Every year, we produce more than 400 million tons of plastic, with a huge chunk of that used just once but PulPac are tackling that problem head on… PulPac’s unique process uses 90% less water than traditional methods and slashes carbon emissions, while still retaining the ability to mass-product fibre cups, trays and lids at global scale.

Over the last 7 years, PulPas has raised major funding, built a network of international licensees and partnered with some of the world’s biggest packaging players. I’m very much looking forward to hearing about this journey in more detail

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eutechtics has built a platform called EvoCarbon, which turns captured CO₂ into valuable chemical building blocks - things like carboxylic acids that go into everyday products such as cosmetics, food ingredients, pharmaceuticals and even plastics which are currently made using fossil fuels.

Armando and his team are reimagining how we make the molecules that power modern life, proving that sustainability and profitability don’t have to be at odds. In just a few years, they’ve secured national innovation funding, won major cleantech awards, and attracted the attention of investors and industry alike.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Instead of bulldozers and explosives, Genomines uses genetically enhanced plants, called hyperaccumulators, to pull nickel out of the soil. The result is a process that could deliver battery-grade metal with a fraction of the environmental footprint of traditional mining. With such transformational potential, it’s not a surprise that they successfully closed an incredible $45m Series A raise in September 2025.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Margaux’s background in HVAC design and engineering was followed by a Masters in Civil Engineering in Lausanne where her thesis formed the basis of Enerdrape’s technology. Since then, she has led Enerdrape through award-winning pilot projects in Switzerland and ambitious expansions into the US, including Chicago’s largest underground parking complex.

2:08 - Margaux’s journey from her Master’s thesis to co-founding Enerdrape 

3:30 - The scale of the problem Enerdrape is solving 

4:45 - How Enerdrape’s geothermal product is unique in not needing invasive drilling and is good for retrofit 

6:46 - How are existing spaces being heated and cooled? 

8:52 - How did you commercialise the product and what support did you get from your university? 

13:13 - Enerdrape’s first commercial project in Lausanne 

14:19 - As academic co-founders, how did you handle not having previous sales experience and what advice would you have for others trying to win their first pilots? 

17:11 - How has the way you sell your product changed as you’ve learnt more about what your clients are looking for? 

22:23 - At what point did you make the decision to go into international markets and how have you found it breaking into the US market? 

28:17 - At what point did you need to raise institutional funding outside the university and what was that process like? 

30:51 - Lessons from raising a seed round 

33:02 - As a young, first-time, female founder, did you feel you faced any challenges or faced any bias during fundraising? 

36:19 - How has your team changed and grown since inception? 

40:12 - What have been your biggest learnings as you’ve grown the team and as you’ve developed as a manager? 

45:40 - What are you excited about for Enerdrape in the next 12-18 months? 

47:30 - Margaux’s advice and resources for other founders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Avi and the founding team have taken Previsico from academic research to securing over 200+ customers, operating in multiple geographies, closing over £10 million in funding and scaling the team to over 50 people.

2:02 - Intro to Previsico from academic research to spun-out commercial prospect 

3:52 - What moment made you realise you had a unique solution to a big problem? 

5:12 - What is the scale of the problem around surface flooding? 

6:25 - What were some of the benefits of starting out being incubated in an academic environment? 

7:53 - What challenges did you face moving from academia into being a first-time founder? 

9:58 - How did you find your CEO? 

11:45 - How did you commercialise what you’re doing, and what markets did you go after first? 

15:33 - When did you know the time was right to branch out into international markets? 

17:18 - What frameworks do you have in place to keep you focussed as a company and avoid distractions? 

19:27 - What are the main tensions in building a product that is deeply technical but also has to have clear commercial outcomes? 

22:00 - How was Previsico initially funded after spinout and how has fundraising progressed? 

24:21 - What do you think made you successful in your fundraising? 

26:05 - How do you feel the risk resilience market has changed in the seven years since Previsico started? 

28:32 - How has the team grown, and what have you done well in that process? 

30:34 - What have you learnt along the way about recruiting and retaining a team? 

32:05 - At what point did you feel it was the right time to bring in your People and Culture Manager? 

33:48 - How has the company culture developed? 

36:09 - What practical things do you do with your team to allow for feedback and to help them feel safe enough to question and give feedback? 

39:32 - What’s coming up for Previsico over the next year to 18 months? 

41:54 - Avi’s advice for other founders 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1:58 - Intro to MaxInfo and the problem they are solving 

5:03 - How did the MaxInfo team come up with the initial idea? 

7:35 - How much of education gap is there between what you offer and the customers you work with? 

10:47 - What markets or customers are you aiming for in the future? 

12:59 - The geographical applications and focus for MaxInfo 

14:44 - Rozalie’s journey to joining MaxInfo 

16:13 - How has Rozalie’s background helped in this role? 

18:07 - MaxInfo’s experience with Innovate UK 

23:31 - How con companies combine angel investment alongside grant funding? 

26:26 - What has it been like going for a VC round recently? What challenges did you face? 

29:10 - How have you seen things change since you did VC fundraising in previous roles? 

31:34 - How have you built the team at MaxInfo? 

34:42 - How did you decide whether to be hybrid or remote? 

36:16 - Do you foresee any challenges with building the team in the future in terms of finding deep expertise or being totally invested in your mission? 

38:48 - What are key milestones for MaxInfo in the coming months? 

40:06 - Rozalie’s advice for other founders 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Combined with advanced AI models and ultra-light radiosondes, this approach promises faster, sharper forecasts for everything from disaster response to renewable energy planning.

1:30 - Fredrik’s career to-date.

3:45 - How did you come to build Skyfora and what solution are you developing?

8:17 - What was your GTM plan for Skyfora?

11:40 - How did you decide which customers to go for first?

13:49 - Are there certain markets that work better for what you do or any that are more challenging?

17:09 - How much opposition or fear are you met with from telecoms providers when trying to get access to their infrastructure?

19:56 - What was your funding journey like and what was the appetite like from investors?

24:24 - What has your recent fundraise unlocked for you?

27:06 - What has gone well or been difficult when building out the team?

28:03 - What has enabled you to attract such strong talent?

28:39 - How has your role developed from originally being VP of Sale to now being CEO?

31:33 - How early in the journey of the company did you build your board of advisors and how did you find them?

32:56- What lessons did you learn from previously taking a business through to exit, that you bring with you to Skyfora?

35:41 - What is the culture like at Skyfora?

37:27 - How do you ensure that team members have the resilience required to work in a startup?

39:05 - What are the Skyfora team focusing on for the next couple of years?

41:06 - What advice would you give to fellow founders?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Water is arguably our most critical and increasingly unpredictable resource and BWI is at the forefront of using space and earth data to improve decision-making about floods, droughts and water security.

 1:49 - What is BWI doing and why is it so critical?

3:05 - How did you come to move into climate resilience?

4:41 - How did you find the learning curve personally and how did you bring experts in?

6:16 - From a commercial perspective, who are you building this for and who are your key customers?

7:55 - How did you manage going to market in both public and private sectors?

9:39 - What did you find particularly challenging in the commercial and GTM process?

12:17 - How BWI can help hydro-power to be more effective.

16:09 - How has BWI been involved in developing hydro-power in Nepal?

17:54 - How has your previous experience helped you at BWI?

21:25 - When did you decide you needed to make your first hires and how did you go about building out the team?

24:52 - When interviewing, how do you establish that people have both a learning curiosity and the hard skills needed to work at BWI?

27:32 - What has fundraising been like?

36:44 - Why do you think investors should be getting involved with hydrological forecasting?

39:06 - What are you excited about in the future of BWI?

40:56 - What advice would you offer to fellow founders?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The company has won Innovate UK’s Young Innovators Award, been shortlisted for the edie Awards and National Sustainability Awards, and is already working with major clients from supermarkets to insurers, to make adaptation both practical and actionable.

2:52 - What led you to focus on adaptation and why is this critical to the climate crisis?

4:51 - How did you work through your career from British Army Reservist to entrepreneur?

7:45 - What were the early days like, especially as it was in 2020?

10:50 - How did you secure your first clients?

12:27 - How did you adapt from having been a technical co-founder to picking up other skills around sales etc.?

15:09 - How has user feedback influenced your product as it’s evolved?

18:21 - Where are you seeing risk on the corporate agenda now and who within large enterprise businesses is owning it?

20:27 - As the world has changed, have you changed how you position SmartResilience?

22:28 - How important have industry recognitions and awards been to you?

24:12 - How was your fundraising journey?

29:57 - How did you go about building your team, initially with angel investor money and then with higher investment later on?

32:02 - How do you know whether someone has the grit and resilience they have to work in a startup?

33:47 - How has your team grown?

36:31 - How did you decide which roles to hire for and when?

40:16 - How has your role adapted since the business began?

43:05 - Where have you found your mentors and angel investors?

44:38 - How do you see the climate resilience and adaption environment evolving in the future?

50:29 - What is one key lesson that has been crucial to your success as a founder?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AirEx is a London-based climate tech company developing smart home solutions that reduce heat demand in buildings. They are disrupting the building retrofit market by providing a connected-homes solution with technology that’s simple to install and simple to use. As of 2024, over 30,000 AirEx units have been deployed all over the UK.

For series 9 of the Climate Pioneers Show, we're hearing founder stories from across climate tech. We'll be chatting about the highs, the lows, fundraising, commercialising, scaling, building teams and more.

2:09 - The journey to founding AirEx

4:23 - How the AirEx air brick was brought to life

7:37 - Can all homes benefit from these air bricks and can they be retrofitted?

8:25 - How does the tech in the air brick work?

9:08 - What was it like doing this as a solo founder?

11:08 - As a first-time founder, did you have support from mentors or communities?

14:12 - How was the Series A fundraising process?

17:06 - How did you put together your first angel round when you were starting out in the industry and still building your network?

20:00 - The differences between raising an angel round and VC-backed round

22:39 - Moving from research to commercial traction

26:08 - How the AirEx team has evolved

27:50 - How AirEx’s culture was defined and how it has been maintained as the team grows

29:47 - How have you built mission-alignment into the recruitment process?

32:16 - What makes AirEx a great place to work?

33:58 - How have you ensured diversity within the team?

36:44 - What would you like to see change across policy and building design?

