Climate CEOs: Scaling Startups

Explore climate-focused SPACs, innovative indoor agtech startups, & key insights for investors navigating the evolving green tech market.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: SPAC overage, over 1,000 indoor agtech startups (map), cobalt and child labor (infographic), and which Native American land are you sitting on?For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Discover how EVMatch connects EV drivers to chargers, enabling seamless access, optimized utilization, & scalable energy infrastructure.Led by Heather Hochrein, EVMatch provides a software platform that enables both a peer-to-peer EV charging system (analogous to Airbnb for electric vehicle chargers) and facilitates apartment building charging sessions through automatic scheduling and access control.Below are two excerpts from the podcast. Heather described EVMatch's business saying, "We are a software platform that provides access to privately owned EV charging stations with the ultimate goal of increasing the feasibility of EV ownership. Our platform was initially created to provide a peer-to-peer network of homeowners who have individual level 2 charging stations and can provide access to this infrastructure to their neighbors and community members in exchange for additional cash. In this sense, we say that we are the “Airbnb of electric vehicle charging stations.” Moreover, we have begun to provide reservation-based software for apartment complexes and church facilities to help these facilities manage EV charging sessions.We have three revenue streams. Our primary revenue stream is a service fee that we charge to customers when using the peer-to-peer network, in much the same way that Airbnb customers pay a transaction fee when they book a reservation. Our secondary revenue stream is an annual subscription fee (i.e., a SaaS offering) that we charge to our commercial customers for the reservation management service. Finally, we earn a commission on the resale of level 2 charging hardware."Heather highlighted the company's work to drive electric vehicle adoption by addressing range anxiety saying, "It is absolutely a primary motivation. Range anxiety is a combination of relatively short-range batteries in the existing fleet of electric vehicles and insufficient public charging infrastructure. While we believe the former will be addressed by gradually improving battery chemistry coming out of labs working in conjunction with automakers, we are actively working on the latter. While we do not directly build charging stations, we work to maximize their usage rate, making this infrastructure more accessible to all. It is also clear that the EV charging infrastructure must continue to be built out, and we expect that as this continues our role will only continue to expand in terms of the smart software management of these facilities."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Learn about the latest venture capital & private equity investments in climate tech, highlighting emerging startups, deals, & sector shifts.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: 26 deal summaries, plus an interview with hydrogen CEO Mo Vargas at BayoTech, and behavioral science for climate persuasion.For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Learn how Station A uses software to optimize building energy efficiency, generate measurable ROI, & accelerate clean energy adoption.Led by CEO Kevin Berkemeyer, Station A derives tangible energy savings estimates from complex data analysis of non-residential buildings in the US, enabling a two-sided marketplace in which building owners can simply access cost-saving clean energy options from leading providers. To learn more visit their website.Below are two excerpts from the podcast.Kevin described Station A's business saying, "Station A is a software-powered clean energy marketplace. Our mission is to provide ultimate transparency, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness for anyone to adopt clean energy technologies. More specifically, we look to facilitate solar, solar + battery, or solely battery deployments for building owners. After simply providing an address, we provide building owners with data-driven clean energy options and allow them to then secure a quote from our marketplace of approximately 2,000 providers. Station A has a somewhat unique history as the company started as a software unit within NRG, where we worked with building owners to identify what form of clean energy to adopt and then whom to work with to build it out. Station A was spun out of NRG in 2018 with the mission of more broadly bringing this project identification and matching capability to the market."Kevin highlighted the scale and opportunity for energy and dollar savings within the built environment saying, "Our modeling estimates that 592,000 buildings within the United States would have positive bill savings with aggregate savings of more than $14 billion a year. Ultimately, the goal of this process was to flip the somewhat strange data dynamic, where traditionally the clean energy provider has to request data from the building owner to then be able to provide a pitch with projected savings. Instead, we enable those providers to show up with a comprehensive estimate of building savings without having to make that data request."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led byDr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Discover high-potential climate tech startups, explore strategies to address the $5T/year UN SDG funding gap, & actionable insights from Bloomberg trends.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: 12 leading climate tech companies, 95% of investors are evaluating ESG risks this year, $5T/year needed to achieve UN SDGs, your new climate justice advisory board, and our "atomic" habits (tiny and powerful).For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Discover how Dispatch Goods transforms restaurant takeout waste into reusable resources, improving efficiency & reducing environmental impact.Led by CEO Lindsey Hoell, Dispatch Goods provides a reusable container logistics service for restaurants aiming to increase sustainability and the quality of their takeout food presentation.Below are two excerpts from the podcast."Dispatch Goods is focused on solving the reverse logistics of reuse. It has become increasingly apparent that the culture of throw away is problematic from both a health and environmental perspective. We aim to solve for reusability through the lens of addressing the challenges associated with collecting, sorting, processing, cleaning, and redistributing reusable packages.""We are looking to offer a pickup service that is comparable to the weekly recycling to which we have all become accustomed. In the case of higher-end restaurants, some of our restaurant partners have decided to build the “avocado upcharge” into their menu prices and offer the service as the default take-out option. Nonetheless, we have been able to demonstrate that our reusable service can boost restaurant revenue with the positive PR that they receive."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Learn why many executives struggle with net zero, & how trillion-dollar green infrastructure opportunities are reshaping the sustainability landscape.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: Climate tech VC tops $17B last year, 1 trillion reasons to love green infrastructure, climate CEO interview with David Energy, and the Iron Man invests in bamboo toilet paper.For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

Learn how BayoTech delivers on-site hydrogen as a service, reducing emissions, increasing energy access, & enabling industrial decarbonization.Led by CEO Mo Vargas, BayoTech provides on-site hydrogen supply for industrial customers at an industry-leading carbon intensity and economic rate using a pay-as-you-go model that reduces upfront capital costs.Below are two excerpts from the podcast."Our basic goal is to provide low to zero-carbon hydrogen at the cheapest cost possible. We primarily offer this through a service called BayoGaaS wherein we build, own, operate, and finance projects and then sell that to the end-user which reduces the upfront capital cost to the customer. Our onsite generators have a lower carbon intensity than many of the traditional offerings such as electrolyzers due to the reduction in transportation and conversion losses.""The two primary concerns are carbon intensity and cost. On the carbon intensity front, customers are often overwhelmed by ESG concerns and the need to adopt cleaner solutions. There are many cool applications of clean technology and hydrogen, but the notion that an industrial customer needs to get into the hydrogen production business can be daunting. We simplify this with our BayoGaaS offering. On the cost side, we know that the industry is primarily motivated and moved by the least cost solution. We can produce hydrogen at less than $2 per kilogram, which is far lower than the majority of the industry and makes our offering extremely compelling to customers."Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.--Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.To request more information on membership, click here.Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.

Explore how top climate CEOs prioritize opportunities, say “no” to distractions, & focus on ventures that deliver measurable environmental results.ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: Interviews with two CEOs working on carbon capture and containerized green housing. Plus, 24 pages of cleantech and renewable energy investments, and how to say "no" to many and "yes" to the precious few.For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com

In this discussion, James McGinniss, CEO of David Energy, delves into empowering consumers in the energy sector, likening his company’s mission to David vs. Goliath. He explains how they function as a wealth manager for energy assets, notably through battery monetization. By leveraging data from customers' devices, David Energy optimizes energy consumption, allowing consumers to save on bills. The conversation also covers the shift towards distributed energy resources and the importance of collaboration in tackling climate challenges.