Three Jobs Compressed Into One Resume
The Bootcamp Builder
In 2016, Slaybaugh launched the Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp at UC Berkeley. The premise: nuclear researchers are often excellent scientists and terrible entrepreneurs. The bootcamp ran two weeks and taught them how to think about commercialization, talk to customers, and build companies. It grew into an annual event. It's still running. She described it as "a giant stride forward in the clean energy race" - and then kept moving.
The Federal Programs Architect
At ARPA-E - the Department of Energy's high-risk, high-reward research agency - Slaybaugh served as a Program Director with an unusually wide brief. She created the nuclear fission program from scratch, developing MEITNER (focused on enabling technologies for microreactors), LISA (low-dose radiation research), and GEMINA (advanced nuclear maintenance). She helped issue awards to over 30 companies and teams.
But her portfolio at ARPA-E didn't stop at nuclear. She also managed the TERRA and ROOTS agriculture initiatives, solar programs, and even a virtual reality portfolio. The span was deliberate. Working across energy sectors gave her a systems-level perspective that pure nuclear specialists don't get. It's what she later brought to venture: the ability to evaluate a geothermal play through the same framework as a cement company.
One unexpected moment during this time: when the Trump administration attempted to defund ARPA-E in its first term, Congressional pushback was so strong that the agency's budget roughly doubled. "The Trump administration trying to shut down ARPA-E caused Congress to become really supportive," she noted, with some bemusement.
The Cyclotron Road Director
At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Slaybaugh ran the Cyclotron Road Division - a translational research program that supports early-stage scientists trying to move from the lab to the market. Cyclotron Road is one of the better-designed bridges between national laboratory research and venture-backed startups. She understood that bridge from both sides.
The Policy Co-founder
In 2020, while doing all of this, Slaybaugh co-founded the Good Energy Collective - a policy research organization that advocates for nuclear energy as part of the national climate strategy. She chairs the board. The organization is a direct expression of one of her core arguments: "You need policy to help set the direction... you also need technology to make the job of policymakers easier." Neither can wait for the other.
The Venture Capitalist
She joined DCVC in April 2022 as a Principal. In 2023 she was promoted to Partner. In 2024, to General Partner. The progression was fast - which is what happens when someone arrives with the institutional knowledge, the technical depth, and the deal judgment already assembled. DCVC simultaneously launched its first dedicated climate fund.
Her investment thesis rejects binary thinking. She doesn't believe in a single technological solution to the energy transition: "We need so much electricity... we need all of the things. We need the things that we have today, and developing the tools we are going to need tomorrow." Geothermal, fusion, microreactors, carbon-free cement, grid management software - these are not in competition. They are parallel tracks in a very large problem.
She is also notably pragmatic about political risk. DCVC explicitly avoids companies whose business models depend on specific policies or carbon markets. Her view: bet on companies that are economically viable within current market conditions, and let policy tailwinds be upside, not thesis. That framework survived November 2024 well.
On working with fossil fuel companies - a sector that many in climate tech treat as an adversary - she is unusually direct: "Anytime you're in a trying to take someone down stance you're probably going to end up using a lot of resources on a fight." The drilling expertise that built the oil industry is the same expertise that can build geothermal fields. She'd rather use it.