Climate CEOs

Jeff Erhardt shares how Mattiq is harnessing AI and electrochemistry to screen one trillion materials, accelerate cleaner fuels and chemicals, and scale breakthroughs through joint ventures with major energy and chemical players.

⭐ My guest today is Jeff Erhardt, CEO of Mattiq.

Mattiq is a materials discovery startup delivering innovative electrochemical solutions to decarbonize the fundamental building blocks that power the world. By 2024, they plan to have screened one trillion materials for deployment in real-world systems, such as cleaner fuels and chemicals.

In addition, Jeff is the former…

- Executive Vice President of Intelligent Systems & Industrial AI at GE

- CEO of Wise.io

- COO of Revolution Analytics

- Creator of two sabbaticals, the last one lasting two years

🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:

- How they are commercializing the work of a leading scientist at Northwestern University, Chad Mirkin

- Their focus on minimizing and mimicking larger systems in order to speed up novel chemistry discoveries with real-world applications

- Why culture eats strategy, and how startups need to hire fast and fire fast

- What it means to include AI and machine learning in their processes

- Similarities between their work and genomics and synthetic biology

- Their business model of going to market with big chemical and energy partners via joint development agreements that allow for some cash up front, plus revenue or profit sharing down the road

- Recommended books from his two-year sabbatical

- Why you can’t be a good executive unless you understand history

- And lots more

🙏 Hope you enjoy it!

📣 And give Jeff and Mattiq a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

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👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.

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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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

⭐ My guest today is Nick Flores, Managing Director at Caprock, a multi-family office and founding B Corporation with $8B of assets under management and a rigorous approach to impact investing.

In addition, Nick is the former:

🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:

- Their work helping 266 families invest $8B across six asset classes

- How they select fund managers to invest in

- His origins outside of the world of wealth and how that affects his investment outlook

- What impact intentionality means

- The misconception that impact investing means below-market returns

- What a theory of change is all about

- The biggest gaps in impact investment fund managers across asset classes

- Advice he would give his younger self

- His love of stoicism

- Tools he uses to speed up his typing

- Recommended books

- And lots more

🙏 Hope you enjoy it!

📣 And please give Nick and Caprock a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

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👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.

---

🌎 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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

We also run the #1 executive peer group community in North America for growth-stage CEOs, founders, and investors fighting climate change. 

With monthly group meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 executive coaching calls, our members help each other boost revenue, impact, capital raised, clarity, confidence, work-life balance, and team effectiveness. 

Today’s 30+ members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management for climate solutions.

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.

Discover how Trevor Best and Syzygy Plasmonics are using LED-powered photocatalysis to electrify chemical production, slash emissions, and reimagine a $5T industry.

⭐ My guest today is Trevor Best, Cofounder and CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics.

He's also a member of our Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community at Entrepreneurs for Impact!

Syzygy is commercializing a deep-decarbonization platform dedicated to cleaning up the emissions-heavy chemical industry. They use breakthrough technology pioneered in the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University to harness energy from LED light to power chemical reactions. This new technology has the potential to partially or fully electrify the chemical industry, shifting it to renewable electricity, and cost-effectively reducing its carbon footprint.

🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:

- How he raised over $100M to fund the company

- What photocatalysis means

- How a case of beer and rare astronomical phenomena were key in deciding the company name

- Their work in ammonia cracking, blue hydrogen, and dry reforming

- The projects they’re launching this year with multinational companies from Asia and the US

- The massive cost, energy, and carbon savings made possible through their technology

- What the children’s movie Frozen has taught him

- How his love of science fiction translates to lessons in startup leadership

- And lots more

🙏 Hope you enjoy it!

📣 And give Trevor a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

---

👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.

---

🌎 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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

Maria Fujihara and Sinai Technologies are turning sustainability into a value driver with enterprise software that measures, prices, and reduces GHGs for the planet’s heaviest polluters.

My guest today is Maria Fujihara, Founder and CEO of Sinai Technologies.

