Inevitable

an MCJ podcast
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Feb 3, 2020 • 57min

Ep 78: BJ Fogg, Director, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford

Today's guest is BJ Fogg, Founder & Director, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford, with an appearance by William Shan, one of his students who is project managing the launch of his new Behavior Design for Climate Action online training program.BJ teaches good people how behavior works so they can create products & services that benefit everyday people around the world. He is a behavior scientist, with deep experience in innovation and teaching. At Stanford University he runs the Behavior Design Lab. He also teaches his models and methods in graduate seminars with students from various majors.On the industry side, BJ trains innovators to use his work so they can create solutions that influence behavior. The focus areas include health, financial wellbeing, learning, productivity, and more.BJ wrote a seminal book, Persuasive Technology, about how computers can be designed to influence attitudes and behaviors. That book, together with his early innovations, inspired an annual global conference on the topic. His Stanford students have gone on to co-found Instagram, as well as launch a global movement focusing on “time well spent” and the Center for Humane Technology. Starting in 2010, BJ’s Stanford lab started shifting focus away from Persuasive Technology toward a new domain they named “Behavior Design,” a set of models and methods about human behavior (with nothing to do with technology.)BJ’s new book Tiny Habits will be published in over 15 languages.Fortune Magazine named BJ a “New Guru You Should Know” for his insights about mobile and social networks.In today’s episode, we cover:Overview of BJ’s workHow his work has evolved since he started doing itWho BJ’s work is meant to help, and some details on the framework/process it followsHow (and why) BJ first became interested in helping address climate changeWhat he and Will are going to do about it, and how they plan to helpHow others in similar positions might apply their skills and station to help with the climate fightBJ’s advice for others looking to find their lane.Links to topics discussed in this episode:BJ Fogg: https://www.bjfogg.com/Behavior Design for Climate Action: https://www.behaviordesign.info/climateactionTiny Habits book: https://www.tinyhabits.com/You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 31, 2020 • 46min

Ep 77: Clay Dumas, Partner at Lowercarbon Capital

This was an experiment using a new app Talkshow, which is a live discussion broadcast via twitter where listeners can text questions as we talk!Today's guest was Clay Dumas from Lowercarbon Capital, to talk about what they are up to with the fund and their newly opened roles! It is also always great to talk shop with Clay on everything climate change.Clay is a partner at Lowercarbon Capital where he invests in startups and research organizations developing technology to reduce emissions, suck carbon out of the air, and cool the planet. He is also a partner at Lowercase Capital. Previously, Clay served as an Executive in Residence at the Pramana Collective, a strategic advisory firm in San Francisco. Before that, he was the Chief of Staff for the White House Office of Digital Strategy, a team tasked by President Obama with connecting people with purpose. In 2017, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. At the start of President Obama’s second term, he served as an aide in the Chief of Staff’s office. Before joining the White House, Clay worked on President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. He graduated from Harvard in 2011.In today’s episode, we cover:Genesis of Lowercarbon from the team behind Lowercase CapitalHow Lowercarbon fit within the vision of Chris and Crystal SaccaClay’s journey from presidential campaigns to venture capital to Climate Change investingMajor insights and takeaways after three-years of working in the spaceAttitudes, motives and incentives across institutional investors backing Climate Change companiesHow the social impact and financial opportunity are immense in the Climate Change spaceLowercarbon’s investment focusHow Lowercarbon differs from other institutional investorsJobs and opportunities at LowercarbonTechnologies in which Clay is interestedLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Lowercarbon Capital: https://lowercarboncapital.com/Lowercase Capital: https://lowercasecapital.com/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019 report: https://www.ipcc.ch/2019/09/25/srocc-press-release/Impact Investing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_investingCarbon Engineering:https://carbonengineering.com/You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 30, 2020 • 1h 4min

Ep 76: Jigar Shah, President & Co-Founder at Generate Capital

Today's guest is Jigar Shah, President & Co-Founder at Generate Capital.Jigar was the founder and CEO of SunEdison (NASDAQ: SUNE, TERP), where he pioneered “no money down solar” and unlocked a multi-billion-dollar solar market, creating the largest solar services company worldwide. He is the author of Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy. After SunEdison, Jigar served as the founding CEO of the Carbon War Room, a global non-profit founded by Sir Richard Branson and Virgin Unite to help entrepreneurs address climate change. Generate Capital, the Carbon War Room and SunEdison all follow from Jigar’s vision that business model innovation will unlock the largest wealth creation opportunity – resource efficiency. Jigar is committed to helping entrepreneurs and large companies alike implement resource efficiency solutions using “pay as you save” project finance models. Jigar holds an MBA from The University of Maryland and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He sits on the boards of sPower and the Rocky Mountain Institute. Jigar lives in New York City and is trying to find the perfect cocktail.In today’s episode, we cover:Overview of Generate Capital'Generate’s business model and approachIndustries and solution types they are interested inExample projectJigar’s backround and experiences leading up to GenerateHow Generate measures success beyond returnsHow Jigar thinks about the nature of the climate problemThe role of the new blood coming into the spaceCapital types and capital gapsCapitalism, GDP growth, and climate changeWhere economists get it wrongHow optimistic is Jigar for the future?The most effective ways to address this issueHow Jigar would allocate $100B to maximize its impact on the problemHow you and I can helpLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Generate Capital: https://generatecapital.com/McKinsey’s resource revolution paper: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/resource-revolutionScott Jacobs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobsscott/Matan Friedman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matanfriedman/WeDriveU: https://www.wedriveu.com/SunEdison: http://www.sunedison.com/NEXTracker: https://www.nextracker.com/Greenpeace: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Breakthrough Energy Ventures: https://www.b-t.energy/ventures/Carbon War Room: https://rmi.org/carbon-war-room/Sunil Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilpaul/International Energy Agency: https://www.iea.org/Craig Venter: https://www.jcvi.org/about/jventerYou can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 27, 2020 • 46min

Ep 75: Gary Cohen, President & Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm

Today's guest is Gary Cohen, President & Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm.Gary has been a pioneer in the environmental health movement for thirty years. Cohen is President and Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth. He was also instrumental in bringing together the NGOs and hospital systems that formed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. All three were created to transform the health care sector to be environmentally sustainable and serve as anchor institutions to support environmental health in their communities.Gary was Executive Director of the Environmental Health Fund for many years. He has helped build coalitions and networks globally to address the environmental health impacts related to toxic chemical exposure and climate change. Gary is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Sambhavna Clinic in Bhopal, India, which has been working for over 25 years to heal people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy and to fight for environmental cleanup in Bhopal. He is also on the Boards of the American Sustainable Business Council, Health Leads and Coming Clean.He has received numerous recognitions for his achievements, including: The MacArthur Foundation’s Fellows Award (2015), the White House’s Champion of Change Award for Public Health and Climate Change (2013), the Huffington Post’s Game Changer Award for Health (2012), the Frank Hatch Award for Enlightened Public Service (2007), and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2006).In today’s episode, we cover:Overview of Health Care Without Harm and origin storyGary's background and path leading up to itTheir initial starting point and strategyProgress to-dateTeam compositionHow they measure successHow decarbonization fits inBiggest levers to bring about decarbonization of health careBarriers impeding progressChanges that would be most  impactfulHow Gary would allocate $100B to maximize its impact on the problemHow you and I can helpLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Health Care Without Harm: https://noharm.org/Practice Greenhealth: https://practicegreenhealth.org/United Nations Development Programme: https://www.undp.org/International Monetary Fund: https://www.imf.org/external/index.htmHealth care energy impact calculator: http://www.eichealth.org/World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/  Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 23, 2020 • 52min

Ep 74: Timothy Freundlich, CEO of ImpactAssets

Today's guest is Tim Freundlich, CEO of ImpactAssets.Tim is a long-time innovator in new financial instruments in the social enterprise sector, which he now applies as the head of ImpactAssets, the $1 billion boutique donor advised fund and investment note offerer for impact investments. While previously at Calvert Foundation for 12 years, he conceived of and launched the donor advised fund. He was also instrumental in building the $250mm Community Investment Note with more than $1 billion invested into 300-plus nonprofits and for profits globally.He co-founded and serves as Managing Partner for Good Capital that, in addition to its flagship Social Enterprise Expansion Fund LP, founded the 2,500-person annual Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) conferences in San Francisco and four Impact Hubs in the US; co-working, meeting and community space serving approximately 2,000 social innovators.Tim is a sought-out industry speaker and regularly featured and quoted in media such as ThinkAdvisor and WealthManagement and has appeared on TheStreet and Forbes. He received a BA from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. Tim and his wife, Julie, live in San Francisco with their sons, Milo and Gus.In today’s episode, we cover:Overview of ImpactAssetsOrigin story and how the model worksHow it is different than a typical institutional asset allocationWho the target customers areTraction and progress to dateSome example success storiesLong visionImpact, if successfulWhat comes nextBarriers holding them backWhat could change to help them move fasterAdvice for people looking to allocate their philanthropic capital to maximize its impactLinks to topics discussed in this episode:ImpactAssets: http://impactassets.org/Tim Freundlich: https://www.impactassets.org/about_us/team/timothy-freundlichUN Sustainable Development Goals: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/Seth Goldman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Goldman_(businessman)Beyond Meat: https://www.beyondmeat.com/MSCI KLD 400 Social Index: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/domini_400.aspCalvert Impact Capital: https://www.calvertimpactcapital.org/What is a donor-advised fund? https://www.nptrust.org/what-is-a-donor-advised-fund/Toniic: https://toniic.com/CREO Syndicate: http://creosyndicate.org/You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 20, 2020 • 57min

Ep 73: Akshat Rathi, Reporter at Bloomberg News

Today’s guest is Akshat Rathi, a London-based reporter, covering science, energy, and environment for Bloomberg News. He has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Oxford, and a BTech in chemical engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai.He tells stories of the people and their ideas tackling the biggest problem facing humanity: climate change. And he is currently working on a book about scaling up climate solutions.Previously, Akshat was a senior reporter at Quartz and a science editor at The Conversation. He has also worked for The Economist and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His writings have also been published in Nature, The Hindu, The Guardian, Ars Technica, and Chemistry World, among others.In 2018, Akshat won Journalist of the Year at the Drum’s Online Media Awards ceremony, he was a finalist for the John B. Oakes award for distinguished environmental journalism, and he was shortlisted for British Science Writer of the Year by the Association of British Science Writers. In 2019, he was shortlisted by the British Journalism Awards for the best science journalism category.Akshat has won fellowships from Columbia University and City University of New York to enhance his reporting work. He has also served on the advisory panel of the 2019 Cairncross Review on the sustainability of high-quality journalism in the UK.In today’s episode, we cover:Akshat’s most recent role at QuartzHow and why Akshat came to be a climate journalist, and where his concern about this issue came fromHis transition from PhD to journlismThe importance of rigor in science journalism, and how Akshat defines itThe state of media business models, and the implications for climate coverageSome different paths to introduce more scientific expertise in the newsroomAkshat’s assessment of the problem of climate changeAkshat’s thoughts about market forces vs regulation, a carbon price, US role vs developing countries, carbon removal, fission & fusion, solar geoengineering, and moreRole of the fossil fuel companies in the transitionConsumer and corporate offsetsAdaptation and resiliencyHow Akshat would allocate $100B to maximize its impact towards decarbonizationAkshat’s advice for others looking to figure out how to helpA teaser for Akshat’s upcoming role with Bloomberg News (which he’s since started!)Links to topics discussed in this episode:Quartz: https://qz.com/UN Climate Change Conference - December 2019: https://unfccc.int/cop25The "would you nationalize sausages?" question: https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2019/12/10/would-you-nationalise-sausages-wins-the-weirdest-question-of-the-election-award/Bloomberg News: https://www.bloomberg.com/ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/Climate Home: https://www.climatechangenews.com/Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/Heated: https://heated.world/Emily Atkin: https://twitter.com/emorweeClimate Feedback: https://climatefeedback.org/NewScientist: https://www.newscientist.com/The Economist: https://www.economist.com/AAAS Fellowship: https://www.aaas.org/programs/science-technology-policy-fellowshipsBreakthrough Energy Ventures: https://www.b-t.energy/ventures/Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 16, 2020 • 46min

