Entrepreneurs for Impact

⭐ In today’s episode, instead of talking about business and finance, we will concentrate on the people side of growing a climate tech business. We’ll listen to five CEOs talk about advice they'd give their younger self, recommendations for their favorite books and podcasts, and the habits that keep them healthy and focused on this startup journey. If you like this episode, then consider this part 1 of more like it in the months to come. And shout out to Bill S. for his recommendation for this kind of compilation. --- #1 Naman Trivedi, Cofounder and CEO of WattBuy, which helps homeowners find the best electricity, solar plans, and more – all at the lowest price: Using just a home’s address, they crunch the data to recommend personalized bundles from the most trusted providers. To date, they’ve helped procure 20 gigawatt-hours of clean power while saving customers over four million dollars. #2 Jacqueline van den Ende, CEO at Carbon Equity, a fintech platform that seeks to power the world's most impactful climate technology solutions with retail capital: In under two years, they’ve mobilized $120M across 450+ high net worth and mass affluent individuals to invest in professionally managed VC and private equity climate funds. #3 John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures, a leading climate software investor that manages $1.2 Billion across two strategies: venture capital and growth equity. #4 Sarah Richardson, co-founder and CEO of MicroByre, which "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. #5 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: And he brings 100s of millions of dollars in prior startup exits to this important problem. --- 👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here. 🙏 --- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate founders, CEOs, and investors scale faster via the #1 peer group community in North America. Our invite-only cohorts grow through monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching calls. Today’s highly vetted members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. ⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And here's our weekly newsletter — A 2-minute summary of climate tech startups, impact investing, and leading with purpose (and a sense of humor). ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⭐ My guest today is Adam Wolf, Founder and CEO of Eion. Eion is an enhanced rock weathering startup that works with farmers and ranchers to safely and permanently pull carbon out of the air. They use rock called olivine, which is the most abundant on Earth, and by 2026, they will be on track to permanently remove 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.  Their growth got extra support with a $12M Series A from investors such as AgFunder, Trailhead Capital, and Orion Corporation. In addition, Adam is the former: Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist at Arable Lands Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University Oh, and he’s also got a PhD from Stanford University and is learning how to build a studio in his backyard using traditional building techniques. So, yeah, he likes to build stuff. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How their company name came to his cofounder in a dream and has 3-4 relevant meanings - Why this olivine rock is so powerful as a carbon removal tool - How they utilize existing infrastructure from farmers and ranchers to mainstream solutions at scale for lower costs - Why they spent two years figuring out how to get the measurement process right to assess carbon removal - The critical role of Norwegian fjords and rock crushing in scaling their company - What he means by B.S. counterfactual carbon baselines - Why the Department of Agriculture’s Climate Smart Commodities program is so important - The benefits of “voracious self-learning” - And lots more --- 👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here. 🙏 --- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate founders, CEOs, and investors scale faster via the #1 peer group community in North America. Our invite-only cohorts grow through monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching calls. Today’s highly vetted members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. ⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And here's our weekly newsletter — A 2-minute summary of climate tech startups, impact investing, and leading with purpose (and a sense of humor). ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⭐ My guest today is Grant Canary, Founder and CEO of Mast Reforestation. In addition, Grant is also a former: Maggot farmer (!) – that is, growing industrial-grade insect protein using food waste Chess and poker player, and improv enthusiast (these are relevant to his CEO work now) --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - The nuances of the carbon removal and credit world - What their new project financing allows them to do - How they bought a 130-year-old seed company - Why forests often cannot regrow on their own after a wildfire - Why they set up 100-year endowments to fund ongoing reporting on forest health and carbon sequestration - The role of buffer pools to insure carbon credit integrity - The importance of poly- vs. monoculture in their replanting - How he took advantage of grad school arbitrage by studying in Bogota - Why it’s so important to create a compelling future (vs. doom and gloom) in order to mainstream climate efforts - His favorite startup books - And lots more --- 👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here. 🙏 --- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate founders, CEOs, and investors scale faster via the #1 peer group community in North America. Our invite-only cohorts grow through monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching calls. Today’s highly vetted members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. ⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And here's our weekly newsletter — A 2-minute summary of climate tech startups, impact investing, and leading with purpose (and a sense of humor). ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⭐ My guest today is Naman Trivedi, Cofounder and CEO of WattBuy. WattBuy helps homeowners find the best electricity, solar plans, and more – all at the lowest price. Using just a home’s address, they crunch the data to recommend personalized bundles from the most trusted providers. To date, they’ve helped procure 20 gigawatt-hours of clean power while saving customers over four million dollars. Partners include corporations such as Amazon, Redfin, and Samsung, as well as investors such as Schneider and MCJ Collective. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How they reduce friction to make customers’ decisions easier - Why they focus on action and not just education around clean power choices - How they bill their customers under a SaaS model - Why they’re product- and service-agnostic in the clean energy industry - Whether they sell on cost or climate in terms of priority - How they do business with a focus on relationships, not transactions - Why this Buddhist quote is relevant to his style of productivity – “Don’t just do something, sit there” - Why he thinks to-do lists are useless - And lots more --- 👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here. 