Sinai Technologies is a VC-backed enterprise software company that measures, analyzes, prices, and reduces GHG emissions for large companies.

In addition, Maria is the former:

• Coalition Advisor for Project Drawdown
• Technical Coordinator for the Green Building Council in Brazil
• Participant in the Global Solutions Program (GSP) at Singularity University

In this episode, we talked about:

• Her origin story, coming to the US from Brazil with nothing, and then raising $40M and employing 60 people
• How they chose to work with some of the world’s biggest polluters
• Her work to find cultural and business alignment with her carbon-intensive customers
• The challenge of stranded assets for large corporations
• How their SaaS solution helps companies understand and take action on decarbonization
• The role of TCFD and CDP in GHG reporting and corporate governance
• How her company moves sustainability from a cost center to a value adder
• What it’s like being a woman CEO of a VC-backed company
• The HeartMath Institute and the connection between the heart and the brain
• Recommended books
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it!

And give Maria 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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen, shares how they’re scaling grid batteries with $275M raised, a 420MWh California project, and a 10GW agreement with the world’s largest battery maker.

My guest today is Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen, an energy storage software provider with $275M in investor capital raised to date.

In addition, Kelcy is the:

• Founding Partner at Charles Joy Ventures
• Former President of NRG Home Solar
• Former Executive Chairman of Sofdesk

In this episode, we talked about:

• Their new 420MWh battery project in California
• How they maximize energy storage revenue via load shifting, peak shaving, and ancillary services
• Their revenue model
• How they don’t sell, but instead help their customers to buy
• Their 10 GW agreement with the world’s largest battery manufacturer
• The recent rapid growth from 30 to over 200 employees
• What Parkinson’s Law is and how to manage it
• What you can learn from children’s books like Elephant and Piggy
• Wisdom from tennis legends
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it!

And give Kelcy and FlexGen a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

---

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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

Bret Kugelmass, CEO of Last Energy, reveals how his team is cutting nuclear build costs, landing contracts in the UK, Poland & Romania, and scaling a $200M-per-unit model to decarbonize global power.

My guest today is Bret Kugelmass, Founder and CEO of Last Energy.

In addition, Bret is…

• The podcast host at Titans of Nuclear
• Managing Director at The Energy Impact Center
• Former CEO of Airphrame, a drone company that he sold to a Fortune 500 buyer
• A graduate of the Stanford School of Engineering

Last Energy is a VC-backed full-service developer of small modular nuclear power projects with the goal of transforming the nuclear power industry by dramatically reducing the time and cost of construction. Their mission is to decarbonize global energy production and increase access to clean, affordable power. They are targeting 2025 for its first units, which require around $200 million to build, and they are investigating 800 other potential sites to deploy the units across Europe.

In this episode, we talked about:

• The three most common misperceptions about nuclear energy
• What he learned from 800 interviews with nuclear energy experts
• Common mistakes made by 50 next-gen nuclear startups
• The outsized role that construction finance plans in the overall cost of nuclear power
• Last Energy’s initial contracts to build small modular nuclear reactors in the UK, Poland, and Romania
• What he means by this quote: “We’re innovative in the way that we are not trying to be overly innovative. We don't reinvent the reactor core, the physics, the chemistry, the materials.”
• How to avoid multiplying risks
• The role of business model vs. tech innovation to get clean energy to market
• The distinction between corporate and project finance for their go-to-market strategy
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it!

And give Bret and Last Energy a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

---

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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

From unicorn counts to fusion funding, EV myths, and mindset hacks like pronoia and PQ, this newsletter-turned-podcast dishes out rapid-fire insights for climate founders and investors.

