CleanTechies

Marian Krueger comes to us with his experience investing in 120+ early stage CDR startups, and broke down what we should look for and what’s worth watching in the years ahead.He’s a leading expert in CDR having invested in Europe, which is the leading CDR ecosystem in the world.Sitting down with him as a blast, and for our US listeners, this episode is VERY timely with the Biden Administration’s first release on voluntary carbon markets, Enjoy 🥳👏.---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox-----Topics:**02:41 Introduction**05:08 Challenges of the Voluntary Carbon Market**16:30 CDR Startups**17:53 Impact-Driven Motivation of CDR Founders**26:32 Gaps in the CDR Space**32:27 Role of Policy in Carbon Removal**39:03 Prioritization, Universities, and A-Teams**42:10 Collaboration and Partnerships**42:51 Takeaways-----Links:**Marian Krueger | remove**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X 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 speak with Arvin Ganesan, an ex-Obama-Admin EPA and ex-Apple Energy Procurement executive. His career is fascinating, from finance to Policy to Energy Tech CEO. He offers us a lot of insight into their technology, how it works, and specifically how it plays well with utility models of making money. Towards the end, he mentioned the unknown of the commercialization path. He pointed out that it's not important to pick a model of commercialization with a tech like this because so many variables can dictate the best path to commercialization when the tech is proven past the pilot scale. Lots of good stuff is in today's episode! ---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube 🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey 📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox ----- Topics: **2:37 Why Cheap and Accessible Energy Storage Matters**2:37 Why Cheap and Accessible Energy Storage Matters**17:30 Fourth Power's Utility-Scale Thermal Battery**21:58 Fast and Efficient Energy Storage and Discharge**27:10 Building Fourth Power**32:04 The Power of People**37:24 Maintaining Culture with Growth**42:21 Opportunities in the Utility Market**47:04 Startup Opportunities in Agriculture Decarbonization**49:01 The Importance of Mentorship**52:19 Takeaways----- Links: **Arvin Ganesan | Fourth Power**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X 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!)

Michael Kearney discusses the political durability of the IRA and tough tech startups. He emphasizes scaling deep tech innovations and commercializing technology. The podcast explores the changing nature of competition in clean energy markets and the economic impact of low-cost energy on industries.

There are a few key things Climate Entrepreneurs should know. This guest brought up a bunch of them. It is incredible to see how successful they are in a crowded space. Today, he shared with us many of the things that helped them succeed. How to align all stakeholders in the sales process Building a product so simple the user can be up-skilled without specialized training Building a culture of pragmatismSpeaking Return-on-InvestmentEnjoy today's episode, and let us know your favorite moment in the comments (anywhere). ---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube 🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey 📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox 🌐 Join the CleanTechies Slack Channel ----- Topics: **2:27 Intro and Background**3:05 The Problem They Solve**5:39 Global Emissions from Industry**11:44 Ideation and Idea Validation**13:37 Company Status and Growth**14:56 Challenges and Milestones**16:38 How / When to Pivot**18:16 Standing out in a Crowd**22:53 Market Positioning and Challenges**25:38 Pragmatism-First Culture**30:38 Principles and Habits for Success**32:38 Future Plans and Opportunities**37:00 Climate Startup Ideas **37:48 Closing Remarks and Call to Action**38:41 Takeaways----- Links: **Saleh ElHattab | Gravity**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X 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!)

What do you get when you put Chris Rock, Timothée Chalamet, Greta Thunberg, & Marc Andreessen together? -- You get Tom Ferguson! The King of Water VC!(Warning! Tom is hilarious, so cancel your comedy cellar tickets because you won't need them)Today, we had the chance to speak with Tom, the founding partner of Burnt Island Ventures. They are the leading VC investor in all things water. They became this by compounding their network for years with some of the best water networks, including Imagine H2O. One notable thing he pointed out is, the IRA didn't include any investment into water infrastructure. 🤯 Tune in to get the whole thing today! 🌱🌎---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube 🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey 📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox | https://cleantechies.substack.com/podcast🌐 Join the CleanTechies Slack Channel ----- Topics: **5:00 Introduction**8:10 Why Sustainability**10:34 Time with Imagine H2O**16:13 Other Considerations for BIV**19:27 Story behind the Name BIV**20:55 MBA and Business School**27:22 Focus on Building Team**31:32 Pricing in Velocity of Sales Process**38:35 Compounding Network as a VC’s Moat**47:24 Biggest Problems in Water**56:17 Companies that BIV work with**1:00:42 Startup Opportunity; Water Testing Market**1:04:19 Takeaway----- Links: **Tom Ferguson | Burnt Island Ventures **Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-techies/**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X 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!)

Allison Wolff | Vibrant Planet Vibrant Planet is basically bringing the tech knowledge from the early FAANG days and applying that to land tender and wildfire resistance. Their platform is a prioritization system for land management restoration by providing real-time scenario planning, monitoring, and reporting. These assessments can help with qualifying projects for conservation finance. Allison brings a rolodex of experience working with top companies on sustainability, including Google, Meta, Netflix, eBay, Project Drawdown, & more and is now applying that knowledge with other star-studded experts to solve the wildfire risk problem.----🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview. ----🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox---Links: **Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**Somil & Silas on LinkedInSupport 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!)

Shaun Abrahamson, a climate capital and finance expert from Third Sphere, returns to discuss pressing issues in the climate landscape. He delves into the complexities of partnering with Big Oil, exploring historical collaborations and current challenges in aligning interests for genuine sustainability efforts. The conversation also addresses the need to re-price climate risk as natural disasters increase, highlighting innovative solutions and the importance of resilience in finance. Listeners gain insights into navigating the transition from fossil fuels while weighing socio-economic impacts.

Somil chats with Chinmay Malaviya and Charlie Depman, CEO and CTO of Ridepanda, expanding access and usage of e-bikes, e-scooters, and micro mobility through employer sponsored subscriptions.Chinmay and Charlie bring a lot of startup and industry experience and were able to speak not only about their growth but ALSO breakdown the technical designs that help them be successful in micromobility.We talked about:How Ridepanda offers benefits platform for employers to subsidize employee transportationWhy micromobility faces business model and reputation challenges like Byrd’s bankruptcy despite rising demand for micromobilityHow they balance optionality and user choice will still focusing on scaling their inventory Analyzing historical data to project future growth and consider seasonality Accepting seasonality and overcoming challenges is crucial in the micro-mobility industryHow they design software for micro-mobility& much moreAs always, thanks so much for listening and enjoy the episode!---🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.  ---🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube 🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox 🌐 Join the CleanTechies Slack Channel----- Topics: **03:23 Micromobility and its Reputation**12:10 Employer Business Model**20:43 Balancing Bike Production and Consumer Choice**23:42 Accepting Seasonality**28:55 Lessons from Foodpanda**32:40 Transitioning to Lime and the Transportation Space**35:21 Designing Software for Micro-Mobility**46:23 Advice for Founders----- Links: **Ridepanda | Chinmay Malaviya | Charlie Depman**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X 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!)

Jessica Burley, a Berlin-based investor, discusses how Planet A Ventures uses Carbon Life Cycle Assessments in investing, the European regulatory landscape, climate tech innovation, hardware startups, geothermal drilling, and building genuine relationships in the VC field.

Franz Hochstrasser, a climate financing expert, discusses the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and democratizing climate investment. He shares insights on financing projects in low-income areas, the need for a national green bank, and negotiating the Paris Agreement. The podcast highlights empowering communities through inclusive climate-friendly financing and successful examples of community-driven climate projects.