Marco Spreafico

Background

About Marco Spreafico

Chief Product Officer at E-magy | Building the go-to-market for silicon anode materials.Over the last decade, I've led teams in battery materials — from R&D to product commercialization. I contributed to E-magy's go-to-market strategy, built partnerships with battery manufacturers and OEMs, and helped secure our €15M Series A by demonstrating the business case. Before that, I led R&D projects across cathode, anode, and separator materials, securing several patents. I've built battery labs from scratch — full characterization from slurry to pouch cell — and led qualification projects with major cell six months into managing, I realized I had no idea what I was doing.I was a strong engineer. But as a manager, I made every mistake in the book.I hoarded ownership instead of delegating. I treated 1:1s like status updates. And I got blindsided by portfolio decisions I never saw coming.So I started paying attention to what actually worked.I figured out how to delegate ownership without losing control. I stopped acting like a blind donkey and started asking my manager what really mattered one level up. Those shifts changed tech companies operate differently. You're constantly pushing the edge of what's known - taking materials from milligrams in a lab to kilograms in a pilot plant, then tonnes in production. Your team is navigating technical risk and commercial uncertainty at the same time.That requires a different kind of leadership. You can't just hire fast and break things.→ You need people who can think critically when the answer isn't in a paper→ You need psychological safety so your team tells you when an experiment failed before it becomes an expensive mistake→ You need to delegate ownership of systems early — because if only you know how the process works, you're the I write for first-time engineering and science managers who are a few years behind me - because I wish someone had written this stuff down when I needed it.Practical frameworks for 1:1s, delegation, hiring, and navigating startup vs. corporate politics. No buzzwords. Just tools you can use next Monday.→ marcospreafico.com