Inevitable

Turning Students into Founders at Stanford Climate Ventures

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Dave McColl is Executive Director of Stanford Climate Ventures (SCV), a program designed to help students build climate companies through rigorous go-to-market strategy and hands-on company building. SCV is a project-based course at Stanford University that has helped launch dozens of startups across energy, infrastructure, and industrial decarbonization.

In this episode of Inevitable, Yin Lu, General Partner at MCJ,  sits down with McColl to unpack the SCV playbook—from “earned secrets” to the importance of customer discovery.

The conversation also features three founders who came out of the SCV ecosystem:

  • Carla Pinzon, Founder of Expand Power, solid-state transformers for a more flexible grid
  • Raj Tilwa, Founder of Focal, personalized heating systems for commercial spaces
  • Nico Pinkowski, Founder of Nitricity, decentralized fertilizer with air, water, and renewable power

    • Together, they share how SCV shaped their companies, from early pivots and customer insights to product-market fit, and what it takes to build sustainable businesses. 

    Episode recorded on March 13, 2026 (Published on April 14, 2026).

    In this episode, we cover: 

    • (0:00) An overview of Stanford Climate Ventures (SCV)
    • (5:12) The origin of SCV and its community-driven model
    • (10:14) How SCV works: discovery, iteration, and “earned secrets”
    • (16:25) The biggest founder mistake: ignoring the customer
    • (18:56) What predicts success: discovery volume and team dynamics
    • (25:51) Carla Pinzon (Expand Power): solid-state transformers for a modern grid
    • (32:21) Finding product-market pull through customer discovery
    • (35:56) Raj Tilwa (Focal): personalized heating vs heating entire spaces
    • (44:21) 100+ interviews to find a real painkiller in hospitality
    • (52:10) Nico Pinkowski (Nitricity): decentralized fertilizer production
    • (58:31) How product-market fit can take years

      • Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at [email protected].

      Connect with MCJ:

      • Cody Simms on LinkedIn
      • Visit mcj.vc
      • Subscribe to the MCJ Newsletter

      *Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

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