Fellow Hope Dealers, welcome to another episode of Hope Dose.

In this episode, we head to Paris to grab a drink with Mónica Larrazábal, Co-Founder and CEO of Norma.

Mónica walks us through Norma’s radically different approach to carbon capture — one that treats direct air capture not as an energy-consuming process, but an energy-storing one. We get into supercapacitors, sandwich-stacked cells, the “winter” in climate funding, and why she believes today is the best moment to invest in carbon removal. Plus: how to carry a baguette like a true Parisian.

📝 Show Notes Below👇

🎧 New podcast episode:

“Call me bold, but I think today is the best moment to invest in carbon removal.”

— Mónica Larrazábal, Co-Founder and CEO of Norma

Find Mónica on LinkedIn, and check out Norma’s website here.

🍸 Recorded across the Atlantic — Paris meets Hope Dose. 🥖

Enjoy the show!

📻 Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Substack 👉

Interested in sponsoring?

Please reach out to [email protected]

Companies/Startups mentioned during the show:

☁️ Norma

🔥 Avalanche Energy

🤝 Founders Pledge

💚 Milkywire

💸 Counteract

💸 Marble

People/places/things mentioned during the show:

🧑‍🔬 Dr. Silvia Pugliese — Co-Founder & CTO of Norma

📍 Paris, France

📍 Spain

📍 Venezuela

📍 Buenos Aires

📍 Amsterdam

📍 Château de Versailles

⚡️ Supercapacitor

🌍 Direct Air Capture (DAC)

🏭 Electrolyzer

🍝 Pasta alla Norma

📚 The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything — Peter Brannen

-TIMESTAMPS-

[00:00] Intro

[01:38] Learning Languages & Multilingual Hellos

[02:40] How to Be Parisian: The Baguette Technique

[05:11] Siestas, Hammocks & Managing Energy

[06:43] What Norma Is Building

[08:12] The Electrochemical Umbrella & DAC

[09:49] Supercapacitive Carbon Capture, Explained

[13:15] What Happens to the Carbon?

[14:51] Storing Energy as a Flexibility Asset

[16:13] Additional Revenue Streams & Use Cases

[19:15] Device Size, Prototypes & the “Sandwich” Design

[21:13] Why Modularity Matters

[23:35] The Roadmap: 2027 Pilot Facility & Beyond

[24:24] The 10 Gigaton Goal

[24:48] Matt’s Skepticism on DAC & the Energy Problem

[28:05] Avalanche Energy & Desktop-Size Fusion

[28:36] The Origin of the Norma Name

[30:44] The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything

[33:52] Intermediate Revenue Streams & Surviving the Downturn

[36:11] What’s Giving Monica Hope: Founders Pledge

[41:17] How You Can Help Norma

[44:46] Closing Thoughts & Le Grand Bal Masqué

[46:26] END