In this debut episode of ''Skills'', Julien sits with Dan Brunner, ex‑CTO and co‑founder of Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), about the people side of building a fusion company.
CFS spun out of MIT, raised nearly 3B USD in venture capital, scaled to 1,000+ people and is now building SPARC, an experiment to demonstrate net fusion energy.
Dan built and led the team that designed SPARC and helped create the organizational foundations for one of the world’s most advanced fusion efforts.
In this conversation, Dan and Julien discuss:
-Dan’s path from fusion research to leading a world‑class engineering organization
-Moving from being an expert to leading experts
-How CFS approached “good hiring” in deep tech
-The challenge of integrating three cultures
-Building culture intentionally
-Communicating fusion to investors, customers and non‑experts
-“Getting out of the lab” to engage with investors and customers and understanding where fusion makes sense
Dan also reflects on:
-How he taught himself to hire
-Letting go of the desire to understand everything in depth, and shifting focus to enabling others
-The emotional process of deciding to step away as a co‑founder and trusting the team to carry the mission forward
Finally, he shares advice for the next generation of deep tech founders
If you are a scientific founder, aspiring CTO or deep‑tech investor, this episode gives you practical perspectives on leadership, hiring and culture from inside one of the most ambitious deep tech companies of our time.