38:46 - Plans for the future of AirEx

40:12 - Advice for fellow climate founders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Camilla’s extensive experience of securing funding and scaling companies has prepared her well for this role, overseeing financial operations and assisting in closing a fundraise of £20 million for the business in 2024. SatVu’s mission is to become the "world’s thermometer from space”, by launching high-res thermal imaging satellites that collect thermal data that enables monitoring of energy efficiency, and climate change mitigation efforts.

1:56 - Intro to SatVu

4:29 - Camilla’s career journey into climate

7:22 - Camilla’s move from investor into an operator / CFO role

8:29 - How Camilla’s academic and investor background has helped her as an operator

10:31 - How Camilla came to meet the team at SatVu

13:30 - Are there common themes seen across scaling startups?

16:40 - At what point should a startup to bring in a CFO?

20:17 - What are some of the main financial mistakes in startups? What can be done to avoid these?

25:23 - What was the key to SatVu’s fundraising success? And what are investors looking for?

28:39 - What challenges and risks has SatVu faced?

30:34 - What was the impact of the satellite loss across the business in 2023?

32:17 - How did the satellite loss impact investor confidence?

33:54 - What stood out about how SatVu’s leadership handled the satellite failure?

34:40 - SatVu’s plans for the future

36:37 - SatVu’s work alongside conflict of interest and international data access

37:40 - Where to find out more about SatVu and watch their satellite launches

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For series nine of the Climate Pioneers Show, we're hearing founder and senior leader stories from across climate tech. We'll be chatting about the highs, the lows, fundraising, commercialising, scaling, building teams and more.

1:51 - How Reclinker was founded

5:24 - The scale of the problem Reclinker is solving and what the solution is

10:24 - The economic benefit and diversification on offer to steel producers by working with Reclinker

12:51 - Where does Reclinker get its materials?

14:53 - How competitive is the market for the waste materials?

17:02 - Which markets are Reclinker looking to expand into and where are other furnaces available?

19:51 - How was the seed fundraising process last year?

22:10 - What main expectations did you see from investors?

25:16 - How has the team at Reclinker evolved - what has gone well or not so well?

27:54 - How did you define Reclinker’s culture and values?

31:22 - What are you proud of in the last year?

32:57 - Reclinker’s plans and challenges for the next year?

36:07 - What would be the biggest help in driving things forward?

39:20 - Advice for other climate founders

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Their mission is to accelerate the transition to sustainable home heating by making it easier and more cost-effective for homeowners to adopt low-carbon technologies. 

Heatio secured £2 million in funding last year, has built partnerships with major energy providers and property developers across the UK and has been recognised as one of the most promising climate tech startups in the UK.

1:25 - An intro to Heatio and the problem they are working to solve

3:36 - How did you meet your co-founder and come to form Heatio?

4:37 - How has the clean tech and home energy market changed in the last 20 years?

5:46 - What is holding UK homeowners back from adopting clean energy into their homes, compared to other countries?

7:19 - What have countries with higher adoption rates done well?

9:00 - Common myths to bust about heat pumps.

12:06 - How did Heatio choose which segments of the market to approach and how to commercialise?

13:12 - Is Heatio’s communication and education content for B2B or also for the end-user residential customers?

14:38 - What early wins did you get from a commercial or customer perspective?

16:01 - How did you find the fundraising experience last year? What were the main objections you faced and learnings that came from your time fundraising?

19:42 - What did the first round of money unlock for you post-raise?

20:13 - How did the team develop post-raise? How was the recruitment process and what challenges did you face?

21:34 - What is important to Heatio when hiring and where does company culture fit into that?

22:32 - How did you assess talent to know who had the strength to work in a startup?

23:30 - What did the growth phase of the company teach you about scaling? What might you do differently?

25:18 - What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced since starting Heatio?

26:04 - As a founder, how do you protect yourself against what can be extreme highs and lows?

27:26 - What are you excited about for the rest of the year and the future of Heatio?

28:09 - Are you encouraged by the current government’s commitments to renewable energy?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're kicking things off with Chris Jackson, founder and CEO at Protium, where they're developing sustainable green energy projects for UK clients to help them achieve their Net Zero emissions targets and build a cleaner, greener world for the future.

2:42 - Intro to Protium

5:58 - Chris’ journey to founding Protium

9:45 - Where are you seeing hydrogen work well and where do you see potential for the future?

16:01 - How has Chris seen the market evolve?

23:43 - How challenging was it in the early days to secure partnerships and projects? What was the GTM thesis?

30:33 - Protium’s fundraising experience

39:11 - Was there a big difference in expectations between Series A and Series B?

42:01 - How have you scaled and grown your team over the past six years as the company has grown?

45:49 - What did you learn during your rapid growth period and what would you not do again?

48:18 - How intentional have you been about company culture or has it evolved organically?

51:16 - How are things feeling post-Series B and for the broader market?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

JP co-founded Elbow Beach in 2021 and is CEO. With over 20 years’ experience in large telecoms and tech companies, he brings deep operational experience to commercialise technology. He transitioned into climate tech investing, combining his passion for commercial success with purpose-led companies. Throughout his career, JP has led numerous turnaround stories by focusing on customer and colleague outcomes, driving both business success and meaningful impact.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:39 - Intro to JP and Elbow Beach

5:30 - Which stages and ticket size does Elbow Beach invest in?

6:21 - JP’s reflections on 2024 broadly and also within Elbow Beach specifically

10:22 - Is traction in international markets a strong differentiator for companies looking to raise Series A and beyond?

11:02 - Is there a risk that trying to handle UK and international markets can lead to founder focus and marketing not being strong enough in either market?

13:22 - JP’s predictions and thought for the 2025 fundraising market

18:12 - Which climate technologies are ripe for growth currently?

20:09 - What does Elbow Beach look for in potential investments?

22:16 - What are the minimums you look for a team? How mature does it have to be and can gaps be filled by fractional support?

25:43 - When should founder-led sales be changed for a commercial / sales team?

28:15 - JP’s advice for founders looking to raise this year

31:25 - How to contact JP and Elbow Beach

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The syndicate at Green Angel is the largest in the UK with a climate focus; it has over 350 members and has invested in over 45 startups and early-stage companies across ten different economic sectors.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:48 - Intro to James and Green Angel Syndicate

2:15 - James’ investment thesis and what he looks for in investments

3:21 - James’ reflection on the 2024 investment and climate tech landscape

4:46 - Out of your portfolio companies, did any perform particularly well during 2024?

5:54 - Did you see any common themes amongst companies that did well?

6:37 - James’ predictions for 2025 investment

8:20 - Which parts of the climate market have good opportunity for growth?

10:15 - As an angel investor, how do you hear about companies to invest in and how do you conduct diligence?

12:06 - How do you support businesses as an angel?

14:13 - What has James learnt from investments that haven’t gone so well?

16:33 - James’ advice to founders looking to raise an angel round - what should they have in place?

18:15 - How influential are incubators when considering an investment?

19:16 - James’ thoughts on investing in solo founders.

20:15 - What level of commercial traction is needed for investment?

21:34 - How much can you determine the founding team’s resilience during due diligence?

23:19 - How to contact James via Green Angel Syndicate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:25 - Eric’s reflections on 2024 and the climate ecosystem

4:00 - The differences Eric has seen between the USA and Europe since moving to London in 2024

5:48 - What does Climate First invest in?

8:27 - Which companies in your portfolio performed particularly well in 2024?

10:09 - What helped those companies to be successful?

12:31 - Which technologies Eric is excited about for 2025.

15:31 - What does Climate First look for in a company when investing?

18:04 - How does Climate First support founders with commercialisation and scaling?

20:03 - How are big, corporate industry players responding to the Climate First roadshows?

21:18 - Eric’s advice for founders looking to raise investment.

23:15 - What stages does Climate First invest at and start conversations?

24:01 - How to contact Eric and Climate First.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BGF invests in small to mid-sized UK businesses. As the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland, they back a wide variety of ventures from climate to pet food.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:47 - Intro to BGF and their thesis

3:56 - Kate’s reflections on 2024 and the trends she noticed

5:12 - Has there been a shift away from asset-light propositions towards hard tech and deep tech?

7:03 - Which BGF climate companies have done particularly well and what helped them to succeed?

10:34 - Predictions for climate investment in 2025

12:49 - How will the US election result affect climate work in the EU and the opportunities for companies to expand into the US?

17:28 - What technologies Kate is excited about for 2025

22:12 - What does BGF look for in investments?

27:15 - How does BGF assess a team during due diligence?

29:32 - Kate’s advice for founders who want to approach BGF for fundraising

33:21 - How to contact BGF and Kate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zero Carbon support companies working to solve the biggest challenges of decarbonisation with pre-seed and seed investments in ambitious teams building hard-science solutions across Europe and Israel.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:29 - Intro to Zero Carbon Capital and their investment thesis

2:41 - Chloe’s reflections on the 2024 climate landscape

4:43 - What contributed to certain portfolio companies doing well last year?

7:43 - Thoughts and predictions for the fundraising market and early-stage investment in 2025

11:42 - What areas of the market are you excited about?

15:15 - What does ZCC look for in investments?

17:05 - What does ZCC expect in terms of demonstrable traction?

19:14 - Chloe’s advice for founders who might want to approach ZCC for investment

21:01 - How can founders make their pitch stand out?

22:33 - How to contact ZCC and Chloe

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Founded in 2022, Greencode’s investments include renewable energy startup, Synergi, green hydrogen software solution, Southern Lights, and climate risk platform, Repath.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:36 - Intro to Terhi and Greencode Ventures

5:12 - Terhi’s reflections on the 2024 fundraising market

7:13 - Greencode portfolio companies that did well in 2024 and why they did so well

9:03 - Terhi’s predictions for the 2025 climate investment market

10:23 - What subsections of climate could have a good year?

12:08 - What does Greencode look for in investments?

15:16 - What stages does Greencode invest at?

16:20 - How much traction do you look for?

17:30 - What minimum do you look for in a founding team’s establishment? And how long should founders lead sales before bringing in a sales team?

19:38 - How much does talent and talent mapping make up part of your due diligence for investments?

21:46 - Terhi’s advice for founder’s thinking of raising this year.

25:04 - How to contact Greencode

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:08 - Intro to Jeremy and Anthemis

10:09 - Jeremy’s reflections on the 2024 fundraising market

18:02 - What are you excited about for 2025?

22:47 - What does Anthemis look for when investing?

27:24 - What would you expect founders to have in place to raise?

30:18 - How to contact Jeremy and Anthemis

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:36 - Intro to noa VC and their investment thesis.

3:09 - What stages and areas do noa VC invest in?

3:46 - Is built environment primarily deep tech and hardware based?

5:28 - Arjun’s reflections on 2024’s fundraising market.

11:01 - What do you think companies in your portfolio have that has made them particularly successful?

13:27 - Predictions for the 2025 market for early-stage climate investment.

19:54 - What are noa VC looking for in teams and startups when you invest?

21:30 - What is the minimum you’d be looking for in a team at an early stage and do you think gaps can be filled by fractional executives or advisors?

23:45 - Advice for founders looking to raise this year.

26:02 - Advice for founders on how to manage the fundraising process and make sure the business is still being well looked after whilst their attention is elsewhere.

28:25 - How to get in touch with Arjun and noa VC.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stuart is particularly passionate about early stage investing and loves working with new entrepreneurs to help them realise their ambitions.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:27 - What are your reflections on 2024 for investment?

2:38 - Were any of your portfolio companies particularly notable last year? What do you think helped them succeed?

4:00 - What do you predict for the UK climate funding landscape in 2025?

6:37 - Are you seeing a difference in how climate companies are positioning themselves?

8:15 - What do you look for when making investments?

11:34 - What support do Sustainable Ventures offer post-investment?

13:26 - What parts of the climate industry are you excited about and see potential in?

15:41 - Advice for founders looking to raise funds this year.

19:42 - What is the minimum viable amount of traction you’d be looking for?

22:59 - How to contact Sustainable Ventures.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:37 - An intro to Counteract

3:04 - How was 2024 for the CDR market?

6:48 - What is driving corporates to sign off-take agreements?

9:35 - How do you see the 2025 CDR market developing?

13:19 - What do you look for in investments?

15:45 - What are you excited about in the CDR landscape?

17:49 - What advice do you have for founders looking to fundraise?

19:39 - Where can people find out about grants they could apply for?

21:04 - How to contact Counteract and Roberta.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geraldine Butler-Wright is a chief people officer with far-reaching experience across multiple areas of tech, international businesses and in both startups and scale-ups, which have operated as fully remote, hybrid and on-site. She’s seen it all!

She helps companies establish people processes and supportive cultures that make team members want to stay. As the founder of RorCas, she works as a consultant to guide startups and scale-ups to get the “people part” right, so focus can be on revenue, product-market fit, investment and growth.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

2:16 - Why do you love working with small, early-stage companies and teams?

3:35 - Do you see patterns in people-related challenges within early-stage businesses?

5:00 - How do you guide people who might never have run a business or managed a team before? How do you learn to be a leader?

6:26 - Are some people not suited to being a leader?

7:33 - At what stage do you think companies should start to think about career pathways?

11:01 - How can you reconcile the tension that can come within startups where employees want career pathways but the direction of the company can change as it scales, meaning opportunities change.

13:29 - How do you help hiring managers to set the bar and understand what makes an A-player for their team?

19:02 - How can leaders handle the feeling of perhaps wondering whether they haven’t done enough to support an under-performer?

21:07 - How can companies build a positive and supportive feedback culture?

24:45 - How do you advise people to manage a function or role, when perhaps that’s not their background and they don’t have direct experience of doing a role?

27:43 - What should founders be mindful of when building remote or hybrid teams?

32:32 - How do you ensure continuity of culture when some people are remote and some are in the office?

33:58 - What mistakes do you see keep coming up with remote work?

36:38 - What are some easily transferrable culture creation tips that could be applied to other companies that came up from your time at Healthily?

40:37 - What important lessons have you learnt about scaling at pace and maintaining a great culture whilst you do it?

44:50 - How do you handle urgency-bias and ensure it doesn’t cause cultural problems down the line?

48:09 - As a startup changes during growth, how do you advise people to handle those difficult conversations when someone who was right for a role at the beginning, isn’t the right person further down the line?

53:20 - What are some simple practices and boundaries you would recommend to founders to protect their mental health?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first few hires in any team are key but what about scaling beyond that as you progress through funding rounds and possibly acquisitions and exit? 

Dimple Patel is currently CEO at NatureMetrics and as a highly accomplished entrepreneur, she’s seen it all, from MVP to new markets and fundraising stages right through to exit. A strong team is what gets you there, to secure funding and drive growth, so she knows how vital it is to build a team of A players.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:31 - Dimple’s journey from banking to coffee to tech to biodiversity.

5:35 - Why did you choose to join NatureMetrics?

9:49 - What stage was NatureMetrics at when you joined and how have things changed since you joined a year ago?

14:42 - What is the culture like at NatureMetrics and how does your mission feed into that?

19:16 - How do you show up as a leader and how do you feed into the culture?

24:27 - What challenges and lessons have you learnt across the variety of businesses you’ve worked in?

27:29 - What are some ways to build trust between team members?

32:47 - When you’re working in an early-stage industry, how does that impact finding the right talent?

38:02 - Advice for leaders who are scaling their business and maybe the people who were in the business early-on aren’t right for the long-term.

45:15 - Have mentors helped you understand team building?

48:26 - How important do you think it is to be part of industry communities?

53:07 - What key piece of advice would you offer for building a culture that will endure?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sherry White is a consultant who works specifically with startups and scale-ups to tackle challenges, unblock and improve leadership, establish good foundations, face tough questions and get things moving fast! 

She covers everything from culture and employment law, through to health and safety and commercial balance.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible. 

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent. 

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:34 - Sherry’s journey from lab spaces to HR.

3:34 - Are there any particular challenges that you see come up in STEM environments?

6:28 - What are the main things you work with people on in early-stage businesses?

7:47 - What parts of HR and People processes do you often see neglected?

8:40 - What basics should people look at getting in place early?

10:20 - Can startups write their own policies or do they need templates or a consultant?

11:50 - How can startups offer good benefits on a tight budget?

14:25 - Thoughts on equity as part of a compensation package.

16:11 - What makes a good onboarding process?

19:08 - Tips for scaling onboarding as the company grows.

20:53 - Can video recorded onboarding work or should it always be in-person?

22:05 - Is it a good motto to hire slow and fire fast?

24:24- What are the legal requirements when letting someone go?

26:19 - Being aware of disabilities in hiring and firing.

32:57 - How early should you consult with an HR expert? Is it ever too early?

34:53 - How often should you review your HR policies?

36:36 - How to get in touch with Sherry.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prior to diagnosis, she had experienced burnout, self-destructive behaviour and had struggled in both education and workplace settings. Now with a better understanding of her own needs and divergence, she is the founder of Parallel Minds. She is dedicated to creating positive change for neurodivergent people in the workplace, and supports businesses with recruitment training, coaching for leaders and line managers, running neurodivergence awareness sessions and more.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

3:00 - What was your personal journey towards diagnosis and what made you seek that out?

7:41 - Was there a sense of relief that came with being diagnosed?

11:08 - What led you to leave the workplace and set up Parallel Minds?

13:00 - Key definitions around neurodiversity.

19:08 - Why is it important to talk about and understand neurodiversity in the workplace?

21:56 - Why is there a lack of disclosure between employees and employers?

25:22 - What can companies do to create a safe environment where people feel comfortable to have conversations about their neurodivergence?

28:15 - Startups are very fast-moving and experience a lot of change. Autistic people often struggle with change, so how can you create an environment where everyone can thrive?

31:47 - You can’t be everything to everyone, so at what point do you say ‘this is our company and it might not be for everyone’?

35:33 - What could companies be doing better to tackle common challenges?

46:36 - What coping mechanisms and toolkits do you use to help you?

RESOURCES:

Connect with Parul 

Neurodiversity resource bank 

Neurodiversity in tech report 2023 

Research on the link between ADHD and burnout 

DARE report on adjustments

CIPD neuro-inclusion at work report 2024

Equal tech report 2023 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sebastian Leape previously worked as a sustainability consultant at McKinsey and has now turned his attention to encouraging people to embed nature into business decision-making. He is CEO at Natcap, where they offer a simple and scalable platform to bring together the world's best science, data and technology to create actionable insights and empower organisations to measure, report and ultimately act on their nature-related risks and opportunities.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:50 - Where was Natcap in the People journey when you joined and where are you today?

5:22 - How have you stayed true to your scientific and academic roots, and progressed without alienating early employees?

8:43 - What challenges have you faced over the last couple of years when it comes to building out the team?

11:18 - How did you plan your benefits package and what did you decide to include, particularly in light of a tighter budget as a startup?

13:38 - How much did you consult with the team about what to include in the benefits package?

15:14 - Where did you not do onboarding so well and what have you learnt and changed during the process?

19:43 - How did you ensure that managers were able to take over onboarding as the company grew?

23:24 - As your strategy and headcount have changed, how have your company values had to evolve?

30:01 - Did you have any external support when finalising your branding, values and mission?

32:16 - How do your values feed into your recruitment process?

34:34 - How intentional were you when it comes to gender diversity and were there challenges?

39:03 - How have things changed from a People perspective now that you’re post-Series A?

41:41 - Have the characteristics and experience of team members changed in light of Series A and has the team changed overall?

43:28 - What have been your key learnings from the last couple of years and what advice would you give to early-stage founders for team building?

48:26 - Would you advise starting to hire before closing a round, as you did with your Series A, and did that room to hire slower make it better?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graham Quinn is a specialist in crafting irresistible employer brands and employee experiences. He has conducted employer brand audits, built communications strategies for entire culture and values refreshes, and has created engaging marketing to attract underrepresented groups in tech and improve diversity.

He is also now a partner with Flexa, the company working to help people find truly flexible workplaces, where he contributes to thought leadership and works with Flexa-listed companies to improve their employer brand and attract top talent.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

Open Org

1:54 - Basics of employer brand and what it means

4:56 - Is it ever too early to start thinking about employer brand?

8:43 - Where do you see companies get things wrong, and how can people starting from scratch avoid the pitfall of internal experience not matching up to the front the company presents externally?

11:58 - For smaller organisations does it make sense to bring someone in to achieve an unbiased view of your culture and brand?

