Riley Donelson

VP Design at @JoinAtomic

[Redpoint @Redpoint]

We're ecstatic to be leading @joingoldenchild's $25M Series A.

Golden Child is building something different: a fresh food system designed from the ground up.

[Golden Child @joingoldenchild]

Introducing Golden Child. 🐾

We've built a new food system for dogs that features chef-crafted and vet nutritionist-developed recipes. Because your dog deserves a bowl made with the same care and intention you'd want for yourself.

Meet our meals at https://t.co/TVmbydF7U8. 🐶

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

NEW: The AI Data Center "Boom" is Kinda Fake..

But the power bottleneck is still very real.

Inside the energy company using rocks & sunlight to fix AI’s power problem right now.. not in 10 years: @ExowattEnergy

Most "announced" data centers will never get built (ahem, Stargate). The ones that do? Running on gas generators. And the U.S. grid has no answer for what’s coming.

Hannan Happi, CEO & Co-Founder of @ExowattEnergy, joins Sourcery for a rare facility tour of their 40,000 sqft Miami HQ — walking us through the tech, the team, & why the AI power crisis is far worse than the headlines suggest.

Exowatt has raised $140M from a16z, Atomic, Felicis, Sam Altman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Starwood Capital, Thrive Capital, & more, all betting on a deceptively simple idea: concentrate sunlight with Fresnel lenses, store the heat in rocks at 1,000°C, and dispatch electricity on demand. 24 hours a day, no grid required.

Their P3 system is built from sand, dirt, and steel. Like a large magnified glass and a rock. No lithium. No cobalt. No China. Target cost: 1 cent per kilowatt hour.

In this episode:
→ Why most announced data centers are phantom projects
→ The real bottleneck that replaced GPUs: skilled labor
→ How a 200-year-old engine is at the heart of their stack
→ What hyperscalers actually say about sustainability (it's not pretty)
→ Lessons from Tesla on iteration, modularity & vertical integration
→ Why Miami — and why now

With a 90+ GWh demand backlog and commercial deployments live in 2025, this might be one of the most important energy companies emerging in the AI era.

Founded in 2023 by Hannan Happi & Atomic CEO @jackabraham, Exowatt's mission is to make sustainable renewable energy always available and almost free.

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) What is Exowatt? The solar backbone for AI data centers
(01:30) Why the US grid simply cannot handle what's coming
(02:00) Tour begins: Welcome to Lighthouse Miami — 40,000 sq ft facility
(02:45) The P3 explained: three elements, one shipping container
(04:00) The founding story: Atomic venture studio and the modular hypothesis
(05:30) Why solar thermal hasn't followed solar PV's 99.6% cost decline — until now
(07:00) North star: 1 cent per kilowatt hour and where they are today
(11:00) Inside the world's largest solar simulator — the sun, indoors
(13:00) The Fresnel lens up close: a giant magnifying glass for the sun
(15:00) "It's rock science" — the 5-year-old explanation of how it works
(17:30) Domestic raw materials (sand, dirt, steel) as the real competitive moat
(24:30) The phantom data center problem: most announcements won't get built
(26:00) From 100 MW to 10 GW: how data center scale exploded in 3 years
(30:00) Funding breakdown: $140M, a16z, Felicis, Sam Altman, Leonardo DiCaprio
(37:00) Lessons from Tesla: remove parts, iterate fast, build better

[Exowatt @ExowattEnergy]

Excited to share we’ve raised $70M in our Series A to deliver scalable, 24/7 power for AI data centers. Shoutout to our team and investors, @a16z, @MVP_Ventures, Starwood Capital, MCJCollective, @Felicis, Thrive Capital, @goat_capital, @Atomic, @StepStoneVC, 8090 Industries

[Jack Abraham @jackabraham]

Exowatt launches today! ☀️

The power requirements to scale AI are astronomical. Within a decade AI will require 650TWh of new power generation – more than the electricity demand of South Korea. In the U.S. alone, data centers will require the equivalent amount of electricity to power 40 million households by 2030.

Exowatt P3s can generate electricity at scale at just a $0.04 LCOE and with entirely renewable tech. That’s lower than the cost of most fossil fuels and doesn’t account for subsidies. We have already amassed a 1.2 GW backlog, worth $Bs from the mega tech hyperscalers, energy and data center companies.

