A Step-by-Step Guidebook
for Building Solutions
in Climate and Energy
This book combines two proven approaches from MIT—the globally recognized Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework and the specialized curriculum of MIT's Climate and Energy Ventures course. We've adapted both these elements into a single, highly accessible set of steps. Our framework provides a comprehensive and easy to understand guide for building a venture that is successful financially, socially, and environmentally.
DE4CEV is a go-to reference text that is both entertaining and practical for aspiring startup founders as well as entrepreneurial changemakers working within larger institutions, like established companies, government, and nonprofits.
DISCIPLINED
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Disciplined Entrepreneurship is a systematic and rigorous 24-step framework to build new innovation-based ventures, created at MIT.
It has proven extremely valuable for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs globally at all experience levels. Rather than invent new concepts, Disciplined Entrepreneurship assembles the tools that have already established track records of success in practice from many different sources. It then integrates them together in an easy to access and prescriptive road map.
Originally published in 2013, the framework is now taught at over 1,000 universities
CLIMATE & ENERGY
VENTURES
MIT Energy & Climate Ventures is a project- and lecture-based course in which teams create a new business in the climate adn energy sector. The goal is to educate entrepreneurs through hands-on practical experience.
Teams of engineering, policy, and business students are paired with technologies from MIT and surrounding labs to determine the best path for commercialization. These teams then spend the fall semester building their business plans. This advanced entrepreneurship course goes beyond general entrepreneurial concepts to address special challenges faced in the clean energy and related industries. Over the years, it has led to the creation of 62 companies, raising $2.2 billion in funding and creating 2,100 jobs
Testimonials
“The energy system is challenged simultaneously to deliver reliably and affordably while minimizing emissions and serving the needs of investors. Technology and business model innovation are the essential tools for meeting this complex challenge, and MIT’s Climate and Energy Ventures class has, from its inception, supported and developed entrepreneurs whose success we all depend on. This book captures the insights gained over fifteen years by faculty and students alike and, as such, provides an invaluable guide to those who will build the clean energy economy.”
—Ernie Moniz
Former US Secretary of Energy
“Addressing the closely coupled Climate and Energy challenge is the moral imperative and economic opportunity of our generation. I have watched the MIT climate and energy entrepreneurial ecosystem from its start and as it has successfully grown well beyond MIT. I know that at the core of its success have been rigorous frameworks to bring research to market. This book describes the MIT model in ways that should be useful to all current and aspiring innovators in this field.”
——Susan Hockfield
President Emerita, MIT
"There is no pathway or prescription to successfully address climate change, nor energy security, nor economic and environmental well-being without energy innovation. This book makes accessible to everyone proven, actionable, entrepreneurial strategies arising from one of the world’s greatest epicenters of innovation. I highly recommend it to all.”
—Andy Karsner
Former Under Secretary, US Department of Energy
Current Member of Board of Directors, Exxon Mobil
Managing Partner, Emerson Collective
"Disciplined Entrepreneurship for Climate and Energy Ventures is more than a guide—it’s a catalyst for action. What sets this book apart is its tailored focus on the unique challenges and opportunities within the climate and energy sectors. It’s an empowering blueprint for anyone committed to harnessing entrepreneurship as a force for meaningful, lasting change."
—Georgina Campbell Flatter
CEO, Greentown Labs
“Through my personal journey in building companies and supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs, I know that the learnings are hard won, and the journey can feel lonely. This book captures best practices that I hope every entrepreneur can benefit from to accelerate their progress and build world-changing companies.”
—Carmichael Roberts
PhD and serial deep tech founder
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Material Impact
“What I learned in the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework has helped me found and build two successful climate and energy companies. This framework has been my road map, and I can’t recommend it highly enough as a reference book for climate tech entrepreneurs.”
—Alex Wright-Gladstein
CEO and Founder of Sphere
Co-Founder of Ayar Labs
“At Breakthrough Energy, we’ve learned that building and deploying reliable, affordable, and clean energy solutions takes more than just good technology. It also takes teams with focus, humility, and grit. This book distills hard-earned wisdom into a guide that is both practical and inspiring for anyone working to build the next generation of transformative energy ventures that the world will rely on for decades, even centuries, to come.”
