Materials science for secondary battery research is a complex and time intensive undertaking, that needs to be accelerated to meet todays and tomorrows demands for high performance and sustainable energy storage. Building upon first principles thinking we designed the platform of accelerated electrochemical energy storage research (PLACES/R) to fast track the electrode discovery process, electrolyte formulation optimization, interphase synthesis and characterization as well as batch cell manufacturing. We will share some of the design decisions, successes and failures in bootstrapping an entire 90 m2 laboratory that aims to go beyond the identification of performance trends and towards an A.I. guided materials acceleration platform in a single modular laboratory. We will demonstrate intention agnostic lab orchestration, instrument transferrable data management, high-throughput electrochemistry and automated cell manufacturing.