The Climate Pioneers Show

For this episode, I spoke with Puja Balachander, Director of Venture at Carbon13, the venture builder for the climate emergency.

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?

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I’m joined by Dave Wardell, Chief Commercial Officer at measurable.energy, a company working to eliminate wasted energy in buildings via their combination of hardware and software. Dave is responsible for commercial operations, from marketing awareness, lead generation and business development to onboarding and customer satisfaction.

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?

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Francesco Perticarari is a deep tech super angel, community leader and founder of Silicon Roundabout Ventures. SRV's mission is to back entrepreneurs who are to shape the next-generation of technology and to provide superior returns to investors through venture capital funds. They do this by capturing the explosive growth of early-stage deep tech startups in the UK.

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?

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For the penultimate episode of series six, I was joined by Katya Constant, the Head of The Climate Brick. The Climate Brick is an initiative set up by EQT Ventures and Contrarian Ventures to accelerate the at-scale deployment of climate tech by introducing the "missing manual" (a playbook for scaling and funding seven different climate tech archetypes based on data from over 3,000 companies) and uniting the ecosystem through building the largest cross-stakeholder community.

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?

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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?

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