Creating a successful hard-tech startup demands more than just an innovative idea: it requires articulating a bold vision that inspires both your team and potential investors. At Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), I recognized early on that clearly defining our audacious goals would crystallize our internal strategy and make our path to creating a new industry tangible and compelling.
My approach was influenced by Jim Collins' concept of the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG), a strategy designed to drive transformational growth:
The best BHAGs require both building for the long term AND exuding a relentless sense of urgency: What do we need to do today, with monomaniacal focus, and tomorrow, and the next day, to defy the probabilities and ultimately achieve our BHAG?This is illustrated through examples such as Microsoft's early mission of "a computer on every desk and in every home," and SpaceX’s bold ambition of "making humans multiplanetary."
While Collins’ BHAG framework provided an inspiration, at CFS I adapted it to directly reflect the specific milestones needed to transform our core innovation, high-field superconducting magnets, into an economically viable fusion energy industry. The primary change I made was to add a series of increasingly audacious goals that built up to the BHAG at which CFS is aiming.
CFS began with a clear vision: to become the world’s leading fusion energy company. However, the concrete steps toward realizing that vision needed articulation. We intuitively knew the path: leveraging groundbreaking superconductors to develop high-field magnets, enabling compact, economic fusion power plants. Defining a structured set of goals provided the necessary clarity both internally and externally.
Why is this an Audacious Goal? Traditional research timelines, guided by governmental and academic experts, projected a 5-10 year development period for the magnets CFS and MIT developed. Our plan compressed this dramatically by setting a 3-year goal (and making it in 3 years and 3 months). This aggressive timeline was crucial in articulating the opportunity that new magnet technologies would fundamentally shift the reality of fusion, offering a faster, more economical route than previously available.
Impact: This goal clearly answered a common question from our investors: "why now?" Fusion has been around for decades, what made our approach different? By explicitly outlining that their investments in our company would achieve a new breakthrough in the enabling magnet technology, this goal provided compelling urgency and clarity to secure funding. This goal forced the company to focus on the core enabling innovation and not be distracted by other interesting but less fruitful opportunities.
Why is this an Audacious Goal? Achieving net fusion energy (Q>1) has historically eluded fusion researchers. Prior machines like the JET tokamak in the UK approached but did not surpass the crucial threshold with sustainable, scalable technology. The National Ignition Facility has recently surpassed Q>1, but with base technologies that are far from commercialization. SPARC’s design (targeting Q=11) and its technology take the leap from experimental demonstration to scalable commercial viability, significantly outperforming existing machines and validating the practical potential of fusion.
Impact: This goal signaled to investors and stakeholders the timeframe in which fusion technology will genuinely arrive at commercial potential, marking the beginning of a new industrial sector. This goal forced our company to focus on growing and executing a complex technical project at scale, raising ~10x the money ($200M → $1.8B) and growing the team ~10x in the process (100 → 1,000 employees).
Why is this an Audacious Goal? Transitioning from a successful demonstration (SPARC) to a commercially viable fusion power plant (ARC) represents an enormous technical, operational, and market-facing leap. While the first ARC may not be economically competitive, it will be the first in a series of ARCs that must eventually demonstrate continuous electricity production at competitive prices.
Impact: This goal will force our organization to mature rapidly from experimental operations to production-scale industrialization while meeting stringent cost, efficiency, and reliability standards demanded by customers.
Why is this an Audacious Goal? Scaling to a global fusion energy industry and producing hundreds to thousands of fusion power plants annually represents the ultimate transformation. This goal goes beyond technical challenges by encompassing global manufacturing, supply chain management, and long-term economic competitiveness.
Impact: This goal is the rallying cry for the company, underscoring the societal and environmental impact CFS aims to achieve. It aligns investor motivations and employee commitment: thereby creating a lasting, transformative legacy.
Before I architected these audacious goals, CFS’ vision was ambitious but lacked specificity in communicating the technological milestones and scale. Our early attempts in 2016 and 2017 had sweeping statements without clear, incremental impacts that articulated our pathway to success. Critical feedback from investors and advisors guided us toward the more structured, measurable, and compelling set of goals detailed above. Each iteration clarified our strategic milestones and deepened our ability to clearly communicate our transformational journey.
A list of powerful, audacious goals clearly and vividly:
To effectively implement these criteria, leaders should engage their teams in strategic discussions and align goal-setting with organizational values. This ensures that the goals are relevant, actionable, and inspiring, driving organizational growth and directing innovation.
Your startup’s vision must not only be bold and audacious but precisely articulated and structured around clear, measurable milestones that directly resonate with investors and inspire your team. The evolution and crystallization of your goals are a continuous process. Clearly defined audacious goals provide the necessary roadmap for both internal focus and external excitement.
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