Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI): Climate Tech CEOs & VCs #140: Tibetan Inspiration, $72M, and Better Lithium Production — Amanda Hall, CEO of Summit Nanotech
⭐ My guest today is Amanda Hall, Founder and CEO of Summit Nanotech, which supports the electric vehicle revolution by capturing lithium ion in brine using nanotechnology.
In their unique process, they shorten the average industry rate of lithium production from 18 months to 1 day. They also dramatically reduce the amount of water, pressure, heat, and chemicals needed to responsibly mine this valuable input for battery storage.
To date, they’ve raised $7M in grants and $65M from investors, such as Capricorn, Evok Innovations, Volta, and Grantham.
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🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:
- How her training as a geophysicist in the oil and gas industry trained her for this job
Why she felt compelled to travel to Tibet and why that led her to come back, quit her job, sell her home, sell her oil and gas stocks, and rethink her contributions to the world
What the human kidney and biomimicry taught her about early designs for Summit’s technology
Her advice on trusting her gut to make tough decisions earlier rather than later
The importance of trusting and verifying the data you rely on for growing your company
Why they are vertically integrating to own land and own lithium outputs
What they look for when hiring new team members, such as humility, relentlessness, and a desire to do the impossible
Her favorite quotes
Book recommendations for CEOs to better manage their team’s growth
And lots more
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