Inevitable Ep 44: Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs
Today’s guest is Emily Reichert, CEO of Greentown Labs.
Dr. Emily Reichert serves as Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs, the largest clean technology startup incubator in the United States. As the company’s first employee, Emily has spearheaded the rapid growth of Greentown Labs into a global center for clean technology innovation, attracting visitors and partners from around the world.
Emily started her career at Arthur D. Little as a Ph.D. scientist and progressed into R&D, business development and general management roles. Prior to Greentown Labs, she was the Director of Business Operations at the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry where she helped grow the angel-funded startup into a sustainable contract R&D business with a mission to minimize environmental impact of chemical products. Emily also served as a MIT Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership as well as a Venture Labs Fellow at Flagship Ventures, a Boston-based Venture Capital firm.
Emily has served as a board member or as a key advisor for a number of innovation and entrepreneurship-focused organizations including the Northeast Clean Energy Council, Cleantech Open Northeast, Cyclotron Road, the Incubatenergy Network and the MIT Enterprise Forum. She has been appointed to leadership positions on innovation, economic development, entrepreneurship and clean technology commercialization at both the state and federal level including Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s Economic Development Planning Council and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Emily has earned international recognition for her leadership in cleantech innovation and has received invitations to speak at International Conferences such as Les Rencontres Economiques d’Aix-en-Provence, France, and the Fish Family Foundation’s Japanese Women’s Leadership Initiative in Tokyo, Japan.
She holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.
When Emily isn’t at Greentown Labs, you’ll likely find her traveling the world with her husband, Chris Nielsen. As an avid outdoorswoman, Emily has experienced adventures in many corners of the globe including, tree-climbing in the Amazon, swimming with sea turtles off the island of Fernando de Noronha, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, trekking the Andes of Ecuador, and cycling along the Danube River bend north of Budapest.
In today’s episode, we cover:
- Overview of Greentown Labs
- Origin story and what problem it is solving
- Traction to date, long vision, and what is coming next
- Long vision and whats coming next
- How the model works - tools, resources, and benefits
- Some example member success stories
- How large companies can/are engaging
- Role of innovation in the climate fight
- Lessons from the first cleantech bubble
- Barriers holding back innovation today
- Encouraging signs
- 'Best ways to accelerate
- Greentown’s role
- Role of policy and how it interrelates with innovation
- How startups should know if right they are a fit for Greentown
- How Emily would allocate a large pool of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
- Emily’s advice for others looking to find their lane to help with this problem
Links to topics discussed in this episode:
- Greentown Labs: https://www.greentownlabs.com/
- Department of Energy grants: https://www.grants.gov/learn-grants/grant-making-agencies/department-of-energy.html
- Ed Markey: https://www.markey.senate.gov/
You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant