Climate Cowboys

00:00 – Intro & The core thesis: Will climate disasters create more unicorns?

03:08 – Why WRI reports and "social benefits" don't open wallets.

04:20 – Mitigation vs. Adaptation: Doing what we should vs. what we will.

07:24 – The Wildfire Problem: Why a massive disaster isn't always a scalable, investable market.

10:08 – Cloud Seeding & Geoengineering: Why all solutions must be on the table.

13:55 – The Inflation Connection: How the average person actually experiences climate change.

16:00 – Bactery: Building the world's most resilient, soil-based power generators.

20:49 – The "Evil VC" Persona: Using capitalism and profits for ultimate good.

30:58 – The B2B Sales Challenge: How to successfully commercialize "loss avoidance."

46:18 – Why we need to break things: Defending air conditioning and rejecting "Net Zero" purity.

54:07 – Controversial Takes: Why the AI software bubble is uninvestable.

Is the "green premium" trade officially dead?

In this episode, Silas Mähner sits down with Mike D’Aurizio, Partner at Bridges Fund Management, to break down the shifting landscape of climate technology. Together, they explore what "climate tech" actually means in a post-CleanTech 1.0 world, why software and AI are taking center stage to solve second-order energy transition bottlenecks, and how founders should navigate positioning and pitching depending on who is in the room.

🚨 Enjoying the show? Upgrade to a paid subscription to support the podcast, unlock exclusive insights, and get full access to our deep dives: https://www.climatecowboys.co/

Key Takeaways & Select Quotes

The Death of the Green Premium: "The green premium trade is kind of dead, at least in the United States... but the short answer is yes, actually the longer answer is no, because there’s so many different things within climate tech." — Mike D’Aurizio

The End of Puritanism: "Puritanism is never going to get us anywhere... being a big, financially successful company is the path to impact." — Mike D’Aurizio

Targeting Problems over Categories: "Ultimately you should be obsessed with a problem and a specific customer type that you want to serve... there is no market called climate tech." — Mike D’Aurizio

Solving Second-Order Bottlenecks: "What we’re really talking about are all these second-order effects that come from adopting new infrastructure and new technologies." — Mike D’Aurizio

In This Episode, We Cover:

00:00 – Intro & The Jersey City pizza review origin story.

03:41 – Is Climate Tech dead? The death of the "green premium" in North America.

07:09 – Blurring the boundaries: Why a wildfire insurance company is actually a climate tech startup.

12:40 – Techno-optimism: Why profit-driven entrepreneurs, not politicians, will save the planet.

15:53 – The Chameleon Founder: Tailoring your pitch to the specific economic pain points of your buyer.

19:26 – Dropping puritanism: Why massive financial success is the only true path to global impact.

25:05 – The Climate Intelligence Era: Managing the second-order effects of clean infrastructure.

29:28 – Portfolio deep dive: Electric Era (bypassing grid transformer bottlenecks) and Euclid Power (AI for renewable project permitting).

Connect & Follow

Subscribe to the Newsletter & Podcast: https://www.climatecowboys.co/

Watch on YouTube: Climate Cowboys YouTube

Episode Sponsors

Lehmann’s Terms: High-stakes media training for clean tech founders and executives. Prepare your message so it actually lands with investors and media. Learn more at ltmediatraining.com.

Roosevelt Talent: The secret weapon for top CleanTech and frontier startups. Headhunting, candidate screening, and top-tier hires at half the price of traditional recruiters. Save time and build your all-star team.

Mining isn't the bottleneck for critical minerals—refining is. Traditional metal refining takes months and relies on toxic chemical processes, driving the supply chain straight to China.

In this episode, Nikhil Gupta (Founder & CEO of Determinant Materials) reveals how his team uses advanced fluid dynamics to replace months of acid leaching with microparticle refining in mere minutes, slashing costs by 50% and bringing critical supply chains back home.

🔥 Enjoying Climate Cowboys? Join our community of founders, investors, and builders reindustrializing the world. Become a paid subscriber to the Climate Cowboys Substack to unlock full founder breakdowns, deep-dive writeups, and exclusive content.