In this newsletter-turned-podcast episode from Entrepreneurs for Impact, I cover the following:

Climate Startups & Investment

1. 🦄 How many climate tech unicorns are there?
2. 🙋‍♂️ How do I transition to a job in climate tech?
3. 🏎️ The lies about electric vehicles
4. 💥 2.8 billion reasons that fusion should matter to you.
5. 🚫 This is why $4,000,000,000 at two firms is not enough.
6. 🍺 If you stop drinking in 2050, does it matter? [climate goals]

Better Habits & Deep Work

1. 😲 Choose pronoia over paranoia
2. ⛅ A free therapy lesson from Stutz
3. 📊 What’s your Positive Intelligence Quotient (PQ)? [Take this test]
4. 🤔 “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

Enjoy!

Ping me on LinkedIn to let me know what you think about it.

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherwedding

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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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.

Discover how Dollaride is transforming city transit deserts with EV retrofits, asset-financing for drivers, and a $10M award powering 15K+ riders toward cleaner, more equitable mobility.

My guest today is Su Sanni, Founder of Dollaride, a mobility company for communities underserved by public transit.

In addition, Su is also:

• Venture Partner with Republic
• Fellow with Visible Hands
• Former Cofounder and CEO of WeDidIt, an online fundraising platform for nonprofits

In this episode, we talked about:

• What a transit desert is and how it costs us billions of dollars in lost productivity annually
• The $10M award that Dollaride won from the state of New York
• Their solid customer traction with over 15,000 riders in just one year
• How his solution relates to the micromobility field more broadly
• His origin story and the inspiration for this business
• How their business is evolving from an Uber-like tech platform to an asset-financing model to make EV purchases easier
• The process by which they retrofit commercial vehicles from ICE to EV
• Why it’s so important that he walks his kids to school
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it.

And give Su 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Discover how Electra is decarbonizing ironmaking with $85M raised, partnerships with Nucor, and a breakthrough process that produces green steel at 60°C instead of 1,600°C — all with zero cost premium.

My guest today is Sandeep Nijhawan, the Cofounder and CEO of Electra.

Electra is decarbonizing ironmaking for green steel production using intermittent renewable energy and low-grade iron ores, and producing higher-quality steel at the same time. Backed by $85M of VC and corporate VC capital, they will do all this at zero cost premium to existing steel manufacturing.

In addition, Sandeep is the former:

• President of AquaHydrex, which was focused on developing a novel electrolyzer for the hydrogen economy
• Operating Partner for True North Venture Partners
• President of Staq Energy, a distributed energy storage solutions developer

In this episode, we talked about:

• Their new partnership with Nucor, the largest steel manufacturer in the U.S.
• How he transitioned from a PhD in mechanical engineering to leading energy tech startups
• Why his “midlife crisis” led to the clarity to build novel energy solutions among small teams of bonafide geeks
• The importance of producing green steel at 60 degrees Celsius instead of 1,600 degrees
• How they balanced strategic and financial investors, ignoring conventional wisdom in the process
• The ways in which steel plants can get access to their solution as an OpEx, instead of just as a CapEx
• The prioritization of self, family, and team – not the reverse order – and this is anti-selfish
• Perspectives on really knowing the “why” in order to allow the “how” to be easier
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy.

And give Sandeep and Electra a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

---

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Discover what a $1.1B climate tech VC looks for in startups — plus trends from $64B in new funding, carbon markets, & the mindsets shaping future founders.

In this newsletter-turned-podcast episode from Entrepreneurs for Impact, I cover the following:

• 💰 $64B of new cash for climate in 2022
• 📰 New carbon removal buyer's guide
• ☁️ TPG invests $300M into carbon credit platform
• 🤔 Pain + reflection = progress
• ⛰️ 75 Hard vs. 60 Medium
• 🥇 Here’s what this VC looks for in a climate tech startup
• 📰 News flash: Climate is about people, not just startup exits
• 🙋‍♂️ Want a job in climate tech?
• 📈 Price’s Law: The square root of people
• 👵 Retire far earlier than age 65

Enjoy!

Ping me on LinkedIn to let me know what you think about it.

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherwedding

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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.

Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com

Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: https://entrepreneursforimpact.com

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.

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.