17:08 - Thinking about who you’re not for, is as important as knowing who you are for when it comes to employer brand and attracting talent.

21:17 - How do you specify your culture and who would be a good fit for your team but also be inclusive and encourage diversity?

23:28 - How can choice of language convey employer brand and culture? Is swearing okay?

28:23 - What are some easy wins in employer brand that early-stage startup founders can act on to get started?

32:00 - Where do personal brand and employer brand meet?

38:58 - Do reviews on sites like Glassdoor really make a difference?

46:15 - Should you ask about company culture in a 1:1?

48:24 - As a company grows, who should own employer brand and how often should it be revisited?

50:56 - Should this be continuously looked at as part of C-suite or broad meetings?

53:06 - What one thing should early-stage founders do to get started with this?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Jervis is the CEO at Inclusion Crowd and the founder of the Inclusion Think Tank. He has worked with an array of businesses ranging from complex multinational organisations through to non-profit and startups.

He works with leaders to coach them in creating company cultures that thrive and offer team members psychological safety. He also guides them to form internal staff groups, attract and retain diverse talent, and helps clients to foster meaningful connections with their stakeholders.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

1:21 - Do we need to discuss inclusion more and not place all focus on diversity?

5:19 - People are talking about DE&I but not always executing. Where is the disconnect?

11:48 - Is it ever too early to start thinking about DE&I? e.g. when it’s just the founders.

15:04 - A good place to start is telling your own story and experiences with DE&I and modelling what you want to see.

18:07 - How do you create a psychologically safe environment?

21:44 - Don’t forget to look at things through a commercial lens sometimes to create connections

26:39 - Does AI have a place in increasing diversity in recruitment when it comes to vetting and screening?

32:52 - How can people communicate better right from the start at the job ad?

37:13 - How do you maintain DE&I as the team grows and make sure you don’t lose sight of it in the chaos of growth?

41:55 - Are regular 1:1s or surveys worth it as a way to assess your culture and how people feel working in your company?

47:40 - What resources would you recommend for people to learn more about DE&I? 

50:35 - How do identify that there even is a problem? How can you expand your mindset to recognise the problem to start with?

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

With fundraising being so crucial to any startup, it’s important to understand how VCs see talent and assess it not only when making their investment but also beyond, when things start to scale.  

We’re starting this series with Heidi Lindvall, a general partner and investor at Pale Blue Dot. Over her career, she has herself built SaaS and B2B companies, and has run two accelerators helping founders to scale. Now the other side of the table, she focuses on pre-seed and seed startup investments. 

Pale Blue Dot is a seed-stage climate tech VC that backs visionary founders, building future-shaping businesses.

2:06 - Heidi’s experience of building teams as a previous founder.

4:40 - Were there any advisors or resources you used to learn how to pull a team together?

10:55 - How to handle realising you’ve made the wrong hire.

14:46 - Would you advise working with a business coach or advisors when first starting out?

18:16 - Why did you move into accelerators?

22:18 - What stage did you take people into the accelerators?

23:11 - What were the common themes that you saw companies struggle with from a team and hiring perspective?

25:00 - How can founders assess whether someone is a good fit for a startup?

29:02 - Competing on salary at early-stage companies.

31:58 - What would your advice be around offering equity at early stages?

33:36 - From a VC perspective, how important is the team when assessing an investment?

37:28 - How important is the advisory board and can that offset gaps in a founding team when you’re assessing an investment?

41:24 - Where have you seen team building and hiring done well in your portfolio at Pale Blue Dot?

44:49 - Should you always be recruiting and building a talent pipeline?

47:16 - How involved do you get in hiring with your portfolio companies?

48:49 - Do you see hiring challenges differ between locations or are they fairly universal?

50:08 - What is one final key piece of advice you would give founders when it comes to hiring?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

2:04 - How did you come to investing from engineering?

7:48 - What was the state of the ecosystem in climate tech and investment in the UK when you started out?

10:47 - What differences have you noticed between the US and the UK. Given that you’ve lived in both places?

13:04 - What is your investment thesis and has it changed over time?

14:29 - How do you assess a startup’s potential impact when they are still so early-stage?

18:04 - Is there a timescale that you expect companies to be able to prove their impact?

19:36 - What common threads do you see across your portfolio companies that made them a good investment proposition and made them successful?

22:41 - Do you support companies with building out their team to ensure they have the skillset needed to progress?

24:41 - What key challenges do you see deep tech companies face?

27:55 - Do you feel the needed infrastructure is there to take these companies beyond seed-stage?

30:29 - Is there more that corporates could or should be doing to engage at early-stage?

31:55 - What do you think prohibits corporates from getting involved?

36:37 - What solutions within deep tech climate are most exciting to you and where do you see big potential?

39:18 - How to contact Pippa and Zero Carbon Capital.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

https://climatebrick.com/ 

1:48 - Katya’s journey from investment banking through to climate and career coaching 

9:51 - What themes have you seen across the successful businesses you’ve been involved with, that has separated them from those that haven’t survived?

15:01 - What was important to you from an investor perspective when you were at Systemiq?

19:02 - What do you see as being the key financial challenges that deep tech companies face?

23:19 - What advice would you offer to founders in the early stages, to help them de-risk things and show it to investors.

25:49 - When do you think a startup should think about having a CFO in place either permanently or fractionally?

28:37 - What is the Climate Brick?

33:47 - What were your key learnings from doing research for the Climate Brick?

35:42 - Do you find that corporates are as keen to collaborate as the rest of the investment community?

37:19 - Are there certain industries or locations where communication across the capital stack is better and climate could learn from?

38:28 - What led you to move into coaching founders and where do you add value?

42:08 - Do you work with individuals or with founding teams?

43:17 - What common challenges do you see founders face when you’re coaching, are there recurring themes?

47:08 - What advice would you give early-stage founders around what to start thinking about and practising now, that will help them face those challenges in the future?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

1:49 - What is Zinc and what are the different arms of it?

3:30 - How is Zinc different to other VCs?

6:07 - If you come across founders with a good idea but it needs a bit of work before you write that first cheque, do you put them through the venture builder first?

9:08 - How does Zinc support with helping deep tech companies to access lab space to develop their products?

11:32 - What are Zinc looking for in investments?

14:07 - What support do you offer companies when the founding team perhaps aren’t working so well together?

16:59 - Do you think it’s better to invest in an A team with a B idea, than a B team with an A idea?

20:02 - How much deep tech are you starting to see come through the venture builder?

22:44 - How does the mix of stages of companies affect the community of the venture builder, because everyone is at different points in their journey?

25:58 - What are the most common risk factors you see when assessing deep tech propositions, and how could founders start to counter those risks?

28:58 - How good do you think the UK is at supporting commercialisation of spin outs?

34:03 - Technical risk in deep tech across the technical readiness scale

35:25 - What investors want to see for deep tech

37:08 - How do you show that a deep tech company is scalable?

40:07 - At pre-seed stage, what minimum level of commercial traction would you expect a company to be able to demonstrate?

44:42 - What locations does Zinc invest in, UK-only or European too?

45:50 - What are you excited about for the rest of the year and 2025?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

1:46 - Francesco’s journey from computer science to investment 

4:02 - Francesco’s work establishing a 15k-strong deep tech community across Europe before setting up the fund

6:05 - Why is deep tech a good investment?

10:29 - What was it like raising your first solo VC fund?

15:07 - What are you looking for in a good investment prospect?

18:04 - What is your due diligence process like?

22:31 - Why do you think Europe has such good potential for deep tech and do you think Europe is well-positioned to support from a wider ecosystem perspective?

28:12 - How Israel has supported tech founders and what we can learn from them.

30:57 - What would you like people to understand about the risk level within deep tech, and how to mitigate it?

35:08 - What do your portfolio companies have in common, whether that’s themes, founding teams, the problems they’re solving etc.?

41:15 - What support does Silicon roundabout offer to founders and why are you a good person to have on the cap table? 

45:33 - Why have you decided to build your fund in public?

49:07 - How have you found 2024 for deep tech investment and how do you see the market developing in 2025 and beyond?

53:40 - What are you excited about for the rest of the year and how can people get in touch with you?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

https://measurable.energy/

1:51 - About measurable.energy, who is the solution for and what problem is it solving?

3:55 - Dave’s career journey to where he is today

4:59 - Where measurable.energy was with product market fit at the point Dave joined, just post-Series A

6:48 - How things at ME have evolved commercially over the year since Dave joined

10:50 - What is the software element that combines with the hardware of ME?

12:55 - What have the difference been over your career as you’ve moved from pure software and SaaS into a hardware-software blend?

15:23 - Do customers have a view of the ME software platform and data?

18:10 - What is the focus at ME post-Series A?

20:40 - What should pre-Series A businesses be thinking about from a commercial perspective?

23:31 - At what point should a commercial leader be brought in if there isn’t one within the founding team? And at what point does a sales function need to be established?

26:13 - Where are you currently at ME and what are the future plans?

29:22 - What changes could there be from a wider economic or regulation landscape perspective that could remove blockers for companies trying to scale?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

2:08 - Fahmida’s journey from academia to venture building

18:08 - How is Prosemino different to other venture builders?

23:05 - Why Prosemino isn’t cohort based

24:27 - What support is on offer around commercial aspects of business e.g. marketing, finance, commercialisation, business planning etc.?

27:54 - Why have you chosen to invest in startups so early in their journey, unlike other venture builders who usually invest at the end of a cohort program?

32:43 - Does Prosemino help with non-diluted funding?

34:18 - What is the new Prosemino lab space like and what’s on offer?

37:26 - What makes a business a good fit for Prosemino?

42:23 - Are there common themes amongst the companies, ideas, founders or values that work with Prosemino?

45:05 - How long are companies incubated for and what is the alumni relationship?

48:44 - What improvements need to happen to help startups go further, faster?

53:10 - Would it help if there were more academics in investment and investors working in academia?

56:33 - How to join and contact Prosemino?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

1:45 - Stafford’s career path so far from aeronautics to Innovate UK

10:17 - What was the landscape like before you started your work at Innovate UK when it comes to driving corporate investment into climate?

15:29 - What solutions have Innovate UK come up with to drive investment flow and combat risk aversion?

