taking advantage of an existing manufacturing footprint and working with people who have developed decades, even centuries, of know-how in printing. Building up production capacity is not a tall order, because we can step into an existing ecosystem.
Another advantage from the sustainability perspective: at their end-of-life, Imprint Energy batteries can be disposed of as standard household waste as neither toxic nor chemical considerations come into effect, unlike the considerations associated with disposing traditional lithium-ion batteries. We're also looking at recycling processes that can recover key materials from the batteries so that they can be re-circulated back into the whole ecosystem and also be less energy intense, creating a much greener, safer, and more sustainable solution on the batteries’ end-of-life.
There’s also a double-whammy with our technology in terms of compounding sustainability factors. Our batteries power tools like sensors and IoT technology that make processes more efficient and less wasteful. The battery itself is green and sustainable, and the battery-enabled application also can reduce food waste and pharmaceutical waste, a substantial advantage within the supply chain. These reductions result in a multiplication effect in terms of the greenness of the technology. The battery is one component of that.
Imprint Energy ZincPoly technology
EKMH: How can supply chain transparency and smart labels aid in carbon reduction, help companies hit ESG goals and speed up supply chain processes?
Dr. Christine Ho: Many incredibly inefficient processes exist all over the world. Things aren’t routed in an efficient way. There’s a lot of damage and loss in the supply chain which causes overproduction in order to backfill on damaged products. The amount of loss is staggering: in the food industry, for example, general estimates indicate that around 50% of food is wasted somewhere in the supply chain. When food becomes exposed to uncontrolled temperatures, problems such as illness and salmonella become major problems. In the farm industry, there’s between 30% to 40% loss that occurs in the supply chain. And that’s only what’s known. There’s an exorbitant amount of energy that goes into moving products such meat, dairy and eggs. When products get damaged, companies end up having to overproduce.
Drugs and vaccines can be deployed that have been compromised and have not been tracked and traced. High-stakes aspects result as neither patients nor doctors know if their drugs are no longer viable. Imprint Energy’s smart labels, which our ZinCore battery enables, provide answers.
Smart labels, which have simple sensors for temperature, humidity, impact anti-tampering, are very simple. Data can be collected and transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth, cellular or Wi-Fi, for example. As that data is transmitted, the information gives various stakeholders in the supply chain detailed information to either change their processes, improve them, or mitigate waste. Many opportunities exist in this application space to make processes better and provide more awareness of what’s happening in real-time.
Up until this point, the industry has dealt with initial guessing and then guessing again along the way, or dealing with loss in the supply chain. Imprint Energy can mitigate or eliminate much of this waste, in the form of the assets and energy waste by leveraging real-time sensing through these smart labels. We can take that to the logical extreme; labels can be put on almost everything. Everything that you can buy now probably already has a label on it. We can take the next logical leap in that case, that every label could utilize smart labels and need batteries to power them. As we have more information about everything with a smart label, we can make better choices and improve processes.
EKMH: In this new world of increased communication, digital transformation and human-centered design, how can businesses practice agility, ethically leverage tech and find new revenue streams?
Dr. Christine Ho: One example of business agility that we employ at Imprint Energy exists on the manufacturing side. Instead of reinventing the wheel for producing our batteries, even though they’re revolutionary in chemistry and shape, we’re using an age-old process to manufacture them: printing. We drop into manufacturing methods that have long been deployed and well understood and are cost effective.
Another example is the upscaling of existing track-and-trace capabilities. People have tried to track-and-trace things for a while. There are QR codes and RFID that have already been deployed in the billions or trillions of units. We are upscaling the capabilities of track-and-trace technology as this technology becomes lower power, more cost-effective and safer. Because those trends are all happening, we can upscale on existing track-and-trace processes and give the customer more in their use case. Instead of just an RFID tag that tells when a box of spinach has left the warehouse and is on its way to Costco, a minimum viable step above that is now that the sensor not only provides location, but it also gives real-time temperature monitoring.
Imprint Energy is not just reinventing the use case: we’re adding more value. We’re trying to find customers who are looking for added value in an infrastructure that they’ve already deployed for many years. For us, the easiest way to find new opportunities is to really understand the customer and the use case, and to understand how we can step into an existing infrastructure instead of building everything from scratch. I think that’s a valuable business agility mindset.
EKMH: How has your belief in democratizing manufacturing come to fruition at Imprint Energy?
Dr. Christine Ho: The concept of democratizing manufacturing through printing was inspired by the 3D printing trend in the early 2000s. It started as a trend, and now I have multiple friends who own 3D printers and can make things in their homes. The idea stuck in mind, that manufacturing should exist everywhere and not just in low-labor regions. Sometimes I’ll follow where things have to travel to in order to be made — I’ll see that one component might be made in Asia and another in Europe. Then the products go to Southeast Asia to be assembled and then these products get shipped to customers in North America.
Because printing already exists all over the world and is so cost effective, it’s already been democratized in a way. Let’s imagine setting up these print lines for batteries and smart labels almost everywhere. The amount of distance/ travel required to create and deliver a product for use cases can be exorbitant. With localized manufacturing, I imagine the entire process happening under one roof. What’s incredible about the smart label and stepping into an existing manufacturing paradigm and global printing process is that we could literally have batteries printed alongside the sensor and assembled into the smart label all under one roof, in a very small physical footprint. The products can be deployed exactly where they will be used.
EKMH: Women only account for 27% of the STEM workforce. While women may represent a smaller portion than our male counterparts, women’s work and contributions continue to significantly impact the world. What steps can be taken on both macro and micro levels to increase the number of women in C-level positions and more rapidly effect positive, inclusive change within teams? As a CEO and co-founder, how have you implemented these DEI practices at Imprint Energy?
