The Climate Cycle

In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Goodman, President and CEO of NorthX.

NorthX deploys non-dilutive catalytic capital at the early stages of commercialization, where founders face high risk, limited funding options, and a real need for industry traction. Their model has now supported more than 80 projects and helped unlock nearly half a billion dollars in follow-on investment from commercial partners and investors.

In this episode:

• The unique challenges faced by early-stage hardtech
• Why NorthX thinks like a VC fund to deploy non-dilutive funding
• How catalytic capital unlocked real traction for Arca, Mangrove Lithium, Moment Energy and others
• What founders need to know about securing their first industry partners
• Why Canadian climate startups need to think globally from day one
• The strategic opportunity for Canada to lead on climate tech

The NorthX model is truly unique in Canada, and is making real progress on scaling up climate hardtech. If you're interested in how climate tech actually makes it to market, this one's for you.

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We sit down with Hayden Smith, founder and CEO of FeX Energy, to unpack why energy storage matters to the energy transition and how their new iron-based storage solution could challenge incumbent technologies like lithium-ion.

FeX is developing an Iron Arc reactor that has the potential to hold energy for days or weeks, and release it as clean energy and high-temperature heat that could power industries like mining, provide heating for buildings, or balance load for the grid. By using one of Earth’s most abundant and affordable materials, FeX aims to close the gap between intermittent renewables and reliable, dispatchable power.

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why energy storage is the “missing link” in the clean-energy transition
• How FeX’s iron-based system compares to lithium and hydrogen storage
• The role of long-duration storage in decarbonizing heavy industry and remote sites
• What Canada needs to do to accelerate storage deployment and grid resilience
• Hayden’s journey from corporate innovation at Siemens Energy Ventures to climate tech founder

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Corey Ellis is the co-founder and CEO of Growcer, an Ottawa-based company building modular farms & food infrastructure used by communities, schools, and grocers across Canada and around the world.

We talk about the impact our food system is having on the climate and how vertical farming can help solve those problems. We also talk about lessons learned from the vertical farming hype cycle, Growcer’s $30M infrastructure fund, and building a company for the long-term.

About Corey

Corey started Growcer in 2014 with his co-founder Alida Burke after seeing firsthand how northern communities struggle with food security. What began as a social enterprise project in Nunavut grew into a mission-driven company tackling food affordability, waste, and access.

Growcer has deployed over 800 farms worldwide, acquired its US competitor Freight Farms, and launched a $30M Growcer Fund to finance climate infrastructure.

In this conversation, we cover:

• 7:40 - What’s broken in our food system and why boring problems like distribution and shelf life matter

• 11:03 - How modular farms cut food waste and fertilizer use - but aren’t a silver bullet

• 16:51 - How Growcer turned customer criticism into their best R&D engine

• 19:19 - What real food sovereignty looks like when communities own their infrastructure

• 24:34 - The “vertical farming” hype cycle and why most players got it wrong

• 39:37 - Borrowing lessons from real estate to finance climate infrastructure

• 50:59 - Solving hard problems and building culture from first principles

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Kevin Krausert is the co-founder and CEO of Avatar Innovations, a Canadian venture studio reshaping how energy technologies are developed, funded, and scaled. From Calgary to Houston and beyond, Avatar is working with industry insiders to turn ideas into deployable solutions for the energy transition.

Kevin brings a unique perspective to climate tech. He began his career on the rigs in northern Alberta, became CEO of one of Canada’s largest drilling companies, and later co-founded Avatar to bridge the gap between researchers, corporate engineers, and operators. His goal: create a new model of innovation that can move the needle on emissions while making economic sense.

Talking Points

• (6:02) How Avatar’s venture studio model differs from traditional VC and why it may be better suited to capital-intensive energy tech
• (10:58) The evolution of energy innovation - from wildcatters to corporates to today’s startups - and why the old venture model is breaking down
• (17:32) The role of corporates, governments, and founders in building smarter risk–return structures to accelerate climate solutions (not just throwing public money at the problem)
• (21:12) Why Canada is positioned as a “middle power” in climate tech
• (34:24) Tactics for founders and startups to break through the noise selling to corporates

You’ll walk away with a clear-eyed look at where energy innovation is headed, what models might actually work in Canada’s climate tech landscape, and how founders can better navigate this uncertain but opportunity-rich moment.

Show Notes

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Nelson Switzer is the co-founder of Climate Innovation Capital and author of The Gigacorn Hunter. Nelson’s spent his career at the intersection of capital markets and sustainability, helping corporations, institutional investors, and governments allocate dollars where they can drive the greatest climate impact

Talking points:

• (5:11) The fifth industrial revolution. Nelson explains why the decarbonization of everything is not just a trend but an economic and existential shift.

• (9:34) “Dollars in motion transform entire sectors.” Why Nelson believes capital allocation - not philanthropy or reports - has the greatest power to drive decarbonization.

• (13:31) The carbon qualification model. A tactical framework using scale, speed, and cost to evaluate whether a climate solution can bend the carbon curve.

• (21:42) Building trust with investors. Advice for founders on how they can build trust with potential investors - even if they don’t have totally complete data.

• (31:13) Opportunities in today’s market correction. Why Nelson sees discounted valuations, dry powder, and surging demand as the setup for the next successful vintage of climate funds.

• (37:40) Canada’s commercialization gap. Why Canadian corporates need to stop piloting and start buying if we want to build global-scale climate companies.Stay in the know on Canada’s clean economy.

About Nelson: Before founding Climate Innovation Capital, Nelson led sustainability initiatives inside global giants like Nestlé and advised some of the world’s largest investors on ESG risks and opportunities. His book, The Gigacorn Hunter, lays out a practical playbook for climate investors navigating one of the most urgent - and profitable - frontiers of our time.

Show Notes

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We sit down with ⁠Emily Farrar⁠, co-founder at ⁠Genuine Taste⁠, a startup tackling one of the biggest limitations in plant-based food: flavour.

Genuine Taste are developing cultivated animal fats grown from cells in compact bioreactors. Their goal? Deliver the taste, texture, and nutritional profile of real fat - without the emissions or animal suffering.

About Emily: With a background in climate tech consulting and civil engineering, Emily co-founded Genuine Taste alongside a biophysics expert to define the future of food and build a more sustainable alternative to animal agriculture. They’ve already secured early partnerships and are scaling toward commercial pilots.

We talk about:

• Why fat is key to unlocking adoption in plant-based foods
• Lessons they’ve taken from the first wave of alt-protein companies
• How they’re able to produce fats lower costs and 100x smaller footprint than competitors
• Navigating regulations and their decision to enter the pet food market first
• Positioning cultivated fats and proteins with consumers
• How Canada’s biotech ecosystem is giving them an edge

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Apoorv Sinha is the co-founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Calgary-based startup turning industrial waste and captured carbon into low-cement.

Cement is a huge part of modern life but also one of the biggest sources of carbon pollution. Carbon Upcycling helps cement producers lower their emissions by replacing traditional cement with low-carbon alternatives made from industrial or mine waste and reacting it with CO2 to permanently lock away carbon.

Their tech slots right into existing plants and helps cement makers localize their supply chains, making it easier and cheaper to cut emissions while building the infrastructure Canada needs.

About Apoorv

Apoorv is a chemical engineer by trade and has extensive experience in conventional energy.

Since launching Carbon Upcycling in 2014, he’s built partnerships with some of the biggest cement companies in the world, including CRH, Titan, and CEMEX, and just closed a major funding round led by Builders Vision.

Talking Points

• How waste from mining and steelmaking can replace emissions-heavy cement ingredients
• Why working with local materials matters for climate, economics, and supply chain security
• What it takes to scale a startup in Canada’s hard-to-decarbonize sectors
• The policy and funding tools that could speed up adoption
• Why Canada's infrastructure push is a huge opportunity for climate tech

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Morgan Lehtinen and Sebastian Alamillo are the co-founders of RXN Hub, a new facility to help ChemTech ventures scale from lab to market.

RXN Hub is tackling one of the biggest and least-addressed challenges in climate tech: how to scale chemical technologies from the lab to commercial scale.

Whether you're working on carbon capture, energy storage, or green industrial processes, there’s often nowhere to go once your research is too big for a university but too early for a full-scale plant.

Morgan and Sebastian have both lived that experience as chemtech founders, and now they’re building the infrastructure they wish they had to make scaling up faster, easier, and more cost effective.

In our conversation, you’ll learn about:

• Why chemistry is at the core of so many climate solutions
• What’s driving a renewed interest in chemistry tech
• Crossing the capital and infrastructure valleys of death

• How RXN Hub is cutting costs and complexity for first-of-a-kind projects
• Why international ventures are looking to Canada for their first pilots
• The value of founder experience in building better infrastructure

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Oliver David (OD) Krieg is the President of Intelligent City, a Vancouver-based company redefining how we build housing using mass timber, advanced manufacturing, and parametric design. Intelligent City is working to solve Canada’s climate and housing crises.

About Intelligent City: Intelligent City manufactures prefabricated building panels out of renewable mass timber. Their platform enables faster, lower-carbon, and higher-quality housing construction that can scale across Canadian cities.

About OD: With a background in architecture, robotics, and computational design, OD was one of the earliest team members at Intelligent City. He’s helped guide the company from early research and prototyping to full-scale manufacturing, including recent projects in Vancouver and Toronto. Their work is pushing the frontier of what’s possible in Canada’s construction and climate sectors.

In our conversation, we discuss:

• The carbon math behind mass timber and why end-of-life planning matters
• What’s slowing down construction, from financing models to permitting
• What it takes to get developers and builders to shift mindsets and start exploring mass timber and prefab
• The role of Canada’s forest supply chain in enabling sustainable construction
• OD’s vision for local factories building homes across across the country

You’ll gain firsthand insight into what it takes to bring climate tech into a sector that can be slow to change and adapt, and why prefab construction might finally be ready to scale in Canada.

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Canada needs to retrofit millions of homes - fast. But outdated tools, confusing incentives, and a narrow focus on ROI are holding us back.

In this episode, Arman Mottaghi, CEO of Properate, lays out what it will take to bring retrofits to scale. We explore how Properate is rebuilding the software stack for home upgrades, why health and comfort are the real drivers of adoption, and how single-family homes - an overlooked part of our built environment - could become a climate linchpin.

We cover:

- The hidden impact of low-rise residential buildings

- What’s broken in Canada’s retrofit ecosystem

- How Properate is bringing energy assessments into the 21st century

- Why indoor air quality could be the secret weapon to unlock more retrofits

- Navigating ROI without consumer carbon pricing

- Creating feedback loops across governments, homeowner, and contractors

- Bootstrapping a climate tech company without VC funding

This is a conversation about the systems change behind climate tech and what it takes to create momentum in a market.

→ Check out the full show notes and resources on our website

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