The Keep Cool Podcast

Aidan Madigan-Curtis's path to becoming a partner at Eclipse hinges on fundamental and generalizable takeaways about the U.S. economy that are coming to the fore again. When she was on the manufacturing team at Apple, helping to launch the first Apple Watch, she realized many of the best minds in the world where whittling away at B2B SaaS even as 85% of global GDP, concentrated on how we make, mov...

In this episode, Nick sits down with Silas Mähner, founder of ErthTech Talent and the host of the CleanTechies podcast, to unpack how climate tech has evolved since 2020. Starting from Silas’s upbringing in rural, conservative Wisconsin and his accidental entry into renewable energy recruiting, they trace his journey from a deep skepticism of renewables to seeing cleaner, greener, more sustainable...

Will Wiseman's path to founding Climatize started with a stark realization. When he and a hundred thousand people participated in the 2019 Barcelona climate strikes, he realized there was massive, palpable passion, but not necessarily an actionable channel for everyone to activate afterward. To fill that gap, he and his co-founder got to work building a platform that transforms capital into climat...

On this episode, Nick is joined by Maya Poncelet, Head of Partnerships at Una Terra, an early growth fund investing in the circular economy and other regenerative businesses and technologies. Together, Nick and Maya discuss Una Terra’s growth equity investment theses surrounding the circular economy, what broader systems change accompanies and extends beyond the requisite responses to climate chan...

Tune is as Nick is joined by Johanna Wolfson, co-founder and General Partner of Azolla Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in breakthroughs that have the potential to avert catastrophic climate change. Together, Nick and Johanna explore Azolla Ventures’ unique approach to combining catalytic capital—philanthropic and risk-tolerant funding designed to prioritize impact over returns—with t...

On this episode, Nick is joined by John Tough, the Managing Partner of Energize Capital, a leading venture capital firm that invests in climate solutions across sectors, including energy and the grid, as well as industrial operations, electrification in mobility, and more. Listen in as Nick and John chart Energize Capital’s journey and break down its investment and portfolio company support strate...

Listen in as Nick is joined by Darren Clifford, the Founder of Adapt [us] Capital, a new venture capital fund and venture builder focused on investing and building companies at the intersection of climate adaptation and scalable, profitable businesses. In this episode, Nick and Darren discuss how the climate change, climate investment, and climate mitigation “moment” in 2025 requires new conv...

𖥔 Note 𖥔 This is a syndicated podcast from the Climate Capital Podcast , which Nick hosted. Nick also works at Climate Capital. You'll find the format very similar to past Keep Cool podcast content - hope you enjoy! Follow the Climate Capital Podcast in general here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cc-pod/id1709396247 Nick will host episodes over there more often & syndicate some here on...

Description: Stephan Herrmann, Co-founder & CEO of Reverion, and Sebastian Heitmann, Co-Founder and Partner at Extantia Capital—an investor in deep decarbonization technologies—joined Nick for a live discussion in New York City to explore breakthroughs in Reverion’s biogas energy technologies and discuss the state of energy and climate tech in general across the world. Reverion is redefining b...

Description: Nick is joined by Tim Hill, the General Manager of Sustainability Solutions for Nucor Corporation. Nucor is the largest steel producer and recycler in North America. Plus, Nucor produces steel via a larger circular and electricity-powered process; their steel uses recycled scrap and is made in electric arc furnaces (EAF) instead of blast and basic oxygen furnaces (BF/BOF). This makes...

Nick is joined by Arpita Bhattacharyya, Chief Climate Officer at the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, where she helps understand common barriers that slow down deployment in the Loan Programs Office's $200+ billion portfolio of deals. Her work also entails understanding the community engagement, equity, and communication considerations necessary to develop and fund new programs and pro...

Nick is joined by Tom Ferguson, Founder and Managing Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, one of the first venture capital firms focused on investing in startups driving innovation in water-focused applications and industries. Despite touching nearly everything on Earth, water is an under-discussed, under-invested in, and under-resourced category. As a result, innovation in the space often lags other...

Description: Nick is joined by Rob Hanson, the CEO of Monolith, a company building methane pyrolysis plants to turn methane into hydrogen and carbon black, both of which are critical products for global industries and which are predominantly produced with significant emissions footprints today. Monolith’s process aims to decarbonize hydrogen and carbon black production while commercializing to sca...

