Entrepreneurs for Impact
Dr. Chris Wedding
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Top 10 Entrepreneurs for Impact Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Entrepreneurs for Impact episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Entrepreneurs for Impact for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Entrepreneurs for Impact episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Making ESG Investing Easier for $2 Billion — Jay Lipman, President of Ethic
Entrepreneurs for Impact
07/21/22 • 36 min
PODCAST GUEST BIO:
Ethic is working toward a future where all investing is sustainable investing. Backed by almost $100M of funding, they empower wealth advisors and investors to create portfolios that seek to align personal values with financial goals. Their solution has catalyzed $2B of capital into more responsible funds to date.
Jay Lipman is the Co-founder and President of Ethic. He is also a Top LinkedIn Voice for the Green Economy and a member of our Climate Mastermind peer groups at Entrepreneurs for Impact. Check out his entertaining and educational ESG videos here. He claims that his sophisticated English accent is not a factor in his success, but the jury is still out.
(I wonder who reads these podcast summaries. If that's you, Tweet at me here https://twitter.com/DrChrisWedding. 🤣)
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QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED:
Business
- What does your company do? What makes you unique versus the competition?
- What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making?
- What are 1-2 lessons you’ve learned about funding your growth with outside investors?
Personal
- If you had to start over, what are 1-2 tips you’d give yourself in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact?
- What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks?
- What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools?
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PODCAST HOST:
Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.
Our three offerings include:
- Climate CEO Mastermind Peer Groups — Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.
- Online course on "Funding Your Climate Tech Startup" — Two-week boot camp offering 500+ climate investor list (with emails), a 5-step process for raising capital, the top 10 startup funding mistakes, and much more.
- Newsletter — A 3-minute weekly summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 3x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 60,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.
2 Listeners
#143: [One of our most popular] Climate Investing, from Gordon Gekko to the Dalai Lama
Entrepreneurs for Impact
08/24/23 • 48 min
Since it's summer, I'll play my "on vacation" card and recycle this podcast, one of our most popular so far.
Plus, Howard and Gratitude Railroad are putting on their upcoming 2023 Gratitude Investor Gathering on Sept. 10 - Sept. 13 at 1440 Multiversity in California. Check it out!
Details here:
"From outdoor sessions under the canopy of thousand-year-old redwoods, to fireside chats around roaring fire pits, this year's Gathering venue - 1440 Multiversity - specializes in curated experiences that inspire the best in the human spirit to cultivate the greater good.
What we're excited about:
- Community-centric and purpose-driven programming designed to explore ideas and catalyze investments in nature-based solutions, the inclusive economy, equitable health, alternative energy, futurist food systems, & more... Trusted and deep relationships with values-aligned investors, founders, fund managers, academics, and impact leader
- Investment opportunities and tools for accelerating capital into enduring and equitable impact"
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⭐ My guest on this podcast was Howard Fischer, the Chief Evangelist at Gratitude Railroad.
Gratitude Railroad's mission is to support investors in moving capital from traditional finance to impact investments that create deep social and environmental impact, without compromising financial returns.
His bio on the GR website is delightful in its brevity and insight into who he is. And I quote:
“Uphill over downhill; Snow over sand; Read over watch; Trees over skyscrapers; Pizza over steak; Conversation over gossip; Disagree over agree; Instinct over spreadsheets; Relationship over contract.”
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🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:
- His 40 years in hedge funds
- How his rebirth in 2013 while not religious was like a metaphorical move from Gordon Gekko to Dalai Lama
- His financial reckoning during the 2008 financial crisis when his hedge fund went from $3B to $300M
- The risks in wearing the golden handcuffs of fat paychecks from big-brand employers
- How philanthropy is broken, and government is not a great problem solver
- Why we have to move more profit-driven capital to the climate sector
- Examples of the climate investments they’ve made at Gratitude Railroad, including a focus on organic waste management
- His theme of “Free the Money” and related investments in Climate First Bank and First Women’s Bank
- Why we can’t ask people to eat their broccoli (sorry, you have to listen to understand what this means)
- Some of his favorite books, such as The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, and The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis
- And lots more
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👍 Quick favor: Please leave a review or 5-star rating on your podcast player. This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here. 🙏
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🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate founders, CEOs, and investors scale faster via the #1 peer group community in North America. Our invite-only cohorts grow through monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching calls. Today’s highly vetted members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. https://entrepreneursforimpact.com
Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.
