CleanTechies

In this episode, Silas Mahner (@silasmahner) speaks with Manik Suri (@ManikVSuri) the Founder and CEO of Therma, an IoT device + software company that helps any organization using refrigeration to reduce cap ex and as a by-product, reduce the dirty energy assets on the grid. We cover his background, the problem, and the solution they are working on, and then go through building the business with a heavy focus on the work of raising money. Manik has a really interesting background having been a top achiever academically, going on to PE, and then government prior to launching Therma. 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: **1:20 Intro and Origin of Interest in Climate**4:02 The Problem**7:22 Electricity bill**11:38 The Solution**13:52 Cost and ROI**16:13 The Origin of the Idea**24:07 How his work in PE and Gov Influenced him**27:55 Carbon Abatement**31:13 Advice for Raising Capital**41:11 VC Issues & Thoughts on the Macro Environment**44:19 Discussion on VC Investing broadly**48:31 The Future----- Links: **manik@hellotherma.com**Manik on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ManikVSuri**Therma Website: https://www.hellotherma.com/our-company **Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: **Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: **HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner----- Other episodes you might enjoy:**Most Recent Episode: Building a Smart AC company to help Solve Climate Change w/ Ran Roth (Sensibo)**Similar Topic: Electrifying Homes, Home Air-Quality & Health, Merging Blue & White Collar Talent w/ DR Richardson (Elephant Energy)**Something Totally Different: How to Raise Money for your ClimateTech Startup w/ Tommy Leep, founder of Jetstream VCSupport 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 speak with Ran Roth, the Co-Founder and CTO of Sensibo, an IoT device company that connects your AC units to various services to help you use your AC unit more efficiently. In today's conversation, we discuss how they got started, their experience raising funds back in the wake of the death of CleanTech 1.0, and the future of indoor climate control. Punchy episode with a lot of great content. 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.----- Topics: **1:07 Intro**2:43 How he got into Sensibo**6:56 Stats: 1/3 of energy goes into heating and cooling globally**12:30 How the tech works**17:21 How they started**19:48 Going from software to hardware**22:23 When they took off & the funding process**26:21 Financial Model**28:57 Advice for Utility Partnerships**31:54 Indoor climate/air quality & health**34:36 Talent**37:00 Future of indoor climate control**39:58 Final thoughts-----Links: **Ran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ran-roth/**Sensibo Website: https://sensibo.com/pages/smartac-usa**Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: **Join the Slack Channel:  **Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: **HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner----- Other episodes you might enjoy:**Most Recent Episode: Extracting Precious Metals from Catalytic Converters to Solve Climate Change w/ Greg Pendura (Regenx)**Similar Topic Episode: Electrifying Homes, Home Air-Quality & Health, Merging Blue & White Collar Talent w/ DR Richardson (Elephant Energy)**Something Totally Different: How CorporateVCs are Playing a role in the Climate Revolution w/ Erik Terjesen (Silicon Foundry)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 the CEO of publicly traded, Regenx, Greg Pendura. Regenx is a metals recycling company recovering precious metals from catalytic converters and selling it on the market or providing the service directly to OEMs.Greg explains the problem they are solving, how they are solving it, the back story of the company, how they funded the project, and where he sees the future going. If you dream of a future where everything can be broken down and made into either the same or another product, this is a great episode for you. 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: **1:19 Intro to Greg**6:03 The Problem**14:38 The Solution**17:14 Offtake of the Materials**21:39 Total Recovery**24:28 Business Model**34:22 The R&D Process**38:58 Funding**50:54Final Thoughts----- Links: **Connect with Greg: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-pendura-301bb01b1/**Regenx Website: https://www.regenx.tech/**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:**From 30% to 90% Li Recovery, Founding a ClimateTech Co, & Talent Moat w/ Teague Egan (EnergyX)**Mineral Availability, Sustainable Mining, & ClimateTech Supply Chain Challenges w/ Nick Rohleder**Endings, Endineering, Circular Economy, & the Customer Experience w/ Joe Macleod**The Future of Clean Energy, Materials/Mfg, & the Circular Economy with Author, Peter LeydenSupport 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 Andreas Lehner (@lehner_a) about what he's doing with his new company PowerBlocks to capture methane that is just being flared, using that energy to power data centers or bitcoin mining, how he got interested in Climate, how to build an MVP with a hardware business, a short discussion around AI and the energy grid, and how he stays focused on one thing at a time. 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: **1:19 What he's doing today and his backstory.**19:47 Bitcoin & Climate Compatibility.**25:50 How to win a pilot project?**31:27 How they finance the projects.**34:28 Should AI be allowed to touch the energy grid?**43:44 What is their funding mostly used for? ----- Links: andreas@powerblocks.coConnect with Andreas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lehnerandreas/PowerBlocks Website: https://powerblocks.co/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:#74 Utilizing Carbon in Everyday Products w/ Aaron Fitzgerald of Mars Materials#83 From 30% to 90% Li Recovery, Founding a ClimateTech Co, & Talent Moat w/ Teague Egan (EnergyX)#2 Reimagining Carbon as a Useful Product w/ Apoorv Sinha (Carbon Upcycling Technologies)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 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!)