Climate CEOs (formerly Entrepreneurs for Impact): Scaling Climate Tech Startups Carbon Mineralization: $54M+ Raised → $100/Ton CO₂ Removal (+ 1B Ton Goal)
Discover how Heirloom fuses accelerated mineralization, modular DAC systems, and heavyweight investors to pull gigatons of CO₂ from thin air.
PODCAST GUEST BIO:
Heirloom aims to accelerate our planet's transition to a carbon-negative society by removing 1B tons of CO2 from the air by 2035 by engineering the most cost-effective, scalable direct air capture system. Their technology enhances a naturally occurring process, called carbon mineralization, to help minerals absorb CO2 from the ambient air in days, rather than years. They are backed with $50M+ of VC funding from Lowercarbon Capital, Musk Foundation, Time Ventures, XPrize, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Grantham Environmental Trust, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and more.
Shashank Samala is the CEO of Heirloom. Previously, he was an Entrepreneur In Residence at Carbon180 and Cofounder of Tempo ($75M+ for advanced software-driven electronics production).
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QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED:
Business
- What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition?
- What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making?
- What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned about funding your growth with outside investors?
Personal
- If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact?
- What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks?
- What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools?
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PODCAST HOST:
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 three 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.
- Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more.
- Newsletter — A 3-minute weekly summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 3x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 60,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.