Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI): Climate Tech CEOs & VCs

⭐ My guest today is John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures. Energize Ventures is a leading climate software investor that manages $1.2 Billion across two strategies: venture capital and growth equity.  In addition, John is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Choose Energy, the largest online energy marketplace in North America, and a former investor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How they make investment decisions using the PMTEDI model - The size of checks they write for Series A through C stage companies, and what revenue targets they aim for - The four megatrends they’re investing in - How they develop investment theses with deep dives and active pursuit of 60-100 companies that might be the sector winner - The benefits of investing in climate startups in the EU - The importance of asking “Why now?” when picking the right CEOs to back - Why he’s read 200+ biographies as a way to be a better investor - The reason that you shouldn’t be so concerned with your competition - How scarcity creates clarity (I know, sounds like a verse from the Tao Te Ching) - Why “problem first, technology second” is their preferred approach - And lots more 🙏Hope you enjoy it! 📣And please give John and Energize Ventures a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. -- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. -- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: ⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠ Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: ⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠ 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is ⁠Trina Chiasson⁠, Founder and CEO of ⁠Ovipost⁠, a VC-backed insect protein company creating automation hardware and software in order to scale alternative proteins. Previously, Trina co-founded and sold a tech company, Infoactive, to Tableau Software. She wrote a juggling pattern notation app and used circus arts to teach physics to low-income students. And she rode her bicycle more than 4,000 miles on a self-supported adventure from Maine to Oregon to raise money for a nonprofit. So, yeah, she’s pretty cool. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - The kind of person that wants to work with insect protein (The answer? “Fanatical, insane people. We weren’t built for normal life. We hate being bored and we love adventure. As a result, each of us wove a weird, windy path to Ovipost.”) - The surprising fact that 80% of cultures around the world eat bugs - How finishing her undergraduate degree in two years relates to her path as an entrepreneur - The amazing growth rates of her bugs – 50x in 5 weeks - How she pivoted from a pure tech company coming out of Y Combinator to a bug farm operator in Mississippi and Florida - The reasons they focus on crickets (the “gateway” insect) and superworms (yum!) - Why there is no “single bug” solution to insect protein - How I relate to her work (Hint: Thai-flavored cricket legs washed down with coconut milk soup) - Why her commitment to vegetarianism for 25 years is not at odds with insect protein - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Trina and Ovipost a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: ⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠ Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: ⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠ 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is ⁠⁠Geir Robstad⁠⁠, Cofounder of ⁠⁠Heaten⁠⁠, a very high-temperature heat pump that can achieve 200°C process temperature at low costs while being completely independent of fossil fuels. They are backed by leading climate tech investors such as Azolla Ventures. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How their technology can reduce GHG emissions by 1 gigaton by 2050 - Why governments should make it illegal to not use waste heat - What it means for decentralized heat to be the elephant in the room - Their nine-year journey of R&D and $30M of investment - Why they needed to pivot in 2017 to their current technology and customer use case - How they help industrial players in chemicals, paper, and district heating create process heat at lower costs with clean energy - The massive benefits of using COTS (What’s this? Gotta listen to find out!) - Why it’s a good thing for you to have competitors - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Geir and Heaten a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: ⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠⁠ Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: ⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠⁠ 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is Sarah Richardson, co-founder and CEO of MicroByre. MicroByre makes pets out of bacteria. They domesticate naturally occurring bacteria and introduce them to industry. They enable customers to efficiently produce bio-derived chemistries at or below current petrochemical economics. Newly cooperative bacteria can replace ancient biomass (petrochemicals) with renewable biomass (lawn clippings) efficiently and economically. They’re backed by leading climate tech investors such as Prime Impact Fund, MCJ Collective, and Earthshot Ventures. Sarah has a PhD in Human Genetics and Molecular Biology from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was a Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow of Genomics at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory she worked on massive-scale synthetic biology projects and the integration of computational genomics with experimental genomics. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - What it means to be a germ wrangler - How they are bringing about biomanufacturing at scale - The 95% of bacteria we don’t yet understand and the potential that represents to tackle humanity’s greatest problems - Why it’s important to learn how to learn - The role of luck vs. skill in growing a company - How she overcame the challenges of raising VC capital - Why they’ve assembled a team of microbiologists, chemists, molecular biologists, data scientists, and computer scientists to automate the collection and curation of bacterial data. - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Sarah and MicroByre a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is Bryan Hassin, CEO of DexMat, a next-gen climate tech materials company that transforms carbon from an expensive environmental problem into high-value, high-performance nanomaterials, targeting 2-3 gigatons of GHGs reduced through its solutions. --- In addition, Bryan is also: - Former co-founder and CEO of Third Derivative, the world's largest climate tech accelerator, which has catalyzed $500M+ of investment in 100+ gigaton-potential climate tech startups - Former Entrepreneur In Residence at RMI - Serial entrepreneur with $350M+ of exits to date - Independent Director for Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp., a climate-focused SPAC with a $210M market cap --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - Why this company stood out from the 2,000+ he reviewed while at Third Derivative - The role of $20M of non-dilutive capital into his venture - The importance of bigass goals - Not being the smartest person in the room (because if you are, then you’re in the wrong room) - Playing to win versus playing not to lose - Hypothesis testing and its role in his startup journeys - Why “drop-in replacement” are magical - The distinction between the first and the best markets to go after - How his sabbaticals played a role in his career - His favorite non-business, non-climate books and why they matter to climate tech - Why we need to ask, “What would need to be true in order for XYZ to be possible?” - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Bryan and DexMat a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is Nick Flores, Managing Director at Caprock, a multi-family office and founding B Corporation with $8B of assets under advisement and a rigorous approach to impact investing. In addition, Nick is the former: - Director of Investment & Entrepreneur Services for Investors’ Circle - Manager of the Capital Access Program at Green for All 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - Their work helping 299 families invest $8B across six asset classes - How they select fund managers to invest in - His origins outside of the world of wealth and how that affects his investment outlook - What impact intentionality means - The misconception that impact investing means below-market returns - What a theory of change is all about - The biggest gaps in impact investment fund managers across asset classes - Advice he would give his younger self - His love of stoicism - Tools he uses to speed up his typing - Recommended books - And lots more 🙏Hope you enjoy it! 📣And please give Nick and Caprock a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. -- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. -- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is Jeff Erhardt, CEO of Mattiq. Mattiq is a materials discovery startup delivering innovative electrochemical solutions to decarbonize the fundamental building blocks that power the world. By 2024, they plan to have screened one trillion materials for deployment in real-world systems, such as cleaner fuels and chemicals. In addition, Jeff is the former… - Executive Vice President of Intelligent Systems & Industrial AI at GE - CEO of Wise.io - COO of Revolution Analytics - Creator of two sabbaticals, the last one lasting two years 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How they are commercializing the work of a leading scientist at Northwestern University, Chad Mirkin - Their focus on minimizing and mimicking larger systems in order to speed up novel chemistry discoveries with real-world applications - Why culture eats strategy, and how startups need to hire fast and fire fast - What it means to include AI and machine learning in their processes - Similarities between their work and genomics and synthetic biology - Their business model of going to market with big chemical and energy partners via joint development agreements that allow for some cash up front, plus revenue or profit sharing down the road - Recommended books from his two-year sabbatical - Why you can’t be a good executive unless you understand history - And lots more 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Jeff and Mattiq a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