And here's our weekly newsletter — A 2-minute summary of climate tech startups, impact investing, and leading with purpose (and a sense of humor). https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
2 Listeners
#157: Over $270M to Decarbonize and Digitize Industry — Micah Kotch, Partner at Blackhorn Ventures
Entrepreneurs for Impact
11/30/23 • 49 min
⭐ My guest today is Micah Kotch, Partner at Blackhorn Ventures.
Blackhorn Ventures invests in companies redefining industrial resource efficiency. Their portfolio serves enterprise customers across Energy, Construction / Real Estate, Supply Chain / Logistics and Transportation – interconnected industries that generate $3T in annual revenue and account for the vast majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. They’ve raised three funds totalling over $270 in AUM. Their investments in 60+ seed and Series A ventures is performing in the top quartile of all comparable VC funds, according to Cambridge Associates.
Micah was previously part of the BMW Group, where he served as Managing Director of URBAN-X; the platform for startups reimagining city life. He is also a Founding Partner of C3, an AngelList syndicate backing companies working to reduce emissions, mitigate the worst effects of climate change, and help humanity adapt to a changing world.
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🎙️ PODCAST TOPICS:
The debate between hardware and software investing in climate tech. Why the September 11 tragedy catapulted him into sustainability. How he moved from an undergraduate major in East Asian studies to be a VC investor. How an off-grid family cabin in New Engand taught him about his current career mission. Their work to integrate impact additionality into the full life cycle of their investments. The importance of tackling big problems outside of our comfort zone. How loud music and motorcycles keep him calm. And his favorite NGO to support – Green City Force: https://greencityforce.org
And lots more!
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🙏 QUICK FAVOR:
Please leave a review or rating on your podcast player.
This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here.
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🌎 ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS FOR IMPACT:
2-minute newsletter: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
Climate CEO peer group community: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
Live online course about startup capital raising (coaching, peer feedback): https://t.ly/V6xcB
DIY course about startup capital raising (170 slides, 70-item library, 250-investor list): https://t.ly/QCcl5
Entrepreneurs for Impact is led by Dr. Chris Wedding — a 4x founder, 4x Board member, Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, ax-throwing champ, and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio). 😃
1 Listener
Green Hydrogen Project Development by Cleantech Veteran — Jake Susman, CEO of Ambient Fuels
Entrepreneurs for Impact
12/15/22 • 52 min
My guest today is Jake Susman, Cofounder and CEO of Ambient Fuels.
Ambient Fuels is a pure-play developer of green hydrogen projects, guiding heavy industry through the great green upgrade.
In addition, he is the:
- Executive Advisory Board Member at Activate Capital
- Board member of Urban Resiliency Advisory Board with the Partnership Fund for New York City
- Board Member at SolarKal, the largest commercial solar marketplace in the U.S.
- Board President & Co-Founder at Cleantech Leaders Roundtable
In this episode, we talked about:
- How Ambient Fuel was focused on green hydrogen before the Inflation Reduction Act made it super attractive to be in this sector
- The kinds of sectors that Ambient helps the most – e.g., refining, chemical, and fertilizers
- His prior development firm, Own Energy, and its origin as one of the earliest VC-funded renewable energy project developers, which was later purchased by EDF
- The genesis of his entrepreneurial journey via “el jefe” at AES in Spain
- Why timing can be so important in determining whether a deal gets done, or dies on the vine
- The fact that not all investor capital is created equal and a gross analogy with fast food
- Why premortem analysis exercises can help reduce future startup failure risks
- His commitment to meditation 4x per week and sweating in some kind of physical activity every day
- And lots more
Hope you enjoy it.
And give Jake and Ambient fuels a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.
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Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.
Our two offerings include:
- Climate CEO Mastermind Peer Groups — Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management.
- Newsletter — A 3-minute weekly summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.
1 Listener
SaaS Solution for Corporate Climate Intelligence and Risk Management — Laura Zizzo and Jeremy Greven, Manifest Climate
Entrepreneurs for Impact
05/27/21 • 42 min
Led by co-founders Jeremy Greven and Laura Zizzo, Manifest Climate is a building a climate intelligence platform to help companies better understand, manage, and communicate climate risk. To learn more about the TCFD standards that Manifest Climate looks to broadly implement visit their website.
Below are two excerpts from the podcast.
Laura highlighted the company's mission and product offerings saying, "Manifest Climate is a climate intelligence platform for business. We help customers translate climate so that they can better understand it, manage it, and disclose it to investors. We help clients communicate climate risk to investors and internally within their companies so they can make decisions that enhance business resiliency. We want to take climate out of the sustainability silo and put it into the organizational framework."
