Grounded: A Climate Startup Journey

After the gut punch of a failed grant bid, Tom finds himself in unfamiliar terrain: less scrappy startup chaos, more slow-moving institutions, and lenders who think his project is somehow both too risky and too small. But out on the farm, things are moving. Trials are showing results. Biochar is selling. Credits are retiring. So, can Tom finally stitch together the money, machinery and moment...

Oh, hello there! Bet you thought you’d seen the back of Tom and his biochar… But this story’s far from over. Yes, the machine runs, the credits have sold, and the char is piling up. But if this pilot is ever going to be a real, profitable business - and if it’s ever going to have a scalable climate impact - it’s going to need to be bigger. A lot bigger. Cue: industrial-level kit, eye-watering fund...

As he nears the end of the year, Tom starts thinking about what lies beyond his biochar pilot. He reflects on everything he’s learned, talks to some others who’ve walked this path before, and dares to imagine a life less smoky. But is he finally ready to start answering some of the big questions he grappled with in his first days? And has his time in the country changed him – for better or worse -...

Tom’s been making biochar for a few weeks now, and while he’s got the basics down, he’s also learning some hard lessons. Lessons like: Fresh wood isn’t very dry. Six weeks isn’t very long. And one pair of hands isn’t very many hands. But making biochar is only half the battle – he also needs to figure out how to use it. So, can he make up any lost time and get this production process back on track...

‘Twas the night before machine delivery, and Tom’s about to discover what running a biochar business really involves. If the last seven episodes were the world’s longest preamble, this is where the real story begins: and it involves elbow grease, experimentation, and a healthy dose of good humour. But how will he fare against the highest highs and lowest lows of his startup journey so far? Will he...

After months of physical and emotional labour, the stars are beginning to align and the prospect of actually making biochar is now tantalisingly close. But Tom’s recipe is still missing one crucial ingredient: wood, and lots of it. So, while he pores over his cashflow projections and awaits delivery of his machine, he sets about trying to find some. And as he soon discovers, this wood business is...

Tom’s baaack! That’s right – after basking briefly in the glow of his new-found ‘fame’, Tom’s returning to your ears for the next chapter of his biochar journey. And he’s ready to leave the city behind and move full-time to the farm. But with funding still uncertain, he’s doing everything he can to keep things on track: from honing his pitch and making contingency plans, to laying concrete and lea...

It’s the fifth and (for now) final episode, and Tom finds himself facing the challenge that all founders will face: how to make the numbers work. So he whips out his calculator, picks up the phone, and starts sending off those grant applications. Amidst it all, he’s dealing with a cold workspace, grappling with contracts, and taking his first foray into filmmaking. Sure, he’s picked up a few new s...

Tom is four episodes into his biochar journey, but he’s still facing one big challenge: will the machine he wants allow him to turn his climate dreams into business reality? Meanwhile, he has other things to tick off his to-do list: to incorporate a business, to keep his electric car charged… oh, and to start making a podcast. Amongst it all, he takes the train to Oxford, gets an unexpected propos...

It’s episode three, and Tom has begun his search for a machine to make his biochar. But he soon learns that this particular shopping trip is going to be a lot more complicated (and potentially expensive) than he expected. Along the way, he meets a founder who’s been down this road before, encounters the messy world of ‘standards’, and gets lost in an extended baking metaphor that leaves him slight...

In our second episode, Tom starts to grapple with the realities of his startup mission and addresses the first big hurdle: where to build his business. He learns what he’ll need nearby to support a sustainable and impactful biochar company, revisits his family roots in Cornwall, and attempts to answer the eternal question: how much is a tonne of wood? But is the UK the right place to make biochar?...

Grounded is the story of a startup that wants to remove carbon from the atmosphere and help reshape our relationship with the planet. Ideally without burning to the ground in the process.   In this, our first episode, Tom catches the carbon removal bug, makes a bold promise to himself, and receives some work news that nudges him towards a big decision. Along the way, he learns all about bioch...

Tackling climate change is a serious business. This is the story of a startup that wants to remove carbon from the atmosphere and help reshape our relationship with the planet. Ideally without burning to the ground in the process. It was a good few years back when Tom Previte stumbled across biochar. That was during the first season of a podcast he co-hosts - ‘ The Carbon Removal Show ’. And it tu...