⭐ My guest today is Trevor Best, Cofounder and CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics. He's also a member of our Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community at Entrepreneurs for Impact! Syzygy is commercializing a deep-decarbonization platform dedicated to cleaning up the emissions-heavy chemical industry. They use breakthrough technology pioneered in the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University to harness energy from LED light to power chemical reactions. This new technology has the potential to partially or fully electrify the chemical industry, shifting it to renewable electricity, and cost-effectively reducing its carbon footprint. 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How he raised over $100M to fund the company - What photocatalysis means - How a case of beer and rare astronomical phenomena were key in deciding the company name - Their work in ammonia cracking, blue hydrogen, and dry reforming - The projects they’re launching this year with multinational companies from Asia and the US - The massive cost, energy, and carbon savings made possible through their technology - What the children’s movie Frozen has taught him - How his love of science fiction translates to lessons in startup leadership - And lots more 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Trevor a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. --- 🌎 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

My guest today is Maria Fujihara, Founder and CEO of Sinai Technologies. Sinai Technologies is a VC-backed enterprise software company that measures, analyzes, prices, and reduces GHG emissions for large companies. In addition, Maria is the former: Coalition Advisor for Project Drawdown Technical Coordinator for the Green Building Council in Brazil Participant in the Global Solutions Program (GSP) at Singularity University In this episode, we talked about: Her origin story, coming to the US from Brazil with nothing, and then raising $40M and employing 60 people How they chose to work with some of the world’s biggest polluters Her work to find cultural and business alignment with her carbon-intensive customers The challenge of stranded assets for large corporations How their SaaS solution helps companies understand and take action on decarbonization The role of TCFD and CDP in GHG reporting and corporate governance How her company moves sustainability from a cost center to a value adder What it’s like being a woman CEO of a VC-backed company The HeartMath Institute and the connection between the heart and the brain Recommended books And lots more Hope you enjoy it! And give Maria a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

My guest today is Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen, an energy storage software provider with $275M in investor capital raised to date. In addition, Kelcy is the: Founding Partner at Charles Joy Ventures Former President of NRG Home Solar Former Executive Chairman of Sofdesk In this episode, we talked about: Their new 420MWh battery project in California How they maximize energy storage revenue via load shifting, peak shaving, and ancillary services Their revenue model How they don’t sell, but instead help their customers to buy Their 10 GW agreement with the world’s largest battery manufacturer The recent rapid growth from 30 to over 200 employees What Parkinson’s Law is and how to manage it What you can learn from children’s books like Elephant and Piggy Wisdom from tennis legends And lots more Hope you enjoy it! And give Kelcy and FlexGen a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, 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. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com 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. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.