Climate CEOs

Discover how Sweep’s Rachel Delacour blends SaaS tech, carbon tracking, and enterprise partnerships to slash emissions across massive global supply chains.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Sweep is a SaaS company that helps large companies reduce carbon emissions in their businesses and supply chains. Sample customers include multi-billion-dollar global enterprises such as Saint-Gobain and HP.

Rachel Delacour is the Co-founder and CEO of Sweep. She is also a Board Member at 2MX Organic, Investment Committee member at RAISE France, and Board member at Shine, as well as the former President at France Digitale and Co-Founder & CEO of BIME Analytics (acquired by Zendesk). She also speaks French very well; that's because she is French and lives in France. 

(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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Learn how Ethic’s Jay Lipman fuses fintech, values-based investing, and advisor partnerships to channel billions into sustainable portfolios.

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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

How Mitra Chem is using machine learning to cut battery cathode development timelines by 90% while reshoring safer, cheaper iron-based batteries to the U.S.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Mitra Chem is solving three problems: 

1. Shifting the Western electric vehicle and energy storage industries' battery portfolio towards safer, cheaper, and cleaner iron-based battery cathodes
2. Building production capacity in the USA to offset production asset overconcentration in China
3. Accelerating by >90% the lab-to-market timeline for a portfolio of battery materials through a proprietary machine learning advantage

Vivas Kumar is the Cofounder and CEO of Mitra Chem. Previously, he was a senior manager in Tesla's Battery Team, where he was the lead commercial negotiator for strategic contracts representing billions of dollars in aggregate multi-year spend along the battery materials supply chain (the company's largest BOM category). Throughout his career, he has conducted commercial negotiations and handled partnerships with executive and senior government counterparties in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. Vivas earned degrees in engineering at Rice University and an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Explore how Lime Rock New Energy deploys $375M into mature clean energy companies by backing renewable tech, industrial efficiency, and transportation electrification to accelerate the low-carbon transition.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Lime Rock New Energy invests private equity capital out of its first $375M fund into maturing companies focused on renewable energy products and services, energy efficiency for industry and the built environment, and transportation electrification.

Mark Lewis is a Managing Director with Lime Rock New Energy, with responsibility for investment sourcing, execution, and overall fund management. He currently serves on the board of directors of EPE, Qmerit, and Smart Wires. Previously, he was the President of TAE Technologies, Inc., the world’s largest and most advanced fusion energy technology development company; CEO of ONEnergy, a diversified energy services company involved in energy retailing, commercial and industrial energy efficiency and distributed solar projects; Managing Director at MissionPoint Capital Partners, an environmentally driven investment firm focused on financing the transition to a lower-carbon economy; and head of Global Business Development at GE Energy where he was involved in over $15 billion of transactions.

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QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED:

Business

• What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition?
• What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making?

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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Discover how The Westly Group deploys $700M across energy, mobility, and industrial tech by funding growth-stage startups, driving sustainable infrastructure, and backing future climate unicorns.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

The Westly Group was founded in 2007 and has four venture capital funds with over $700 million under management. They have become one of the premier venture investors in North America focused on energy, mobility, buildings, industrial technology, and cybersecurity. They invest $5-$15M per company, and one of their nine IPOs includes Tesla. Check out their portfolio here: https://westlygroup.com/portfolio

Tim Wang joined the Westly Group in 2015 and helps manage the firm’s deal flow and due diligence process. Prior to joining the Westly Group, Tim was a co-founder and Head of Business Development at a China-based financial technology start-up, ChinaScope, where he raised $5M from Moody’s Corporation. Tim began his career as an analyst at S&P Capital IQ, a leading financial data provider for financial institutions and advisory firms. Tim worked with the Client Development team out of their New York office before moving to Hong Kong to lead their Asia go-to-market efforts and build a team that would manage relationships with all of Capital IQ’s clients in the region. Tim holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University and an MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.

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QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED:

Business

• What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition?
• What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making?

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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Explore how Soluna combines excess renewable energy, modular data centers, and public-market scale to cut curtailment waste and build a greener cloud backbone.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Soluna Computing is a NASDAQ-listed public company that builds smarter, small-footprint data centers to buy and use excess renewable power.

John Belizaire is the CEO of Soluna Computing and a serial entrepreneur who sold his first company at age 28 for $150 million.

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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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Explore how Climentum Capital combines late-seed funding, deep climate tech focus, and hands-on founder support to turn European startups into CO₂-slashing scaleups.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Climentum Capital invests via late seed and Series A rounds in European startups that can reduce megatons of CO2 equivalents. With initial ticket sizes ranging between 1 and 5 million EUR, they are building a portfolio of 25 companies.

Yoann Berno is a General Partner at Climentum Capital, a mentor with Breakthrough Energy Fellows, a software engineer, and a former cofounder at Catalyst (Enable), Angels Partners, and Supernova. 

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QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED:

Business

• What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition?
• What is one mistake that you see many CEOs making?

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?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Explore how Nth Cycle combines electro-extraction tech, onsite modular systems, & recycling partnerships to profitably reclaim critical minerals for the clean energy transition.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Nth Cycle is a metals processing technology company. They work with battery recyclers and miners. Their customizable and clean electro-extraction technology installs onsite to recover critical minerals from separated e-waste, low-grade ore, and mine tailings. They profitably separate critical minerals from other elements, transforming them into production-grade feedstocks for the clean energy transition.

Megan O'Connor is a Forbes 30 Under 30 and PhD graduate in environmental engineering from Duke University with scientific and entrepreneurial experience at Yale University and Innovation Crossroads. She cofounded Nth Cycle five years ago. 

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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?
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family?

-------

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:

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. 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.
3. 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.

Unpack how Mona Dajani combines legal expertise, engineering rigor, & global dealmaking to drive billion-dollar clean energy infrastructure projects.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP is an international law firm with a particular focus on the technology & media, energy, financial, and real estate & construction sectors. They have been recognized as one of the most innovative law firms by Financial Times and one of the top firms for client service by BTI Consulting.

Mona Dajani, an industry thought leader and a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, is the global co-leader of the firm’s Energy and Infrastructure Projects Team at and also leads the Renewable Energy practice, which covers clean energy, clean energy technology, hydrogen, and sustainable finance. She is qualified as a lawyer in the U.S., as a registered foreign lawyer in England, and a licensed professional engineer.

Their Hydrogen Energy Map Tracker is here: https://www.thehydrogenmap.com

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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?
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family?

-------

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:

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. 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. 
3. 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.

Explore how CapShift blends philanthropy, finance, & climate innovation to mobilize charitable capital for massive social and environmental change.

PODCAST GUEST BIO:

CapShift empowers philanthropic, donor-advised funds, and financial institutions (along with their clients) to mobilize capital for social and environmental change. They are a turnkey impact investment solution for the $1 trillion charitable investment market. 

Adam Rein is the Cofounder and Chief Investment Officer. Since 2014, he has served as a Managing Director for MissionPoint Partners, an impact investment advisory and asset management firm. Previously, Adam co-founded Altaeros, an MIT startup bringing affordable broadband to rural communities. Adam is also a co-founder of Greentown Labs, the largest climate tech incubator in North America. Previously, Adam worked as a strategy consultant for Bain & Company. Adam has an MBA from MIT Sloan, an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a BA from Yale University.

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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?
• What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family?

-------

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:

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. 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. The next live, online course is June 1 to 14.
3. 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.