Climate CEOs: Scaling Startups

Learn how Planet FWD helps companies optimize supply chains, measure environmental impact, & drive climate-conscious strategies.Led by CEO Julia Collins, Planet FWD has developed software to provide consumer brands the insight need to understand and reduce their carbon footprints. The company has also developed its own sustainable snack brand called Moonshot. To learn more visit their website.Below are two excerpts from the episode. Describing Planet FWD's mission Julia said, "Our mission is to help brands bring planet-friendly products to market by helping them deeply understand their carbon footprint and then putting them on a path to carbon neutrality. To facilitate this carbon light approach, we provide access to the data and information that brands may otherwise lack in making supply chain and go-to-market decisions. We also work to connect our brand partners with suppliers that we have independently verified across various measures of sustainability."Highlighting the company's go-to-market approach Julia said, "We have developed a carbon modeling software tool that can be applied to numerous industries from food to fashion, though food remains our initial industry of focus. To demonstrate the feasibility of making sustainability a core part of the value proposition of a consumer brand, we built our own brand called Moonshot to be the first explicitly climate-friendly product in the snack category. Ultimately, our mission is to serve all brands in the consumables space."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Learn how top climate accelerators are supporting startups, showcasing recent financings & strategies to scale climate solutions effectively.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: Recent climate tech deals from Voltus, Mainspring, ESS, Solid Power, Navitas Semiconductor, and 10 more. Plus 8 climate accelerators or challenges to apply for (Joules, LACI, 100+, AirMiners, Clean Energy Trust, Amazon, ADB, GS).For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Discover how Navajo Power brings solar solutions to tribal communities, increasing energy access, reliability, & local economic impact.Led by Executive Chairman Brett Isaac, Navajo Power develops large utility-scale solar and solar plus storage projects with a focus on providing energy access and economic benefits to the Navajo Nation and other tribal communities.Below are two excerpts from the podcast."We are a utility-scale solar and energy storage development company with the mission of maximizing community benefit to the Navajo Nation. We started the company to bring the clean energy revolution to the tribal and indigenous communities that have been forgotten and left behind.""I believe the majority of the unelectrified homes in the United States are on Navajo Nation property. There are somewhere between 15,000-18,000 homes on Navajo Nation property that lack access to electricity or reliable electricity. I think many of us do not realize that some of these homes that you drive by each day do not have running water although large transmission lines run overhead."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Learn how World Tree uses Paulownia forestry to sequester carbon, generate returns, & drive sustainable land management at scale.Led by CEO Doug Willmore, World Tree acts as a platform to facilitate the planting of Empress Splendor trees to sequester carbon while generating returns for both farmers and investors through both carbon offset and lumber sales.Below are two excerpts from the podcast. Doug described World Tree's business saying, "We grow sustainable forests and farms in North America and Central America. With plans to expand into South America next year. We primarily focus on the growth of the Empress Splendor tree, which is the fastest-growing tree in the world. This species of tree grows to about 80 feet tall and 20 inches in diameter in about 10 years. (Most trees take 20 to 50+ years to reach maturity.) After this period of growth, we can harvest the trees to produce high-value lumber products for end-use as guitars, flooring, and other finished wood products."Dough highlighted the company's scale saying, "We work with approximately 240 small farmers with about 5,000 acres planted. We plan to plant another 10,000 acres of trees over the next 12 months. Beyond this year, we truly believe the sky's the limit. We are in discussions with larger institutions to plant anywhere from 2,000 to 100,000 acres for single projects."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Discover how concentrated investment power affects climate funding, & learn frameworks to diversify capital allocation for environmental impact.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: Climate finance speakers, 99% of the investment industry’s $69T controlled by one demographic, 3x3x3 learning framework from McKinsey, climate risk disclosure vs. investors' blood pressure.For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Discover how OhmConnect empowers households to reduce energy costs, optimize usage, & support grid efficiency with smart devices.Led by CRO Matt Duesterberg, OhmConnect delivers the benefits of distributed demand management to both consumers and grid operators to increase grid reliability and reduce the cost of electricity. To learn more about OhmConnect visit their website.Below are two excerpts from the podcast. Matt described OhmConnect's business saying, "OhmConnect pays people to reduce their electricity use once or twice a week. By selling this demand reduction into electricity markets as an alternative to power grid operators paying a centralized generation facility to provide more electricity, we can make this counterintuitive model work. Over the last six years, we have paid customers $13 million, and we are seeing rapid growth."Matt highlighted OhmConnect's scale saying, "We have tens of thousands of consumers signed up for our demand response services whose devices such as thermostats and refrigerators are automatically regulated by our software to respond to grid signals. Historically, it has been difficult for incumbent utilities to interface with homeowners in such a sophisticated manner, but we have been able to fill this gap."