How Bret Kugelmass Plans to Unlock an Energy-Abundant Future

"We imagine a world where there is no limit on energy. We imagine it as if everyone had a private jet – all 10 billion people. We want people to live high-energy lifestyles. For this to happen, energy production needs to be decoupled from environmental impact and, therefore, clean energy needs to be abundant and inexpensive."

It's a departure from convention to hear the head of a climate-tech company express a desire for universal access to private jets. The common narrative in this realm leans towards energy conservation, not consumption. However, founder and CEO of Washington, D.C.-based Last Energy Bret Kugelmass's vision challenges this norm, underscoring the mission of the four-year-old company that specializes in the design and construction of micro modular nuclear reactors.

Last Energy's objective is clear: unlock nuclear power at scale. Their methodology is refreshingly simple: build nuclear plants which are so small and modular that they snap together like a Lego kit, thereby shrinking the costs and timeline of development (opposed to traditional nuclear plants, which come together slowly and expensively, like big, complex castles). The company intentionally relies on proven, "off-the-shelf" nuclear technology to make its plants replicable and manufacturable, which further enables them to finance projects through purely private capital. And by embracing the energy-as-a-service model, Last Energy streamlines the provision of reliable baseload electricity and heat, assuming end-to-end responsibility from design to operations and maintenance.

So, how did Bret get here?

Early Passion and Trailblazing Experiences

Bret's lifelong commitment to impact traces back to his childhood on Long Island. He told me, "if I'm not doing something important and making a difference, I would go crazy." A self-proclaimed "A/V nerd" in high school, he dabbled in entrepreneurship by founding an amateur videography business. His fascination with filmmaking and leadership sowed the seeds for his future roles as CEO and entrepreneur.

After high school, Bret attended Stony Brook University, where he pursued a degree in math. There, he discovered his passion for building. His educational journey took him to NASA as a roboticist, contributing to the Lunar Rover control device. Subsequent stints at Berkeley's COINS program and Stanford University's Mechanical Engineering department further honed Bret's R&D skillset, culminating in his selection for the Center for Design Fellowship sponsored by Panasonic, where he became the lead researcher (and developer) of a foldable electric car.

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The Importance of Problem Solving: A Key Lesson from Bret's Entrepreneurial Foray

Not long after graduating from Stanford, Bret developed (arguably pioneered?) autonomous flight technology. Coupling this with his past experiences — specifically Stanford GSB Ignite, a program for individuals formulating, designing, and commercializing ideas — he had enough conviction to start his own company. In 2012, Bret founded Airphrame, an end-to-end solution for capturing, managing, and analyzing spatial data via internet-controlled drones.

Over the next five years, Bret and his team raised around $6M of venture capital from Floodgate Fund, August Capital, and AmFam Ventures, navigating the complexities of commercialization and operational excellence before being acquired in 2017.

Reflecting on Airphrame, Bret had one key takeaway: "Find the right problem." He told me, "We had cool, burgeoning technology, but we were searching for a problem that mattered."

This lesson — that true success lies in addressing meaningful challenges that resonate with customers and industries — led Bret to his next venture.

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Creating the Energy Impact Center: A Vision for Climate Restoration

Post-Airphrame, Bret could not sit still. His resolve to effect change evolved into the Energy Impact Center (EIC). He moved to D.C. in October 2017 to get the ball rolling. Serving as a self-funded research institute, EIC delved into climate restoration with a focus on nuclear energy. Through extensive research and exploration, EIC emerged as a prominent thought leader in debates around the clean energy transition. They hosted over 400+ conversations across two podcasts and served as a clean energy transition advisor to the U.S., U.K., Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

"We created the institute to explore a wide problem-set in energy," Bret said. "We did not want to have a solution in mind; we wanted to explore every problem that mattered."

Driven by a relentless pursuit of knowledge and important solutions, Bret's focus shifted toward nuclear energy within three months of EIC's inception. He embarked on a comprehensive analysis of the industry's history, current challenges, and future potential.

He asked himself: "How can something be so great on paper but stagnate for 60 years? If it really is so great, why does only 10% of the world run on [nuclear energy]?"

The question led him down a two-year, meandering path of 865 subject-matter interviews and countless hours developing the fundamental thesis for his next venture. In the words of Peter Thiel, this is how Bret identified the "secret" for Last Energy.

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Last Energy's Secret and Fundamental Innovation

Uncovering the industry's regulatory landscape and market dynamics, Last Energy adopted a nuanced approach to product development and market entry. The common narrative was that environmentalists and oil and gas companies were the most significant roadblocks for nuclear energy adoption, but Bret learned this was incorrect. It was actually the nuclear companies themselves that lobbied aggressively for more regulation in the industry — a common playbook for regulatory capture. U.S.-based nuclear companies lobbied so hard that they almost entirely boxed out competition (and maybe even themselves to a certain extent).

This is where Last Energy came in.

Bret's thesis was that a) to achieve an energy-abundant world where we decouple from environmental impact, we need to build smaller — micro-scale, in fact — plants, and b) to actually create enterprise value (and a sustainable business), Last Energy would have to sell abroad.

He made key decisions to both build modular plants with existing technology, thereby de-risking cost and variability in time-to-deliver (mitigating "scheduling risk") and sell products exclusively in Europe.

