Celebrating the Activate New York Community’s graduating Cohort 2023 and one fellow’s learnings on how to scale for impact

With the second cohort in our Activate New York Community finishing their fellowship, we want to take a moment to reflect on the power of community and the evolution of bold mindsets that come from our two-year fellowship program. Activate New York’s Cohort 2023 achieved amazing milestones over the program, ranging from identifying beachhead markets to building prototypes, deploying pilots and field trials, to closing customer contracts. Our New York Fellows are building companies with breakthrough technologies that are solving global challenges.

Andrew Chang, Managing Director of Activate New York, launched the community in 2022, leveraging his own experience as a tech startup founder and his background in nonprofits and energy policy to build a strong ecosystem of supporters and advisors for the New York community.

“This community is something that keeps on giving. We all can learn and benefit from the community, and we can also give back in our own ways, too,” Chang says. “It's just amazing to see the magic and the sparks that happen between fellows in adjacent fields and also from alumni who will be wonderful mentors to the next generation.”

*Activate New York’s Cohort 2023 kicking off their fellowships during Activate’s 2023 Retreat*

We asked Yang Shi, co-founder and CEO of Arbon and Cohort 2023 New York fellow, to reflect on his journey as an Activate Fellow and his learnings throughout the past two years. Arbon is a direct air capture company that has developed a reusable material to capture CO₂ directly from the air in dry conditions and release CO₂ when wet. Shi had the goal of synthesizing materials, building a pilot and exploring integrated utilization processes during the fellowship. He and his team not only built and validated their core technology over the past two years, but also started scaling after they validated their 10 ton scale pilot system.

What made you take the leap from academia to entrepreneurship?

It wasn’t a single moment—it was a slow burn. I had been immersed in CO₂ capture research for years at Columbia, but I kept running into the same wall: great ideas that stalled in the lab. I wanted to see them out in the world, solving real problems. At some point, I realized that if I didn’t take that leap, the technology might never leave the university.

Entrepreneurship gave me a vehicle to pursue impact at scale. And honestly, it challenged me to grow in ways academia never could. I went from refining equations to refining pitch decks, and from optimizing materials to optimizing strategy. I still love science, but I now see it as a tool—not the destination.

“Entrepreneurship gave me a vehicle to pursue impact at scale.”

Scaling Arbon so quickly was no small feat. What were the key moments or decisions in your journey that made that rapid growth possible?

Three stand out:

Focusing on manufacturability early. Instead of chasing academic perfection, we designed our capture units to be modular, shippable, and easy to assemble. That mindset shift—engineering for scale, not just performance—was crucial.
Choosing the right people. From our research scientist to our BD and engineering leads, every hire has been deliberate. I made it a priority to find people who could operate with autonomy but align deeply with our mission.
Strategic partnerships. Collaborating with groups like Rio Tinto and engaging with programs like Activate, Frontier, and Milkywire helped us punch above our weight. These partnerships accelerated both credibility and learning cycles.

Each of these decisions came with risk, but they enabled us to move from benchtop to field deployment faster than most expected.

*Yang Shi (Cohort 2023) with a demo of Arbon’s technology during Activate’s Hard Tech Showcase at Climate Week NYC 2023*

What’s been the toughest challenge in your entrepreneurial journey so far? What resources did you utilize to navigate that challenge?

The toughest challenge has been building trust across different fronts. Whether it's with early-stage investors, industrial partners, or technical hires, convincing others to believe in a technology that’s still evolving—and in a team that’s racing against time and budget—has been intense. At times, it felt like we had to prove our credibility before we even had a chance to show our results.

To navigate that, I leaned heavily on mentors from Activate and Columbia, who helped me balance technical integrity with strategic storytelling. I also built a strong early team who brought complementary skills—people who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me during tough conversations and long weeks in the lab and on the road. And finally, I’ve come to rely on transparency: being upfront about the risks, the unknowns, and our plan to address them. That’s been key to building durable relationships.

“That mindset shift—engineering for scale, not just performance—was crucial.”

Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future—both for your company and the broader innovation ecosystem Activate is helping to build?

For Arbon, I’m most excited about the shift from R&D to deployment. We’ve built and validated core technology that works. Now it’s about scaling with purpose—deploying our modules in ways that are cost-effective, replicable, and climate-relevant. We’re getting closer to making a tangible dent in CO₂ removal, and that's incredibly motivating.

More broadly, what Activate is building gives me hope. They're proving that technical founders can thrive with the right infrastructure—access to funding, networks, and community. There’s a new generation of climate founders coming up through Activate, and we’re not just creating companies; we’re setting new standards for science-driven entrepreneurship. It feels like we’re part of something much larger than ourselves.

“There’s a new generation of climate founders coming up through Activate, and we’re not just creating companies; we’re setting new standards for science-driven entrepreneurship. ”

Congratulations on your growth, Cohort 2023. Regardless of wins, pivots, or learnings, your mindsets have grown through the two years you’ve spent with Activate and we look forward to where your companies and personal journeys will take you.