Ryan Jeffery explains why real climate tech investors act now, how gener8tor picks 5 startups from 500, and lessons from scaling impact-focused ventures globally.

⭐ My guest today is Ryan Jeffery, the Senior Managing Director for gener8tor Sustainability, a leading accelerator investing and supporting startups at the forefront of our climate crisis.

They invest $100k in startups in their 12-week programs.

Over the last ten years, they’ve made investments in 1,000 startups, which have gone on to raise $1.4B.

In addition, Ryan is the:

• Founder of Ignite, a diverse and dynamic leadership community in Chicago

• Founding Partner at Survival Ventures, which is investing, advising and growing ventures that preserve and protect our planet

• Mentor at Impact Engine

• And advisor to many more impact startups

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🎙️ In this episode, we talked about:

• His delightfully provocative LinkedIn post that starts with this zinger: “If you're a climate tech investor sitting on your hands waiting for better market conditions before deploying more capital, then you're not a real climate tech investor. The climate doesn't care about market conditions.”

• How he views fiduciary duty in light of the urgency for tackling climate change

• Why they’re one of the world’s biggest startup accelerators that no one has ever heard of

• How they pick 5 out of 500 startups to join each accelerator cohort

• Lessons learned from his 3 prior ventures and investing in dozens of startups

• Why 93% of their investments take place outside of California, Massachusetts, and New York

• What the top founders do well – e.g., laser-focused on customer needs, sending out monthly update lists to “friends of the company”

• Why Brandi Carlil’s song “The Eye” is relevant to startups and parenting

• And lots more

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