"You can't build a nuclear company without full-throated government support," Bret said, "so we needed to mitigate that before founding the company."

Through the hundreds of interviews that EIC conducted, several were with European regulators — 15 in total. The team read all of the rules and had a strong understanding of the regulatory environments abroad. As a result, Last Energy essentially hand-selected the best markets to operate in. Bret and the team also hired in-country "CEOs" to manage on-the-ground operations and relationships.

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Founding and Scaling Last Energy

In late 2019, Last Energy officially emerged from EIC, secured $3M in Seed funding led by First Round Capital with participation from Floodgate Fund, and assembled a talented team. Customer discovery continued.

Embracing transparency, Last Energy launched an open-source initiative to gather feedback and refine its product. The team published schematics, technical drawings, and BOMs for their initial concept. They sent these specs to all 865 people they spoke with, as well as utilities, engineering firms, and plant operators.

Bret thinks "[the company] probably received tens of millions of dollars in feedback and engineering contributions for free. Utilities and engineering firms were literally marking up the schematics themselves."

Over the next year, Last Energy's five-person engineering team sifted through droves of feedback, designing the company's next and first proprietary version of its product.

In 2021, after finalizing plans for its first product, Last Energy focused on its go-to-market strategy. Bret recalls leveraging the Stanford design methodology, "sell before build," all year. The company prioritized de-risking demand and product-market fit. The Last Energy team was acquiring contracts and taking those to project financiers. Later in the year, the company raised a $21M Series A round led by GigaFund with participation from Quiet Capital, Armada Investments, and David Marquardt.

The following two years — 2022 and 2023 — were all about the systemization of the company's go-to-market, continued demand validation, and organizational excellence. Oh, and did I mention that the company secured agreements for more than 50 units , representing $32B in total contract value? (For context, there are only 54 active nuclear power plants operating in the U.S.).

As with all startups, though, Last Energy's rise was not a one-way trajectory up and to the left. There were many times when Bret had to navigate the pitfalls of being a cash-strapped startup and manage the transition from startup to scale-up. Specifically, Bret recalls some hiring missteps that led to cultural damage.

But with a robust pipeline of contracts and a steadfast commitment to excellence, the company is poised for continued growth and impact.

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Outlook for 2024 and Beyond

Bret will be the first to say 2024 is a critical year for Last Energy. As a startup, the company has spent a considerable amount of time focused on strategy and product design. But last year Bret’s team began testing its manufacturing and delivery processes in earnest, building a couple different prototypes and showcasing them at events in Texas and Poland.

Bret says 2024 is an opportunity to take that progress and introduce significantly more people to Last Energy’s approach. One of his goals is to bring a prototype to D.C., which would go a long way to demonstrate to stakeholders that a more efficient model of nuclear development is possible.

The company is also focused on clearing the relevant regulatory hurdles in each of its markets. Bret knows with certainty that Last Energy can manufacture, transport, and assemble a plant in less than 24 months.

That means the real question is licensing. So, to the degree Last Energy can show — rather than simply tell — its vision to the outside world, it will help the company reach its ultimate goal of delivering its first plant in 2025.

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Navigating D.C. Tech and Using Location as an Advantage

Bret is admittedly squarely focused on his company, so he has yet to engage deeply with the startup community in D.C. However, he does acknowledge that there are highly strategic reasons to be in D.C. – hence his move to the city in 2017.

He highlights the unrivaled access that D.C. startups have to policymakers. "Every government official from everywhere in the world comes to D.C. a few times a year. You basically have guaranteed access to them."

In his words, "If you have anything to do with government permissions, you need to be in D.C.," and he added, "If I was an investor, and I invested in a company in a regulated industry that had less than ten employees, I would tell them to move to D.C."

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Bret's Lessons Learned

• Solve the right problem – you need to understand your customers, their concerns, their pain points, and the industry tailwinds and headwinds. Don't just start with the tech.
• Know what your version of success looks like, and build your organization (both employees and investors) around that concept.
• Excellence and speed matter. Hold yourself and your people to a high standard and move fast.
• Employee culture fit – Bret always asks "why" in interviews. He wants to hire employees who are not only mission-aligned and represent a strong culture fit, but who are also organized, attentive, focused, dedicated, and genuinely care about the work they are doing. He does not shy away from telling employees, "I am going to make this the hardest job you've ever had." He is building a culture of 10xers.
• When solving for the "credibility or reputation" problem as an early-stage company — especially when selling to or dealing with the government — hire people with great reputations and networks.

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My Takeaways

• Dedication and Intensity – Bret exhibits an unwavering drive to enact meaningful change, which is evident in his intense focus and palpable energy. Unsurprisingly, he draws inspiration from leaders like Elon Musk in shaping his organization's ethos.
• Clear Vision – Bret emphasizes the importance of defining your version of success and aligning it with potential partners. It's crucial to communicate this vision effectively to gain consensus with stakeholders.
• First-Principles Problem-Solving – Bret's approach underscores the importance of identifying and tackling the fundamental issues underlying challenges. By employing a first-principles approach, he advocates for understanding the core of problems before devising solutions.
• Strategic Location and Policy Engagement – Bret's recognition of D.C.'s proximity advantages highlights the significance of location and policy engagement for startups, especially in regulated sectors. By investing time and building relationships in D.C. and abroad, Last Energy successfully engaged with policymakers and governments where they operate.