In This Episode, We Cover:

The Hidden Bottleneck: Why critical mineral security isn't about mining—it’s about processing.

Months to Minutes: How Determinant Materials uses microparticle refining to separate metals at a macro scale.

Geopolitics & National Security: China’s tungsten export bans, supply chain dominance, and why U.S. economic sovereignty depends on modular onshore refining.

Reindustrializing America: Dropping modular refining units directly onto mine sites and defense primes.

Key Episode Quotes:

"Typical metal refining breaks materials down to the atom layer... We have a microparticle technology where we’re separating things at a bigger macro scale."

"China banned the export of tungsten and the price went 10x overnight. China holds all that market power... To have real sovereignty, we need to have this processing here in the United States."

Episode Sponsors & Partners:

Lehmann’s Terms: Prepare for high-stakes media appearances, investor pitches, and TV spots with elite communications training. Learn more at ltmediatraining.com.

Roosevelt Talent: Headhunting and candidate screening built specifically for energy tech, clean chemistry, and frontier tech startups. Save 50% on recruiter fees and build your all-star team. Connect with Roosevelt Talent.

📲 Stay Connected & Support the Show:

📩 Subscribe to the Newsletter: Climate Cowboys Substack

The "climate" label might be under pushback, but the demand for energy, critical minerals, and resource security is skyrocketing. In this episode, Chad Rickaby from ClimateDoor breaks down how successful climate tech companies are reframing their value proposition around national security, capital efficiency, and supply chain resilience to close multi-million dollar deals.

Chad unpacks ClimateDoor’s acquisition of Standard Demand Partners, why AI investors are pivoting to energy, and how to build custom "company brains" to transform B2B sales—ditching cold email spam in favor of high-value human relationships.

🎧 Highlights

Climate as National Security: Why baseload power, data center energy needs, and critical minerals are driving the next wave of VC.

The "Show Me" Environment: What investors and enterprise buyers demand today (LOIs, traction, and unit economics over eco-narratives).

AI-Powered Sales: How to use custom LLM workflows to research markets and uncover "warm paths" without automated email spam.

Dual-Use & Sovereign Capital: Leveraging capital at the intersection of defense, energy security, and frontier tech.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Winning in a market where the "climate" label is under attack

04:00 — ClimateDoor's Standard Demand Partners acquisition

09:19 — The Canadian advantage: Government funding & raw resources

12:52 — The shift from "tell me" to "show me" for VC investors

18:12 — Resource security as the new national security

25:16 — European supply chain vulnerabilities & waste-to-value

29:03 — The winning formula: Clear value props & capital efficiency

37:49 — Dual-use defense capital & Arctic sovereignty

45:54 — AI in B2B sales: Replacing email spam with a "Company Brain"

58:33 — Why Canadian founders lead in pragmatic innovation

🔗 Links & Sponsors

Guest: Chad Rickaby | ClimateDoor

Host & Show: Silas | Climate Cowboys

Lehmann’s Terms: Executive media and pitch training for high-stakes investor moments. ltmediatraining.com

Roosevelt Talent: Executive search built specifically for energy tech and frontier startups. Save 50% on recruiter fees at Roosevelt Talent.

Disclaimer: For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.

In this episode of Climate Cowboys, host Silas Mahner sits down with Sampriti Bhattacharyya, founder and CEO of Navier, at their headquarters in Alameda, California.

While traditional maritime manufacturing remains antiquated and reliant on brute force, Navier is taking a fundamentally different approach: building all-electric hydrofoiling vessels that literally "fly" above the water—reducing drag by 90% and slashing operational costs by 15x.

Sampriti breaks down her journey from MIT roboticist to building a generational American maritime company, her vision for a "generalized marine vessel platform" (the Nvidia chip of the sea), and why she chose conviction over hype when VC investors doubted her timeline.

