The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Commercialization recently published an article highlighting Dr. Holly Eagleston's experience in the DOE Energy I-Corps program and how it launched the journey of founding Firescape.
The DOE feature traces Firescape's origins where founder, Dr. Holly Eagleston and a team at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), participated in DOE's Energy I-Corps program. The program teaches national-laboratory researchers how to move their technologies toward commercial use, during a two-month intensive cohort, teams interview over 75 potential customers conducting customer discovery. The project was sponsored by the DOE Office of Electricity and the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.
After completing the program, Dr. Eagleston departed SNL via its Entrepreneurial Separation to Transfer Technology program and launched Firescape to bring the technology to market.
"Our mission is to help utilities protect critical infrastructure and the communities they serve — turning complex wildfire science into clear, operational decisions," said Holly Eagleston, Founder and CEO of Firescape.
As she explained, smaller utilities often lack the staff to process the vast amount of siloed data and extract meaningful insights, quickly. Firescape does that work for them, showing which mitigations to apply, where, and when, from fast-trip protection settings to targeted vegetation management and long-term grid hardening investments.
The DOE feature also recounts a pivotal moment in the company's development. During Cohort 16 of Energy I-Corps, the team initially believed insurance agencies were its target market, but customer discovery interviews revealed a stronger product-market fit with electric utilities. That pivot shaped Firescape's platform into the operational, utility-focused decision-support tool it is today.
Since launching, Firescape has built significant momentum. The company won a $500,000 grant from the State of New Mexico's advanced energy program to build out its technology and is launching two six-month utility pilot programs. Dr. Eagleston credits Energy I-Corps with providing "invaluable" interviewing and customer-discovery skills she continues to use as a founder.
The DOE article, "FireMap Helps Utilities Spot Wildfire Risks and Boost Grid Resilience," was published by the DOE Office of Technology Commercialization on January 27, 2026.
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