19:02 - How do advance market commitments work well and how are you applying them to climate innovation?

23:06 - Innovations in concrete production and using advance market commitments to encourage investors

28:09 - Do you look for problems or solutions first, when trying to get advance market commitments (AMC)?

33:28 - How have AMCs been received by VCs when they’re looking to invest?

35:04 - Could AMCs work when securing other types of funding e.g. debt financing?

36:57 - What time scale is your current pilot running across and what is success for you?

39:13 - How does this AMC pilot scale beyond Innovate UK?

41:37 - What challenges do you commonly see deep tech businesses facing?

45:47 - Blending public and private investment

47:43 - What are you excited about for the rest of this year?

48:11 - Is there anything you think could be changed or improved to drive the pace of innovation?

51:58 - How to contact Stafford and Innovate UK

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

https://carbonthirteen.com/

2:14 - What is Carbon13?

4:39 - What challenges do you see deep tech startups facing?

8:24 - How is gaining commercial traction different for hardware than software, and what can hardware companies do to gain that traction?

14:55 - If a team doesn’t have existing knowledge within the team about commercialisation, how can they gain it and upskill themselves?

20:00 - What skills would a startup need as a minimum within the founding team for you to be interested?

23:55 - How does the support you give differ for deep tech than someone building a software-based business?

28:58 - What are the differences in IP with deep tech and what support do you give with de-risking and defensibility?

31:50 - How do you offer lab space within Carbon13?

33:05 - Are there any companies that you’ve seen come through Carbon13 that have done particularly well and what do you think set them apart?

37:20 - Showing your learnings to investors.

39:57 - What things do you think could be improved within the funding landscape for hardware companies to allow them to access the necessary funding?

41:53 - Are those that aren’t from an academic background at a disadvantage when it comes to grant writing?

44:38 - What thresholds do you need to meet for debt financing?

48:20 - What are you excited about for the rest of this year and what are the Carbon13 application dates?

50:20 - Where can people go to make applications to Carbon13?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech innovations.

We will explore how to prepare for the challenges that deep tech companies often face around fundraising, scaling, team building and commercialisation; and we’ll hear from stories of those who have successfully scaled to Series A and beyond.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

1:55 - Intro to Shil and his background

2:23 - What is Mission Zero about, what are you building and why is it exciting?

4:48 - Where did your passion for climate come from? Was your intention to always move into that space?

8:03 - How did you came together with your co-founders and how did you find your inspiration?

12:36 - How did you find a good lab space?

15:41 - How did you fund the lab space?

16:09 - How did you build relationships with investors and partners for such an early-stage technology, what do you think gave people confidence in you?

21:51 - Tell us about the plug-and-play aspect of what you’re doing

23:42 - How can you be sure that you’re partnering with companies who will use your technology for the right reasons? What is your due diligence process?

28:19 - How did you get from self-funded R&D to commercially funded opportunities and partnerships?

34:04 - How was the process of your Series A raise and what challenges did you face?

38:50 - What has your Series A unlocked for you? What do the next 12 months look like?

41:48 - What is the current make-up of your team?

43:02 - What do you think you did well in building the team and culture, and what were the challenges you faced?

46:46 - How important is it to you that new hires are mission-aligned and how they will fit with your culture?

51:02 - What are the main challenges you see on your way to Series B?

53:49 - Where do you see gaps for helping deep tech in the climate ecosystem, particularly in the UK?

57:04 - How positive do you feel about us scaling these CDR technologies to where we need them to be?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Angel Investing School

2:05 - Neda’s career so far

5:17 - How did all your past experience get you to setting up Keshty?

6:56 - What came first, the desire to invest or the desire to set up Keshty?

9:46 - How did you learn how to angel invest?

12:59 - How did you decide on your thesis and has it evolved since you started investing?

15:08 - What were your initial steps after completing Angel Investing School?

17:57 - What have been your biggest lessons so far?

21:14 - In what ways have you been able to get involved in your investments beyond just giving them a cheque?

23:43 - How has your angel investing made you a better advisor to businesses who come to you via Keshty?

27:12 - How do you manage investing alongside running your own business?

30:10 - What are you excited about or planning for the rest of this year?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Please note - when discussing his early experiences with investing, Andy's audio drops out just as he mentions his first encounter. This experience was with Arlan Hamilton at Backstage Capital.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Open Angel

Angel Investing School

3:43 - Andy’s journey into investing

9:35 - Arriving at investing and seeing a thesis in action

10:23 - Why do people struggle to close funding rounds? 

11:41 - How Angel Investing School came to be

14:21 - How did Open Angel come about?

18:12 - Being a ‘life adventurer’

22:15 - How to access Open Angel, what you can learn and what the goal is

23:58 - What are the potential barriers to entry for investing?

28:44 - Andy’s lessons from the last four years of investing and niching his thesis

34:23 - Do you need a thesis to get started?

38:00 - Crowd funding as a route into angel investing and what to be wary of?

40:53 - Basics to start thinking about if you want to move into angel investing

44:21 - What are you excited about for the second half of this year? (Developing talent and leaders)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Albotherm.com

2:09 - How Molly came to set up Albotherm

3:09 - How did you go from it being a summer project to a fully-fledged business?

4:26 - How did you decide it was time to raise initial funds after grants?

6:29 - What did your first round of funding unlock for you in progress?

7:33 - What is Albotherm developing

8:45 - Will you venture into offering your coatings in other industries?

9:34 - How did you know it was time to raise a seed round?

10:55 - What was your strategy for the seed raise?

12:10 - How did you value the business for a raise and how did you decide how much to raise? 

15:34 - What kind of objections did you come up against?

17:22 - What was the due diligence process like?

19:06 - What did due diligence teach you about your business?

20:06 - How did you know what to pull together in advance?

21:13 - When did you put a board together?

22:08 - How has angel investment played into things?

23:45 - How do you stay in touch with investors?

24:13 - How frequently and how deep do you have to go with financial and impact reporting?

25:27 - What were your biggest learnings from fundraising?

27:57 - How did you clarify your messaging and how did it evolve over the process?

29:48 - What did you need to have in your data room?

31:23 - What did your seed round enable you to do, and what are you excited about coming up?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

Greenangelsyndicate.com 

Climatechangefund.co.uk

2:01 - Cam’s investment path and establishing Green Angel Ventures

4:23 - How has the world of impact investment changed over your seven years with GAV?

6:08 - How robust an investment strategy is climate?

8:20 - The scale of the climate change problem

9:07 - How do you minimise risk factor when investing in early stage businesses in climate?

11:28 - Making the most of knowledge across a syndicate

12:53 - How do you conduct due diligence for climate impact or carbon reduction?

15:42 - How does the increase in the amount of investors in the space affect existing investors?

18:21 - What does an ideal company profile look like for Green Angel Ventures?

21:03 - At what point would you consider founders ready to approach you for investment?

23:08 - Have you seen any patterns or trends around companies that have performed well, or not so well?

26:07 - What should founders have ready in advance for due diligence?

30:09 - Which parts of the climate sector do you think are the most exciting or offer the most potential for growth at the moment?

33:14 - Are there parts of the climate sector where the bubble has burst?

34:54 - How can you become part of the Green Angel network?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

6:40 - Connections are important when fundraising

8:36 - Angel investing is very network driven

10:23 - Women do more research and want more knowledge and understanding before investing or doing anything new

12:05 - Reflecting on the differences between now and when you launched in 2019, how has the female angel landscape changed?

15:27 - Investing at scale in important to success and change

15:52 - What do you think holds women back from investing?

18:11 - You don’t have to write large cheques to be angel, you can start small

22:04 - Are there different trends in how women invest or their motives for investing?

27:14 - Facts about return on female investment

31:19 - How are you finding the funding landscape for 2024?

33:12 - Q1 2024 for female funding

36:40 - Advice for aspiring angels

40:22 - What are you excited about this year?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

4:45 - When did you know it was time to raise your next round after being part of Zinc?

6:00 - How did you know where to find people and start conversations?

7:43 - Building connections and the value of intros

10:16 - Getting a sensible valuation for your business

11:52 - How did you balance finding and communicating with investors alongside the day-to-day building of a business?

13:53 - What did you learn about your business during the process?

19:07 - What were the biggest objections you faced from potential investors?

22:02 - Syndicate Room angel network

22:44 - How to manage investor communications post-close

27:24 - In-person investor communication and celebration

29:00 - What does the next raise round look like and how will this round shape the next?

32:46 - How much do you think your personal brand has fed into the success of your fundraising?

35:48 - What general advice would you give to someone who is 18 months to two years behind you? 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here.

3:25 - Coming out the other side of a bad time for fundraising

9:38 - When to talk about your startup for fundraising

12:00 - The investors are vetting you as much as you are vetting them

15:00 - Getting your ducks in a row, from cap tables to contracts

16:08 - Early stage metrics

19:48 - How long does fundraising take?

22:11 - How to benchmark a sensible and sustainable valuation for your business

28:55 - Ways to get investment without a valuation or giving away equity at that time

30:16 - Do you or don’t you engage a lawyer?

39:17 - The difference between engaging with angels individually or through a syndicate

44:00 - What to think about post-raise

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:10: Introduction

2:25: Are you able to share with us a little bit more on Algoma? What’s the problem space you’re in and exactly how is the solution that you’ve come up with, addressing that? Why is it unique in the space?

4:11: How does that come in from a cost parity perspective? How do you make it viable?

5:46: Where did this passion from climate and sustainability come from?

7:17: Did the entrepreneurial spark come in once you realised the negative affect the construction and engineering space has on climate or has that always been there?

8:25: Where did you meet your Co-Founders and when did you feel confident enough to go for it?

10:10: Did you have the idea for Algoma prior to undertaking the MBA or did the idea come to you as a result of doing the MBA?

12:30: How do they compare in terms of quality and durability in natural disaster zones?

14:12: How do they work around local planning acts and specific requirements in particular areas?

15:38: You’re 9 months into your journey now. Is that right?

16:07: What have the first 9 months looked like? Including the highs, the proud moments and the achievements? What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in that time period?

17:43: Are you focused predominantly on domestic builds or commercial? Or both sides?

19:05: Regulatory-wise, how do you think the regulatory market, policies and attitudes in general are going to work against or in your favour in the future?

