If it’s not challenging, we don’t do it.

At ADL, our team is equal parts entrepreneurs and executives who have worked in innovation, R&D and corporate development for major institutions. We know how to be nimble when needed, and we understand the inherent pressures of bringing new products to market and scaling new businesses.

We are accustomed to working across the entire lifecycle of a company, as well as with government institutions that act as pillars of each industry with incentives, regulations and key programming.

What we do

Unstick Intellectual Property

Innovators within legacy sector corporations develop technologies to help solve vexing internal challenges. Through our Monetizing Innovation process, ADL helps corporates turn “stuck” IP into revenue streams by releasing them “out into the wild.” Many internally-developed technologies have material value to other corporations, but due to complex regulatory and internal governance rules, corporations are often unable to scale impact and bring value to others. ADL helps unleash the value of these technologies through external pathways, expertly navigating spin-outs, joint ventures and licensing agreements.

Open Innovation Competitions

ADL helps corporates identify problem areas for which solutions are challenging to find internally or externally. We help source, evaluate and, if appropriate, spin-in novel technology to the business to solve these crucial challenges and, in the process, unlock greater operational efficiencies or new markets. We can even create dedicated prizes and competitive programs through our DOE-funded ProblemSpace Platform.

New Products & Services

At ADL, we define ventures in many ways. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we are accustomed to working with small teams to launch new companies and grow to achieve major milestones. We can help early stage businesses as much as we can help corporates. On behalf of late stage or legacy companies, we help create new products and services and bring them to market or we help design and launch entirely new divisions with new business models. We are even capable of leveraging existing but underutilized corporate IP to drive new venture or revenue creation.

Launch New Ventures

Technical co-founders may have developed a product that beats the incumbent solution by 10X, but they may not have the hard-won experience on the commercial side of growing a young company. Not only do most emerging businesses lack the budget for an effective C-Suite, they also rarely need full-time resources in all of those areas. However, every company—no matter how small—requires strategic direction across business functions and a reliable execution team. ADL can provide a fractional team of experienced entrepreneurs capable of entering new markets, positioning a brand for an ideal customer and tapping into various sources of funding.

Venture Acceleration

Particularly through our partnerships with government agencies such as the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Lab, ADL works to support climate tech startups at scale in areas that include new venture strategy, go-to-market strategy (particularly with large corporates as early customers), capital strategy and fundraising, non-dilutive funding strategy and execution, market insights and team development.

Decarbonization Strategy

ADL supports corporate strategy, innovation strategy and more at legacy-sector incumbents. Since we are a team of serial entrepreneurs, we do so in a way that is highly nimble, producing actionable roadmaps for implementation. In our time, we’ve helped:

  • Some of the largest tech companies in the world advance novel energy purchasing strategies.

  • Major infrastructure companies integrate rigorous sustainability models into purchasing decisions.

  • Some of the largest electric utilities in the country prepare for the transportation transition by engaging customers more deeply and building new software and marketing materials.

Many of these engagements require business model innovation to achieve decarbonization goals.

Why we’re different

  • We are entrepreneurs ourselves

  • We don’t throw bodies at problems; we build or find technologies

  • We produce outcomes, not just reports; we want to achieve major milestones together

  • We seek to build businesses and new products, not drag out work indefinitely

  • We know that big rewards require big risks, so we are comfortable with risk-sharing