Jacob Mansfield is the CEO & Co-Founder at Tierra Climate, a startup whose mission is to accelerate grid-scale battery deployment by unlocking and monetizing grid decarbonization services. Before pursuing his MBA and starting Tierra Climate, Jacob began his career as a rotational analyst at Citi in power trading. He tells us about the lessons from this experience and what drove him to then pursue an MBA. Jacob then explains the process of identifying the problem that Tierra Climate was founded to solve, and gives us the behind the scenes of what it was like to start and grow the company. Jacob finishes the episode with advice for students and aspiring founders, and how young people can use their youth as an asset.

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First time is a charm, right?

For many climate technologies, building a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) project is a major barrier to widespread adoption and commercialization. The ecosystem of early-stage climate tech funding, such as venture capital and grants, is well-known and used to taking substantial risk for outsized impact. The pools of capital and expertise for turning those technologies into commercial-scale projects, however, is more challenging to navigate. Nevertheless, it is critical for companies to learn to navigate this gap to bring impactful technologies to scale.

Deanna Zhang, CEO of V1 Climate Solutions, joins us on the show to talk all things FOAK. With a background in investment banking, she has built an expertise in helping companies navigate the pitfalls of FOAK projects and works with startups, investors, and corporates to help them define strategies to successful scale-up climate technologies. Tune in to learn more about how we can best bridge the gap between FOAK and Nth-of-a-kind projects and what developments are needed to make that possible.

Lamisa Chowdhury, University of Kansas grad and current Patagonia Program Officer, has dedicated the early years of her career to investigating energy justice. Lamisa walks us through her path to the energy transition, including why the built environment stands out to her, and why storytelling has become influential to her own understanding of energy systems. Lamisa’s roles have been across nonprofits, utilities, and now the private sector. Each of these experiences shaped Lamisa’s goals for the energy transition, and helped her understand all of its interwoven dimensions. She walks the audience through the importance of equity within the transition, and what students can do to equip themselves to tackle this challenge. She reminds us that humans, people, are at the center of all energy systems.

Keynotes:

- The importance of community-focused energy work

- How different experiences shape our personal understanding of the energy transition

- The gaps in current energy system structures