Consensus in Conversation

Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 16, and we’re celebrating in our own, special way… today’s episode features Mike Gaughan: missile launch officer, successful businessman, sports coach, and, most importantly, Conor’s dad!  Hear the stories that Conor grew up on, including Mike’s time from paperboy to the Air Force Academy and beyond, the three phone phone calls you should make every day, and...

Internet ads – you probably see hundreds, maybe thousands a day without thinking about them. But it turns out the process for serving those ads involves a highly complex digital supply chain that generates 7.2 million tons of carbon emissions annually. That’s why ad-tech veteran Anne Coghlan is on a mission to decarbonize media and advertising with Scope3.  A lifelong lover of logic and probl...

Just popping into the feed for a quick hello from Consensus in Conversation host, Conor Gaughan, to update you on the coming weeks. We’ve been hard at work with some great shows planned for this summer, including a few special episodes that may look and sound a little different than our regular programming. We think you’ll really enjoy them.  So, no episode for today, but we’ll be back in Jun...

Just over one year ago, the IRS published its final rules and guidance on the transferability of clean energy tax credits. Not only did transferability solve a major flaw in the Inflation Reduction Act’s plan to support clean energy infrastructure development, but, as many founders correctly foresaw, it was about to create an entirely new financial market.  This week, we’re re-releasing our c...

HVAC is one of the most important quality of life utilities that we never think about– at least, until it stops working. It’s also energy inefficient and expensive, responsible for almost 20% of global GHG emissions, with decades-old infrastructure way behind the design innovation curve.  But Dr. Vince Romanin has a solution: reimagine HVAC as we know it by combining personal heating and cool...

Pavle Jeremic wants to end resource scarcity by literally rearranging atoms. Inspired to build a better, more abundant future after witnessing violent conflict in his parents’ native Yugoslavia, Pavle launched Aether Biomachines in 2017 at just 21 years old. Since then, he’s successfully led the protein engineering startup to the cutting edge of nanotechnology, working to solve our planet’s resour...

Food waste is a $25 billion problem for American supermarkets, but Josh Domingues has an app for that.  Josh is the founder and executive chairman of Flashfood, a simple but elegant application that directly connects consumers with local grocery stores to buy food nearing expiration at a huge discount. This approach is a win-win-win for all parties: grocers get paid for food they would throw...

Two founders of 1953 Tequila, Lindsey Davis Stover and Shivam Mallick Shah, join Conor for a special in-person conversation to share how their ultra-premium, additive-free tequila is prioritizing sustainability, elevating women in the spirits industry, and also offering an awesome drinking experience. Lindsey, Shivam, and the rest of the 1953 founding team met through Congressional campaigns...

Manik Suri is implementing smart technology into cooling, ushering in the era of Cold Chain 2.0. Before founding GlacierGrid in 2020, Manik finished top of his class at Harvard, went to Cambridge for a masters in international relations, returned to Harvard for a law degree, co-founded the Governance Lab, with stops at storied institutions like DE Shaw and the White House Economic Council along th...

Stanford rocket scientist and fintech entrepreneur Karthik Balakrishnan is integrating high-tech infrastructure modeling with video game interface design to create a software platform that allows businesses to virtually test their plans for maximum sustainability and bottom-line impact.  In 2018, Karthik co-founded software startup ACTUAL based on a unique premise: what if you could plug your...

This week, we’re proud to share a special episode of the CLIMB by VSC podcast with Jay Kapoor, featuring his interview with Sunil Nagaraj. CLIMB is a weekly podcast where Jay and VSC Ventures co-founder Vijay Chattha speak with leading investors, founders, and industry experts about lessons and perspectives on company-building in the world of climate tech and climate adaptation.  From CLIMB b...

Frank Heidinger believes that lots of small improvements over time can create a huge impact, and he’s using that concept to electrify the recreational boating industry, responsible for 1% of global carbon emissions.  Frank is the founder and CEO of HALEVAI, a cutting-edge company making high-performance, fully electric recreational boats that will reduce the industry’s environmental footprint...

Jay Kapoor believes there is massive opportunity in climate automation and that identifying hidden economies is key to building a more sustainable future. Jay is co-founder and general partner at VSC Ventures, a storytelling-focused VC firm investing in early stage climate tech and automation startups.  In part two of our conversation with Jay, we dive into the nitty gritty: Jay shares how hi...

