Apr 23, 2025
19-Year-Old Built $200M Fusion Company Without College
An interview with Fuse, Founder of JC.B
Founder Focused
At 19, while his peers were cramming for college exams, JC Batt was building something that could reshape civilization itself. No dorm room, no lecture halls—just a $200 million nuclear fusion startup that's actually making money in an industry notorious for burning through cash without results.
Batt is the founder and CEO of Fuse, one of the only fusion companies generating revenue while most competitors are still chasing theoretical breakthroughs. His company has raised over $50 million, works with the US military, and recently published groundbreaking experimental results in Nature—the gold standard of scientific journals.
In this interview, Batt reveals why he skipped college entirely, how his team built 80% of their revolutionary fusion technology in-house, and what it really takes to build a company that could unlock the next level of human prosperity.
Watch the full interview now on EO's YouTube channel! Below is the complete transcription of the interview. Minor edits have been made for clarity and readability.
Key Highlights:
"Fuse we're on a mission to accelerate the world's transition to fusion energy. One of the only fusion companies that's actually making revenue."
"I started a company almost 6 years ago now. I was 19 at the time, yeah, never went to college. I never even submitted an application."
"We're the only fusion company that has delivered experimental results of a new technology that no one has built it before and published the results in nature. We've raised over $50 million of capital. We work with the US military and the US government."
"I believe that fusion will unlock the next level of human prosperity, the rise of the social middle class, the rise of AI, of quantum technologies."
"I started a company almost 6 years ago now. I was 19 at the time, yeah, never went to college. I never even submitted an application."
"We're the only fusion company that has delivered experimental results of a new technology that no one has built it before and published the results in nature. We've raised over $50 million of capital. We work with the US military and the US government."
"I believe that fusion will unlock the next level of human prosperity, the rise of the social middle class, the rise of AI, of quantum technologies."
Why College Is a Waste of Time
You started Fuse at 19 without ever going to college. What drove that decision?
JC Batt: I never even submitted an application. Why do I need to convince an admission officer to let me sit in a classroom for 4 years to then get a piece of paper that says I can potentially do something. Versus just do something and prove you can do it.
Life is too short and there's like 7 billion or more people on Earth. So you just always ask yourself why am I doing something that actually matters or like how can I contribute. I felt that there's a real way to contribute, to work on something that could be civilization altering. Starting a company was the fastest way to make progress, I thought.
Life is too short and there's like 7 billion or more people on Earth. So you just always ask yourself why am I doing something that actually matters or like how can I contribute. I felt that there's a real way to contribute, to work on something that could be civilization altering. Starting a company was the fastest way to make progress, I thought.
How did your background shape your path into fusion energy?
JC Batt: My father is a nuclear physicist, so growing up I was just very curious about how the world works. I've always liked to work on hard things and explore research topics, and then I very quickly learned that maybe spending time in an academic environment was not the fastest way to make progress on technology, so that's why I decided to start my own company.
I had started a nonprofit in education, the thesis as a teenager things, it was really hard to build things. You can't even get a credit card as under 18, which is pretty funny. You cannot open a Shopify online store if you're under 18, which is kind of ridiculous considering all the other things you can do. So I started a nonprofit to essentially liberate teenagers to dare and to create, and we were funded by Google.org, the Canadian government, and others and we built that into a pretty successful program.
I had started a nonprofit in education, the thesis as a teenager things, it was really hard to build things. You can't even get a credit card as under 18, which is pretty funny. You cannot open a Shopify online store if you're under 18, which is kind of ridiculous considering all the other things you can do. So I started a nonprofit to essentially liberate teenagers to dare and to create, and we were funded by Google.org, the Canadian government, and others and we built that into a pretty successful program.
The Competitive Edge of Being Young
What advantages does youth bring to entrepreneurship?
JC Batt: A lot of people being young has a competitive edge. Because you're naive and you've got a lot of stamina and energy, definitely those early wins give you an early taste at freedom. You know, it's choosing to start as early as possible maximizes your chance of getting it right.
And even if you fail, you you burn yourself a little bit as long as you don't die or don't go to jail. I think everything else can be tolerated and repaired.
And even if you fail, you you burn yourself a little bit as long as you don't die or don't go to jail. I think everything else can be tolerated and repaired.
Fusion as the Key to Human Prosperity
Why is fusion energy so critical for the future?
JC Batt: Every technology progress or civilizational development has been tied to how much kilowatt hour is available per capita. So when you think about the industrial revolution and how that enabled the whole human prosperity and technological advancements, and you can tie that to coal afterwards. And chemical era, and I believe that fusion will unlock the next level of human prosperity, the rise of the social middle class, the rise of AI, of quantum technologies.
