Battery industry consultant Jill Pestana: 15 years in the field, and one clear conviction - communication is as critical as the technology.

Mike Norton sits down with Jill Pestana, founder of Pestana Solutions - a strategic advising firm helping battery companies translate complex technology into messages that move investors, customers, and partners to act.

Jill's story is one of the most interesting in Series 8. Physics undergrad. NASA intern. Boeing. A pivot into electrochemistry and material science once she realized that batteries - not fuel cells - were going to define the energy transition. Years as a senior scientist working on silicon-dominant anodes, publishing patents, building expertise. Then Accenture, leading their North American battery consulting team. Then the moment where she had to choose: keep saying no to the battery companies knocking on her door, or start her own firm.

She started her own firm.

In this episode:

Why communication is the missing infrastructure in the battery industry - and why it matters as much as the technology itself
How Jill built one of the most recognized personal brands in the battery space - by accident, starting with a YouTube channel in 2018 before anyone else was doing it
Why 2025 wasn't a bust for the battery industry - it was a reset, and 2026 is where we find out whose plans actually hold
The Nano Battery Courses platform launching this spring - a lithium-ion fundamentals course designed to compress five years of industry learning into seven hours
Her role as Director of Research & Programming at NAATBatt, and the career pathways work happening across the US battery belt right now
Why the battery industry needs to think of itself as a community - and what it looks like when it actually does

This is a different kind of Cellmates conversation. No scale-up challenges or seed rounds - just an honest look at the human infrastructure the battery industry is still building around itself.

Jill Pestana | LinkedIn

(36) Pestana Solutions: Overview | LinkedIn