The system works by capturing the sun’s energy in the form of heat, storing it in a heat battery and converting it to electricity via a heat engine even when the sun is no longer out. This changes the economics of solar by solving a problem called the “Duck Curve” where all conventional solar producers are forced to sell their power at the same time while at maximum output, driving the electricity cost sometimes to zero or negative intraday and leaving no supply at night. Data centers need to operate 24/7 and typically have 60% of their OPEX from energy costs, so an inexpensive and ever available alternative is very important to them. Data centers are straining to bring capacity online and without solutions like Exowatt, are being forced to turn to fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas.

We hope you’ll join us in pushing forward an abundant and non fossil fuel powered future!⚡️

https://t.co/p626bMg149

[Atomic @JoinAtomic]

Most subscription companies don’t realize that half of their customer churn is accidental and can be recovered. @ButterPayments 🧈 boosts top-line for consumer and SaaS businesses by ~10%, addressing this ~$440B problem. @ShenLucinda @axios with more here https://t.co/2C2n00QLCB

[Jack Abraham @jackabraham]

Excited to announce Exowatt, backed with $20M from Sam Altman, A16Z & Atomic!

We invented a new solar technology that can power the future of AI & data centers at lower electricity costs than fossil fuels with significant deployments coming this year.

https://t.co/fle9zOoZN5

[andrewdudum @AndrewDudum]

Latest $hims TV spot debut!

Excited for this to start airing.
Our creative team continuing to deliver 🔥

[Atomic @JoinAtomic]

👀 Attention Builders! The Atomic Builders Summit is coming to NYC May 1-2 - our exclusive, annual “unconference” bringing together founders and leaders for a day to share ideas, discuss company building, and hang with extraordinary entrepreneurs. Request your invitation early as space is limited! https://t.co/C0KuH9V4xA

[andrewdudum @AndrewDudum]

Big day at $HIMS - we announced our first quarter of net income profitability and we expect to pass $1B in revenue in 2024.

We have 1.5M+ subscribers on the platform up 48% YoY.

Revenue increased 65% YoY to $872M.

But it’s really just the beginning for us.

https://t.co/l9Qkw0wLNg

[Jack Abraham @jackabraham]

15 years after he backed my first company, grateful and excited to build my next one with Kevin. Come build Sauron with us!

[Kevin Hartz @kevinhartz]

We are working on disrupting an antiquated home security market by creating military-grade consumer security. We are calling engineers, product, and ops folks

If you’d like to join me in building, please apply using the link below👇

https://t.co/PtOzPJicCj

[Jack Abraham @jackabraham]

Excited to announce Atomic IV! 🚀

There has never been a better time to build. We hope you’ll join us!

https://t.co/b38QBboTkh

[Chester Ng 🆖 @chest]

"Downturns are the best times to start companies. That’s certainly what venture studio Atomic is banking on—literally."

@AnneSraders @FortuneMagazine profiles how we're scaling up @JoinAtomic: new fund, new GP, team of 75, new companies, new industries.

https://t.co/54tigVmHsR

[Jordan Kong @ImNotJK]

1/ I'm excited to announce that @JoinAtomic has co-founded and backed @_joinfire with a $3.5M seed investment to make web3 simpler and safer.

[Atomic @JoinAtomic]

Attention builders! Thinking about founding a company or joining a founding team? Come to Miami April 26th for our annual Builders Summit to share ideas & explore company building with other extraordinary entrepreneurs in a private one-day “un-conference” https://t.co/JWvmKB9ZhT

[Atomic @JoinAtomic]

+ Atomic. Thanks for adding us @htaneja @generalcatalyst

[Jordan Kong @ImNotJK]

1/ A few weeks ago, I sat down with @rrhoover to get his advice on navigating today’s startup environment and finding product-market fit.

He dropped some 🔥knowledge from his experience as the founder of @ProductHunt and the @weekendfund 👇🏻

[Iceberg @trade_iceberg]

Fire just cracked the top 25 for all NFT projects, all time, in terms of distribution (# of unique wallets) 🔥

per: @nansen_ai

[Jimmy Kimmel Live @JimmyKimmelLive]

A new commercial from Ryan Reynolds that’s totally NOT about Rob McElhenney! 😬 @VancityReynolds @RMcElhenney @KaitlinOlson @WeAreHims #ad