Today we have a really energetic (no pun intended) conversation with Andy Frank, the founder of Sealed.They are an energy efficiency company that pays for home infrastructure upgrades and then gets paid back over time by their customer. The more efficiency they produce, the more they make which creates a great incentive structure. We discussed a lot but the best part for me was going through how he built the company from an idea, to an MVP, and eventually to a very robust and successful business. The most impactful advice he shared was about speaking with your customers to understand what they need and what they will buy. There is a lot of other advice in there, but that was the most impactful thing on their success. Enjoy the Episode! 🌎📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube.📫 Interested in written summaries and takeaways from the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter. Want to be part of the community and engage further? Check out the Slack Channel. https://tinyurl.com/mwkn8zk5-----Topics: (2:03) Andy's Climate Journey(7:12) Early Career & Finding his clarity of Purpose(12:15) The initial seed of Sealed(16:27) What Sealed Does(29:28) Raising money initially(33:49) Real proof & the Business taking off(44:37) Getting the real funding(46:47) Fundraising from different people(49:28) Future view(54:45) IRA Homes Program(59:17) Talent----- Links: Connect with Andy:  Check out Sealed:  Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn:  HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner-----Other episodes you might enjoy:#16 Using all the CaCao Plant with Shannon Neumann from CaPao#58 The Future of Clean Energy, Materials/Mfg, & the Circular Economy with Author, Peter Leyden#57 Soap, Carbon Capture, Boilers, and PropTech w/ Jaeson Cardiff (Clean02)#43 A Deep Dive Into the Grid, the Intermittency Problem, & Where do We go from Here w/ Bhaskar Ray (QCells)Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

In this episode, Silas Mahner (@silasmahner) speaks with Anas Al Kassas the founder and CEO of INOVUES where they are helping solve heat loss for buildings. Their tech is essentially a retrofit solution to single-pane glass that can be achieved at scale. They are also partnering with other companies such as solar glass and tinting services to act as a platform for them to sell their tech. The key things in this conversation are 1) how their tech works 2) how he got started and the process of going through accelerators and getting the initial round of funding, 3) how the IP process works and his experience there, and 4) how they are using creative financing models to remove the friction from buying. Enjoy the Episode! 🌎📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube.📫 Interested in written summaries and takeaways from the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter. Want to be part of the community and engage further? Check out the Slack Channel. https://tinyurl.com/mwkn8zk5----- Topics: (00:17) Intro & how he got the Idea for the Tech(10:00) What INOVUES doing(13:30) How their tech works(19:30) How they. get the glass installed at scale(24:00) Building the business & funding(35:30) IP, the Process, and Learnings(40:45) Universities and IP(43:00) Funding the business continued(47:45) Managing partnerships(53:00) Financing options to their clients(56:00) Final thoughts-----Links: Connect with Anas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anaskassas/Inovues Website: https://www.inovues.com/Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner-----Other episodes you might enjoy:#9 Micro-metering to massively reduce energy expenses w/ Paul Mertes (Circuit Meter)#90 Total Real Estate Retrofits, RE Valuations, Tenant Education, & More w/ Chris Gray (RENU Communities)Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we had a really fun, but also impactful, and very transparent conversation, one that is slightly different than a lot of the guests we've had on. Someone who is a lot earlier in her journey of building her company. I wanted to have her on as an opportunity to showcase the life of someone deep in the grind of building their startup with the hope to one day make a massive impact on climate change. There are so many startup founders out there in the midst of building their projects. And certainly, there can be moments of doubt and uncertainty. We wanted to have today's episode to show you that you're not alone - you're not the only one with those feelings of uncertainty and insecurity. Hopefully, it's a bit of encouragement and grounding to reality so you remember that nothing is perfect - and everyone is out there figuring it out. Today's episode is with Alina Liu who is the founder of Disco, a Chrome extension that shows a re-sale option for the product you're currently looking at. I encourage you to reach out to Alina and connect with her. To any founders listening, it's important that you all support each other so we can help solve climate change together. Enjoy the Episode! 