Inclusive Climate Capital: 25K Green Jobs + Funding Underrepresented Founders

Discover how Taj Eldridge is reshaping climate investing — blending alpha returns, social equity, & place-based innovation to power the next wave of green jobs.

My guest today is Taj Ahmad Eldridge.

Taj is the Director of Climate Innovation at Jobs for the Future, and Cofounder of Include Ventures, a fund of funds investor focused on emerging managers at the intersection of “Alpha + Inclusion + Sustainability.”

In addition, Taj is…

• Advisory Panel member @ The Schmidt Family Foundation
• Founding Advisory Board member @ GreenTech Noir
• Board Member @ Homeboy Industries
• Former Director of the Startup Accelerator @ University of California, Riverside
• Former Senior Director for Investment @ the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
• And investor in Invictus Growth Partners, SparkCharge, Form Energy, ChargerHelp!, and many more high-impact ventures

In this episode, we talked about:

• Who holds the real power in allocating capital
• The importance of place-based innovation
• How talent is universal, but opportunity is not
• Jobs for the Future’s goals of creating 25,000 new jobs in climate resilience
• The need to reframe climate change as a mission around public health, social equity, and economics
• Two of his portfolio companies led by Black founders and CEOs that are changing federal transportation policy and making EV charging super easy
• How he believes a focus on minority-led ventures creates alpha opportunities
• The need to bring your whole self to work
• Wisdom from the beat poets like Jack Kerouac and one of our favorite books, Dharma Bums
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it!

And give Taj a shout-out on LinkedIn 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.

Learn more:

• 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 — 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.