Inevitable

Alison Smart and Spencer Glendon of Probable Futures discuss their climate journeys and the creation of their initiative. They emphasize the importance of understanding and preparing for climate change, visualizing its impact, and realizing the destabilization of our civilization. They highlight the universal applicability of their resource for climate change education and planning, the challenge of reconciling self-interest and the collective good, and framing the future as either a defensive catastrophe avoidance or an aspirational vision of abundance. They also discuss learning about the tools and building partnerships.

Today's guests are Dana Gibber, Caroline Klatt, and Phil Fogel of Flowcarbon.And today’s episode is hosted by Jason’s partner at MCJ Collective, Cody Simms.Flowcarbon is using blockchain to make carbon markets more accessible. They're seeking to tokenize the voluntary carbon market to aid in price discovery, transparency, and access. We were looking forward to this conversation as Flowcarbon has been in the news a lot. They just raised significant capital from A16Z and other notable investors; the day after their raised was announced, Verra — the largest voluntary carbon marketplace — made a substantial position statement regarding blockchain; Flowcarbon was incubated by the family office of Adam and Rebekah Neumann of WeWork renown; and blockchain is a controversial topic in climate circles generally. So across all of this, we had a ton to discuss.We cover the founders’ backgrounds and origin story of Flowcarbon, their views on the carbon markets today, how they believe crypto helps solve key issues in the carbon markets, and where they think this whole space is headed. We also discuss Flowcarbon’s specific technology approach and how it fits into the broader #ReFi movement, and we touch on the Neumann’s involvement with the company.Enjoy the show!You can find Cody on Twitter via @codysimms and MCJ Collective via @mcjpod (podcast) or @mcjcollective (company). You can reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 27, 2022. Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Emma Stewart, Netflix Sustainability Officer, discusses bringing the company's carbon footprint to net zero, prioritizing emissions sources, offsets, and carbon removal. Insights on Netflix's sustainability journey, late entry into sustainability, motivations for action, and the role of companies in environmental change.

Today's guest is Alisha Fredriksson, Co-founder and CEO of Seabound.Seabound builds carbon capture equipment for ships. They're the only way for existing ships to reduce up to 95% of CO2 emissions and meet new global regulations and they already have six LOIs secured from major ship owners. I was excited for this one because shipping is one of those areas that is a big source of emissions and also really hard to decarbonize. So it's interesting to dig into what it is that makes it so hard to decarbonize, the different options for doing so, and of course, where Seabound fits in.We also cover the origin story of the company, what inspired Alisha and team to do the work that they do, and some of their progress to date. It's especially interesting to dig into some of the motivations of the customers that are signing these LOIs, what value proposition is resonating, what some of their concerns are, and how a business like this ultimately scales.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 (me), @mcjpod (podcast), or @mcjcollective (company) and via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.To learn more about Seabound, visit: https://www.seabound.co/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/seabound Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Stephan Nicoleau, Managing Director at FullCycle.FullCycle developed a unique investment model, specifically designed to accelerate the deployment of climate-critical technologies. These technologies must exceed their thresholds for carbon return on investment and deliver above market returns on a risk adjusted basis. Stephan leads the firm's capital formation and partnerships, and brings more than a decade of investing and investment advisory experience to the team.I was excited for this one because FullCycle is interesting. They do both growth stage equity investing and they do project finance and like to get involved early in terms of the first few plants that get built and things like that, which I've heard from many people and founders is a gap and one that's highly additional to help address. We cover a lot in this episode, including Stephan's background and what led him to doing the work that he's doing, FullCycle's model, origin story, and progress to date, as well as their investment approach and how they measure success. We also cover how they think about returns, LP composition, some examples of sectors and companies they have gotten involved with, and what types of resources they bring to bear beyond capital to be helpful to the companies they work with.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 (me), @mcjpod (podcast), or @mcjcollective (company) and via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded April 19, 2022To learn more about FullCycle, visit: https://www.fullcycle.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/stephan-nicoleau Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Raffi Garabedian, Co-Founder and CEO of Electric Hydrogen.Electric Hydrogen is creating a new generation of electrolyzer technologies to enable clean, abundant and low cost hydrogen to end the age of fossil fuels. They closed an A round of financing back in 2021, including participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund, and Energy Impact partners.I was excited for this one as one, hydrogen is such an important topic and a controversial one. Two, I really wanted to learn more about Electric Hydrogen's approach. They've raised a bunch of money early in their journey from high caliber climate investors, and they have quite an experienced team. Raffi himself was the Chief Technology Officer of First Solar before jumping in as Co-Founder of Electric Hydrogen. We cover a lot in this episode, including the state of heavy industry, what makes it so hard to decarbonize, the role that hydrogen can play, where it is in its evolution, some of the barriers holding it back, some of the approaches that seem promising, and of course, Electric Hydrogens approach. We cover where electrolyzers fit in, how their electrolyzer is different and better, what types of target customers they focus on, how close they are to going to market, what some of the biggest risks are, what scale looks like, and how it will be financed. Enjoy the show!To learn more about Electric Hydrogen, visit: https://eh2.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/electric-hydrogen Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Tony Fadell, Principal at Future Shape and former iPod, iPhone, & Nest executive, discusses climate tech investing, entrepreneurial journey, navigating climate messaging, empowering consumers for change, seeking expert opinions, and encouraging action in climate solutions.