20:19: What is the embodied carbon difference between a mass timber building vs a concrete building for example?

22:08: Talk me through the highlights of your journey so far. What have you got coming up that you’re excited about?

23:30: From an accelerator perspective, what are the key benefits you think you get from going through those and what do you think the key take aways are?

25:53: You mentioned about hiring already but are there any other asks that you would have? What could help you next year?

26:41: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

27:18: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

29:10: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance?

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:10: Introduction

2:27: Tell us more about Matcha. What’s the problem space you’ve identified and how is the solution you’re building addressing that?

3:50: How does it differ in terms of problem to public charging infrastructure and why do public chargers not adequately address that issue?

4:33: So taking it back to the beginning, this is the third business you’ve founded right? Talk us through the journey

7:12: How different was the space back then compared to today in terms of attitudes, acceptance, urgency compared to then?

11:53: Talk me through when the decision point came. When did you know the time was right to go for it?

14:50: What does that next step look like? How do you get started creating the physical product?

20:30: What’s the usability from and landlord and tenant perspective? Do they go through an app?

23:38: A year into this year, where are you at today?

24:55: Is it still just yourself and John at the moment or have you got a team around you?

25:58: So, 2024, what’s that all about for you?

27:23: How are you feeling about the regulatory and political environment next year and how are changes on that front are changes on that front either operating in your favour or against you at this point?

30:07: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

31:10: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

32:42: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance?

34:10: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:10: Introduction

2:37: Talk me through the problem space you’re in, the solution you’re bringing and what you and your Co-Founder are working on

5:55: Is the platform designed as much to reduce the amount of waste that a business produces and then take the waste that it is producing and make sure that those waste streams are put in the right places to drive a circular economy?

7:10: Where did the passion for climate and sustainability come from?

9:37: Where did your passion crystalise into ‘I’m going to do something about this’?

11:05: Where did you meet Laura?

13:20: How much of what you learnt during your consulting time inspired what you do at WATS?

15:37: Are you going location by location because being able to know what could be recycled where is a huge plus?

19:17: What have been the biggest challenges that you’ve faced over the last 12-18 months?

21:43: So today, where are you at with 8 members of the team?

22:40: And you’ve finished ERA?

22:55: How many customers do you have now?

24:05: You mentioned about regulatory change. How positive are you feeling around that and it going in the right direction to incentivise customers to use a solution like yours?

29:05: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

29:20: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

29:56: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance?

31:30: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:26: Introduction

2:15: Please could you elaborate on the problem space you’re in and why it’s such an impactful space?

4:35: Can you contextualise what our money is doing in our accounts and the carbon affects of that?

06:52: How quick a process is that in terms of assessing what someone's current impact is and helping them make a switch to something greener?

09:20: Where did your passion from climate and sustainability come from?

11:37: Where did the idea for GreenPortfolio come from? How did you meet Bonnie?

14:05: What’s the most impactful metric?

15:10: What did those first few months look like? When did you quit your job and start doing this full-time?

17:25: How has that evolved from a revenue model perspective as the journey’s gone on?

19:42: In a world where the economy isn’t in as greater a place as it used to be, how much of an appetite is there beyond just focussing on interest rates and returns?

21:30: 2-3 years into the journey, talk me through what GreenPortfolio looks like today in terms of the team and users?

22:40: Does that mean people listening could go to your website now and use the tool?

23:00: What challenges have you faced so far? How has the market positively or negatively impacted what you’ve been doing?

24:55: What are you excited about for next year?

26:58: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

28:20: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

29:33: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance?

31:40: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:21: Introduction

2:05: About Genvision - What is the problem and how are you solving it?

4:10: Where did your passion for climate and sustainability come from?

5:25: Talk me through your pathway into being a tech entrepreneur?

7:43: Where did the inspiration come from to create your own business?

09:40: Where did you put 1 and 1 together to make 2?

11:55: At what point did you become aware of the trust and verification problem in the carbon removal space?

13:15: At what point did you go all in with this? Did you start developing it after you graduated or?

15:16: So you’ve been going 18 months now. What has it looked like for you?

17:28: When did you close the pre-seed?

19:30: How was the process of building out your team?

22:30: What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced would you say?

24:04: Where are you today in your journey?

25:30: How have you found this year from a wider market perspective been? How has it impacted you for better or for worse?

27:22: How hopeful do you feel for the climate sector next year / the future?

28:23: In Genvision’s world, what are you most excited about moving forward? What does 2024 look like for you?

29:43: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

29:10: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far?

31:10: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance?

32:00: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:15: Introduction 

2:00: What is the problem that you’re solving with Vicarb? 

4:05: Is there anyone else doing this? 

5:22 You’ve got quite a unique gap in this market though right? 

6:50: Take me back to the beginning. Where did this passion come from? 

09:56: What about the entrepreneurial side? When did you think about moving forward and coming up with a solution to the problem? 

13:28: Did Vycarb exist as a business prior to or was it born within Activate? 

15:17 How long was the Activate program for? 

15:40: How has the last year been? How challenging was it and what were the major roadblocks? 

19:50: You’re based out of NewLab in Brooklyn right? Is that linked to Activate? 

21:09: Talk to us about your pilots? 

24:35: What does the next 12 months have in store for you? 

28:10: How have you found the wider market this year? 

30:55: How hopeful do you feel for the future of the sector more broadly? 

32:50: Is there anything that could help you in some way? What would be your big ask for what could drive you forward this year? 

35:08: What community / people-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far? 

35:38: What media-based resource have you found to be the most impactful for your journey so far? 

36:36: Do you have any productivity tips to manage your workload or work-life balance? 

37:28: Conclusion 

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nikki is CEO and Founder of GoodMine, a female-led, profit-for-purpose technology company redesigning how consumer goods flow through the system to advance the circular economy (SDG12). In her earlier career, she spent 13 years in investment banking, which equipped her future entrepreneurial self with the skills required for success!

0:00: Podcast introduction

01:50: Tell us about GoodMine. What are you building and who is it for?

07:45: What was your inspiration for GoodMine? And tell us about the early days of getting it off the ground?

15:30: How was the process winning your recent grant with Innovate UK?

17:00: How have you found going through this journey as a sole female Founder? Do you feel you’ve faced adversity?

26:30: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

30:05: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

32:10: Do you have anyone that you look up to?

30:28: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saasha is Co-Founder and COO of OLIO, a free app harnessing the power of mobile technology and the sharing economy to provide a revolutionary solution to the problem of food waste. Before OLIO, Saasha founded London’s first pay-as-you-go high street childcare provider, and prior to that she spent 13 years at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey and American Express.

00:00: Podcast Introduction

02:28: Talk to us about Olio

03:45: What’s the origin story? How did you meet Tessa?

12:50: What are the key milestones that you’re most proud of?

17:10: Given that your platform is primarily B2C, would it work as well as B2B do you think?

20:30: What as your experience going through the funding process? Why do you think you got the money where perhaps others haven’t?

27:30: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

28:40: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

30:28: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lucy, commercial Co-founder of Kestrix, is an entrepreneurial leader with international experience founding and scaling sustainability-focused ventures and conducting policy research. After their first experience as a founder as the CEO of reLive, an angel-backed sustainable end-of-life platform, she was the first hire under the CCO at Berlin-based Plan A, Europe’s first B2B carbon accounting SaaS company.

00:00 - Podcast introduction

02:45: About Kestrix

04:18: Was this an idea you came into the Venture Builder with or is it one you formed after meeting Matt?

06:15: When did you actually come out of Cohort 4 and go it alone? How has the business evolved since that point?

09:35: How has the fundraising process been? Have you found through the journey that you have felt any gender adversity?

16:23: How have you found the rest of your working career? Can you share some of your journey with us please?

21:38: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

24:20: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

27:37: Do you have a role model you look up to?

29:57: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexandra is the Co-Founder and CEO of In Good Company, a tech-for-good start-up which makes it quick and easy for people to find the best ethical and sustainable businesses and experiences around them. She's a firm believer in businesses doing well by doing good and the power of technology to help make the world a better place.

00:00: Podcast introduction

02:35: Talk to us about In Good Company, what does the platform do, who is it for and what makes it unique?

08:37: At what point did you meet your Co-Founder / Decide to go for it with the business?

12:30: Talk us through the early days of getting it off the ground

16:00: At what point did you bring in your CTO? And is it just the three of you at this point?

19:20: How have you found being a woman in business building a career? Have you or Sarah felt adversity due to gender?

28:35: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

30:30: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

32:10: Do you have a role model you look up to?

34:35: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jade is Co-Founder and CPO of Qualis Flow (Qflow), a construction tech company committed to reducing carbon in construction. After spending time on site on two of Europe's largest infrastructure projects, Jade created Qualis Flow in 2018 alongside industry peer Brittany Harris, bridging the AI, software and civil engineering worlds.

00:19: Podcast introduction

02:54: What is Qflow? Talk us through the platform, who it’s for and what it does

07:06: How did you found the business and meet your Co-Founder?

11:20: How was your experience with Entrepreneur First (EF)?

12:50: How much did the idea change throughout the first 6 months in EF?

14:00: At what point did you bring in the technology resource?

15:15: What was your journey from Seed to Series A?

18:30: What does this Series A unlock for you?

20:50: How has the journey as a female-founded team been? Has there been challenges or adversity?

24:50: Do you think that your past experiences within your career gave you an inner resilience to deal with the sort of adversity you’ve dealt with as a female founder?

26:57: Do you have any core bits of advice for people in a similar funding position to you?

28:45: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

29:35: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

31:22: Do you have a role model you look up to?

32:25: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Francesca is a passionate advocate for sustainability, dedicated to making eco-friendly choices easier for everyone. Leveraging her expertise in lifecycle assessments and a drive for innovation, she co-founded CarbonBright, an automated platform that utilises machine learning to help the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry measure, report, and reduce their product environmental footprints in real-time.

00:00: Podcast introduction

02:35: What’s the platform for, what does it do and what are you generally working on?

06:00: It’s a huge data challenge I imagine?

08:45: Your experience of Carbon13 and meeting your Co-Founder

11:50: How much did your idea change during the Carbon13 process?

14:30: When did you spin-out of Carbon13 and where are you today in your journey?

15:40: What does the next 6-12 months look like for you?

