This Week in MCJ (3/20/21)
Hey everyone!
These weeks are flying by.
I won’t lie, its been a challenge to keep the trains running with our tiny team, with everything we are now juggling, while also planning for the future. We are keeping up with it and making good headway, but sleep has not been a very common occurrence. Our Town Hall is this Friday, where we will provide an update on our progress. RSVP here!
We announced one new investment this week, Noya. We also verbally committed to what will be our 17th climate tech investment since October 1, and have several new investments we will be announcing soon.
Have a great week!
Jason
🎧 Episodes
This week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 148: Alicia Barton, CEO of FirstLight Power
FirstLight Power is a renewables and storage company that integrates and delivers clean power to New England homes and businesses. Dedicating her career to fighting climate change, Alicia is a cleantech industry veteran. Alicia has experience in both private and public sector leadership roles. Most notably, she is the former President & CEO of NYSERDA (New York State Energy and Research Development Authority) and the former CEO of MassCEC (Massachusetts Clean Energy Center). In 2020, Alicia assumed her role as CEO of FirstLight Power, where she is working to create a clean energy future.
I was excited about this discussion because Alicia has been on my guest wishlist for quite some time. We cover a lot of ground, and if you are trying to get up to speed on everything clean/climate tech (like I am!), this episode is a can’t miss.
📼Startup Series
Highlighting startups tackling the biggest problems in climate change. New episodes every other Thursday.
Startup Series: Noya with Co-Founder & CEO, Josh Santos and Co-Founder & CTO, Daniel Cavero
Noya captures CO2 from the atmosphere and resells it for half the cost of current options. The company works to retrofit existing industrial equipment to enable carbon capture and resale, and believes they can capture 7 gigatons of carbon emissions, if successful.
Josh and Daniel are fantastic guests, and take me way in depth into the Noya vision and approach. So much, in fact, that we invested in the company soon after this episode was recorded!
🎤MCJ Live
Here is a summary of this week’s show on ESG, for anyone who missed it.
Next week’s show is on March 24th @ 9pm ET. The topic is “Climate Tech Startups: Lessons from the Trenches”, and we will showcase several notable founders, with their stories, lessons from the trenches, and advice on how to get going.
If you are on Clubhouse already, you can find the event here, and follow our club (MCJ Live) to get updates on this and future events. If you are not on Clubhouse yet, you can find an invite in the #mcj-live channel on slack.
🎓Alumni News
MCJ pod alum, Aclima, was announced as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2021 by the Fast Company. Congratulations, Davida and the whole Aclima team! Check out Davida Herzl’s conversation with Jason on Episode 106!
Energy Impact Partners filed an S-1 for a SPAC. Their objective is “to partner with an industry leader that is at the forefront of the energy transition towards the deep decarbonization of our economy and that can leverage EIP’s unique ecosystem to maximize shareholder returns.” The full filing is here. MCJ pod alum and Partner at Energy Impact Partners, Shayle Kann, joined Jason on the podcast. Check out Episode 64 and Episode 84.
💸Climate Tech Funding Announcements
Prime Impact Fund made its 11th investment into an extraordinary long-duration energy storage start-up called Noon Energy! This will allow intermittent solar and wind power to be 100% on-demand power at long durations. Prime led the $3MM seed round alongside co-investors Collaborative Fund, At One Ventures and Xplorer Capital; you can find the official press release here.
MCJ Collective announced our investment in Noya, along with our friends at Fifty Years.
📰In Case You Missed It
Articles, content, and climate news from this week you might have missed.
USA Today outlines how Wall Street is greenwashing the financial world, making sustainable investing merely PR, which is a distraction from the problem of climate change.
Reuters announces the U.S. Congress is investigating a multibillion-dollar subsidy for chemically treated coal that is meant to reduce smokestack pollution, after evidence emerged that power plants using the fuel produced more smog not less.
Berkshire Hathaway opposes shareholder call for climate disclosure. The Financial Times reveals Warren Buffet’s conglomerate says a formal assessment is not ‘necessary’. Sounds a bit fishy to us!
TechCrunch outlines how Regenerative agriculture is the next great ally in fight against climate change. Backed by innovations in science, big data, financing and farmer networking, investing in regenerative agriculture promises to slash farming’s carbon footprint while rewarding farmers for their stewardship.
From Union Square Ventures, Albert Wenger outlines the scale of the climate crisis and possible solutions in Mitigating the Climate Crisis.
👋 Welcome New MCJers!
Below are new members who joined the community and introduced themselves in the past week. You can learn more about them on #introductions, where you can welcome them to the community, as well as in the MCJ Member Directory.
Hilary Cody: Hilary is an investor at Fiera Infrastructure. She worked in operations at BP and as an energy trader.
Shantanu Singh: a software engineer at Microsoft working on Microsoft Teams, interested in starting a company in the AgriTech or Smart Grid industry in India.
Shannon Douglas: Shannon is looking to transition her career towards climate focusing on food and the systems that produce it. She is looking forward to making food-related connections.
Doug Manofsky: Doug is the co-founder and CEO of Pando Nutrition. He is excited to connect with activists and entrepreneurs to work together to fight climate change.
Nicki Kusserow: Nicki works at 1s1 Energy, creating better and cheaper materials to enable economic PEM technology. He wants to connect with hydrogen bulls and bears across the value chain.
Trevor Hinkle: Trevor is the former head of electricityMap.org. He has an MS in Climate Science and lives in the Amsterdam area.
Jeff Gomez: Jeff is the Co-founder of Carbon Equity. He is a lifelong climate enthusiast now working on a mission to democratize access to private markets to accelerate climate investing.
Brett Garson: Working in the federal government affairs industry for over a decade, Brett is hoping he can help MJC start-ups engage the federal government strategically.
Sue Pasieka: Sue works at Americas Ocean Watch focusing on ways blue technology can help fight climate change.
Alec Turnbull: Alec is the VP Product at Dotdash. He's looking to transition from software to climate tech, and return to entrepreneurship by starting a company with an impact.
Aimee Barciauskas: Aimee is Earth data team lead at developmentseed.org, which partners with orgs sharing a mission solve tough problems using geospatial data.
Luna Ascha: Luna is a program manager at a utility focused on climate resiliency. She’s looking for opportunities/side projects where she can help build/scale solutions that tackle climate change.
Michelle Li: Michelle runs a sustainability start-up, clever carbon. Michelle is excited to be part of the community and learn from other members.
Genevieve Barrons: Genevieve works in fintech for a company that is focused on facilitating payments into frontier and emerging markets. She is working to pivot towards an impactful climate career.
Matt Purdy: Matt is a Startup Program Manager at MassChallenge’s HealthTech and FinTech.
Bobby Hickey: Bobby is in the process of buying land to build a regenerative farm. He is looking to connect with farmers (preferably in Hudson Valley, NY area) who are knowledgeable in this practice.
Tara Jafarmadar Mujica: Tara has spent the past decade working on sustainability in the built environment both at Google and in the public sector.
Catherine Lee: A product launch consultant at Boston Consulting Group, clean tech investor at Silver Lake.
Elliot Trice: Elliot is a digital product management/design guy looking to transition into climatetech.
Matt Morris: Matt is an investment fellow at Vectors Angel, an advisor with Antler, and a writer for The Impact.
🔦Member Spotlight: Zubair Jandali
Zubair is a tech operator looking to transition into climate tech. He was most recently VP Sales at Reddit, which he led from < $10M in revenue to > $100M. He's eager to connect with entrepreneurs who are seeking help with their go-to-market efforts, as well as sellers & revenue leaders whose current work is in climate tech. Please reach out to him via email, zubair.jandali@gmail.com!
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you. Many of these opportunities and the MCJers who shared them can be found in #climatejobs in the MCJ Slack. Check out this google doc for the jobs from this week!
📚Startup Resources
Massive.earth launched their inaugural Massive.challenge which aims to bring together talent from around the world in building concrete climate projects. It’s a 3-month program where participants learn about the climate crisis and launch their first high-impact climate project. The program is tailored to a range of experience levels for both individuals and teams. The program kicks off on March 22, for more information check out: Massive.earth.
Early bird applications for Elemental are due March 24th. They’re funding Seed - B startups $200-500K in mobility, water, circular economy, food & ag, and energy. If you or someone you know has a company that is making a climate impact and devoted to / on a learning journey related to Equity & Access, please apply before March 24! Final deadline is April 16.
Aplications for the first North American cohort of the Google for Startups Accelerator: Climate Change have officially opened! We are now accepting applications from U.S. and Canada headquartered technology startups, with the 10-week program commencing on June 7th. Startups can apply here by April 1, 2021.
📌Community Board
Below are some news and initiatives from members of the MCJ Community. MCJers mentioned can be DMed in the MCJ Slack.
👨🏽🏫Mentors Wanted: MCJ has been experimenting with “MCJ Office Hours” and we’ve been pleased by the opportunity to engage with members 1:1 around advice and support for facilitating climate career transitions. To support the needs of more members, Thai would like to open up the office hours to additional mentors, who feel they could be of help providing advice. If you’re interested in serving as a mentor, please DM Thai Nguyen on MCJ Slack.
🎟Climate Events
This week we are debuting a new MCJ Calendar! Stay up to date with MCJ HQ-hosted events, networking opportunities, and member-run events. We encourage members to host community events such as expert Q&As, book clubs, topic discussions, location-based meet-ups, and more! If you want to add your event to the calendar, please email us at events@myclimatejourney.co with the event details. Check out the calendar here!
We will continue to highlight a few select events in the newsletter. Please note, the MCJ calendar is for community events. For third-party events, please use the #events channel in the MCJ slack!
Upcoming
Book Club Kick-off Meeting (Tuesday, March 23rd at 6 pm PT)
Nitin Iyer is organizing a book club! The first book is All We Can Save by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Join the #study-group channel or DM Nitin for more info.
Women in Climate Monthly Meetup (Wednesday, March 24th at 10 am MT)
This is meant to be a safe space for women to discuss, collaborate, celebrate, share knowledge about their climate journey and support each other. We follow a Lean Coffee format and always get through a variety of topics. Email hannah.davis@techstars.com for a calendar invite.
MCJ Town Hall (Friday, March 26th @ 4 pm ET)
Join us for the March Town Hall! Town halls are an open forum to ask questions, share feedback, and get more visibility into what we’re working on at MCJ. RSVP here!
The Techstars Sustainability Summit (April 15th)
The Techstars Sustainability Summit is an opportunity for our network and the wider climate and sustainability ecosystem to come together, share learnings, and further the collaboration needed to scale solutions. Meet founders focused on sustainable technology and hear from leaders about realizing opportunities to rebuild cleaner, more resilient industries and infrastructure. The Summit is a complimentary event open to all. We’re running it across two sessions for global timezone friendliness. Please RSVP here, and feel free to pass along to your colleagues and networks!
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