Today's guest is Ben Sorkin, the Founder and CEO of Flux Marine, a company that offers 100% electric outboard motors.Flux Marine is seeking to accelerate the electrification of the marine industry. We have a great discussion in this episode about the origin story of the company, Flux Marine's product and offering, and their decision to offer the motors as a standalone versus building the boat end to end. We also talk about their go to market strategy and approach, Ben's thoughts on electrification in general and where consumer sentiment fits in, where quality fits in, where cost fits in, where scalability fits in, and of course, where sustainability fits in.We talk about the best ways to finance a company like this and the decisions that Flux Marine has made to date, including their recent $15 million equity round. And we also talk about their key goals for the company, how they stage those goals, what stage they're in now, what's coming next, and their long vision. We also talk about how the ecosystem will play out in general and what the role is of the big incumbents, what the role is of the upstarts, what the role is of the a la carte providers like the motors and what the role is of more of the Tesla or the apple approach end to end.It's an episode that will really make you think, and hopefully you'll learn something as well. And if you're a boater, you'll probably also be eager to get your hands on one of their products when they ship sometime soon.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter at @jjacobs22, @mcjpod, and @mcjcollective, and via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 4, 2022To learn more about Flux Marine, visit: https://www.fluxmarine.com/To learn more about this episode, visit:  https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/flux-marine Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Joel Armin-Hoiland, Founder and CEO of Climate Finance Solutions.Climate Finance Solutions, or CFS, as it's also known, is a mission driven consultancy that helps companies and organizations around the world secure non-dilutive funding to develop and scale high impact climate solutions. They also provide technology, business and project development consulting to support their clients in securing funding and scaling their solutions. Their team has secured over $75 million in non-dilutive funding and leveraged over 30 million more in external co-financing, including several million dollars in impact equity investment with an 88% success rate.Joel also was an early member of the MCJ community, and he's been an active contributor, both in the slack community and also advising and ultimately consulting with several companies in the MCJ Collective portfolio. Non-dilutive financing is different than equity financing, and especially for climate tech companies, it comes up a lot. It can be a viable source of funding, but many founders coming from other types of technology companies that maybe haven't gotten exposed to non dilutive funding before don't know how go to go about obtaining it.In this episode, we cover the how to think about non-dilutive funding, who it's a fit for, the process to obtain it, and pitfalls to watch out for along the way.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 (me), @mcjpod (podcast), or @mcjcollective (company) and via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.To learn more about Climate Finance Solutions, visit: https://www.climatefinancesolutions.com/To learn more about this episode, visit: https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/joel-armin-hoiland Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Today's guest is Justin Kolbeck, co-founder and CEO of Wildtype. Wildtype is a startup creating sushi-grade cultivated salmon, and they recently announced the completion of a hundred million-dollar series B funding round, which was the largest for a cultivated seafood company. I was excited for this one because it's clear that our current food system is not sustainable. It's a huge source of emissions, and we're going to have to feed billions of additional people over time. It's unclear today how we're going to do that, and especially do that in a way that is more sustainable with each other and with the planet that we rely on to support us and other life forms. Seafood, of course, is one of the largest categories of food, and Wildtype is one of the leaders in the cultivated seafood market, which made for a really interesting discussion.We talk about the origin story of the company and what led Justin without a background in this area to anchor here, the state of the cultivated meat/seafood landscape when they started and how that's evolved to today, and Justin's predictions for how the market will play out over time. We also talk about some of the key challenges in building the company, how to balance customer development with the technical work in the lab, and Wildtype’s plans in terms of go-to market strategy, which sources of capital they have used to date, and which they anticipate using over time.Enjoy the show!You can find me on twitter at @jjacobs22, @mcjpod, and @mcjcollective, and via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Episode recorded May 3, 2022To learn more about Wildtype, visit: https://www.wildtypefoods.com/To learn more about this episode, visit:  https://mcjcollective.com/my-climate-journey-podcast/wildtype Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant