#122: 🌎 250+ ways to fund a climate tech startup
Climate, startups, productivity, leadership (2-min read)
Good morning, folks.
Today’s newsletter is extra short. That’s for two reasons.
I only have two notes to share.
I just backpacked 25 miles in 2.5 days with 4,000 feet of elevation gain and 30 pounds on my back in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park: My body is like, “WTF, man. Nature is awesome, but you’re almost 50 years old. Chill…”
High fives and such,
Chris
P.S. Want more? Read 120+ prior newsletter issues here.
💵 Let’s hang out LIVE for 7 hours and talk about climate tech startup funding (late September).
Once a year, I teach a short BootCamp for early (or future) founders in climate tech and sustainability.
That’s happening soon in two live online cohorts:
Sept 25-29 (weekdays at noon ET)
Sept. 30-Oct. 1 (weekend)
In my course, I cover:
My 5-step capital raising process
250+ investor details
9 steps to optimize your 1-page business plan
20 startup mistakes to avoid
Students (founders) will also get:
Personalized group coaching
40+ reasons that investors say "no" and how to manage those risks
Small breakouts with peer-to-peer feedback
Practice pitches
Library with 40+ climate tech funding resources
Here are 3 reasons to grab your seat by Sept. 22 (Friday):
There are 100s of students on the waiting list. (Hooray for climate!)
Seats are limited.
I won’t teach this again until late 2024.
If you’re thinking, “Why should I listen to this long-haired guy?”
I get it. The hair is long. I’m partly crunchy (like granola, of course).
But I’m also (spoiler: braggadocious alert) an ex-private equity investor, ex-impact investment banker, professor at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, 4x founder, and 4x Board member, with over $1B of investment experience and 80,000 professional students taught.
🤮 Yikes, that’s hard to write without feeling like a total $!%*@ and imagining a juvenile gorilla pounding his chest. Please accept my sincere apologies. I had to balance out the ponytail.
🎙️ Get inspired by two climate tech CEOs — “Hardware that you can hug” and “You can’t pour from an empty cup”
#1) Carbon-Negative Power with Vegetarian Rocket Engines from Ex-SpaceX Engineer — Brad Hartwig, CEO of Arbor
Arbor is a carbon removal and storage company delivering carbon-negative power that converts organic waste into clean energy and fresh water. Their CTO Andres Garcia-Clark and lots of other team members bring lessons learned from SpaceX and big energy giants.
In addition, Brad was a former…
Manufacturing Engineer for Crew Dragon Engines at SpaceX engineer
Test Pilot for Kitty Hawk’s 100% electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle
Chief Propulsion Engineer at the USC Rocket Propulsion Laboratory
Member of the Marin County Search and Rescue
In this episode, we talked about:
How his work in search and rescue showed him the devastating personal and social impacts of climate-induced natural disasters
What he means by "vegetarian rocket engines"
What they did to eliminate the smoke stack from their power production systems
Their ability to produce zero-cost clean baseload power due to monetizing other revenue streams like carbon removal credits and the 45Q tax credit
Their modular design as “hardware that you can hug”
What surfing means to him as a way to recharge as a CEO
Knowing whether you’re climbing the right ladder
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#2) The Outsized Benefits of Doing Hard Things — Gabe Phillips, CEO of Catalyst Power
Catalyst Power is an ESCO, retail electricity provider, community solar aggregator, and solar/battery developer for commercial and industrial businesses in the Northeast US.
In addition, Gabe is a distance runner, musician, woodworker, father, and thriver on 4-5 hours of sleep per night. I told him that we might need to have an intervention later.
In this episode, we talked about:
How his customers view risks and risk mitigation when it comes to solar power
Why a roll-up acquisition strategy made sense to launch this business
How he’s able to get clean renewable power at cheaper prices for customers than brown power
What the following phrase means: “You can’t pour from an empty cup”
Three of his favorite books on entrepreneurship, meditation, and the benefits of being uncomfortable
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
Cheers,
Chris
Founder: Entrepreneurs for Impact
Join our CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP (#1 in North America)
Join my climate tech startup funding LIVE COURSE (late September)
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(As evidenced by these photos, I’m an actual human. Not an AI. 🤫 I promise.)