17:00: Talk us through your experience in Uniliver and the Founding of your other businesses

23:25: Did you feel scared or feel imposter syndrome during those experiences?

29:25: What people-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

29:55: What media-based resource would you recommend others access to support them?

31:14: Do you have a role model you look up to?

32:40: Conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marianna is Co-Founder and CEO of NatureBound, who help farmers and corporates leverage functional biodiversity. Their observability platform integrates agricultural and biodiversity data from an open ecosystem with remote sensing and AI technology. She has a PhD in supply chain management with a focus on sustainability, and has previously spent over 15 years working in the food sector.

0:00: Introduction

3:00: About NatureBound and what you’re currently working on

4:25: What was your experience going through Carbon13 and finding your Co-Founder Gidi?

6:50: How much did the idea change from the first seeds of you and Gidi in the beginning?

08:10: What are you looking forward to for the rest of this year and into next year? What does potential funding unlock for you?

09:45: Are you happy to share your positive journey into being an entrepreneur?

12:10: Tell me about the early stages of your career journey?

14:00: Did you overcome the feeling of imposter syndrome and if so, how?

17:20: Have you always been interested in yoga and self care? Or was it a result of burn out?

17:50: Tell me about your travelling

19:35: How long did it take for you to do the journey and roughly what route did you take?

21:00: Do you think your experiences travelling taught you anything specific that has been helpful for your journey into business?

21:55: How do you juggle being a single parent and a Founder?

25:00: What people-based resources would you point people in the direction of for support?

26:35: What media-based resources would you point people in the direction of for support?

27:45: What female business role model do you look up to?

30:30: Conclusion and the future of the session

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sioned is passionate about enabling carbon removal and reduction strategies. She discovered there's enough roof space in the UK to service all our energy needs with solar energy. So, she founded Unbound Energy to enable this. They're currently working with landlords and tenants to break down the barriers surrounding the 'landlord-tenant' paradox of 'who pays' to 'you don't need to pay'.

0:19: Podcast introduction

1:55: Introducing Sioned Owen

2:55: About Unbound Energy

04:10: How does it operate on a day to day basis as a landlord or a tenant?

05:38: Experiencing Carbon13 and the development of the idea

08:45: How was the Founder ‘speed dating’ and how did you find your Co-Founders?

12:07: How has the business developed over the last 8 months?

13:05: What have you got planned for the next 6-12 months?

14:30: How has your experience been as a female and what adversity or challenges do you feel you’ve faced because of gender?

16:29: As you’ve moved into leadership level, have you witnessed other instances with other people that you’ve worked with that explains the split between the level of funding going to male and female founders?

19:30: On your journey through your career, what resources have you lent on to support you?

21:48: Working through Entrepreneur First and On Deck

23:10: What people based resource has helped you?

25:15: What media based resource has helped you?

26:25: Who is your female business role model?

28:30: Conclusion and the future of the series

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aranzazu is the Founder and CTO of Parallel Carbon, a start-up developing technology that removes carbon dioxide from the air while producing hydrogen to eliminate emissions. She has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Manchester, with experience in electrochemical engineering, water treatment/desalination, and more.

00:00: Introduction to episode 3

01:20: Introducing Aranzazu Carmona Orbezo

02:12: About Parallel Carbon and how the technology works

03:15: Where did the idea come from and how did it develop?

05:50: What was the experience like working with a Co-Founder so geographically different to you?

07:35: Since spinning out from the venture builder, how has the last 18 moths - 2 years been for you? How has the technology and business developed in that time?

08:35: What does the future look like or the next 12 months?

09:45: How has your funding experience been? Is it your first time going through it?

11:29: Post-funding round

13:15: How have you found the experience as a female founder? To what extent do you feel you’ve faced adversity?

17:00: Balancing a brand new business with a baby

19:00: Managing without a physically-close support network

21:15: Cherry’s own experience with building a family and a business simultaneously

22:30: Communicating to people in the industry that you’re pregnant

24:35: Controversial book: Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In

27:10: What support or resources have you leant on that could benefit other people?

30:00: What people based resource has helped you?

32:00: What media based resource has helped you?

34:25: Who is your female business role model?

35:35: Conclusion and the future of the series

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josephine is the COO and Co-Founder at Mortar IO, the SaaS platform that creates virtual models of buildings to accurately simulate retrofit strategies and de-risk decarbonisation. The company is a graduate of Carbon13 (Co-hort 3), the venture builder for the climate emergency from the University of Cambridge. Previously, Josephine has contributed to companies such as Curve and Google.

00:00: Introduction to episode 2

01:10: Introduction to Josephine Bromley at Mortar IO

02:40: Josephine’s background and the story of Mortar IO

05:30: How was the Founder matching experience at Carbon13?

07:20: Did you go into the programme with the bones of the idea for Mortar or did you create it from scratch as a three?

08:00: Talk us through a brief summary of what the platform does and who uses it?

11:00: When did you graduate from the cohort?

12:00: How has the last 9 months since graduating been? What have you been working on?

13:45: Over this last 9 months what would you say you’re most proud of?

14:55: What are you most excited about moving forward post-grant?

16:10: What’s your experience as a female Founder? Have you recognised instances where you’ve faced adversity?

20:31: Do you find that there are times when your male Founders are spoken to but you’re not?

22:05: What support and resources have been the most impactful for you on your business journey?

23:40: How did you find those people who were just a fraction of the road further than you in your journey?

25:30: What people-related resource would you advise people connect with the help them?

26:25 What media-related resource would you advise people connect with the help them?

27:30: What female role model do you look up to?

28:55: Conclusion and what’s coming for the rest of the series

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Claire is Co-Founder and CEO of UK-based start-up, Reath, a specialist software platform for scaling reusable packaging systems. Claire co-authored the Open Data Standard, the first Open Data Standard for reusable packaging. Reath powers reuse systems for clients such as Marks & Spencers, Unilever and Google, and many pioneering SMEs.

00:00: Introduction to episode 1

01:10: Introduction to Claire Rampen: Co-Founder of Reath

02:10: Claire’s background and the story of Reath

04:20: How has the product and the platform evolved in the last 4 years?

06:40: How did the headcount of Reath grow and evolve?

08:40: What does Reath look like today?

12:20: What stands out as achievements for you?

15:30: Maternity leave: How was this factored into the journey?

18:30: How do you now manage the juggle between being a Co-Founder and a Mother?

21:05: What’s been your experience as a female founder in business and to what extend do you feel you’ve faced adversity?

24:30: How did you overcome those experiences?

25:50: If you could talk to 2019 Claire now, what would you say?

28:00: How did you know where to start with the grant writing process?

29:15: Who is Elemental and what the programme looks like?

31:40: What people-related resource would you advise people connect with to help them?

32:45: What media-related resource would you advise people connect with the help them?

34:10: What female role model do you look up to?

35:40: Conclusion and what’s coming for the rest of the series

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Carbon13 Venture Launchpad is designed to surround start-ups with a carbon-obsessed ecosystem in order to achieve a potential carbon reduction of 10 million tonnes of CO2e per year once at scale. This is the only accelerator which can support a climate start-up from any sector, which hasn’t raised equity finance yet, to understand its true potential on carbon.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Puja Balachander and Carbon13

2:18: Puja delves a bit deeper into the Venture Launchpad

4:00: Who would be an ideal prospect for the launchpad and what stage should they be at?

5:50: Solid team, promising idea and progress on commercial and product

6:25: Are there any key themes that people are finding difficult that the venture builder can solve?

08:10: Needing funding to reach the next step

9:10: 1 on 1 coaching and community support

11:02: How do you see the funding landscape this year?

15:15: What can traction look like and how can Founders get it?

17:32: Are there particular parts of ClimateTech that are particularly interesting to VCs?

22:30: What tips would you give Founders looking to raise this year?

26:05: Are there any resources that you would suggest for someone to start to demystify the world of investment?

27:20: How can people get involved in the Venture Launchpad?

27:45: Cherry’s conclusion and the future of Funding a Better Future

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Longwall Venture Partners LLP support early-stage businesses that are harnessing the UK's expertise in science R&D to address the global challenges of tomorrow. They invest in companies that have the potential to disrupt an existing market or gain a material share of a new market, with a preference for B2B opportunities rather than consumer products.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Kate Ronayne and Longwall Investment

2:18: Kate delves a bit deeper into Longwall Investment

4:10: What support do Longwall Investment give people post-investment?

6:10: What’s your opinion on the funding landscape this year?

6:20: What it means to be a generalist investor and how other sectors compare to ClimateTech

8:15: What parts of the ClimateTech sector are you most excited about?

10:43: Looking creatively at incumbent manufacturing technologies and trying to disrupt those

12:30: What advice would you give to Founders looking to raise for the first time ever?

13:44: Understand the interests of the funder, ask if they’re actively investing and talk to people they’ve invested in

15:23: The importance of customer feedback and value proposition

22:58: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green Angel Syndicate is the UK's largest network of specialist investors fighting climate change, searching out, assessing and selecting the innovations that will make a difference, and then investing in them to enable their development. They focus on companies whose radical grassroots innovations introduce the technology, machinery and process required for the practical changes needed throughout the global economy that will slow down, arrest and then reverse global warming.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to James Manktelow and Green Angel Syndicate

2:20: James delves a bit deeper into Green Angel Syndicate and their role

3:20: What’s your perspective on the funding landscape for this year?

4:35: Considering how inflation and interest rates affect Founders and their companies

5:23: Good news in the market

6:40: What are you most excited about?

8:02: E-mobility and the tech support of

8:29: Built environment, including commercial property

9:45: Biodiversity and the UK Kelp area

12:10: What stage of organisation and maturity do you focus on?

14:10: What advice would you give Founders looking to raise this year?

14:43: Getting profit ASAP

16:10: What resources can they use to make sure they’re being realistic with their PMV?

16:35: Angel Investor rule of thumb

17:41: The support of Green Angel Syndicate

18:56: Introductory pitch decks, thinking things through and coaching

21:37: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Albion Capital Group LLP have been established since 1996 - and they support visionary Founders with long-term capital and scale-up expertise. They choose startups with the potential to grow into enduring companies that reshape industries. Despite not being a pure-play Climate Investor; they have funded some pioneering companies in energy, AI for decarbonisation and battery technology.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Adam Chirkowski and Albion VC

1:38: Adam delves a bit deeper into Albion VC and their role

4:05: In your opinion, what does the funding landscape look like this year, both broadly and how Climate sits within that?

