Vulcan Elements

Harvard Business School

Industry: Deep Tech / Manufacturing

MBA Founding Student Name(s): John Maslin, MBA 2024

Brief Description of Solution: Most advanced machines (i.e., power tools, electric vehicles, ships, drones, satellites, offshore wind turbines, robotics, medical imaging equipment, smartphones, etc.) rely on rare-earth magnets to operate. Today, >90% of rare-earth magnets are produced in China where one ton of magnets manufactured emits nearly 60 tons of carbon. Reliance on a potential adversary for critical supply chain components creates risk to U.S. national and economic security and our ability to build a high-tech, decarbonized economy. Vulcan Elements’ rare-earth magnet technology enables a secure U.S. supply chain and aids in the transition to a decarbonized economy.

Funding Dollars: >$10M (cannot disclose specifics right now)

What led you to launch this venture? My time in the Navy taught me the importance of supply chains –

how cutting off access to a single component can disrupt entire economies. Rare earth magnets are ubiquitous in our commercial economy and national security systems. Without them, you don’t have data centers, robotics, medical equipment, or the military systems we need to defend ourselves and our allies.

As I dug into the rare earth industry I was shocked at the lack of non-Chinese alternatives. And when I looked closer, I realized that even if production was not in China, every company in the space either had Chinese ownership, related subsidiaries, or were reliant on their equipment and material.

I became convicted in the mission to onshore this critical component and build a company that improved U.S. and allied national security, created good paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S., and earnestly worked to aid in the responsible transition to a carbon neutral economy.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? We have built an incredibly talented team. Our team includes my co-founder, who is a professor who opened the first U.S. based rare earth magnetic lab in two decades and served as a Principal Investigator on a DARPA program developing novel magnetics; a COO who is a former SpaceX and Ursa Major manufacturing expert; and a VP who is a chemical engineer with experience scaling novel products to commercial manufacturing. We also have elite engineers and technicians who are excited about the mission and understand the importance of what we are building.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company and how did you solve it? Finding the equipment that we need in our demonstration facility. Today, China produces >90% of all rare earth permanent magnets, the U.S. produces less than 1%. Because of that, virtually all of the equipment is made in China.

From day one, we set a goal to be fully decoupled from China (down to the material and equipment level), and work to decarbonize a carbon-heavy supply chain. It took a lot of work from our team, but I’m proud to say that to our knowledge, we are the only rare earth magnet company in the world that can stand by that statement.

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? I almost dropped out of business school after my first year but I’m glad I decided against it. HBS was incredibly supportive in my pursuit of building a business during school. They provided course offerings, connections to investors, and opportunities to refine what I was building. It was fundamental in raising our initial round of capital and thinking about how to rapidly and responsibly build a company that is critically important to U.S. national security and American prosperity.

What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? There are a lot of inspiring entrepreneurs who I look up to, but my parents set me on the path to becoming an entrepreneur. Throughout my childhood, they had multiple ventures, including selling custom golf balls, managing a mall kiosk, and creating curated resumes.

I remember helping them with inventory during middle school. I would count soccer balls and mini hockey sets. They would let me help package up material and I would watch them sell.

They gave me a window into the highs and lows of starting and operating a business.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? There were several classes that were helpful, but the two that stood out were Julia Austin’s Startup Operations class at Harvard Business School and the Climate and Energy Ventures Course at MIT. Both courses were for folks who were serious about working on or with startups after school.

The biggest lesson I learned was that building the right team will make or break a company in the early stages. There are so many parts of building a company that you can’t (and shouldn’t) do alone. Having incredibly smart classmates working with me, challenging my assumptions, and adding value where I had weaknesses was an invaluable learning opportunity.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? Bill Vrattos, my Finance I professor was a huge help. He was the first professor I spoke to about my idea and he instantly connected me to people in his network who I would not have been able to otherwise access. Several of our past and current advisors were from his direct help and willingness to share his network.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? I now live in North Carolina. There are a lot of other founders, and a surprising number of defense and manufacturing folks, who want to help and have been incredibly supportive as we got operations off the ground.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? The mission of onshoring this critical supply chain back into the U.S. is too important to fail. We are laser focused on producing magnets of high quality at cost competitive prices and reestablishing American manufacturing capability.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wished you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? Nothing is easy. Even if you think certain things should be simple and straightforward, they aren’t. Regardless of whether you’re building a start-up or doing something else, grit is everything.

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