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 . 📫 Int...
May 12, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 99
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 busines...
May 03, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 98
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 g...
May 02, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 97
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 certa...
Apr 28, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 96
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 Pri...
Apr 26, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 95
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 a...
Apr 21, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 94
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 (fou...
Apr 18, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 93
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 interestin...
Apr 14, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 92
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 structu...
Apr 05, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 91
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 life they en...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 90
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 o...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 89
Super excited to share this with you. We've got someone who went to the same high school where Steve Jobs and Woz did back in the day. He then worked at Square on international expansion, went on to work with VC Legend Mike Maples, and eventually ended up as the Chief of Staff at Chris Sacca's, Lowercarbon Capital. We are talking about Shawn Xu. Shawn talked us through his journey to climate, what it takes to be a good VC, what they look for, the areas he's bullish on, and what he's working on n...
Mar 14, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 88
If you are a bit of a shipping nerd like me, this is going to be a great episode. We are joined by James Malley the co-founder of Paccurate where they are helping product shippers use smaller boxes so less air is shipped, resulting in fewer trucks to get the same products to your destination. This is a juggernaut of a business as they are able to service ginormous companies with a very light staff and it all came out of just being experts in solving annoying problems in the shipping space. This ...
Mar 07, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Today we spoke with Joe Bushnell. I had met Joe before he launched Azollo so it is a pretty cool guest to have on since I got to hear where he was at prior to launch. From Australia, he developed a certain attachment to the issue of climate change at a young age when wildfires destroyed his town and burned his school growing up. He went on to study sustainability in Uni. He then went into consulting and finance winding his way back to sustainable finance. Eventually, desiring to pursue a deeper ...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 86
Today's topic is how to raise money for your ClimateTech Startup with Tommy Leep. He is the founder of Jetstream. A ClimateTech VC focused on investing in pre-seed ClimateTech companies. Today's conversation focuses on three things. First, some of his background, how he got interested in ClimateTech, how he got into VC, and some of the challenges in his career. Second, we spoke about his advice to climate tech founders who are fundraising. He has a lot of incredible tips in this section. If you ...
Feb 22, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Today we have a dual guest episode with Husband & Wife duo, Steve & Beth McDaniel. They have a background in the paint and coatings industry where they have been finding ways to make paints and coatings do something other than just decorate and protect their surface. Their latest innovation is a way to create surfaces that act as carbon capture the same way Blue Algae does. The surfaces can be mass deployed to capture gigatons of carbon to remove carbon from the air permanently at scale....
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Interested in how we will have enough lithium over the next decades to support the energy and EV transition? Well, you can learn about a company solving this problem. Enter EnergyX founded and run by Teague Egan. Teague had no previous experience in mining or chemistry but after seeing a huge gap in the market and one particular problem faced by a lithium reserve in Bolivia, he set out to see how he could solve this problem. In this conversation we cover... His journey to finding this problem an...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 83
Today we are joined by Olivia Pedersen the founder of Sustaio. Olivia has a really incredible journey to building Sustaio. We were able to speak today about their technology, which is essentially a rewards platform for choosing sustainable products. This is a method for consumers to signal to corporates their interest in sustainable products. One thing we also touched on was the difficulty many women or financially less fortunate have to take ClimateTech jobs. Often, at an early-stage startup, t...
Feb 07, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Today we are joined by DR Richardson the Co-Founder and CEO of Elephant Energy. DR started his career in a ClimateTech Fund for about 8 years. Then eventually left to scratch his entrepreneurial itch and build a ClimateTech startup. After about 2 years of testing ideas, he and his Co-founder Josh Lake landed on Elephant Energy where they are removing the friction of electrifying homes. A few of the things we talked about today are... their product & the benefits - an interesting one was the ...
Jan 31, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Today we were joined by John Shegerian the Co-Founder of ERI. Where they are recycling electronic devices and ensuring safe data destruction to comply with Cybersecurity concerns. They have been around for over 20 years. They wouldn't have been called this when they started, but being one of the oldest "CliamteTech" or "Circular Economy" companies out there, John had a lot of really great things to share with current ClimateTech founders. Perhaps most importantly he commented on fundraising from...
