Climate CEOs: Scaling Startups Climate VC Investor Insights: $220M, 2 Funds, 36 Portfolio Companies [👏 Interview]
Nov 3, 2025
Kareem Dabbagh and Joe Goodman, co-founders of VoLo Earth Ventures, share their insights on climate tech investing. With rich backgrounds from SolarCity and the U.S. Department of Energy, they discuss their unique returns-first investment strategy focusing on early-stage clean energy innovations. The duo explains their meticulous deal screening process and highlights success stories like XGS Geothermal and Blue Frontier's energy-efficient HVAC technology. They also offer personal advice on prioritizing expertise and work-life balance, inspiring future climate entrepreneurs.
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Invest Near Commercial Launch
- Target companies within ~12 months of commercial launch where market pricing is still inefficient.
- Invest to help founders execute commercial launch, then enable efficient pricing in follow-on rounds.
Unit Economics + Market Adoption
- Winning unit economics must pair with a clear market adoption path at venture scale.
- Operating experience helps assess whether a technology creates a true step-change value proposition.
Why They Backed An Advanced Geothermal Startup
- VoLo led diligence into geothermal and backed XGS because conduction-based solutions reduce bankability risk versus convective fracture methods.
- They favored a closed-loop, material-science approach that banks can underwrite with narrow uncertainty bands.