🙏 --- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate founders, CEOs, and investors scale faster via the #1 peer group community in North America. Our invite-only cohorts grow through monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching calls. Today’s highly vetted members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And here's our weekly newsletter — A 2-minute summary of climate tech startups, impact investing, and leading with purpose (and a sense of humor). ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⭐ My guest today is Mike Winn, Founder and CEO of DroneDeploy. DroneDeploy is a software company harnessing drones to provide interior and exterior visual data – any altitude, any angle, all in one platform. They have raised over $140M and serve over 5,000 businesses in 180 countries, including 18 of the 20 largest construction companies. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - Why he was happy to have an angry customer in the early days - What a digital twin is and why they matter - How they’re making work on critical infrastructure safer, quicker, and more productive by avoiding dull, dirty, and dangerous work - How his love of remote control helicopters and a trip to South Africa helped start this business - The role of timing in determining the success of a startup - How AI and robots can make us superhuman - How to procrastinate in a productive way - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Mike Winn and DroneDeploy a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. --- 👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I 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 Casper Rasmussen, co-founder and CEO of Monta. Monta is “the operating platform powering the EV ecosystem serving drivers, companies, cities, and the electricity grid with one integrated software solution.”  Based in Denmark, with 8 offices and 170+ employees, they are backed by leading climate investors such as Energize Venture and Pale Blue Dot. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How he grew his company from 0 to 150+ employees in just over 2 years - What led investors to commit more than $60M to his company’s growth - Why Monta aims to be the “Android of EV charging software” - How their technology allows EV owners to optimize for the lowest power cost and GHG emissions for their charging - Various hypotheses that they tried and abandoned for the current business model - How beer among the early team at a summer house led to the core values they have today - What radical transparency means for them around salary, equity, and financial disclosure to all employees - Why half of the team is focused on R&D and innovation - What led to EVs being 50-90% of new car purchases in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Casper and Monta 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 Al Subbloie, Founder and CEO of Budderfly, a business that provides 100% of the upfront capital needed to give businesses premium, high-efficiency HVAC, refrigeration, LED lights, and more to reduce their energy costs and reduce their carbon footprints. Backed by over $500M of investor capital, Budderfly uses a combination of patented technologies and proprietary energy software to monitor equipment and collect critical data about business’s energy usage. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - What led to his success building his prior company to 2,500 people over 16 years - How he convinced investors to commit half a billion dollars to grow his company - His unique model of “owning the power bill and the outcome” for his energy efficiency investments - Why this phrase matters: “A % of a larger number is a large number” - How to sell on benefits, not features - Why selling to franchises is a great got-go-market strategy - The power of capitalism to do good in the world - Why he hates to micromanage - What it means to “run towards the (lion) roar” - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Al and Budderfly 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 Jacqueline van den Ende, Co-founder & CEO at Carbon Equity, a fintech platform that seeks to power the world's most impactful climate technology solutions with retail capital.  In under two years, they’ve mobilized $120M across 450+ high net worth and mass affluent individuals to invest in professionally managed VC and private equity climate funds. As for background, she spent approximately half her career investing in companies, as a partner with Peak Capital and as an investor at HAL Investments, and the other half building and leading companies. --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - The relative risk of investing in fund of funds vs. individual angel investments - What “mass affluent” means and how a larger portion of their $177T in assets can be mobilized for climate - How to motivate new hires by focusing on what you can offer them (e.g., flexibility) instead of what you can’t (e.g., high salaries) - A new interpretation of The Golden Rule - How to learn by doing, through experiments, instead of relying on Excel and Powerpoint - What she means by saying “money as a means” - Their goal of moving $1B into climate within five years - How to interpret the quote “This Too Shall Pass” during great and hard times as a founder - Why she wakes up at 5 am - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Jacqueline and Carbon Equity 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 Dr. Murray Collins, Cofounder and CEO of Space Intelligence, a world-leading nature data provider for Nature Based Solutions, such as the protection of tropical forests to preserve biodiversity and help corporations like Apple reach their net zero goals. . In addition, Murray is the Science Director and Co-Founder of Picture Zero, a production company dedicated to quality content about climate change Former Chancellor's Fellow for Space and Satellites at The University of Edinburgh Former Environmental Scientist in Residence at The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland --- 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - His four years of rainforest work in Indonesia and Africa - Almost getting into a knife fight with a tiger - The 30 years of experience in tropical ecology and data analytics among him and his cofounder - The 100+ scientific papers produced by his team - How they work with conservation project developers around the world - The market validation they received from lots of consulting projects early on - Their use of optical data, LIDAR, on-the-ground metrics, and other satellite input to measure above-ground biomass for key habitats - How they help Apple invest in their Restore Fund - What pro-poor means and why it’s relevant to 1 billion people around the world - Motivation vs. discipline - Passion vs. obsession - Why he’s reading books about the Middle East - And lots more --- 🙏 Hope you enjoy it! 📣 And give Murray and Space Intelligence 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.