All of those critical technologies, they need energy, and without energy we can't have AI. How would you power all the data centers? Do you want it at the cost of people not being able to turn their lights on at the house? I don't think so. And so we will need significantly more energy and fusion is not the only way to actually make that.
All of those critical technologies, they need energy, and without energy we can't have AI. How would you power all the data centers? Do you want it at the cost of people not being able to turn their lights on at the house? I don't think so. And so we will need significantly more energy and fusion is not the only way to actually make that.
Building Titan: The World's Most Powerful Fusion Generator
Tell us about Titan and what makes it revolutionary.
JC Batt: Titan is the world's highest power and highest energy impedance matched Mars generator of its kind. What that matters, you think about it as a giant battery that releases all of its energy really fast, like in a billionth of a second.
It's a very important question to ask. Is this a scientific nonprofit or is there a business here? Because a lot of times people solve our building companies and I wonder if that's better to be like a scientific research that's like nonprofit funded or grant funded versus is this a business or a real company.
It's a very important question to ask. Is this a scientific nonprofit or is there a business here? Because a lot of times people solve our building companies and I wonder if that's better to be like a scientific research that's like nonprofit funded or grant funded versus is this a business or a real company.
How did you approach building such complex technology?
JC Batt: Then the second is really to question the fundamentals and what we've done for Titan was built in-house. Over 80% of the Titan subsystems and components were built in-house at Fuse. And so we took on the project knowing that we have the capacity to solve a lot of the problems and we vertically integrated, which meant that as problems were arising, we were able to solve them in-house.
Constantly Upgrading the Operating System
How do you manage the evolution of a rapidly growing company?
JC Batt: Building companies you always updating the operating system. It's like an app and you have to constantly debug and upgrade the operating system and you need a different version for every 6 months or so, so very intentionally taking time to be introspective and to think about what has changed now. This is not the same company that it was before.
Obviously the core fundamentals are the same, but the way it operates is different and bringing the right resources around you. There's people who are really good at the early stage and then you need a different type of skill set and culture for the growth stage and bringing in different people at the right time and having the introspection to think of what needs to be changed, what bugs need to be fixed, and how to upgrade the operating system for the next phase is very important.
Obviously the core fundamentals are the same, but the way it operates is different and bringing the right resources around you. There's people who are really good at the early stage and then you need a different type of skill set and culture for the growth stage and bringing in different people at the right time and having the introspection to think of what needs to be changed, what bugs need to be fixed, and how to upgrade the operating system for the next phase is very important.
What were some of the closest calls in the company's journey?
JC Batt: Certainly the company has come close to running out of capital at a few moments in time. We had some technology that at some point did not go as we had planned or we had run out of capital and we had to make really hard decisions, but these are the moments that really define who we are. Just building this connective tissue as a team and this resilience.
Building a Team That Gets Shit Done
How do you build and lead a team as a young founder?
JC Batt: The one thing that has been really awesome is that I'm young myself. We've built a team with some really experienced people from different aspects of the government. I had the fortune to work with some really smart people. I'm fortunate enough that they're now part of one team, and we're multiple vectors pointing in one direction.
And just if you're humble and you bring people that really can complement you, that's a strength, not a weakness. It's really important to be audacious and daring but also humble and it's your challenge to figure out how to overcome that will save you a lot of peace and help attract some great people where you recognize your weaknesses and vulnerabilities and build around them.
And just if you're humble and you bring people that really can complement you, that's a strength, not a weakness. It's really important to be audacious and daring but also humble and it's your challenge to figure out how to overcome that will save you a lot of peace and help attract some great people where you recognize your weaknesses and vulnerabilities and build around them.
What kind of people do you look for when hiring?
JC Batt: We also really care about people who are just focused on getting shit done and getting the job done, whatever it is, versus just talking, so we have a really default for people who take agency, who are autonomous and just want to get you done, who are really curious, and third, just give a shit.
The people on our team really care. They stay up till 4 a.m. and we have a mission, they work on the weekends, they just go out of their own way to do the job and like pick up the trash if needs be. Give a shit and care and just want to get shit done and just focus on that. I think you can get a lot done.
The people on our team really care. They stay up till 4 a.m. and we have a mission, they work on the weekends, they just go out of their own way to do the job and like pick up the trash if needs be. Give a shit and care and just want to get shit done and just focus on that. I think you can get a lot done.
Risk Management for Entrepreneurs
How do you think about risk as an entrepreneur?
JC Batt: It's actually really funny when people think that entrepreneurs are very big risk takers. I think like great entrepreneurs are really good like risk hedgers. Like the day you start a company, you've taken the most amount of risk, and then your job all along is to retire risk and choose very selectively which risk to de-risk first and how to sequentially do that for founders to think about risk mitigation as well as equipping yourself with the right tool and most importantly with the right people.
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