🌎📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube.📫 Interested in written summaries and takeaways from the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter. Want to be part of the community and engage further? Check out the Slack Channel. https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/email----- Topics: **1:42 Intro and backstory**3:10 Going from big-ish tech to founding a climate startup**13:40 Building the company and getting started**18:12 Advice to others starting out**22:05 Starting Disco**27:00 How to Maintain Mental Energy**29:10 Raising from Friends and Family**35:24 Experience as a solo female-founder**38:49 Future, Excitement, and Closing thoughts----- Links: **Connect with Alina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alinacliu/**Get Disco: https://www.usedisco.io/**Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/**HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner----- Other episodes you might enjoy:**#23 ClimateTech VC Investing w/ Heidi Lindvall (Pale Blue Dot)**Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we are joined by Ryan Begin. One of the founding members of Divert. Divert is building food waste to energy plants that have achieved the scale to become profitable, scalable, and impactful in combating climate change. This is a truly inspiring story as it took them about 13 years to get to the point of proving their technology and perfecting the business model in a way that they could then get serious funding. Serious funding refers to, them now hitting a point of getting funding from Private Equity groups. In particular, Infrastructure funds. In the conversation, we go through how Ryan got into the space and left the defense space to be part of the founding team at Divert. We talk about the challenges and the milestones along the way. Then in the latter half, we discuss a lot about the financing of their business, how to get to the point of attracting Infrastructure Funding, and how important talent is to the success of your business. Genuinely engaging conversation and insights from Ryan. Enjoy the Episode! 🌎📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube.📫 Interested in written summaries and takeaways from the episode? Subscribe to the newsletter.Want to be part of the community and engage further? Check out the Slack Channel. https://tinyurl.com/mwkn8zk5-----Topics:**1:43 Intro and how he came from Defense to Climate**6:10 His CleanTech 1.0**8:56 How the process looks and what they do**15:52 Their Business Model**25:23 Once they have the waste**29:11 Carbon Credits?**30:39 Early days of the company**37:53 Financing (PE vs VC + Revenue Quality + TAM + Infrastructure Play)**44:15 How to Prove Growth and Quality of Revenue**47:08 Talent**52:12 The future-----Links: **Connect with Ryan:**Divert Website:**Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners:**Join the Slack Channel:  **Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn:**HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner-----Other episodes you might enjoy:**#39 Helping Commercial Kitchens Reduce Food Waste and Save Money**#62 Solving Fresh Food Inventory Management with Johannes from Afresh**#83 From 30% to 90% Li Recovery, Founding a ClimateTech Co, & Talent Moat w/ Teague Egan (EnergyX)**#71 Demystifying Alternative-Protein and How its Made with Sharyn Murray from Good Food Institute (GFI)Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we are joined by the founder of Oceanid MRV, Ben Swainbank. For context, carbon capture and the measurement of how much is captured is something pretty well solved in forestry and direct air capture. However, for oceanic capture, it is not. This presents a big dilemma as Oceanic Carbon Capture is widely regarded as the most scalable method to pull carbon out of the air at a gigaton scale. Ben today talks to us about how he and his team are working on formalizing and certifying the amount and quality of carbon captured through such oceanic projects. This conversation was super helpful for understanding why oceanic pathways are important as well as the challenges of measuring the work done in a manner that is accurate and sufficient to certify. An interesting takeaway from this episode is how Ben, as a non-scientist, is building a company in a scientific space but is doing it by surrounding himself with a team of oceanographers and then bringing together the science and the commercial side of things. Early on in the show he also walked us through the steps he took to decide if this was a space he should go deeper on. This was a very helpful framework for any aspiring ClimateTech founders. We hope you enjoy this episode of the show! Topics: 1:44 Intro and origin story7:18 CDR Industry as a wholeTreesDACOcean9:17 Marine PathwaysBiomass CultivationDirect Ocean CaptureOcean Alkalinity Enhancement11:53 How they capture carbon and measure it14:04 Ocean Measurements18:00 