Sulfcrete team raises $150K
Great things are happening for the Sulfcrete team! A little over a year after attending Pre-Seed Workshop, the company has secured $150K in funding and begun the process for licensing their product. Sulfcrete’s product (also called Sulfcrete) is the brainchild of the company’s founder, Bill Biamonte, who wanted to take his passion for helping the environment to the next level.
Biamonte partnered with Brookhaven National Labs to develop a cost-effective way of creating “Sulfcrete”—a low carbon, waterless alternative to cement. Sulfcrete is of superior strength to its alternatives, and can help create up to a 90% carbon reduction due to the fact that it is made from refined sulfur.
Biamonte’s experience at Pre-Seed Workshop was a great environment to learn how to turn his idea into something tangible. In fact, Biamonte says he was “exhilarated” by it. A self-described “learning sponge,” he appreciated the contributions of the Pre-Seed Workshop community to his business. “We got to work with a group of mentors to come up with a concept, a product, and practice presenting the business fundamentals to others,” he says. “You learn about the market and how to make it clear why you are different.” This sort of mentorship enabled Biamonte to leave Pre-Seed Workshop with a powerful working slide deck that his company still uses for presentations.
That presentation has helped Sulfcrete raise more than $150,000 in the days since Pre-Seed Workshop. The company was awarded a Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), for a total of $50,000. Because of their success with NSF, the company presented to Accelerate Long Island, a facet of the Long Island Association that helps commercial startups. Sulfcrete was awarded $50,000 from Accelerate Long Island, which was then matched by the Long Island Emerging Technology Fund. This funding success makes Sulfcrete eligible for an NSF Phase I B grant, a second and separate award from the organization, which will match up to 50% of what Sulfcrete has raised privately up to $30,000.
On the heels of their success, the Sulfcrete team offers some advice for future Pre-Seed Workshop attendees. When we spoke with Biamonte, he quoted Ben Horowitz, author of “The Hard Thing About Hard Things,” a book about startups. Horowitz wrote, “In the startup game, the model looks nothing like today. If you survive long enough to see tomorrow, it may bring you the answer that seems so impossible today.”
We look forward to hearing about the future success of Sulfcrete!
Want to learn more about Pre-Seed Workshop alumni, their experiences, and progress? Check out our Alumni Stories by clicking here.