Alex Reed

Lepage Center Entrepreneur in Residence

2023 - Current

Advising Tulane students, faculty and staff on technology commercialization, go-to-market strategies, fundraising, operations and other startup related endeavors.

Deep Tech Investor and Advisor

2023

I have the privilege of working closely with startup CEOs and VCs in the AI, materials, robotics, cleantech, and industrial sectors. My responsibilities include providing strategic guidance on technology commercialization, M&A, go-to-market strategy, fundraising, marketing, business development, intellectual property, and operations. Through my expertise, I help startups navigate the complexities of building a deeptech company and preparing it for an exit.

President and COO, Board Member

2023

Fluence Analytics was acquired by Yokogawa Electric Corporation, a publicly traded Japanese automation hardware and software supplier. Fluence Analytics has been rebranded and is operating as Yokogawa Fluence Analytics, a wholly owned subsidiary. In this role I've continued working with the CEO to lead the post-merger integration into Yokogawa focusing on company culture, innovation, product development, financials and overall operations. I have also been leading the biopharmaceutical product line and all company commercial activities, including training and working with global sales teams of the parent company.

Co-founder, Co-CEO

2022 - 2023

In my role as Co-founder and CEO at Fluence Analytics, I recruited a senior executive from the automation industry to take over as CEO, and I ended up working with him as Co-CEO to drive various projects and lead the company to a successful acquisition by Yokogawa, which generated good returns for investors and employees. This included setting the strategic vision, building a strong team, raising capital from various sources, managing investor relations and forging key partnerships. Additional activities included optimizing company operations through an HQ move, improved financials, all while maintaining a strong company culture. Finally, drove the M&A transaction process from due diligence, deal structuring, term sheet negotiations through deal execution, including planning for, and executing, post-merger integration with new ownership. Some of our highlights: - CB Insights Top 50 most promising advanced manufacturing startups of 2022 - screened from over 6500 startups globally - Houston Innovation Awards Hardtech company of the year 2022 - BuiltIn 2023 top 50 startups to work for in Houston

Director Board Of Directors

2012 - 2023

Co-founder, President and CEO

2012 - 2022

Co-founded and led the company as CEO from inception with laboratory prototypes and intellectual property as a university spin-out. Responsible for building out the team, company culture, finding product-market fit, product strategy, go-to-market strategy, generating revenue and fundraising. Led the company through various product iterations and fundraising rounds. Company counted leading global petrochemical and pharmaceutical companies among its customers and investors across several continents. Fluence Analytics develops and sells combined hardware and software analytics solutions for industrial and laboratory applications. The company has two product lines, ACOMP and ARGEN, which enable realtime optimization leading to improved process control and faster R&D for polymer and biopharmaceutical manufacturers. Fluence Analytics, formerly Advanced Polymer Monitoring Technologies (APMT), was founded in 2012 as a spin-out from Tulane University. The company rebranded as Fluence Analytics in 2017.

Startup Consultant and Advisor

2013 - 2023

Consulting and advising B2B hardtech, deep tech, climate tech, SaaS and biotech startups and VCs

Part-time Strategic Advisor

2016 - 2022

Continued in an advisory capacity for relationships with petrochemical and biopharmaceutical project sponsors and federal funding initiatives.

Associate Director for Operations and Strategy

2014 - 2015

Assistant Director for Operations and Business Development

2009 - 2014

Built out commercial and operational processes for a research center within Tulane University. Was responsible for negotiating with corporate research sponsors, supported intellectual property initiatives and developed strategies for pursuing federal funding opportunities. PolyRMC is a non-profit research center that performs high-level problem-solving R&D for private corporations in addition to performing government sponsored fundamental research in the field of polymer reaction monitoring and characterization. PolyRMC has developed unique instrumentation and methods for comprehensive monitoring of polymerization reactions, allowing process optimization, accelerating R&D of new polymeric materials, and potentially allowing full scale reactor control. This work is complemented by our advances in the area of macromolecular characterization.

Research Assistant-Student Worker

2003 - 2008

Worked as a Research Assistant performing experiments using Dynamic Light Scattering, UV-Spectrophotometer, GPC, Automatic Continuous Mixing, and other polymer characterization techniques. Also created a system for equipment, supply, and chemical inventory management and other lab operations related activities. Part-time and summers starting in high school through undergraduate studies.

Board Member

2013 - 2019

SMLC is building the nation’s first Open Smart Manufacturing Platform for collaborative industrial-networked information applications through at-scale demonstrations. Served as a board member and participated in the development of the $140M Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) grant application and award process. https://smartmanufacturingcoalition.org/about

Finacial Advisor Business Development

2008 - 2008

Internship at Smith Barney-Citigroup working with a top performing wealth management team. Primary activities were sales, business development and marketing.