#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Haley Marie Keith, CEO and Co-Founder, MITO Material Solutions
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Transforming the materials landscape with sustainability and efficiency
MITO Materials Solutions’ founding team believes improvements to materials can ultimately improve quality of life. The company is creating additives that improve the durability and toughness of legacy industrial materials, giving manufacturers the ability to make lighter and stronger products. We talked to Co-Founder and CEO Haley Marie Keith about her journey from the university to entrepreneurship pipeline, inequities and challenges facing women founders, and the pros and cons of working with government programs.
Can you tell us about yourself, your background, and what led you to create MITO Material Solutions?
I grew up in Northwest Indiana, where manufacturing was a significant part of the landscape. My upbringing was immersed in discussions about manufacturing processes, thanks to my mom's role in the industry. During my MBA studies at Oklahoma State University, I stumbled upon the technology behind MITO during one of my classes. It was a university spinout, sitting idle, waiting for someone to pick it up. Recognizing the product’s potential to revolutionize carbon fiber composites, I saw an opportunity and decided to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. At MITO, we specialize in enhancing carbon fiber composites and fiberglass materials through advanced additives. Our additives make carbon fiber stronger, thereby reducing the weight of materials. This is crucial because carbon fiber is currently at its production capacity limits, particularly with the increasing demand for decarbonization efforts and energy transition projects like wind farms. By making carbon fiber composites 100 percent tougher and stronger, we enable our customers to use 20 percent less carbon fiber material in their components, effectively increasing the availability of this critical resource.
We’re not just local players either; we serve customers worldwide. We import raw materials, including graphene, a key component in our process, from the U.K. Our industrially scaled materials are exported worldwide after functionalization. I wasn't a technical person. I did not know anything about the science behind graphene. Now, I’m proudly a material science founder, alongside my co-founder and husband, who happens to be a material scientist and engineer. While we're still in startup mode, we've managed to establish ourselves as thought leaders in our niche, providing innovative solutions to manufacturers across various industries.
Starting a company with your partner sounds both exciting and challenging. Can you share your experience, especially as you shoulder the additional pressures of being parents and founders simultaneously?
It's been quite the rollercoaster ride, to say the least! We founded MITO right out of college, and over the years, we've seen our company grow alongside our family. Balancing parenthood and entrepreneurship comes with its unique set of challenges, particularly concerning healthcare, childcare costs, and the absence of the safety net typically provided by traditional employment. We've had to navigate these hurdles to ensure the well-being of our family and the success of our business simultaneously. Back when we were just two college kids starting out, it wasn’t as daunting; but with two daughters now, the stakes feel higher, particularly with the soaring costs of child care. I'm taking my six-month-old to work every single day. I didn't have maternity leave and went back to work less than a week after my second daughter’s birth. I was on the phone with a lawyer negotiating a term sheet while I was in labor, and I came back to raise another round of funding in 2023; Startup founders constantly face immense pressure, Carta now reports that Q4 of 2023 had the highest rates of startup deaths since 2019. The stress has not stopped since. Child care should be treated as a fundamental right rather than a luxury, and policies should reflect that.
Additionally, since entrepreneurs are contributing to the public good by driving economic growth, addressing student loan forgiveness for founders much alike for public service should be a priority. Entrepreneurs, especially women founders, often face uphill battles, and policy reforms could alleviate some of the burdens they carry.
Could you shed some light on the fundraising landscape and the challenges you've encountered?
The fundraising journey has been incredibly challenging, particularly as a woman founder. Despite our company's achievements and revenue milestones, securing venture capital funding has been disproportionately difficult in the last few years. Women receive less than 3% of all venture capital, a statistic that underscores systemic biases within the industry. The hurdles we face in fundraising reflect the urgent need for greater equity and inclusion in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Currently, MITO is in the midst of a fundraising round and I’ve taken a step back, allowing my husband and cofounder to lead the funding charge while I focus on our sales deals. Being a woman and a mother has been affecting my ability to raise the needed funding and I have been told that by different people.
Can you share your experience with the NSF SBIR program and any improvements you believe could be made to the process?
The NSF SBIR program has been instrumental in helping us commercialize our technology. We’ve witnessed substantial improvements, particularly in streamlining processes such as letters of intent and enhancing consistency across departments. However, grant writing is a complex and time-consuming process that makes it hard for startups to participate. Feedback on grant proposals—rather than outright denials—is useful for startups because you know what you need to improve as opposed to being left frustrated and unsure if you do not receive the grant. Also, clarity on expectations for grant compliance-related issues like how the grantor wants you to do accounting related to the grant, would be beneficial.
Can you talk a bit more about other government programs or incentives you’ve had experience with?
Navigating the landscape of government funding and global trade has been quite the journey for our team. It’s fascinating to observe how different regions and countries approach supporting startups and innovative ventures. Take, for example, the contrast between the U.K. and the U.S. in terms of sustainability projects. I was advised to set up an office in the U.K. because of the significant financial support provided by the government for sustainability initiatives. On the other hand, in the U.S., we had to bootstrap much of our operation with limited capital which posed challenges, especially when signing supply contracts without the assurance of large-scale orders.
Furthermore, dealing with government-backed venture capital at the state level has been an eye-opener. There are complexities and bureaucratic hurdles that often hinder the efficient allocation of funds. I’ve encountered first-hand the discrepancies between allocated funds and their actual distribution, leading to frustration and confusion within the entrepreneurial community. Meanwhile, other state programs like the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) have been foundational to facilitating our participation in international conferences and trade missions.
Could you shed some light on your involvement in setting industry standards, and why it's crucial for small businesses like yours?
Involvement in setting industry standards has been crucial for our small business journey in a young and growing industry. We actively engage with standards organizations to define benchmarks, particularly in areas like graphene where standards were previously absent. This proactive approach establishes a competitive edge and drives industry progress. Participation demands significant staff time and financial investment from the company, but there are several benefits. For example, networking opportunities and interactions with regulatory bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency deepen our understanding of compliance requirements and help us streamline MITO's product development processes. It is essential for us to participate because otherwise standards would be set by larger organizations without us— our perspective, needs, and capabilities—at the table.
Looking ahead, what's your vision for the future of MITO Material Solutions?
Our vision is to continue innovating and transforming the materials landscape toward sustainability and efficiency. We aim to see our materials integrated into various industries, from automotive to aerospace, contributing to a more sustainable and technologically advanced future. Our goal at MITO is to design the world in a more sustainable way and make materials do more. We're excited to continue our path of innovation through the help of different government agencies and to make our world both more sustainable and more decarbonized so that we can live in a better world tomorrow. At MITO, we think that creating a better world tomorrow starts with the materials you use today—by using them differently or adding things to them to make them more effective and more efficient. MITO’s technology solutions enable smarter choices in material for manufacturers. I'm excited to think about looking back in 20 years and seeing how we've changed the industry and how our materials are making a difference in the production of cars, airplanes, windmills, and more.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
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