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

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.

My guests in this episode are Sophie Bakalar and Tomás Álvarez Belón from Collaborative Fund. Collaborative Fund is a 10-year-old VC firm investing at the intersection of for-profit and for-good, with a long-time focus on climate. Today, they’re investing in Series A- and B-stage startups from their $200M Collab SOS Fund. Through their Shared Future initiative, they're also investing $100,000 into 100 startups per year that come through top-notch accelerator programs like YCombinator, Activate, and AirMiners. In this episode, we talked about the following: How they make investment decisions Lessons they’ve learned from past investment mistakes Tips for startup founders who are new at pitching to investors Two of their portfolio companies tackling cell cultured animal fat and smarter EV charging through software that recognizes the bottlenecks of the power grid The importance of distinguishing roles and responsibilities among founders Personal goals of ever greater simplicity in life Recommended sci-fi books to read The power of slow mornings And lots more Hope you enjoy! And give Sophie, Tomás, Collaborative Fund, and Shared Future 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.

My guest for his episode is Damian Beauchamp, the President and Chief Development Officer of 8 Rivers. In addition, he is also: An advisor to the Carbon XPrize A Board member at NET Power 8 Rivers is a platform company developing the sustainable infrastructure of tomorrow by inventing and commercializing large-scale innovations in the race to Net Zero. Founded by a former Wall Street finance executive and a literal rocket scientist, their investors include industry heavyweights Exelon, SK Group, McDermott, and Occidental Low Carbon Ventures. In this episode, we talked about the following: How they’re creating billions of dollars of market-proven value How Blue Ocean strategies have served them well The validation they’ve received on a net-zero, cost-neutral natural gas power plant in Texas Their go-to-market plan of innovation and IP development, followed by licensing the tech to others for maximum scale and climate benefits The path to securing big-name corporate partners The need to be optimistic and solutions-oriented when it comes to tackling climate change Quotes from Calvin Coolidge on the power of persistence Why he has a picture of the Grand Canyon as his LinkedIn banner picture And lots more Hope you enjoy! And give Damian and 8 Rivers 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.

My guest today is Bessie Schwartz, the Co-founder & CEO of Cloud to Street. Cloud to Street is the leading flood mapping platform designed to protect the world’s most climate-vulnerable communities. By harnessing global satellites, advanced science, and community intelligence, they monitor worldwide floods in near real-time and remotely analyze local flood exposure at a click of a button. Their mission is to ensure that all vulnerable governments finally access the high-quality information they need to prepare for and respond to increasing catastrophes. In addition, she is… A Strategist - Yale Program on Climate Change Communication An Echoing Green Climate Fellow Research partner - Data-Pop Alliance - a global coalition on Big Data and development created by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, MIT Media Lab, and the Overseas Development Institute In this episode, we talked about the following: The relevance of her work to the recent flooding in Pakistan, leaving ⅓ of the country underwater How flooding is the #1 climate-related weather impact The history of their company 10 years ago in partnership with Google The difference between information and motivation to make the right decision Their business model of aligning incentives to help insurance companies underwrite more policies that accurately capture flood risk The need to invest in climate adaption – which BoA estimates to be a $2T market in a few years – and not just climate mitigation How they use 17 satellites, stratospheric balloon imaging, and drones to measure every square foot of the earth every day What parametric flood insurance is a breakthrough for climate risk management And lots more Hope you enjoy! And give Bessie and Cloud to Street a shoutout 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Electric Hydrogen is a hardtech startup making hydrogen from 100% clean energy to decarbonize industrial sectors by creating a new generation of electrolyzer technologies. They recently raised $198 million from leading climate investors such as Fifth Wall, S2G Ventures Silicon Valley Bank, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Equinor Ventures, Honeywell, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Rio Tinto, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Capricorn Partners, Energy Impact Partners, and Prelude Ventures.   Raffi Garabedian is the cofounder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen. Previously, he was the former CTO of First Solar, the leading global manufacturer of thin-film solar panels, and the founder and CEO of Touchdown Technologies. He also holds over 20 issued patents and is a big proponent of "doing shit that matters." ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What does your company do?  What makes you unique versus the competition? Are you aiming for decentralized or centralized hydrogen production? Can your clean hydrogen projects actually drive PPA creation for new renewable energy projects? What lessons learned from the solar sector are you bringing to this work in hydrogen? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Fifth Wall is a $3B VC fund with a new $500M climate tech fund. Their focus is the built environment. Strategic investors include over 90 of the biggest corporate players in real estate, such as Hines, Prologis, and CBRE. Greg Smithies is a Partner at Fifth Wall, where he co-leads the Climate Technology Investment team. Previously, Greg was a Partner at BMW i Ventures where he led the Sustainability investing practice. He also led Finance & Operations for both The Boring Company and Neuralink simultaneously. He started his investment career at Battery Ventures where he covered early-stage enterprise technology startups, as well as industrial technology buyouts. ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition? Why is now the right time to be investing in climate-focused prop tech? Who are your biggest investors in the fund, and why? What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Baruch Future Ventures is a VC investor that works with entrepreneurs to shorten the time and reduce the cost to commercialization of resource technology innovations. They invest in the early stages of companies in these impact areas: energy systems, food security, air quality, healthcare, and water quality. Jason Holt is a partner at Baruch Future Ventures. He is also a former entrepreneur with 27 years of experience; a PhD in chemical engineering from Caltech; and Board member or advisor to dozens of startups, especially in hardtech. ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition? What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Enduring Planet is a fast and founder-friendly non-dilutive capital source for climate entrepreneurs. Apply in 10 mins. Get funded in 30 days. No collateral, no personal guarantees. Their goal is to fund $2.5B in these capital solutions in the next five years. Dimitry Gershenson is the cofounder and CEO of Enduring Planet. He is also a former entrepreneur; prior lead on Meta’s Energy Access program, a $15M+ investing initiative that enabled energy access for 3M people and unlocked nearly $500M in additional capital in underserved markets like Kenya and India; and Board member at Ecosafi, a Lowercarbon Capital-backed climate startup enabling clean cooking in emerging markets ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition? What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned about funding your growth with outside investors? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Cleartrace is a decarbonization SaaS platform that provides the actionable data companies need to meet their renewable energy goals. They function as an  "anti-greenwashing" tool that helps corporations prove they are carbon-free on Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions. Investors include ClearSky, Tenaska, EDF Energy North America, Brookfield Renewable, and Exelon. Lincoln Payton is the CEO of Cleartrace and former Head of Investment Banking Americas and Global Head of Investment Banking Energy & Commodities for BNP Paribas. ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition? What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned about funding your growth with outside investors? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.

PODCAST GUEST BIO: Heirloom aims to accelerate our planet's transition to a carbon-negative society by removing 1B tons of CO2 from the air by 2035 by engineering the most cost-effective, scalable direct air capture system. Their technology enhances a naturally occurring process, called carbon mineralization, to help minerals absorb CO2 from the ambient air in days, rather than years. They are backed with $50M+ of VC funding from Lowercarbon Capital, Musk Foundation, Time Ventures, XPrize, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Grantham Environmental Trust, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and more. Shashank Samala is the CEO of Heirloom. Previously, he was an Entrepreneur In Residence at Carbon180 and Cofounder of Tempo ($75M+ for advanced software-driven electronics production).  ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition? What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making? What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned about funding your growth with outside investors? Personal If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact? What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? ------- PODCAST HOST: 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. Our three offerings include: 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. Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more. 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.