Climate CEOs: Scaling Startups Green Hydrogen Development: Pre-IRA Bets → Post-IRA Boom (+ $1.1B Cleantech Track Record)
Discover how Ambient Fuels is building green hydrogen projects for heavy industry — and how CEO Jake Susman blends cleantech VC chops, perfect timing, & startup grit to scale the sector.
My guest today is Jake Susman, Cofounder and CEO of Ambient Fuels.
Ambient Fuels is a pure-play developer of green hydrogen projects, guiding heavy industry through the great green upgrade.
In addition, he is the:
- Executive Advisory Board Member at Activate Capital
- Board member of Urban Resiliency Advisory Board with the Partnership Fund for New York City
- Board Member at SolarKal, the largest commercial solar marketplace in the U.S.
- Board President & Co-Founder at Cleantech Leaders Roundtable
In this episode, we talked about:
- How Ambient Fuel was focused on green hydrogen before the Inflation Reduction Act made it super attractive to be in this sector
- The kinds of sectors that Ambient helps the most – e.g., refining, chemical, and fertilizers
- His prior development firm, Own Energy, and its origin as one of the earliest VC-funded renewable energy project developers, which was later purchased by EDF
- The genesis of his entrepreneurial journey via “el jefe” at AES in Spain
- Why timing can be so important in determining whether a deal gets done, or dies on the vine
- The fact that not all investor capital is created equal and a gross analogy with fast food
- Why premortem analysis exercises can help reduce future startup failure risks
- His commitment to meditation 4x per week and sweating in some kind of physical activity every day
- And lots more
Hope you enjoy it.
And give Jake and Ambient fuels a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.
---
Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.
Our two offerings include:
- Climate CEO Mastermind Peer Groups — Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.
- Newsletter — A 3-minute weekly summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.