Description: Nick is joined by Jigar Shah, the Director of the DOE’s Loan Programs Office, and Ian Dickinson, the CEO of LongPath Technologies, to discuss the commercialization of novel methane monitoring technologies to accelerate lower-hanging fruit in methane mitigation. Specifically, Jigar, Ian, and Nick discuss the ongoing methane measurement technologies LongPath is building for oil and gas...

Nick and Allison Wolff, CEO of Vibrant Planet, discuss the platform Allison and company are building to accelerate environmentally and economically sound outcomes in natural resource management, wildfire risk mitigation, and more. Whether your interest stems from curiosity around optimal use cases for AI and machine learning in climate action or nature-based solutions ranging from proactive land m...

Nick and Josh Charnin-Aker, Glassdome’s co-founder and CTO, as well as TJ Yoon, Product Manager, discuss how Glassdome is building a platform and a deeply experienced team to accelerate sustainability in manufacturing, heavy industry, and more. Not only does this involve building a first-in-class digital product to help customers like SK manage things like product carbon footprint calculations, bu...

Nick and Augustus Doricko, Founder and CEO of Rainmaker, discuss the viability of cloud seeding to (quite literally) make it rain more. Whether for farmers dealing with drought or depleted aquifers or for adaptive purposes such as mitigating wildfires, the potential applications of cloud seeding and making rain more abundant are endless. Nick and Augustus dive deep into the history, theory, and mo...

Description: Nick and John Skrinar, Partner at Cresta Fund Management, explore the intersection of infrastructure investment, private equity, and the energy transition in the U.S. in 2024. Specifically, Nick and John discuss the merits of technologies ranging from carbon capture to hydrogen and renewable natural gas while also casting an eye to the political landscape and how sustainable infrastru...

Nick and Aaron Feigelman, the CEO of Kawa Project, dive deep on the world of waste-to-value alternatives to commodities like cocoa and palm oil. Specifically Nick and Aaron discuss why cocoa prices are soaring, how there’s a ton of ‘climate’ stories inherent to this dynamic, and the work Aaron’s company is doing to make cocoa alternatives that are sustainable and future-proof. In addition, Nick an...

Description: Nick and Josh Silverman, the CEO of Windfall Bio, discuss his companies novel methane utilization technologies while casting a wide net across the climate tech ecosystem to discuss dynamics inherent to the methane ‘story’ as a whole and why methane mitigation deserves more attention from stakeholders across climate and energy (as well as listeners like you) Why methane in general dese...

Nick, Quincy Lee, the CEO of Electric Era, and Ramez Naam, a highly experienced climate tech and energy analyst and investor, dive deep on all things energy and electrification in 2024. Starting with a focus on mobility and the power sector, Quincy, Mez, and Nick touch on topics as far reaching as geoengineering, the power of narratives, and their expectations for decarbonization across other sect...

Description: Nick and the MacroCycle team discuss a paradigmatic shift from mechanical to chemical recycling in plastics recycling, why it matters, and how MacroCycle is gearing up for their first-of-a-kind recycling facility in 2024. In addition, they discuss: Differences between ‘traditional’ mechanical recycling and chemical recycling How MacroCycle plans to finance and build their first commer...

Nick and Albert Wenger , Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures (and a preeminent investor in general), discuss the state of climate, climate and energy work in general, and climate venture capital in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, Nick and Albert dive deep on: How our collective response to climate change so far has been a bit ‘meh’ The ‘low energy’ trap and what we stand to gain if we reverse...

Nick and Katie McClain , Partner and COO at Energize Capital, a venture fund focused on climate and energy technologies, discuss what’s ‘hot’ right now in climate venture capital, besides for, you know, the rate at which the Earth is warming. Nick and Katie also take a keen look at what to expect in 2024 and beyond. Specifically, Nick and Katie dive deep on: The past five years of climate tech and...

Nick and Tom Quigley , co-founder and Managing Director of Superorganism , a venture firm focused on biodiversity, discuss what biodiversity is, why it matters to the world, and how it fits into the burgeoning climate tech ecosystem. Specifically, Nick and Tom dive deep on: The evaluation process behind creating a venture firm focused on biodiversity Why biodiversity loss is about much more than j...