From CS to materials science, Teresa Liu on how university research can be commercialized by anyone

Teresa Liu is the CEO & Cofounder of Ouros Materials, a materials innovation company making better, cheaper building materials for the construction industry — that happen to also use CO2 in the process. Their futuristic materials are 100x tougher than concrete, disaster resilient against wildfires and earthquakes, super strong, and delivers 90% carbon reductions, at a mere half the price of competitive alternatives. Teresa had quite the journey behind starting this company, starting off as a product manager and software engineer at companies like Lyft and Google, before deciding to fully pivot into the climate tech industry and winning the highly-selective 776 Foundation Fellowship, which set her on her path to starting this company. This podcast talks through her experience switching into the world of materials science, learning how to commercialize research from labs, creating a purpose-built team and technology from a climate problem, and her mindset around the need to build cheaper, better products first rather than relying on any sustainability value proposition.