Ep 72: Joey Bergstein, CEO of Seventh Generation

Today's guest is Joey Bergstein, CEO of Seventh Generation, recently acquired by Unilever. Seventh Generation’s mission is to inspire a consumer revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven generations. The company is a leader in positive business practices through the use of renewable plant-based products, industry-leading transparency with respect to ingredient disclosures, and recyclable packaging.Joey joined Seventh Generation in 2011 and, together with the Seventh Generation team, has been transforming its business, more than doubling revenue during this time, while fulfilling the company’s mission to incite a consumer revolution that nurtures the health of the next seven generations. Following the sale to Unilever, Joey was appointed CEO. Growth is accelerating, as is the company’s ability to impact millions of people around the world.A graduate of University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, Bergstein began his career at Procter & Gamble where he held marketing leadership roles over the course of ten years across North America and in Europe. Since then, his career turned to beverages where Joey served as VP Global Business Development and then VP Marketing at Molson and finally at Diageo where as Senior Vice President of Global Rum, Joey led a global team that doubled the rum business to over $1 billion, transforming Captain Morgan into the fastest growing premium spirit brand in the world.In today’s episode, we cover:Seventh Generation overview and origin story'Discussion about it’s unique principles, and when/how those came to beJoey’s career arc, and what led him to Seventh GenerationWhen/how/why he became passionate about helping address climate changeHow he thinks about the problem, and the best ways to solve itSome examples of initiatives within the company to help with this issueHow they prioritize which projects to take on, and how they measure results from an impact standpointDiscussion about B corps, and their role going forward versus changes that need to come with capitalism overallWhat else matters in the climate fight, beyond the work of Seventh GenerationHow Joey would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact on climate changeJoey’s advice for others looking to determine how to best helpLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Seventh Generation: https://www.seventhgeneration.com/homeB corps: https://bcorporation.net/about-b-corpsGreat Law of Peace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Law_of_PeaceSierra Club: https://www.sierraclub.org/Generation IM: https://www.generationim.com/Seventh Generation: https://www.seventhgeneration.com/homeAmerican Sustainable Business Council: https://www.asbcouncil.org/Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 13, 2020 • 1h 10min

Ep 71: Stephen Fenberg, State Senator for Colorado's 18th District

Today's guest is Senator Stephen Fenberg, a Democrat who serves as state Senator in the 18th District in Colorado where he's served since 2017. He also serves as the Senate Majority Leader.A few years after graduating from CU, Senator Fenberg founded New Era Colorado, a nonprofit organization dedicated engaging, educating, and training young people in the political process. The organization has registered hundreds of thousands of young people to vote in Colorado and successfully passed several pieces of legislation related to election reform, student debt, and climate.He has also served on the Board of Directors for ProgressNow, One Colorado Political Committee, and INVST Community Studies as well as the Boulder Housing Working Group and the city of Boulder Capital Improvement Taskforce. Senator Fenberg now serves as an Advisory Board member for the dZi Foundation, an international nonprofit providing development work in remote areas of Nepal.Senator Fenberg is part-owner of the Bread Bar, a cocktail bar in the historic town of Silver Plume. Bread Bar resides at the site of a historic bakery from the 1800's.In today’s episode, we cover:Senator Fenberg’s history prior to holding officeNew Era Colorado, a nonprofit organization founded by Senator Fenberg, dedicated to engaging, educating, and training young people in the political processHis decision to run for office and whyHis early work in office to gain Democratic majorityHis assessment of the state of the Federal government, and the role of the statesHow he thinks about the climate problemHis assessment of Republicans and the climate change problemImportance of going after coal plantsOne benefit of regulated monopoly utilityHow to not just get policy done, but durable policyWhat the oil and gas industry wantsSenator Fenberg’s advice to those that want to helpHis advice for the future incoming President in 2021How Senator Fenberg is thinking about his futureLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Senator Fenberg: https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/stephen-fenbergNew Era Colorado: https://neweracolorado.org/Joe Neguse: https://neguse.house.gov/Leslie Herod: https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/leslie-herodLisa Kaufmann: https://www.denverpost.com/2018/11/09/jared-polis-chief-staff-lisa-kaufmann/Xcel Energy: https://www.xcelenergy.com/Senate bill 181: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/environment_energy_resources/publications/trends/2019-2020/november-december-2019/senate-bill/Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 9, 2020 • 1h 1min