Jan 27, 2023•52 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Today we are joined by Matt Ward the founder and CEO of the 4 Ward VC Accelerator. Today we covered a lot of things and it was a super fun conversation coming from yet another incredible individual who had no true background in Climate but decided to make it his life. Key topics are... How a mechanical engineer can build a ClimateTech Accelerator Why he chose to be part of the ClimateTech space / how everything will be re-engineered to be carbon neutral or low carbon In his words what it takes t...
Jan 24, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Hello everyone and welcome back to the CleanTechies Podcast where we interview ClimateTech Founders and VCs to discuss their advice, experience, and all things Building and Climate Investing. In today's conversation, we speak with Erik Terjesen a Partner at Silicon Foundry. What is Silicon Foundry? With a name like that you know it's cool. In essence, they are a consulting service that works with Corporate VCs to help them find strategic investment opportunities. So, their clients are corporates...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 78
Welcome back and Happy New Year! Today we are joined by Nadav Steinmetz the Founder of Nomea a ClimateTech Venture Capital Firm investing in Seed and Pre-Seed companies throughout the UK, Europe, and Israel. Nadav has a diverse background having been born in Belgium, raised in Israel, studied University in the States, and now living in London. He has worked at a variety of places including Blackstone. The 4 key areas we covered today are... Nadav's background and entrance into climate All about ...
Jan 10, 2023•59 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Welcome back to another episode of the CleanTechies Podcast. This is episode 76 of the show and we are thrilled to have you joining us. If you're a ClimateTech Founder seeking introductions to capital or potential partnerships or are interested in sponsoring the show, please reach out: silasmahner@gmail.com Today we are joined by an individual who focuses a bit more on a philosophical item. On something that we tend to be uncomfortable with, in western society; Endings. Joe Macleod, Author, Spea...
Dec 31, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Welcome back to another episode of the CleanTechies Podcast. This is episode 75 of the show and we are thrilled to have you joining us. --- If you're a ClimateTech Founder seeking introductions to capital or potential partnerships or are interested in sponsoring the show, please reach out: silasmahner@gmail.com --- Today we have a great conversation with Al Subbloie the Founder and CEO of Budderfly. Budderfly is one of the fastest-growing full-service commercial building efficiency companies. Th...
Dec 29, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 75
Welcome back to another episode of the CleanTechies Podcast. This is episode 74 of the show and we are thrilled to have you joining us. If you're a ClimateTech Founder seeking introductions to capital or potential partnerships or are interested in sponsoring the show, please reach out: silasmahner@gmail.com Today we are joined by Aaron Fitzgerald the CEO and Co-Founder of Mars Materials. At Mars Materials they are creating a clean acrylonitrile (ACN) alternative that is used in materials that ev...
Dec 20, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Welcome back to another episode of the CleanTechies Podcast. This is episode 73 of the show and we are thrilled to have you joining us. If you're a ClimateTech Founder seeking introductions to capital or potential partnerships or are interested in sponsoring the show, please reach out: silasmahner@gmail.com Today, we are joined by Bruce Usher. Currently a professor at Columbia, past CEO of EcoSecurities Group, and Author of Investing in the Era of Climate Change. Bruce spoke with us about a vari...
Dec 17, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Hello everyone and welcome back to CleanTechies the Podcast. This is episode 72. If you are a climate tech founder with specific questions you'd like us to ask -- OR -- looking for capital and strategic partner introductions, please reach out to me via the Slack Channel or LinkedIn and we are glad to help in any way we can. Today we are joined by Graham Stewart the founder of Fiber52 which has a method of dyeing cotton which is significantly more sustainable. Graham was born and raised in one of...
Dec 06, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Hello everyone and welcome back to CleanTechies the Podcast. This is episode 71. If you are a climate tech founder with specific questions you'd like us to ask -- OR -- looking for capital and strategic partner introductions, please reach out to me via the Slack Channel or LinkedIn and we are glad to help in any way we can. If you're unfamiliar with Alternative Proteins, this episode should be a good place for you to start - especially if like me, you're not a white-coat scientist. Today Sharyn ...
Dec 01, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Hello everyone and welcome back to CleanTechies the Podcast. This is episode 70. If you are a climate tech founder with specific questions you'd like us to ask -- OR -- looking for capital and strategic partner introductions, please reach out to me via the Slack Channel or LinkedIn and we are glad to help in any way we can. Today we are joined by Jan Skjoldhammer the founder and CEO of NoviOcean. NoviOcean is a wave energy technology company that is developing, what they believe to be, a technol...
Nov 27, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 70
