Stonly Baptiste Blue is a founding Partner of Third Sphere , a venture platform that works for founders accelerating the transformation of global systems to better serve humanity and the planet now and into the future. At Third Sphere he and his team invest in pre-seed tech for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Stonly previously founded Veddio Cloud Solutions , an enterprise software company, which was acquired after a year of self-funded growth. He is a serial entrepreneur, having built...
Feb 08, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Andrew Beebe is the Managing Director at Obvious Ventures , a venture capital firm with over $1 billion AUM that invests in early-stage, purpose-driven entrepreneurs reimagining trillion-dollar industries. Andrew joined Obvious Ventures at the firm’s inception to lead investments in climate tech and clean energy solutions, and his investment thesis has led the company to invest in companies, like Proterra (an electric bus company, $PTRA), Lilium , (an electric flight company, $LILM), and Amply (...
Feb 01, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Gagan Dhillon is the CEO & Co-Founder of Synop , creators of an end to end fleet and energy management platform that automates EV operations by helping businesses handle tracking, billing, reporting, and cost management under one unified, data-centric platform. Prior to co-founding Synop, Gagan witnessed first-hand the challenges that businesses face when transitioning to commercial electric vehicles. Previously at REIN , an InsurTech startup, he worked with major commercial OEMs and global ...
Jan 25, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Janelle has held numerous leadership positions as a startup CEO and Founder, Mayor of Sausalito, and trusted advisor to startups across a range of technologies. Janelle’s current work focuses on innovation, public service, and climate change leadership. Her organization, The Center for Sea Rise Solutions (CSRS) , is a global nonprofit focused on empowering local decision makers to take action around sea level rise and coastal resilience. She is currently bringing opportunities around the new blu...
Jan 18, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Lauren is a lifelong entrepreneur, strategic advisor and angel investor, and Co-founder & CEO of Sesame Solar . Sesame Solar manufactures the world’s first 100% renewably powered Mobile Nanogrids, which can be set up in 15 minutes with minimal training by one person. Easily transported by a variety of means, the Nanogrids are used in essential services and emergency response around the world by the US Air Force, telcos, and emergency services. Made in Michigan by a multicultural team, Sesame...
Jan 11, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 11
For the past 10 years, Nick Halla has helped build Impossible Foods from the ground up, forming an amazing team and developing and commercializing delicious, sustainable plant-based foods to address many global food production issues - efficiency, scalability, safety, health, food security, and more. Nick was Impossible’s very first employee, and would go on to lead their international strategy, helping to expand Impossible’s global presence and impact. Impossible Foods is a food technology comp...
Jan 04, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Harsh Patel is the Managing Partner and Co-founder at Wireframe Ventures , where he invests in seed & early-stage startups aiming to improve human health and the planet. He was an early investor in companies like Palantir , Mammoth Biosciences and Goat . Before that he was Co-founder and CTO of Orbit Commerce, a company that was eventually acquired by Digital River. Harsh is passionate about empowering startups to grow and scale with the right funding, mentorship and strategic advice. He is ...
Dec 28, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In our latest episode of CLIMB by VSC, we speak with Levi Tillemann , an American entrepreneur, author, and policy expert. He is the founder and CEO of Valence Strategic, an advisory firm specializing in clean energy, and the author of the book The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future . Levi was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow to the U.S. Secretary of Energy in 2013, and has held positions in the White House and Department of Energy. He has served as a policy advisor to U.S...
Dec 14, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 8
In our latest episode of CLIMB by VSC, we speak with Meera Clark . Meera is an investor at Redpoint Ventures , a firm that has invested in some of the world’s leading technology companies over the past 20 years. Investments include names like Draftkings, Hims, Netflix, Ramp, Snowflake, Stripe, thredUp and many more. Meera recently joined Redpoint from Obvious Ventures, where she invested in startups through a world positive lens. She also writes a wonderful newsletter called the Conscious Consum...
Nov 30, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Listen to this episode from CLIMB by VSC on Spotify. In our latest episode of CLIMB by VSC, we speak with Tommy Leep , founding partner of Jetstream , where he invests in pre-seed climate sustainability and biodiversity startups. Tommy previously worked at AngelList, Haystack and Floodgate, and invested in startups like Robinhood, Patreon, Clubhouse and Mercury. In 2019 Tommy read The Uninhabitable Earth and realized that he needed to do something about climate change. He shifted his investing t...
Nov 16, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In our latest episode of CLIMB by VSC, I’m thrilled to be joined by our friend Allison Wolff, co-founder and CEO of Vibrant Planet, a startup that leverages data-driven science and cloud technology to help make communities and ecosystems more resilient in the face of climate change. Allison brings to Vibrant Planet over 20 years in Silicon Valley across corporate strategy, product strategy, customer experience design, and marketing. I’m excited to dig into how she’s applying that expertise on th...
Nov 02, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Our guest this week on CLIMB by VSC, is Sundeep Ahuja, who is an investor and syndicate lead of Climate Capital and Duro Ventures. As an investor, Sundeep has invested in businesses ranging from Good Eggs, Substack, and Notable Labs and more recently has back leading climate companies including Mosaic, NCX, Arcadia and many more. We love talking about scaling challenges for climate startups on this show so I’m excited to dig into Sundeep’s experience as an operator and how it informs the kinds o...
Oct 19, 2022•34 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Our guest this week on CLIMB by VSC, is Raj Kapoor, a VC investor and founding partner of the venture capital firm Climactic. Prior to becoming a founding partner alongside Josh Felser, Raj has a depth of experience as both an operator — Raj as CSO at Lyft and previously CEO of Snapfish and Fitmob before that — in addition to his experience as an investor at Mayfield Fund. At Climactic, Raj is focused on helping companies that help enterprises achieve their net-zero goals. About VSC Ventures: Fo...
Oct 05, 2022•28 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Our latest guest on CLIMB by VSC, is Katelin Holloway, an investor and founding partner of the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. Prior to becoming a founding partner alongside Alexis Ohanian, Katelin was the former head of people and culture at Reddit, and an investor at Initialized Capital. At Seven Seven Six, Katelin is focused on helping her companies build inclusive company cultures, working with founders to make that a part of each startup from day one. In this episode we discuss: (0:01...
Sep 21, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 2
We are thrilled to kick off our new show on scaling climate innovation: CLIMB by VSC with an engaging conversation with Rob Leclerc, managing partner of AgFunder. Founded in 2013 and based in Silicon Valley, AgFunder is one of the world’s most active FoodTech and AgTech investors today. In this episode, we discuss: (00:01) Intro to AgFunder & Rob Leclerc's background as well as what led him to becoming a co-founder of AgFunder (04:22) key risks to the future of food and agriculture? (07:23) ...
Sep 07, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 1