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Explore climate-focused SPACs, innovative indoor agtech startups, & key insights for investors navigating the evolving green tech market.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: SPAC overage, over 1,000 indoor agtech startups (map), cobalt and child labor (infographic), and which Native American land are you sitting on?For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Discover how EVMatch connects EV drivers to chargers, enabling seamless access, optimized utilization, & scalable energy infrastructure.Led by Heather Hochrein, EVMatch provides a software platform that enables both a peer-to-peer EV charging system (analogous to Airbnb for electric vehicle chargers) and facilitates apartment building charging sessions through automatic scheduling and access control.Below are two excerpts from the podcast. Heather described EVMatch's business saying, "We are a software platform that provides access to privately owned EV charging stations with the ultimate goal of increasing the feasibility of EV ownership. Our platform was initially created to provide a peer-to-peer network of homeowners who have individual level 2 charging stations and can provide access to this infrastructure to their neighbors and community members in exchange for additional cash. In this sense, we say that we are the “Airbnb of electric vehicle charging stations.” Moreover, we have begun to provide reservation-based software for apartment complexes and church facilities to help these facilities manage EV charging sessions.We have three revenue streams. Our primary revenue stream is a service fee that we charge to customers when using the peer-to-peer network, in much the same way that Airbnb customers pay a transaction fee when they book a reservation. Our secondary revenue stream is an annual subscription fee (i.e., a SaaS offering) that we charge to our commercial customers for the reservation management service. Finally, we earn a commission on the resale of level 2 charging hardware."Heather highlighted the company's work to drive electric vehicle adoption by addressing range anxiety saying, "It is absolutely a primary motivation. Range anxiety is a combination of relatively short-range batteries in the existing fleet of electric vehicles and insufficient public charging infrastructure. While we believe the former will be addressed by gradually improving battery chemistry coming out of labs working in conjunction with automakers, we are actively working on the latter. While we do not directly build charging stations, we work to maximize their usage rate, making this infrastructure more accessible to all. It is also clear that the EV charging infrastructure must continue to be built out, and we expect that as this continues our role will only continue to expand in terms of the smart software management of these facilities."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Learn about the latest venture capital & private equity investments in climate tech, highlighting emerging startups, deals, & sector shifts.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: 26 deal summaries, plus an interview with hydrogen CEO Mo Vargas at BayoTech, and behavioral science for climate persuasion.For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Learn how Station A uses software to optimize building energy efficiency, generate measurable ROI, & accelerate clean energy adoption.Led by CEO Kevin Berkemeyer, Station A derives tangible energy savings estimates from complex data analysis of non-residential buildings in the US, enabling a two-sided marketplace in which building owners can simply access cost-saving clean energy options from leading providers. To learn more visit their website.Below are two excerpts from the podcast.Kevin described Station A's business saying, "Station A is a software-powered clean energy marketplace. Our mission is to provide ultimate transparency, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness for anyone to adopt clean energy technologies. More specifically, we look to facilitate solar, solar + battery, or solely battery deployments for building owners. After simply providing an address, we provide building owners with data-driven clean energy options and allow them to then secure a quote from our marketplace of approximately 2,000 providers. Station A has a somewhat unique history as the company started as a software unit within NRG, where we worked with building owners to identify what form of clean energy to adopt and then whom to work with to build it out. Station A was spun out of NRG in 2018 with the mission of more broadly bringing this project identification and matching capability to the market."Kevin highlighted the scale and opportunity for energy and dollar savings within the built environment saying, "Our modeling estimates that 592,000 buildings within the United States would have positive bill savings with aggregate savings of more than $14 billion a year. Ultimately, the goal of this process was to flip the somewhat strange data dynamic, where traditionally the clean energy provider has to request data from the building owner to then be able to provide a pitch with projected savings. Instead, we enable those providers to show up with a comprehensive estimate of building savings without having to make that data request."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led byDr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.