4:57: How ClimateTech investment compared to other sectors in 2022 and why

07:58: The balance between the cost of living crisis and will the demand from individuals for sustainable focussed services, products and technologies remain?

09:19: What parts of the ClimateTech sector are you most excited about?

10:08: The worldwide trend last year that was the energy crisis and the benefits (New solutions)

11:03: The shift of interest into property, from the focus on energy bills to the construction of property and the circular economy

11:18: The world of data

12:35: What do you look for in a good investment prospect and what advice would you give to a business looking to raise?

13:05: Marrying the vision and drive that they have with the commercial aspects to deliver it

13:39: Really understanding the problem they’re trying to solve, how valuable that is to customers and how it can scale

18:57: Is there anything you’re excited about in your own world of Albion VC?

21:05: Starting the conversation with Albion VC

21:22: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Systemiq Capital backs climate tech entrepreneurs raising their late seed to Series A/B rounds. Their portfolio companies benefit from access to their unparalleled climate knowledge and networks. The pursuit of positive climate and biodiversity impact is at the heart of why they invest.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Irena Spazzapan and Systemiq Capital

2:09: Irena delves a bit deeper into Systemiq and their journey into the sector

5:15: In your opinion, what does the funding landscape look like this year, both broadly and how Climate sits within that?

08:02: What parts of the sector are less hot now?

10:33: What parts of the sector are you most excited about?

13:33: What stage of the start-up journey does Systemiq Capital invest and what does a good investment prospect look like for you?

15:03: What advice would you give to Founders in organisations that are looking for investment?

16:40: Being thoughtful about choosing an investor

18:31: What questions can Founders ask when they’re having initial conversations with Investors?

19:05: What are you excited about this year in your own world of Systemiq Capital?

20:13: Starting the conversation with Irena or Systemiq Capital more generally

20:54: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turquoise International is a leading financial advisor and investor in climate technologies. With a 20-year track record in capital raising, they're the fund manager of Low Carbon Innovation Fund, which invests in early-stage companies making measurable reductions in Greenhouse Gas emissions via the development of new technologies. 

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Ian Thomas and Turquoise International

2:09: Ian delves a bit deeper into Turquoise International

4:25: What’s your opinion on the funding landscape today and how has that evolved?

5:30: Clear demand if you can connect with investors and have the right technology

6:00: What innovations or sectors would you as a business be looking to invest?

6:30: Mobility, agri-tech, materials… A theme of low carbon

7:17: What would a key differentiator be to make you excited about an organisation?

7:20: Management and the skills present within the team

8:15: Commercial traction in some form

9:20: What advice would you give to Founders looking to raise this year?

10:15: Spending time identifying investors that are active in the sector you’re in, and stage you’re at

12:10: Evaluation: Overvaluing vs undervaluing and the importance of meeting in the middle

12:50: As a Founder, what should you be mindful of when presenting?

17:58: What’s the best way to get in touch with yourself or Turquoise International?

16:52: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nesta Impact Investments backs high-impact innovative tech businesses that are changing the world for good. They're committed to supporting outstanding entrepreneurs of Seed to Series A start-ups with not only investment but the skills, networks and resources of their team.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Alex Hook and Nesta

2:25: Alex delves a bit deeper into Nesta and how it differs from your traditional VC

4:15: Bringing more than just the cash: Strategic value

5:40: What is your opinion on the ClimateTech funding landscape this year?

7:30: Availability of capital

8:15: Where are you interested in investing in this year?

9:05: The use of data

10:20: A retrofit all encompassing service

11:25: A fundamental bottle neck: Skills

14:55: What advice would you give to Founders looking to raise this year?

15:25: Under-promise and overdeliver

16:50: Addressing customer pain points

20:25: Don’t present the business or yourself as perfect

21:40: Is there anything in Nesta’s world that you’re excited about?

23:45: What’s the best way to get in touch with yourself or Nesta?

24:28: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Planet A Ventures is an impact investor with a difference. They are the first European VC with an in-house science team that calculates life cycle assessments to quantify the impact of a start-up. They invest in bold and brave Founders who are the heroes driving our green transformation. And they help them build a scalable business, because when Founders profit, the planet profits too! 

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:18: Cherry’s introduction to Florian Schabus and Planet A

2:20: Florian delves a bit deeper into Planet A

4:00: Their holistic approach into 16 investments so far…

6:15: How optimistic are you feeling about the state of ClimateTech investment in 2023?

6:45: How long-term investment allows us to remain positive

8:00: Is ClimateTech recession-proof?

11:10: What parts of the ClimateTech sector are you most excited about?

11:25: Decarbonising our economy

13:15: The chemical industry, green methanol to decarbonise shipping and cement

15:40: Carbon removal

19:05: What stages do Planet A invest in?

21:25: What advice would you give to Founders looking to rise this year?

24:22: Do some homework into the funds and what other Founders say about them

27:00: Think about your long-term vision

29:50: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A/O Proptech is Europe's largest VC Firm focused on the built world. They back mission-driven entrepreneurs who are focused on decarbonising the built environment and accelerating sustainable living🏡

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:04: Cherry’s introduction to Arjun Jairaj and A/O PropTech

1:55: Arjun delves a bit deeper into A/O Proptech and their approach to decarbonisation

2:11: The built environment, design and energy use

3:00: How can we use technology to optimise the sector?

3:57: What is your opinion of the funding landscape for this year?

5:08: Is ClimateTech defying the odds when it comes to funding?

6:35: What are you most excited about in the ClimateTech space this year?

7:15: Tackling a range of parts of the supply chain: Water, waste management and circular business models

7:52: Energy transition and retrofit

11:45: What stages do A/O PropTech invest in?

12:35: What advice would you give to Founders looking to rise this year?

14:24: Recent layoffs in technology

15:15: When you’re considering investing in a company, what are the specific things that you look for?

18:13: The best way to get in touch with A/O PropTech

18:45: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They support visionary entrepreneurs by investing in breakthrough ideas that will lead the world to carbon neutrality. They focus on themes such as electrification, renewable energy, and disruptive technologies that enable the transition to a decarbonised economy☁️

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:15: Cherry’s introduction to Nadav Steinmetz and Nomea

1:50: London Climate Connection Conversations and more about Nadav

4:15: What’s your opinion of the funding landscape across ClimateTech for 2023?

5:38: The UK hub for climate and innovation and the bottleneck that is funding

7:03: Are there particular parts of the sector that you’re interested in?

7:20: Where Nomea invests and their focus on sector

08:17: ClimateTech accelerator in Israel

09:29: 5 high-emitting sectors: Manufacturing and materials, energy, food, the built environment and transportation

11:10: Is there anything in particular that you’re looking for when you’re looking to invest?

12:20: What advice would you give Founders to give themselves the best chance in raising?

13:35: Finding the right balance of executing and speaking with investors

15:08: Exciting news for Nomea and getting in touch

16:00: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As well as investing in early-stage climate companies through 4WARD's Climate Syndicate, he is also a strategic advisor to many high-growth climate start-ups. He also hosts The Startup Tank, a platform where start-up Founders can pitch climate VCs for investment.

Timestamps:

0.20: About Funding a Better Future and Above and Beyond Recruitment

1:11: Cherry’s introduction to Matt Ward and 4WARD.VC

2:01: Matt delves a bit deeper into 4WARD.VC and who do they work with

3:47: The importance of making connections: They've have done the research so you don’t have to

6:00: Networked growth hacking

6:28: In your opinion, what does the funding landscape look like this year?

9:46: What parts of the ClimateTech sector are you most excited about?

9:58: Carbon accounting and carbon marketplaces: A controversial opinion (Or is it?)

10:32: Construction, waste management, circular economy, transportation, food and agriculture

11:58: Investing in a team over sector: Looking for the folks you would bet on regardless of what they’re doing

12:55: What can Founders be addressing in their business today to get them fit for funding?

14:07: Don’t let your ego get in the way

15:20: What are you most excited about for 4WARD.VC and other projects this year?

17:31: Getting in touch with 4WARD.VC

18:47: Cherry’s conclusion

Video versions of these episodes are available here.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

About Ecosy Travel:

Ecosy Travel provide a cutting-edge booking platform that help you find flightless adventures by train and boat to beautiful eco-stays. They’re there to help you relax on your journey to a low-carbon future, making booking easy and letting you tailor every aspect of your trip.

Video versions of these episodes are available here: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including Eddie's early entrepreneurial drive as a gardener, his journey through employment into bootstrapping his own business, the importance of self-learning and development, as well as looking to the future for funding for expansion.

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including Vickesh's drive to create his own revision app during university, his transition from the ambitious general sustainability app to the focus on recycling, experience with start-up think tanks and his goals for the future of Horizon.

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having partnered with them recently to help them scale their Engineering team and support them in their mission to reduce gigatonnes of carbon emissions every year🌍, it was great to get to know Buffy and the journey they've embarked on.

Video versions of these episodes: Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including Charlie's wonderful entrepreneurial spirit when he was younger, his relationship with his Co-Founder (and Brother in Law), experience with funding and a reveal of who he would choose in the Climate Tech space to spend an hour with.

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including no fly policies, green admin days, Patagonia, company culture and values, as well as fundraising.

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including hiring people you trust, celebrating other people's successes, raising awareness and advice on pitching for funding.

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We covered a lot during the session, including post graduate certificates for career changes, the Climate Technology Fellowship, finding a Co-Founder and the world of fundraising.

A couple of great resources mentioned included:

Carbon13: https://bit.ly/3gClqUJ

On Deck: Climate Technology Fellowship: https://bit.ly/3N7fjEo

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conversation was vast, and quite frankly, I could have talked to them all day! In just under 40 minutes, we covered mentoring, success and failure, patience, self-doubt and co-working spaces.

A couple of great resources mentioned included:

Kings 20 Accelerator: https://bit.ly/3rOOQBE

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: https://gates.ly/3VoEAO1

Video versions of these episodes: (166) Above and Beyond Recruitment - YouTube

DISCLAIMER: Please bear with me on the audio quality of this episode, I can assure you that it improves on E2.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.