Jeremy spoke to the company's evolution saying, "The company and its product offering have evolved with market demands. The company was born out of Mantle 314, a management consultancy company working with big financial institutions globally. It eventually became clear that boardrooms across the world were demonstrating a common need for better information concerning the management of climate. However, the combination of commonality and impact at scale makes this problem uniquely suited for a software solution. Ultimately we are bringing a “SaaS plus” model to the market where we can leverage technology to build upon the experiences and insights of subject matter experts on our team that have over five years of experience working with corporate clients in the climate space. In addition to the technology layer, we can offer a higher-touch service with custom reporting broken down by business lines as well as workshops where management teams can engage with Q&A and get one-on-one time with subject matter experts on our team."
Reverse Logistics for Higher Quality and Lower Waste Restaurant Takeout — Lindsey Hoell, CEO of Dispatch Goods
Entrepreneurs for Impact
04/09/21 • 37 min
Led by CEO Lindsey Hoell, Dispatch Goods provides a reusable container logistics service for restaurants aiming to increase sustainability and the quality of their takeout food presentation.
Below are two excerpts from the podcast.
"Dispatch Goods is focused on solving the reverse logistics of reuse. It has become increasingly apparent that the culture of throw away is problematic from both a health and environmental perspective. We aim to solve for reusability through the lens of addressing the challenges associated with collecting, sorting, processing, cleaning, and redistributing reusable packages."
"We are looking to offer a pickup service that is comparable to the weekly recycling to which we have all become accustomed. In the case of higher-end restaurants, some of our restaurant partners have decided to build the “avocado upcharge” into their menu prices and offer the service as the default take-out option. Nonetheless, we have been able to demonstrate that our reusable service can boost restaurant revenue with the positive PR that they receive."
Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.
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Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.
We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.
Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.
Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.
To request more information on membership, click here.
Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.
⭐ My guest today is Zach Jones, cofounder and CEO of C-Zero.
C-Zero converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon. The hydrogen provides clean, low-cost energy on demand, while the carbon can be permanently sequestered. Investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, SK Gas, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Engie.
Zach is biomedical engineer-turned-CEO with experience at The Economist, Beryllium Capital, EconoMEDics, and East Meets West Foundation.
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🌐 LINKS:
C-Zero – https://www.czero.energy/ Zach Jones – https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachjones06/
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🎙️ PODCAST TOPICS:
Why natural gas is thermodynamically clean given its high hydrogen content. Why big energy companies are motivated investors in his venture, where a scaled up plant could cost $500M. The power of extreme focus. The top three things a CEO must do well. How to think about upstream methane emissions. How to crack natural gas without electricity. The need to be a skeptical optimist. Impacts of the federal 45V incentive.
And lots more!
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🙏 QUICK FAVOR:
Please leave a review or rating on your podcast player.
This helps more listeners discover the climate CEOs and investors I interview here.
---
🌎 ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS FOR IMPACT:
2-minute newsletter: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
Climate CEO peer group community: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
Live online course about startup capital raising (coaching, peer feedback): https://t.ly/V6xcB
DIY course about startup capital raising (170 slides, 70-item library, 250-investor list): https://t.ly/QCcl5
Entrepreneurs for Impact is led by Dr. Chris Wedding — a 4x founder, 4x Board member, Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, ax-throwing champ, and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio). 😃
Software Solution: "Airbnb for Electric Vehicle Charging" — Heather Hochrein, CEO of EVMatch
Entrepreneurs for Impact
04/23/21 • 35 min
Led by Heather Hochrein, EVMatch provides a software platform that enables both a peer-to-peer EV charging system (analogous to Airbnb for electric vehicle chargers) and facilitates apartment building charging sessions through automatic scheduling and access control.
Below are two excerpts from the podcast.
Heather described EVMatch's business saying, "We are a software platform that provides access to privately owned EV charging stations with the ultimate goal of increasing the feasibility of EV ownership. Our platform was initially created to provide a peer-to-peer network of homeowners who have individual level 2 charging stations and can provide access to this infrastructure to their neighbors and community members in exchange for additional cash. In this sense, we say that we are the “Airbnb of electric vehicle charging stations.” Moreover, we have begun to provide reservation-based software for apartment complexes and church facilities to help these facilities manage EV charging sessions.
We have three revenue streams. Our primary revenue stream is a service fee that we charge to customers when using the peer-to-peer network, in much the same way that Airbnb customers pay a transaction fee when they book a reservation. Our secondary revenue stream is an annual subscription fee (i.e., a SaaS offering) that we charge to our commercial customers for the reservation management service. Finally, we earn a commission on the resale of level 2 charging hardware."
