Stanford men find an unlikely home in East Texas at PCDworks’ Hard Tech Base Camp

ARTICLE EXCERPT FROM TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH | BY JESSICA DILLON

Stefan Streckfus and Kemp Gregory trade trash talk across a ping-pong table in Palestine, their words flying over the net with every ball-to-paddle connection, and intensifying when one of the duo misses, and has to scramble after the ball before the game can resume.

The two men, one from North Carolina, the other from Houston, met while in graduate school at Stanford University, where they worked to develop and create an innovative energy model through a rigorous, auditions-based course labeled Stanford Energy Ventures.

While in class, they spent hours huddled over calculations or working through logistical struggles, meeting eight to 10 times each week with industry experts who sometimes tore apart their proposals and offered priceless insight on their plan for Renewell Energy, a startup that aims to transform the 3.1 million inactive oil wells in the United States into storage devices for renewable resources.