Jay Kapoor is combining venture capital and storytelling to help visionary founders achieve maximum impact. Jay noticed that while it was easier than ever to start a business, that made it harder than ever for individual companies to get noticed. How could founders get the world to see their unique vision for a better future? The answer was simple, but not easy – tell a compelling story. So,...

The data gap in women’s healthcare is a big problem. Four out of every five women in America with female-specific medical conditions will go undiagnosed and 70% of medical residency training programs exclude fertility from their core curriculums.   Tech wizard and veteran entrepreneur Juan Carlos (JC) Riveiro, and business and marketing expert Liya Sharif co-founded Cercle in 2021 to add...

Caron Proschan, founder and CEO of Simply, believes that simple ideas can change the world, and she’s out to prove it with… chewing gum. One fateful day Caron reached for a piece of gum and realized it was made of plastic. When she looked for natural options, there were none. So she took her Harvard Business degree and launched Simply, a food startup focused on healthy natural gum and snacks. From...

50% of the global food supply relies on nitrogen fertilizer, which emits tons of greenhouse gasses. But startup Nitricity is making electrified climate-smart fertilizer by literally capturing lightning in reactors. Co-founder and CEO Nicolas Pinkowski joins the podcast to share the startup’s remarkable origin story from a make-shift lab in a Stanford backyard, to a full-fledged company revolutioni...

Allison Wolff co-founded Vibrant Planet with one goal in mind: to positively disrupt land management. An ESG trailblazer, Allison has decades of experience crafting positive impact strategies for huge disruptors like eBay, Google, and Facebook. Now, as CEO of Vibrant Planet, she’s combining that expertise with the power of machine learning to revolutionize land stewardship.  Hear how Allison...

Lyten first created 3D Graphene by accident in 2015, but, thanks to its world-changing potential, it now has them poised to revolutionize the material science industry. Keith Norman, Lyten’s Chief Sustainability Officer, joins the podcast to share his journey across both sides of the energy industry and explain why graphene’s properties are so groundbreaking for EVs, battery technology, and even h...

Artificial intelligence is booming, and Max Evans is ready for it. “Discovering machine learning was my very first moment of witnessing magic.” That discovery led him to co-found ClimateAi straight out of his dorm room at Stanford with his roommate, Himanshu Gupta, in 2017. Today, the startup operates in 50 countries, using AI-enhanced forecasting to climate-proof global supply chains.  Liste...

Grant Quasha is betting big on green cement. "People don't realize how big the cement and concrete businesses are. [...] It's the number one commodity in the world other than water."   The chairman and CEO of Eco Material Technologies views the $350+ billion cement industry as a giant potential market for sustainable construction. After years of investment banking in commodities and materials...

Peter Godart could have been a jazz musician, but instead pursued his other passion: engineering.  After garnering a few degrees at MIT and working on space tech at NASA, Peter set his sights on yet another passion: saving the climate. In 2022, he launched Found Energy, a startup decarbonizing transport with aluminum.  As Peter says, “When you work for NASA and one of your daily tasks is...

2023 has brought us 35 new guests and more than 2,000 minutes of conversations– join Conor Gaughan as he shares his insights, takeaways, and analysis on a few of our favorite moments from the year. Whether it’s breaking down sustainable business blueprints, finding motivation during difficult times, or imagining an entirely new industry, this episode has you covered!  Featuring 01:20 - 04:10...

This week’s guest is long-time chef Erik Oberholtzer, co-founder of Tender Greens, a revolutionary “fast casual” food brand. Now, as managing partner at Cohere, he helps other founders scale food brands making a positive impact.   But before finding success as a chef, entrepreneur, and author, Erik was at Temple University working towards an undergrad psychology degree. In need of money,...

Today’s guest is Nick Whitman, co-founder and COO of Divert Inc.  In 2007, Nick and co-founder Ryan Begin launched Divert with a simple, bold mission in mind: eliminate food waste. Since then, the firm has processed over 2.3 billion pounds of food waste, donated more than 10 million meals to the food insecure, and continues to develop new, innovative technologies.  Nick has spent 16 year...