Durability of ocean capture22:13 Starting the company29:19 How their model works33:04 The fundraising process37:31 Advice to ocean MRV science startups41:42 Making the jump to be a full-time entrepreneur47:37 Starting a biz as a non-science founder51:55 Corporate / Gov incentives57:01 Closing thoughts Links: ben.swainbank@oceanidmrv.comOceanid MRV Website: Ben Swainbank on LinkedIn: Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we were joined by Susan Su. Susan is a Partner at Toba Capital which differentiates from many funds in that it only has one LP. That LP invests across a range of spaces which allows the Toba team to get special insight into other areas of investing which could affect their investments and existing portfolio companies. Susan has to be one of the most genuine people I've had on the show. She shared her career journey and how she went from being an operator to working with Sound Ventures (founded by Ashton Kutcher) and eventually ending up as a Partner at Toba Capital. We discussed some details about being a VC specifically around doing follow-up rounds. We covered the differences of investing in Hardware vs Software. The limitations of smaller VCs are to get into deep tech or hardware tech. We spoke about how hard it is to be a VC. Breaking into VC. And probably one of the most valuable things is advice to founders about their fundraising process. Many of the things she said especially around her advice to young people about patience and impatience, really struck accord with me. Super glad that I can bring this episode to you. Enjoy! Topics: 1:09 Intro and early Career8:59 Hurdles to VC12:43 VC & Profit Seeking15:42  VC - Soft vs Hardware Investing18:14 Toba Capital22:29 New Ecosystems to Support Deep/Climate Tech DD25:30 Follow on investing31:16 Hardest Part of Job34:51 Advice to Founders | Plan the Raise, then Raise38:29 Obvious Prediction40:12 Advice for Getting into VC | Meet Founders Now Links: Toba Captal: https://tobacapital.com/  Susan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/susanfsuCheck out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies build great cultures that not only make the world a better place but also increase workplace satisfaction. Reach out to NextWave Partners today to learn more about how we might pSupport the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we are joined by Nicola Rubini from the River Cleaning Project by Conai. You may not know, but 80% of plastics that end up in the ocean are deposited there by rivers. Today we speak with Nicola about how they are trying to fix this problem given that rivers are conveniently a focused path of water. The technology they have is pretty fascinating but what's more, is the nuances required to navigate the political issues and the difficulties of building this type of business. Really interesting challenges that hopefully are valuable to any founders listening. Enjoy the episode! 🌍Topics: 1:03 Intro and Data Behind Plastic Pollution15:09 Dealing with Navigable Rivers23:44 Financing the Projects27:42 Plastic Credits39:49  Regulation: The Plastics Treaty48:04 Demonstrating the Impact to the PublicLinks: Connect with Nicola:Conai Website:Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies build great cultures that not only make the world a better place but also increase workplace satisfaction. Reach out to NextWave Partners today to learn more about how we might partner with you today. https://www.next-wavepartners.com/ / info@next-wavepartners.comSupport the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we have a pretty interesting capital provider joining us. Ethan Goldsmith is an Investment Partner at Keyframe Capital and helped found TeraWatt Infrastructure (the fleet charging behemoth). We went through the usual stuff around his background, early career, what they are doing, how they source deals, and their unique points but the core of this conversation in my opinion is really in their model. Since their inception, they saw that ClimateTech would require more flexible capital structures given that the pure equity model wasn't going to work given how capital-intensive most of these technologies are. They set up their fund to include those flexibilities. As an example, they might find a firm that is in need of funding, they could write a check in return for equity, but then in a few months, they might issue a specific project finance product for that use case. If the portfolio company needed to raise that in the form of equity for dollars, they would quickly be eradicating their cap table space. This to me is the most important aspect of this entire conversation and I'm glad we had the chance to speak with Ethan to go through it. There are other interesting topics here but this is key for other fund builders to consider. Enjoy the episode! Topics: 1:57 Intro7:35 What led them to recognize the infra -- VC Gap14:27 Getting into PE/VC19:13 Building TeraWatt24:47 Key Takeaways from