Addison Stark
CEO, ATMOSZERO
FROM BUILDING AND FIXING THINGS on a farm in Iowa to managing a startup from the executive desk, Addison Stark believes in going after the big problems. “There’s no lack of motivation developing the next great technology,” he said, stating that no one is better positioned than engineers—particularly mechanical engineers—to affect change in the world.
Stark’s company, AtmosZero, is building a new technology to electrify and decarbonize the boiler room at a time when large-scale investments are going into climate hardware. “We have a real chance to rebuild the world around us,” Stark said. Steam accounts for 8 percent of global emissions, and he believes now is the perfect time to address that by rethinking the boiler. “Babcock and Wilcox were the last major innovation to the boiler in 1867,” he said. “The time is right. The solution is right.”
According to Stark, there’s nothing better for our economy than making these investments, and it will be great for manufacturing jobs—moving people from using their talent drilling for oil and processing it, to finding other ways to utilize that. “Truly, it’s going to be the clean industrial revolution,” Stark said.
“I remember hearing from somebody that if you’re working on climate, you have a career for your whole life right now.”
Addison Stark
Founded during the pandemic, AtmosZero quickly went from “three guys pitching a concept” to a company of more than 20 people. “We put together a deck, a concept. We went out and pitched to VCs,” Stark shared. “Suddenly, we got the money, and we had to go from just selling a vision to actually making the rubber meet the road.”
The company raised $21 million in Series A funding earlier this year.
When asked about his proudest achievement to date, Stark answered that he takes pride in what he has not yet accomplished. “There’s still a long way to go. Net zero by 2050 is retirement for older millennials like myself,” he said. “The work will not be done when I’m done. So, I’m proud of pushing towards a great accomplishment.”
To hear a complete discussion with Stark, listen to his interview on this episode of ASME TechCast.
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