Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

First times are hard – especially for entrepreneurs. Getting the first investment is hard. Getting the first sign of traction is hard. And securing the location for the first official use case of a technology at scale is very, very hard.

But Co-founders Mitch Ishmael and Levon Atoyan and their team at Shift Thermal were up to the challenge. They have been working tirelessly for the past decade to prove the viability of their “Active Energy Systems” in a variety of industry applications.

In July, the co-founders announced the closure of Shift Thermal’s $1 million bridge round to help them transfer their technology, which was developed in a laboratory, to industry. The round was led by Queen City Angels with participation by Market Square Ventures, Three Roots Capital, InvestTN, and the Clean Energy Venture Group.

The purpose of the bridge round was to help Shift Thermal transfer its technology from the lab to industry. The first way they did so was through a partnership with the City of Oak Ridge, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Oak Ridge Civic Center to install their first commercial unit at scale.

The partnerships that made it possible

Shift Thermal cut the ribbon on the unit on Thursday morning.

Randy Hemann, the City Manager for Oak Ridge, said Shift Thermal is a great example of what happens when cities are aligned on a mission.

“Oak Ridge is a place where innovation happens. We, as a city, want to be a test bed for innovation, and that’s how conversations with Mitch and his team got started,” Hemann said. “This provides a great service to the city. It is a win-win.”

“The city could not have been a better partner for our first-of-a-kind project installation,” Ishmael said.

But getting to this point of installation was not easy. Ishmael said there were a lot of road bumps along the route. It took a lot of community support to help the company pivot in purposeful ways.

One of the people who serves as an advisor, 3x investor, and mentor to Shift Thermal is John Bruck.

“You don’t get to a full-scale, commercializable technology from just an idea over a period of less than 10 years without a lot of support from a lot of different folks, individuals and organizations,” Bruck said, crediting ORNL, Innovation Crossroads, the Spark Innovation Center, UT Research Park, TVA, Three Roots Capital, Market Square Ventures, Launch Tennessee, and more.

“I have seen Shift go through more than one very difficult time, but Mitch and Levon are coachable and persistent. They have a passion for what they’re doing and believe in the need for this technology, ” Bruck said.

Dennis Corley, with Three Roots Capital, is another investor, mentor, and advisor to the start-up. He echoed Bruck’s sentiment about the quality of the co-founders.

“Why did Three Roots Capital invest in Shift Thermal? I’ll say it’s mainly because of the leadership team. Mitch and Levon have proven to be smart, tenacious, and from an investor’s perspective, very teachable,” Corley said. “Most investors will tell you they’re going to invest in a team over a product or a service, because it’s people that make businesses succeed.”

How does Shift Thermal Work?

The energy storage system attached to the Oak Ridge Civic Center will help lower electricity costs and decarbonize cooling. Low-cost off-peak power is used to make ice, which is what is stored inside the tank. Then, during the hottest part of the day, when power is most expensive and air conditioning is less efficient, the stored ice supplements the cooling system and improves its operation.

Shift Thermal has seven employees based out of their offices on Midway Lane in Oak Ridge. They initially came to Oak Ridge in 2017 to join the first cohort of the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Follow along with what Shift Thermal is working on.

Connect with Mitch Ishmael.

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