starting TeraWatt26:47 Differentiating their model through flexible capital31:36 Their Verticals38:11 Managing deal flow40:58  They spend a lot of time in the market before investing because of their model42:32 How they help their portfolio co's45:45  Advice to hardware and capital-intensive startups in ClimateTech48:36 Obvious Prediction50:47 Final thoughts Links: Connect with Ethan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-goldsmith-186b3627Keyframe Capital Website: https://www.keyframecapital.com/Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and areSupport the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we are joined by Chris Gray, the CTO of RENU Communities. At it's simplest form, they are a PE Fund that is doing total retrofits on real estate to make it a sustainable building. The more interesting aspects of what they are doing are, they have an in-house set of experts that are able to help them integrate engineering knowledge with the financial modeling of the projects they take a very high-quality approach to how they manage the retrofits so that it doesn't impact tenant lifethey engage with their tenants to help them understand the benefits of the newly installed upgrades In the end, Chris also had some interesting insights to share on the IRA bill which directly contributes to the bottom line of real estate owners. So if you own real estate, you might want to check that out as well.Enjoy today's episode! Peace out! 🌎Topics: 3:42 Intro to Chris5:40 Seeing how buildings worked led him to an interest in sustainability8:55 Utilities and their incentives around energy efficiency10:26 40% of Emissions are from buildings12:03 Why energy efficiency is now becoming mainstream14:55 Their process28:31 Lifetime Savings33:07 Increased rent for green buildings35:50 Design & Energy Efficiency / Form Factor39:21  How they engage with and educate their tenants41:52 Personal health and green buildings43:57 Green buildings and insurance49:07 The IRA - Some thoughts52:17 Incentives contribute directly contributions to RE Owner's bottom line54:33 Outlook on the green building spaceLinks: Connect with Chris:RENU Communities Website:Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies build great cultures that not only make the world a better place but also increase workplace satisfaction. Reach out to NextWave Partners today to learn more about how we might partner with you today. Support the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)

Today we are joined by the founder of Criaterra, Adital Ela. Adital is an industrial designer by education and profession who was seeking the potential to make fully circular building products. She was inspired to do this when visiting India she saw how clay Chai cups were used and then tossed to the ground to return to their original form. After 12 years she then decided to set out to build Criaterra. In essence, they are an R&D company that aims to license out their IP for the production of fully circular building products. For the time being, they have focused on their MVP, decorative, non-structural tiles. In this conversation, we speak about her journey and the challenges of building a company like Criaterra. Our biggest takeaway was that it takes a lot of grit and resiliency to persist on this path. Adital has seen many struggles in the journey of building this company but is keeping the faith and working towards the vision of fully-circular structural building products. Prepare to be inspired.Peace out! 🌎Topics: 4:40 Intro | Background in Industrial Design11:!7 - Living with respect to raw materials13:31 When she started on this journey18:22 Intricacies of Launching20:11 Misunderstanding of the Gap Between R&D & Production23:46 Their Products27:27 Strengths of Products37:27The Feedstock44:07 Their Business Model | IP46:05 Milestones to Building an IP Model55:06 Closing ThoughtsLinks: Connect with Adital: Criaterra Website: Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: https://www.next-wavepartners.com/Join the Slack Channel:  https://cleantechies.slack.com/join/shared_invite/zt-pd2drz6d-N~9nURU5JlyMXv2ZiO5bAQ#/shared-invite/emailFollow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/ HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner__________We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies build great cultures that not only make the world a better place but also increase workplace satisfaction. Reach out to NextWave Partners today to learn more about how we might partner with you today. https://www.next-wavepartners.com/ / info@next-wavepartners.comSupport the showEvery ClimateTech Entrepreneur needs a reliable partner for their legal needs. Why settle for less than the best? 💪🏽Reach out to Goodwin Law today; the law firm of choice for hundreds of ClimateTech Entrepreneurs worldwide. They have you covered from funding docs to offtake contracts to IPO and M&A support. GoodwinLaw.com (and tell them CleanTechies sent you!)