⚡ SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE MOVEMENT:

Become a Paid Subscriber: Unlock exclusive deep dives, founder insights at Climate Cowboys Substack.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Intro & What is Navier? Building the Generalized Marine Vessel Platform

02:47 – Why maritime innovation stalled and how efficiency unlocks economies

07:54 – Computing, manufacturing, and robotics: Enabling hydrofoiling tech

11:45 – Sampriti’s origin story: High-energy physics to MIT underwater drones

16:54 – Go-To-Market Strategy: Gathering real-world data with recreational boaters

20:59 – The "Nvidia Chip" of the sea: Separating the base layer from the payload

27:07 – Overcoming VC skepticism and ignoring funding hype

35:03 – 3 Guiding Principles: Scale, Range, and Reliability

46:07 – The Video Game Analogy: Choosing to play on "level seven"

55:54 – Rebuilding American maritime and the frontier builder spirit

01:03:50 – Expanding the frontier with optimism over "hall monitor" energy

🤝 SPONSORS:

Lehmann’s Terms: Master your message for high-stakes media, investor pitches, and stage appearances. Learn more at ltmediatraining.com.

Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Secured over $1.6B in grant funding with a 90%+ success rate. Discover grant opportunities at ClimateFinanceSolutions.com.

Roosevelt Talent: Headhunting and talent acquisition for frontier and CleanTech startups at half the price. Find your next hire with Roosevelt Talent.

🔗 CONNECT & FOLLOW:

Connect with Silas Mahner on LinkedIn

Follow Climate Cowboys on LinkedIn

Silas Mahner previews NY Climate Week’s most exclusive event: the Climate Capital Summit by Equal Ventures.

Gathering over $1.3 trillion in climate capital and federal funding, this invite-only summit on September 24th features legends like Sophie Purdom, Leticia Webster, Jonathan Silver, and Jim Coulter. Space is strictly capped at 400 people.

Listen to this for the full scoop and discover how to request an invite.

#291 Building Physical Infrastructure at the Speed of Software | Cole Ashman | Pila

How Pila is decentralizing home energy storage, cutting $7,000 in installation soft costs, and upgrading the grid one smart node at a time.

Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts

Key Quotes

“We’re reinventing the home battery by spreading it out throughout the home... they automatically recognize each other, they communicate over this mesh network.” – Cole Ashman

“A whole home battery today is gonna cost like $15,000. About half of that is soft cost installation, design, permitting, like BS.” – Cole Ashman

“The power grid that we have is built around like the worst case. You know, like we’ve built a 10-lane super highway, but on most days the utilization is 40%.” – Cole Ashman

“Software is becoming so easy to replicate in the world of LLM-generated code... having a physical place in the world and a platform that’s generating new useful data is being so much more interesting and defensible.” – Cole Ashman

Episode Overview

Whole-home backup power traditionally requires $15,000 upfront, expensive electrical work, and months of permitting. As retail electricity prices skyrocket and outages multiply, home energy resilience remains out of reach for most people.

Cole Ashman, Founder & CEO of Pila (ex-Tesla, Span), is fixing this with modular battery nodes that plug straight into standard wall outlets. Operating over a wireless mesh network, Pila delivers instant outage protection and load balancing with zero installation costs—making energy storage accessible to renters and homeowners alike.

Key Topics Covered:

Positioning CleanTech: Why pitching safety, comfort, and savings beats leading with "climate."

Hardware Moats: How physical infrastructure protects against AI software replication.

Grid Economics: Using distributed batteries as shock absorbers to lower peak-demand costs.

Check Out Our Sponsors!

Lehmann’s Terms: Executive media training and message positioning for CleanTech leaders preparing for high-stakes investor pitches and national press. Learn more.

Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Expert grant funding strategy. Secured over $1.6B in non-dilutive government funding for climate tech startups with a 90%+ success rate. Learn more.

Roosevelt Talent: Technical headhunting for frontier and energy tech companies. Delivering top 5% candidates at half the price of traditional recruiters. Connect with Roosevelt.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro & The Pila Solution: Modular batteries for every outlet

04:33 – Un-stealthing and fundraising against rising retail power rates

08:19 – Storytelling: Sell reliability and savings over climate anxiety

16:36 – Bypassing the $15K installation barrier and permitting bloat

18:40 – B2B Playbook: Deploying networks across multi-family real estate

21:54 – Smart Monitoring: Predicting appliance failures via outlet data

34:19 – HardTech Moats: Why physical infrastructure wins in the AI era

43:00 – Hardware Velocity: Tesla Energy takeaways on scaling manufacturing

54:07 – Grid Optimization: Distributed batteries as shock absorbers

Links & Resources

Guest: Cole Ashman | Pila Energy

Host: Silas Mähner on LinkedIn

Socials: Climate Cowboys on LinkedIn | YouTube

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

#290 Meet The Hottest Grid Solution... A Kitchen Stove? w/ Sam Calisch | Copper

How Copper is bypassing expensive electrical panel upgrades and grid bottlenecks by hiding smart battery storage inside beautiful induction stoves.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts

Select Quotes From This Episode:

“You could have free wind and solar out on the grid, and you’d still be paying about as much as you are today just to get it to your house.” – Sam Calisch

“Installing the best home batteries are like 1200, 1500 bucks a kilowatt hour... If we instead put batteries into an appliance that already has efficient sales channels... we cut out that extra 10x.” – Sam Calisch

“What you see is what you get. There’s an authenticity in material... It’s real California walnut. It’s not spray-painted plastic.” – Sam Calisch

“For too long homes have been just a consumer of electricity... We’re entering a world where homes have the opportunity to be bi-directional consumers and producers of power.” – Sam Calisch

What’s the solution to rising electricity prices? Kitchen stoves.

Despite dropping solar and wind generation costs, home electric bills continue to surge—with up to 70% of utility costs going toward delivery infrastructure.

In this episode, Sam Calisch, co-founder of Copper, breaks down how putting smart batteries inside induction stoves bypasses expensive 240V panel upgrades, avoids peak grid demand, and elevates the home cooking experience while turning homes into active grid participants.

Check Out Our Sponsors!

Lehmann’s Terms: Media and pitch training for clean tech founders and executives preparing for high-stakes media, TV, and investor appearances.

Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Global consulting firm helping climate tech companies secure non-dilutive government grant funding ($1.6B+ secured with >90% success rate).

Roosevelt Talent: Specialized headhunting and recruitment for energy tech, battery, and frontier startups—delivering top talent at half the traditional recruiter cost.

📝 Show Notes & Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro & Sam’s background in math, physics, and early climate tech.

04:33 – The grid’s delivery problem: Why cheap solar doesn’t mean cheap electricity bills.

08:18 – The “Trojan Horse” Strategy: Why Copper put a battery inside an induction stove.

10:35 – Bypassing the electrician shortage and avoiding 240V panel upgrades.

14:00 – Building Emotional Value: Why a product needs to be more than just a spreadsheet ROI.

16:00 – The Design Philosophy: Authentic materials, California walnut, and the “walk-up test.”

24:47 – Expanding the Vision: Selling to apartments and licensing tech to legacy appliance OEMs.

33:21 – Timing the Market: Why legacy companies couldn’t build this 10 years ago (The battery cost curve).

38:43 – Escaping “throwaway culture” and building durable, high-quality hardware.

47:04 – The Bi-directional Home: Transforming houses from passive consumers to active grid participants.

51:06 – Manufacturing in the U.S. and reigniting the American builder’s spirit.

Links & Resources:

Connect with Sam Calisch | Copper

Connect with Silas Mähner on LinkedIn

Follow Climate Cowboys on LinkedIn

Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.

#289 The Ocean Cowboy. Will O'Brien. Ulysses | Ocean Robotics & Stewardship Tech

Why the future of marine conservation, national security, and global abundance relies on underwater robots and a true frontier spirit.

Episode Overview

71% of the planet is the ocean, yet it remains largely unexplored—the ultimate geopolitical and environmental frontier. To help us understand it, we sat down with the Ocean Cowboy, Will O’Brien.

He and his crew are building Ulysses to tame the ocean frontier by building autonomous underwater robots to become stewards of the ocean at scale. Starting with restoring seagrass, they’ve expanded across environmental, commercial, and defense markets. Will embodies a strong focus on Stewardship Technology: tech serving humanity and stewarding scarce resources with technological progress, a frontier spirit, and projection of strength.

