Entrepreneurs for Impact #197: Brian Riordan, Co-founder of Avalanche — $45M for Fusion Energy. Microreactors. Reducing Scaleup Risks. Regulatory Pathways. Getting Destroyed in the Gym.
Avalanche is developing the world's first fusion microreactor, and it has $45M of investor backing from our friends at Congruent Ventures, Grantham, and Climate Capital.
Brian has one of the more entertaining bios in climate tech. Here are snippets and a link: https://avalanchefusion.com/about/team/brian-riordan.
He’s an engineer hardwired to be “all-in”; he no dimmer switch and always chooses the red pill; wine-making, leather & wood workin’, campin’, bee keepin’, farmin’, salt-water lovin’ father to four awesome kids who think he’s an invulnerable jungle gym.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How they are reducing cost and regulatory hurdles often associated with conventional nuclear fission power
- The scale-up risks they avoid by building small
- The difference in transactional vs. authentic relationships
- Why you must get destroyed in the gym for mental health
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
Avalanche - https://avalanchefusion.com
Brian - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-riordan-a7883b11
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything - https://shorturl.at/07HO0
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable - https://shorturl.at/wsMIm
Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of Iconic Brands - https://shorturl.at/GuIV1
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 85+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $30B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Join over 20,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators who get our three-minute read about changing the world through startups, finance, humor, and wisdom. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).