Down to Zero

Edward Shenderovich is the co-founder and CEO of Synonym. Synonym is revolutionizing the bioeconomy by creating both digital and physical infrastructure to scale biomanufacturing.

In today’s episode, we sat down with Mario Fernandez from Breakthrough Energy, the Bill Gates-backed firm driving investment in innovation in the race to net zero. Mario leads Breakthrough Energy's Catalyst program, which has over $1 billion dollars to invest in demonstration and first-of-a-kind commercial scale projects. Listen to learn more about: What Breakthrough Energy is and how they invest in the climate transition. Why Catalyst is laser-focused on projects that can prove and de-risk climate technologies at scale to unlock trillion-dollar markets. Advice for entrepreneurs raising capital on technology de-risking, team and skills. Key challenges in developing and scaling climate tech. Which skills and experiences are crucial for a successful career in climate tech.

Christopher Hopper is the co-founder and CEO of Aurora Solar. Chris co-founded Aurora Solar back in 2013 while at Stanford. He since grew it into the leading solar design and sales software platform, now valued at $4 billion. In our discussion, we cover: Aurora’s origin story, building a solar installer and pivoting to solving his own problems into a $4-billion-dollar solar business. Why Chris bootstrapped for 5 years until it was too risky not to raise capital. Lessons from hyper scaling to 400 employees, the importance of people, not striving for perfection, and constantly reinventing yourself as a founder. How to build culture while scaling and avoid cultural dilution. Chris’ four life lessons from over a decade in startups including frequently revisiting your why, embracing serendipity and trusting in the process, accepting that uncertainty and opportunity are two sides of the same coin, and being intentional about what you work on and with whom.

Ryan Panchadsaram is an advisor to Chairman John Doerr⁠ at Kleiner Perkins and was the U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House. As the co-author of best-selling Speed & Scale and collaborator on the NYT #1 bestseller Measure What Matters, he also knows a thing or two about setting audacious goals and executing on them systematically. In our conversation, we cover what OKRs are, how to implement them successfully in your climate-tech company and the current state of climate progress.

BluSmart, India’s Uber-rival, is India's largest integrated electric ride-hailing and charging network operator. With over 7,000 EVs, 4,700 charging points, and 13.3 million zero-emission trips, BluSmart is revolutionizing transportation in a nation of 1.4 billion. To achieve that, BluSmart has raised over $200 million in venture capital across equity and venture debt to date. We sat down with Punit Goyal, co-founder and CEO of BluSmart, to dive into his entrepreneurial journey, building climate tech in India, and BluSmart's unique vertically integrated approach.

Shomik Dutta is a former Obama White House advisor turned climate VC. He's the co-founder and managing partner of Overture VC, a fund taking a unique approach by leveraging its policy expertise to help founders win government support and navigate regulatory complexity. Overture has invested in cutting-edge climate tech startups such as Antora Energy (thermal battery storage), Crux (marketplace for transferable tax credits), and Earth Force (AI-powered forest management). We sat down with Shomik to dive into his journey from policy to VC, Overture's thesis, challenges in deploying solutions, and his advice for founders on controlling their policy destiny.

The rise of distributed energy resources is making it much harder for utilities to manage the grid and get energy from where it's produced to where it's needed. Camus Energy is tackling this challenge through their grid orchestration platform that provides real-time situational awareness, device control, and market integration.  We sat down with Astrid Atkinson, co-founder and CEO of Camus Energy and previously a 15-year infrastructure veteran at Google where she led a 300-person team building infrastructure for Google's major products. Listen in as we dive into the inception of Camus Energy, the problems they are solving, and how her previous experience at Google has been critical to their approach.

It’s election year in the US and one of the biggest topics on everyone's mind is what that means for the future of energy and climate policy. Will the IRA be rolled back? If so, which sectors will be least impacted? And how do startups navigate a possibly changing climate policy landscape, and the DOE?  Climate tech policy expert, Kate Gordon, tackles these questions and more. Kate recently served as senior advisor to US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Before her time in the Biden Harris administration, Kate served in the California state government Director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Research and senior climate policy advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom. 

Livestock farming accounts for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. But back in 2011 when Impossible Foods was founded, most people hadn't heard of climate change or didn't care much about it. They definitely were not making decisions about what to eat based on what they thought was good for the earth. So how do you do go-to-market strategy for a market that doesn't exist yet? And how do you scale to become a global consumer brand with a climate mission? We sat down with Nick Halla to answer these questions. Nick joined Impossible Foods as employee #1 a month before it launched. He spent 11 years with the company and eventually ran their retail and international strategies as SVP.

It costs millions and millions of dollars to develop climate technologies, from lab-scale R&D to CAPEX-intensive commercial deployment. Thankfully, climate tech startups can increasingly rely on cheaper non-dilutive funding besides equity financing. But how do win non-dilutive funding, such as government grants? We sat down with Helena Merk, CEO and Co-Founder of Streamline Climate to get her 10 tips for winning grants. Streamline Climate helps climate tech startups find and win non-dilutive funding with their AI-powered grant discovery and drafting platform.