Dr. Christine Ho: A Kauffman study revealed that companies with at least one woman in the C-Suite level end up being much more diverse companies – from gender diversity to ethnicity. This diversity was higher at all levels of the company, from employees to executives to board members. There’s a step function in terms of having at least one woman in a C-level position within a company. I think that it’s important that becomes a requirement. That can be something that’s demanded at all levels. For example, if you’re an investor, only invest in companies that have diverse C-level executives. If you’re NASDAQ and companies are going public, require the same.
I come from an academic entrepreneurship background. A lot of the incubators and accelerators that are the first seed that helps spin out these new companies from university research, they have a lot of choices and power in anointing companies. They can make DEI a requirement. If you want to apply to this business competition, if you want to get funding or support from this accelerator, make sure that your team is diverse and that there are women in founding roles and leadership roles within your company.
We can create an ecosystem that encourages and requires DEI. At a macro level, that’s something that can help encourage more diversity across entire companies, not just at the leadership level. Ultimately, it’ll kind of waterfall into all aspects of the company. Here at Imprint Energy, we look at all aspects of our team, from the existing team to our board advisors. We’re looking to embrace the fact that diversity gives us strength.
For a long time as a female entrepreneur and CEO in STEM, I’ve been surrounded in a male- dominated industry. It’s really easy to feel like I don’t fit in, like I don’t look like anybody else, like I don’t act like the other CEOs that I’ve seen on TV or met in-person. A lot of women like me have suffered from imposter syndrome for a long time, and I’ve struggled with that myself.
But then I had an epiphany: I realized that imposter syndrome, that term itself, doesn’t make a lot of sense. This notion suggests that I’m the imposter and there’s something wrong with me. I started to realize that part of the reason why Imprint Energy is successful is because I’m different and the company is different. I’ve gone through this evolution and mindset shift that I am different and that embracing that difference means strength. At Imprint Energy, we look for people who will bring that diversity and that difference of thought and difference of background. That’s Imprint Energy’s strength and why we stand out to investors, to customers and to employees who we’re recruiting, to the people that help our company. Diversity has set us apart and helped us to become successful.
EKMH: How have mentors helped you grow as a leader, entrepreneur and innovator?
Dr. Christine Ho: Mentors are vital to the success of any company because there’s just no playbook on how to do this. Each company that’s been started has its own nuances and dynamic. Mentors who roll up their sleeves and deliberate how to solve problems and move forward on difficult situations or how to have difficult conversations prove vital. For me, mentors have come in all different forms.
One can also find mentors and colleagues who are at the same stage, one step ahead or one step behind. There’s so much learning as well as support that we can garner from somebody who is in the trenches as well. It’s important to surround ourselves with a diverse number of mentors with different levels of experience. To me, drawing in several satellites that support you and your company provides a key to success for any entrepreneur and for any startup.
EKMH: What specific career advice do you have for the rising generation for women studying STEM? For those already working in STEM careers?
Dr. Christine Ho: It’s important to get exposure to as many things as possible when studying STEM. It’s important to obtain good disciplinary experience in looking at different fields and talking to different people, and not just people in STEM, but also people in other industries and academic sectors. Note where you can solve problems at the interfaces of different industries and different companies and talk to many different people and get as many different points of view as you can to shape not only what you want to do, but will also shape what problems are meaningful for you to solve.
It's important in STEM to look for an ecosystem or support system that tells you, “Hey, even when things are tough and you don’t know exactly what to do, you’re going to be okay.” More than anything, when people come to me for advice or feedback, oftentimes I can sense that actually behind all of it, behind the technical and business questions, they’re just looking to feel like it’s going to be okay, especially in the STEM field and entrepreneurship. People act like ducks — they’re still and calm above the surface, but their feet are paddling like crazy underneath the water.
And if you receive feedback, it’s really important for you to provide that feedback for others as well. Extend that chain and pay forward the support to others who need to take their own career steps or to make difficult decisions.
EKMH: How have you benefited from failure and/or taking risks?
Dr. Christine Ho: I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ve failed a lot. My freshman year of college, I didn’t do well. I actually failed a number of classes. After high school where it was easy to do well, failure was a pretty big shock to the system. I had a professor who sat down with me and said, “Christine, if you don’t turn this around, the doors to your future are going to close.” He pounded the table to mimic the sound of closing doors.
Sometimes, we have to take and embrace failure, although painful. As much shame and embarrassment that failure causes, it also motivates us to turn things around and to take riskier leaps. Failure isn’t necessarily a signal not to bet on oneself. In some cases, failure is a signal to double down and really go for it.
We can fail, and when we do, people tell us not to take it personally. I’m a sensitive person, so I tend to take things very personally. I’ve since embraced the fact that it’s okay to take failure personally. I take it as a signal that I should double down even more and bet on myself even more. That’s a personal decision – not a business decision.
At Imprint, many of the decisions we make are potentially reversible. So even if we make a mistake, we can reverse and go in the other direction. We don’t have to always be right. We don’t have to study and belabor something and just wait to be right. It’s a competitive edge to take calculated risks and to move quickly. We try to infuse this idea of a bias for action and to remove that fear of failure.
EKMH: Which books and/or podcasts top your recommended list?
Dr. Christine Ho: One of my favorite podcasts is called “Watt It Takes.”* Its host, Powerhouse Founder / CEO and Powerhouse Ventures Managing Partner Emily Kirsch, has an uncanny way of getting people to speak openly and honestly about what they’ve gone through in their respective careers. It’s a personal podcast: everyone is human, everyone struggles, and everyone fails. At the same time, everyone has also experienced incredible successes.
One of my favorite books, especially when I’m needing some encouragement, is Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It’s also very fun to read to my three-year old son!
*Editior’s Note: Listen to Dr. Christine Ho on “Watt It Takes!”
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*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this series are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.