—Rodi Guidero
Executive Director, Breakthrough Energy
"Good thing entrepreneurship can be taught. Because energy needs entrepreneurs. If you would like to help accelerate the transition away from hydrocarbon fuels, learn how here, from the experts, step by step."
—Bob Metcalfe
Turing Laureate, Co-Inventor of Ethernet
Co-Founder and longtime CEO of 3Com
Research Affiliate, MIT CSAIL, Emeritus Professor, The University of Texas at Austin
“People often say that there is no 'playbook' for building new ventures in the climate & energy space. That changes today with the arrival of this singular new book that distills the hard-won lessons learned in the trenches over the last almost 20 years by the teaching team at MIT’s Climate & Energy Ventures course. A bible for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to save the planet and make a lot of money while they’re at it.”
—David Danielson
Co-Founder, ARPA-E
Former Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy,
US Department of Energy
Founder of MIT Energy Club and MIT Energy Conference
“In my quest to address the Dual Challenge, I have looked far and wide to find the best methodology. I found it in this Disciplined Entrepreneurship approach, and we have successfully brought it to Texas. I strongly believe it should be adopted globally, and we intend to help facilitate this.”
—David Baldwin
Partner at SCF Partners
Co-Founder of OpenMinds and TEX-E
“As a serial entrepreneur in the energy and climate space, co-founding five and successfully exiting four, I found that a lot of the conventional wisdom was wrong. There are first principles that you can learn to make your chances and magnitude of success much higher. While each page captures nuggets of this wisdom, the genius of this book is how it pulls them all together in a systematic way that entrepreneurs will find very useful. It gives you a fabulous, straightforward map of what you should do and how you should do it. Pure gold for any entrepreneur in this field.”
—Jonathan Hinton
Serial Energy Company Founder
$700M in Exits, EY Entrepreneur of the Year
“When I launched my energy startup Kurion—later acquired by Veolia—I faced countless challenges. The frameworks now clearly laid out in this book were my guideposts, giving me the confidence and structure to reach both success and impact. After years of working closely with founders from zero to exit, the authors have distilled their insights into this invaluable resource, tailored towards energy ventures. I can’t recommend this highly enough.”
—Gaëtan Bonhomme
PhD, Co-Founder & CTO, Kurion
Partner, Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe
“It was the Climate and Energy Ventures class at MIT that showed me that there was a systematic way to build and evaluate these types of companies. These lenses, as well as the discussions in the classes, have been invaluable to me as a global investor with a focus on sustainability and impact investing for the last 15+ years.”
—Shahazwan (Juan) Harris
Head of Strategic Investments, EPF Malaysia,
Former Executive Director, Investments, Khazanah Fund (Malaysia)
“I’m not sure my start-up company would have made it without these frameworks—but I know for certain it wouldn’t have achieved the same level of success. The prescriptive, actionable guidance in this book is unmatched for anyone building a climate or energy company. For me, Disciplined Entrepreneurship was a true north star.”
—Oliver Stahl
Founder and CEO, Entelios AG
“As a passionate government and then corporate advocate for sustainability, it is my fervent desire that a rigorous and systematic approach like this be adopted globally as quickly as possible. It will not just help preserve the planet but also create significant concurrent, economic prosperity. These two do not have to be at odds with each other, as this book shows.”
— Brune Poirson
Former Secretary of State and Minister of Parliament, Government of France
“This book is a call to action for the next generation of innovators poised to lead the energy transition, and this book should become the Bible for all that want to join the crusade. In Houston—the energy capital of the world—the stakes are especially high. But so are the opportunities. We need leaders who can navigate both the technical and commercial challenges of building transformative solutions. At TEX-E, we’ve seen firsthand how critical it is to equip young entrepreneurs with the right tools, frameworks, and mindset to tackle these challenges. Whether you’re in a university lab, a startup incubator, or a garage with a big idea, this book will help you translate your vision into venture. I recommend it to anyone serious about making a lasting impact in the energy space.”
—David Pruner
Executive Chairman, TEX-E
"At Powerhouse Ventures, we know that great entrepreneurship can be taught, and learned. This book is an invaluable resource for aspiring entrepreneurs to accelerate clean energy abundance and build enduring, high-growth businesses."
—Emily Kirsch
Founder and Managing Partner, Powerhouse Ventures