Select Quotes:

"It’s kind of clear that in the future, robots are gonna do all the important jobs... the ocean’s just getting more and more and more important. It’s gonna need robots, and they’re the ones that we build." – Will

"Functionally, at the end of the day, you want to build a business that really fully realizes your vision... You want to move to a world of abundance, right? Let’s go forth and conquer it." – Will

"I kind of draw the line between what I would call ‘stewardship technologies’ and climate tech... we need this pro-human framing." – Will

📝 Timestamps:

00:00 – Intro & The origin of Ulysses: Discovering the ocean as a massive business frontier.

02:57 – Why underwater robotics? Solving the manual labor problem in seagrass restoration.

05:20 – Moving to San Francisco: Why the Bay Area is still the undisputed king of HardTech.

07:51 – The Strategic Ocean: Geopolitics, AI, deep-sea minerals, and subsea cables.

10:23 – Pragmatic Business Models: Using defense and commercial revenue to fund nature restoration.

13:17 – Grey Warfare & Illegal Fishing: The environmental destruction caused by foreign fleets.

17:35 – The Case for U.S. Manufacturing: Supply chain security, geopolitics, and clean industrial standards.

23:14 – Making Climate Bipartisan: Why focusing on abundance and energy resonates with the median American.

35:44 – Hiring “Farmers” and Builders: Why hands-on projects beat fancy engineering degrees.

42:13 – “Stewardship Tech” vs. “Clean Tech”: Rejecting scarcity for a pro-human, expansionist mindset.

Sponsors:

Lehmann’s Terms – Preparing founders and executives for high-stakes media and investor moments (ltmediatraining.com).

Climate Finance Solutions (CFS) – Securing billions in grant funding for climate tech (ClimateFinanceSolutions.com).

Roosevelt Talent – Headhunting, candidate screening, and hiring consulting for energy tech and frontier startups.

#288 Lessons from 25,000 EV Ports: Scaling SWTCH Energy with Carter Li

How do you bring EV charging to the millions of renters who don’t have a private driveway or garage?

In this episode, Silas Mähner sits down with Carter Li, CEO and Founder of SWTCH Energy, to unpack how they are cracking the hardest puzzle in EV adoption: multi-family housing. Discover how SWTCH bypassed expensive grid upgrades to scale to over 25,000 charging ports, and get a masterclass on navigating the real estate life cycle and transitioning from founder-led sales to a 100-person organization.

🎧 Listen Now

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts

📝 Key Timestamps

00:00 – Intro & Special Announcement: The CleanTechies AI Chatbot.

03:03 – Meet Carter Li and the origin story of SWTCH Energy.

07:41 – The Multi-Family Problem: Why apartments struggle with EV infrastructure.

12:43 – Avoiding Grid Upgrades: How smart energy management saves buildings thousands.

16:46 – The Hidden Costs: Why labor and connectivity make up 80% of the bill.

21:18 – Business Models: Hardware-as-a-Service vs. Owning & Operating.

25:23 – Real Estate Timelines: Why developers look past short-term noise toward 2035.

31:52 – Scaling up to 25,000+ ports and 100 employees.

33:39 – The Founder’s Journey: Product-market fit and stepping away from direct sales.

42:06 – Pitching Real Estate: Focusing strictly on ROI and Net Operating Income.

46:32 – The Future of EV Tech: Roaming, plug-and-charge, and avoiding stranded assets.

53:02 – Reliability Matters: The "No-Nonsense" 97% uptime score.

🤝 Connect & Learn More

Connect with Silas Mähner on LinkedIn

Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn

⭐ Our Sponsors

Lehmann’s Terms: Prepare your message for high-stakes investor pitches and media appearances. Learn more at ltmediatraining.com.

Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Secure non-dilutive government grant funding with a 90%+ success rate. Visit ClimateFinanceSolutions.com.

ErthSearch: Specialized talent recruitment for fast-growing CleanTech teams. Find your next key hire at ErthSearch.

Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Please do your own due diligence.