Ep 70: Shreya Dave, Co-Founder & CEO at Via Separations

Today's guest is Shreya Dave, co-founder and CEO of Via Separations.Via Separations has pioneered a new membrane based on graphene oxide for fine liquid filtration in harsh environments, with applications in food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and bulk and specialty chemicals.  They are scaling up and commercializing the material platform for use in industrial separation processes such as food ingredient production and chemical manufacturing. Shreya graduated from MIT with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Her PhD research focused on the design and manufacture of graphene oxide membranes for water desalination, including fundamental characterization methods of graphene oxide, membrane synthesis, and economic analysis of the role of membranes in cost constraints of desalination plants. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and technology & policy.In today’s episode, we cover:Overview and origin story of Via SeparationsDiscussion about industrial processes and their emissions footprintWhy and when sustainability became important to ShreyaHow she came to be doing the PhD research that led to the company formationThe importance of doing customer discovery, and how the I-Corps program helped themComparison between I-Corps and Cyclotron Road / ActivateSimilarities between customer discovery and fundraisingThe key phases of company building so farBusiness modelDiscussion about project finance, and how accessible it is to early stage hard tech companiesDiscussion about project insuranceDiscussion about when and how to engage strategicsDiscussion about where, as a new founder, Shreya turns for help navigating the different phases of growthWhat some of the more impactful things are that could change to accelerate progressRole model companiesAdvice for other PhDs in the lab thinking of following a similar pathLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Shreya Dave: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shdave/Via Separations: https://www.viaseparations.com/Professor Jeffrey Grossman: https://dmse.mit.edu/people/jeffrey-c-grossmanI-Corps: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/Brent Keller: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-keller-88430811a/Cyclotron Road: https://www.cyclotronroad.org/The Engine: https://www.engine.xyz/Reid Hoffman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_HoffmanBlitzscaling book: https://www.blitzscaling.com/Chobani: https://www.chobani.com/You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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Jan 6, 2020 • 38min

Ep 69: David Perry, President, CEO, and Director of Indigo

Today's guest is David Perry, President, CEO, and Director of Indigo Ag, Indigo Ag is harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. They improve grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies. Founded in 2016 Indigo Ag has raised more than $650 million in funding. The recently announced Terraton Initiative is a global effort to remove a trillion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to enrich agricultural soils.David is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and built three innovative companies in the last 20 years, leading the last two through successful IPOs and to multi-billion dollar market capitalizations and raising over $1.2 billion while generating significant returns for investors. He was most recently CEO and Co-Founder of Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANAC), a biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel small-molecule therapeutics to treat infectious and inflammatory diseases. The company was acquired by Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) in 2016 for approximately $5.2 billion. David previously co-founded and served as CEO of Chemdex (NASDAQ: CMDX), later creating its parent company Ventro Corporation (NASDAQ: VNTR), a business-to-business marketplace focused on the life sciences industry. At its peak, Ventro was valued at $11 billion and was later sold to Nexprise. David is Founder and Chairman of the San Francisco-based digital health startup Better Therapeutics (f/k/a FareWell) and a Board Director of the human microbiome company Evelo Biosciences.In 2000, David was named Entrepreneur of the Year in Northern California by Ernst and Young. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Tulsa. He also attended the United States Air Force Academy, where he was a National Merit Scholar. In today’s episode, we cover:Overview and origin story of Indigo AgDavid’s career as an entrepreneur, and how he has prioritized what projects to take on along the wayThe most striking problems to David about the food and agriculture systemDavid’s consistent approach to starting from zero as he kicks off a new ventureIndigo’s vision, strategy, and progress to-dateOverview of regenerative farmingValue prop to farmersOverview of Terraton Initiative and other key Indigo projectsHow they fit into the climate fight, and what their impact can be if successfulHow David thinks about climate change in general, and what else can be impactful in the climate fight beyond Indigo’s workHow David would allocate $100B to maximize its impact in the climate fightDavid’s advice for others looking to find their laneLinks to topics discussed in this episode:Indigo Ag website: https://www.indigoag.comFlagship Pioneering: https://www.flagshippioneering.com/Cargill: https://www.cargill.com/ADM: https://www.adm.com/Bunge: https://www.bunge.com/Indigo Carbon: https://www.indigoag.com/for-growers/indigo-carbonTerraton Initiative: https://terraton.indigoag.com/Regenerative farming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_agriculture45Q primer: https://www.betterenergy.org/blog/primer-section-45q-tax-credit-for-carbon-capture-projects/You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.Enjoy the show! Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

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