The Climate Pioneers Show

The first few hires in any team are key but what about scaling beyond that as you progress through funding rounds and possibly acquisitions and exit?    Dimple Patel is currently CEO at NatureMetrics and as a highly accomplished entrepreneur, she’s seen it all, from MVP to new markets and fundraising stages right through to exit. A strong team is what gets you there, to secure funding an...

As any team starts to scale, it becomes more and more important to have sustainable and repeatable processes in place. But it’s also not uncommon for that to be overlooked in favour of things like sales and fundraising.    Sherry White is a consultant who works specifically with startups and scale-ups to tackle challenges, unblock and improve leadership, establish good foundations, face...

Supporting and engaging neurodiverse talent is a vital part of team building. Parul Singh comes from a background in tech and recruitment and has first-hand experience of the challenges faced by neurodiverse people in the workplace, having been diagnosed in 2021 with autism and ADHD.    Prior to diagnosis, she had experienced burnout, self-destructive behaviour and had struggled in both...

There’s a lot that goes on within a hiring process but what is it actually like from the perspective of founders and the C-suite, when trying to scale a business and build out that initial team? Sebastian Leape previously worked as a sustainability consultant at McKinsey and has now turned his attention to encouraging people to embed nature into business decision-making. He is CEO at Natcap, where...

Filling a role is about more than just sending a job ad out into the world. How do you attract the best people to apply? And once you have them, how do you keep them? This is where your employer brand can play a big part. Graham Quinn is a specialist in crafting irresistible employer brands and employee experiences. He has conducted employer brand audits, built communications strategies for entire...

Creating an inclusive workplace is vital, not just for employee wellbeing but also to increase innovation and creativity, which are key in the climate tech space. Ed Jervis is the CEO at Inclusion Crowd and the founder of the Inclusion Think Tank. He has worked with an array of businesses ranging from complex multinational organisations through to non-profit and startups. He works with leaders to...

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.    I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent. With fundraising be...

For the final episode of series six, was joined by Pippa Gawley , Founding Partner at Zero Carbon . They are investors in early-stage companies that are on a mission to fix climate change through deep science innovation. They look for hard-tech solutions that have the potential to make half gigaton-level reductions of CO2e at scale; and have vision-aligned, ambitious teams to go with them. Across...

For the penultimate episode of series six, I was joined by Katya Constant, the Head of The Climate Brick. The Climate Brick is an initiative set up by EQT Ventures and Contrarian Ventures to accelerate the at-scale deployment of climate tech by introducing the "missing manual" (a playbook for scaling and funding seven different climate tech archetypes based on data from over 3,000 companies) and u...

I’m joined by Dr. Luke Charbonnier-Bevan from Zinc , an inception stage, impact-led investor. They invest at the start of new ventures that are tackling some of the most pressing and complex problems facing the health of people and the planet.    Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Found...

Francesco Perticarari is a deep tech super angel, community leader and founder of Silicon Roundabout Ventures . SRV's mission is to back entrepreneurs who are to shape the next-generation of technology and to provide superior returns to investors through venture capital funds. They do this by capturing the explosive growth of early-stage deep tech startups in the UK. Across this series we will be...

I’m joined by Dave Wardell, Chief Commercial Officer at measurable.energy, a company working to eliminate wasted energy in buildings via their combination of hardware and software. Dave is responsible for commercial operations, from marketing awareness, lead generation and business development to onboarding and customer satisfaction. Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around s...

In this episode, I speak with Fahmida Khan , Innovation Specialist from Prosemino , the UK's first climate tech venture builder with lab space, offering pre-seed capital, specialising in electrochemistry, hydrogen, energy storage and advanced materials. Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders...

For this episode, I'll be joined by Dr. Stafford Lloyd , Innovation Lead for Clean Growth Strategy at Innovate UK - they are working on ways to catalyse private investment in climate tech.    Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players a...

For this episode, I spoke with Puja Balachander, Director of Venture at Carbon13, the venture builder for the climate emergency. Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focused on scaling and commercialising groundbreaking, deep tech...

In this episode, I’m joined by Ian Lee , Innovations Project Lead at UK Power Networks . He is building corporate partnerships with startups that are innovating in the energy sector and beyond. Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture Builders and other key ecosystem players all focus...

For the first episode of series 6, I spoke with Shiladitya Ghosh , co-founder and COO at Mission Zero Technologies (DAC), who are working to scale affordable direct air capture, and have gone from lab to commercial plant in under three years! Across this series we will be discussing the challenges around scaling deep tech solutions within climate. I’ll be speaking to Investors, Founders, Venture B...

For this final episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Neda Sahebelm, angel investor and founder of Keshty . As an I/O psychologist and working-class woman of colour, she lives to achieve more with less and has helped the likes of FOX, National Geographic and Multiverse scale incredible teams. Now she's sharing that experience...

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Andy Ayim, founder of Angel Investing School and most recently, Open Angel. He works to diversify and democratise access to angel investment, and teaches people how to take their first steps towards becoming investors. Please note - when discussing his early experiences with inv...

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Molly Allington, CEO and Co-founder of Albotherm, about the fundraising process and in particular, the due diligence experience.. Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here . Albotherm.com 2:09 - How Molly came to set up Albotherm 3:09 - How did you go from...

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Cam Ross (Green Angel Ventures) about how to invest for impact, particularly within climate. Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here . Greenangelsyndicate.com   Climatechangefund.co.uk   2:01 - Cam’s investment path and establishing Green Angel...

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Marla Shapiro ( HERmesa ) and David Fogel ( Alma Angels ) about the importance of female angels and the lack of diversity in investing. Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here . 6:40 - Connections are important when fundraising 8:36 - Angel investing is v...

For this episode of Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Anna Sandgren, CEO and Co-founder of Unibloom . Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here . 4:45 - When did you know it was time to raise your next round after being part of Zinc ? 6:00 - How did you know where to find people and start conversations? 7:43 -...

For the first episode of this series, Funding a Better Future: Angel Investment Insights for Founders and Aspiring Investors, I spoke with Ben Keene from Raaise and corporate lawyer, Fran Spooner. Video versions of this and previous episodes are available here . 3:25 - Coming out the other side of a bad time for fundraising 9:38 - When to talk about your startup for fundraising 12:00 - The investo...

On our sixth episode of Building a Better Future: Stories from ClimateTech Founders on the East Coast, I spoke with Josef Bromovsky from Algoma. 0:10: Introduction 2:25: Are you able to share with us a little bit more on Algoma? What’s the problem space you’re in and exactly how is the solution that you’ve come up with, addressing that? Why is it unique in the space? 4:11: How does that come in fr...