Guest: Stefano Melchior, 3x Founder & CEO of BeChained

Industry: Industrial AI / Energy Optimization

Company: BeChained

Focus: Helping manufacturers cut operational costs with AI-powered energy efficiency and predictive maintenance

Tech Stack: Agentic AI, Reinforcement Learning, Digital Twins, Industrial IoT, Demand Response, Sustainability

Programs: Techstars | Norrsken | MassChallenge US | Draper University | EEX

✅ Stefano shares how two failed startups paved the way for BeChained—and why failure was essential to finding focus.

✅ Learn how BeChained’s AI platform delivers 20%+ energy savings, translating into a 7% reduction in cost of goods sold.

✅ Explore the power of reinforcement learning and digital twins in automating energy-intensive industrial processes.

✅ Hear how Stefano scaled from a solo founder to a global team across Barcelona and Minneapolis—while building a strong, values-driven culture.

✅ Get personal insights on emotional resilience, leadership, and why “never give up” is more than just a mantra.

In this episode of The Innovator’s Impact, host Darnell Perkins talks with Stefano Melchior, founder and CEO of BeChained, a company using cutting-edge AI to make industrial manufacturing dramatically more energy efficient.

With a background in mechanical engineering, enterprise procurement, and business analytics, Stefano brings a rare combination of technical rigor and business insight. After two startup failures—one that tried to compete with Google Docs, and another that fell apart due to team misalignment—he built BeChained with clarity and intention.

BeChained now specializes in optimizing five industrial processes (including water systems, air compressors, and thermal loops), helping clients like steel plants and food processors save millions in energy and maintenance. The secret? A combination of agentic AI, digital twins, and reinforcement learning, applied to real-world factory equipment.

Stefano also reflects on his evolution as a founder—from launching solo to building a distributed, mission-driven team. He emphasizes the importance of listening, both to your team and to yourself, and shares why emotional intelligence is just as important as technical expertise when scaling a company.

Whether you're a tech founder, manufacturing leader, or someone curious about AI’s industrial potential, this episode delivers a compelling look at what it means to lead with purpose, precision, and persistence.

Q: What did your early failures teach you?

A: You need focus and the right team. Vision without alignment is a recipe for burnout.

Q: How does BeChained quantify its impact?

A: We deliver 20%+ energy efficiency, which typically translates to 7% savings in cost of goods sold—huge for industrial manufacturers.

Q: What was hardest about being a solo founder?

A: You're the bottleneck until you build a team that shares your mission and feels ownership in the journey.

Q: Why reinforcement learning?

A: Because it's ideal for optimizing repetitive, constraint-bound industrial tasks, just like autonomous vehicles adapt to changing road conditions.

Q: What advice would you give day-one...