Heather highlighted the company's work to drive electric vehicle adoption by addressing range anxiety saying, "It is absolutely a primary motivation. Range anxiety is a combination of relatively short-range batteries in the existing fleet of electric vehicles and insufficient public charging infrastructure. While we believe the former will be addressed by gradually improving battery chemistry coming out of labs working in conjunction with automakers, we are actively working on the latter. While we do not directly build charging stations, we work to maximize their usage rate, making this infrastructure more accessible to all. It is also clear that the EV charging infrastructure must continue to be built out, and we expect that as this continues our role will only continue to expand in terms of the smart software management of these facilities."
Here is the transcript summary of the podcast.
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Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for investor-backed CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change.
We’re on a mission to help “scale up” climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential.
Our highly vetted, invite-only cohorts of 11 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls.
Here are membership benefits, and these are sample members.
To request more information on membership, click here.
Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 50,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.
SER Capital Partners is a middle-market private equity investment firm dedicated to North American industrial sustainability. They manage $500M in equity, plus opportunities to harness debt for the right projects. Typical investments range from $50-$150M per company.
In addition to his role at SER, Rahul is a former private equity investor at Energy Capital Partners and a Board member at Sunnova, NextLight, FirsLlight, Sungevity, and growth-stage cleantech companies.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways.
- How they pick the right companies to invest in
- Their perspective on ESG and how it adds financial value to their portfolio companies
- How they select the right management team, and what it means to be pulled vs. to push
- Why he practice Transcendental Meditation 5x per week and tries to bring a gift to every personal encounter
🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
SER Capital - https://sercapitalpartners.com
Rahul - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-advani-3a711a
Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation: How Silicon Valley Will Make Oil, Nuclear, Natural Gas, Coal, Electric Utilities and Conventional Cars Obsolete by 2030 (book) - https://shorturl.at/KjlbJ
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (book) - https://shorturl.at/iihRd
📈 JOIN EFI’S CLIMATE CEO PEER GROUP:
Become an EFI Climate CEO Fellow — Join North America’s top private peer group community for growth-stage CEOs in climate tech and sustainability. We’re a community of 100 CEO Fellows, Alumni Allies, and Mentors (investors and post-exit CEOs) representing over $40B of market value or financial assets for climate solutions. Apply here: https://www.entrepreneursforimpact.com
📣 READ EFI’S NEWSLETTER:
Inspired by lessons I've learned from 300+ climate tech CEOs and investors, it's a quick read about climate tech startups, investment, wisdom, and a little humor. Join over 20,000 who get it. https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com
✍🏼 LEAVE A PODCAST REVIEW:
To help more people discover the climate tech CEOs and investors we interview, please take one minute to review or rate this podcast. Since we don’t take any sponsors for this podcast, we appreciate this small gesture of your appreciation. Here are instructions: https://ratethispodcast.com/guides/where-can-people-leave-podcast-reviews
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the CEO of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).
ZERO: 8 Climate Accelerators, Recent Climate Tech Financings
Entrepreneurs for Impact
05/18/21 • 16 min
ZERO is a weekly newsletter about climate finance, startups, and personal development. In this issue, we deliver the spoken podcast version, which covers the following: Recent climate tech deals from Voltus, Mainspring, ESS, Solid Power, Navitas Semiconductor, and 10 more. Plus 8 climate accelerators or challenges to apply for (Joules, LACI, 100+, AirMiners, Clean Energy Trust, Amazon, ADB, GS).
For more trends, check out other issues of our free weekly newsletter ZERO: Climate Finance via Entrepreneurs for Impact: https://zeronewsletter.substack.com
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FAQ
How many episodes does Entrepreneurs for Impact have?
Entrepreneurs for Impact currently has 211 episodes available.
What topics does Entrepreneurs for Impact cover?
The podcast is about Entrepreneurship, Podcasts and Business.
What is the most popular episode on Entrepreneurs for Impact?
The episode title 'Making ESG Investing Easier for $2 Billion — Jay Lipman, President of Ethic' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Entrepreneurs for Impact?
The average episode length on Entrepreneurs for Impact is 41 minutes.
How often are episodes of Entrepreneurs for Impact released?
Episodes of Entrepreneurs for Impact are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Entrepreneurs for Impact?
The first episode of Entrepreneurs for Impact was released on Jan 7, 2021.
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