Discover how Ambient Fuels is building green hydrogen projects for heavy industry — and how CEO Jake Susman blends cleantech VC chops, perfect timing, & startup grit to scale the sector.

My guest today is Jake Susman, Cofounder and CEO of Ambient Fuels.

Ambient Fuels is a pure-play developer of green hydrogen projects, guiding heavy industry through the great green upgrade.

In addition, he is the:

• Executive Advisory Board Member at Activate Capital
• Board member of Urban Resiliency Advisory Board with the Partnership Fund for New York City
• Board Member at SolarKal, the largest commercial solar marketplace in the U.S.
• Board President & Co-Founder at Cleantech Leaders Roundtable

In this episode, we talked about:

• How Ambient Fuel was focused on green hydrogen before the Inflation Reduction Act made it super attractive to be in this sector
• The kinds of sectors that Ambient helps the most – e.g., refining, chemical, and fertilizers
• His prior development firm, Own Energy, and its origin as one of the earliest VC-funded renewable energy project developers, which was later purchased by EDF
• The genesis of his entrepreneurial journey via “el jefe” at AES in Spain
• Why timing can be so important in determining whether a deal gets done, or dies on the vine
• The fact that not all investor capital is created equal and a gross analogy with fast food
• Why premortem analysis exercises can help reduce future startup failure risks
• His commitment to meditation 4x per week and sweating in some kind of physical activity every day
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it.

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

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