They might seem like two different worlds, but the reality is, there is a close relationship between health and climate. Once we peel back some of the layers, the similarities are ever-present. In this episode, Cody chats with Adaptrack CEO Niraj Swami, who is also part of the Nature Conservancy with Conservation Technology Strategy & Enablement, about the intersection of health and climate, and how they have parallel models with a common customer — humans. “What excited me about climate...

Everybody’s got to eat. That’s the mantra of the Techstars Farm to Fork Accelerator and the Bread and Butter Ventures. Managing Director Brett Brohl is passionate about food: cooking it, eating it, and investing in the next group of startups in this area, which has only gained popularity in the past two years despite being a huge market and full of opportunities. “What are the natural spaces to go to when you talk about impact and sustainability? Well, it’s food, because the food system has...

China will reach peak carbon emissions in 2030, and expects to be carbon-neutral by 2060. One-quarter of the world’s emissions are from China, but without China, there is no solving climate change. In 2020 alone, China outperformed the U.S. in wind and solar, including high-emitting and hard-to-abate sectors. By leveraging AI, carbon capture, big data and more, climate tech startups in China are giving the world hope for significant decarbonization. Opportunities for investment are plentiful,...

About two years ago, Shopify was looking to go the extra mile on its environmental footprint by purchasing carbon credits or offsets. Through discovery, the company realized how limited the market was for this type of sustainability method and how it needed growth. In this episode, Cody chats with Stacy Kauk, Shopify’s director of Sustainability Fund, which makes an annual commitment of $5 million toward entrepreneurial breakthrough technologies and companies to advance sustainability. Stacy...

At the dawn of mobile, Derek Handley wanted to be an innovator, building a global company. About a decade ago, he had an existential crisis: What would happen if his business, his identity all went away? From this, Derek moved fully into sustainability and founded Aera VC to pick up where the climate pioneers left off.  Now, Aera VC is investing in sustainability leaders that are tackling carbon in chemicals, reduction of industrial reliance on fossil fuels, the struggle for a plastics...

Until recently, startups and VCs in the climate technology space haven’t had a lot of resources or reach. Government has been particularly hostile toward innovative startups, crippling funding and opportunities -- but the NVCA (National Venture Capital Association) is working with the federal government to change that.  A record amount of capital is streaming in, bills are passing robustly, and the NVCA is committed to making sure the best technologies win big and do well. This unified front...

People want their capital to be used for good, and whether it’s clean energy or sustainable agriculture, there is ample economic opportunity in efforts to decarbonize the planet. In this special podcast crossover episode, Techstars’ own David Cohen and Cody Simms discuss how the entrepreneurial ecosystem is rallying around climate change. Also, stay tuned for Season 2 of Techstars Climate Tech podcast, coming this fall! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today, about 1% of the world’s land mass is an “extremely inhospitable zone,” like the Sahara desert. Over the next 50 years, with climate change, that could expand to 20% of our planet’s surface, with far-reaching effects, including mass migration.  Tenzin Seldon, Cofounder and Chief Executive at The Plant, estimates that hundreds of millions of people — even up to a billion people — will become climate refugees over the next 40 to 50 years.  Listen for Tenzin’s take on why climate change is...

Renewable energy startups — and the entrepreneurs who found them — are crucial to the fight against climate change. These founders are smart, driven, and agile enough to see the opportunities in energy right now, and dive in. This is a fascinating time in energy, as renewable sources become cheaper and easier to democratize, reaching a more racially and economically diverse set of users, and big utility companies are also starting to see the need to get on board with sustainable...

From food and the agricultural supply chain to shipping and transport, fossil fuels are embedded in our economy. But that’s changing, as we shift toward being more and more powered by renewable energy sources. How will industries change as we move to #ElectrifyEverything?  Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures, explains how market trends are driving renewables and electrification adoption right now. The name “Obvious Ventures” refers to technologies that we’re going to look back...

New and breakthrough technologies are essential to solving our planet’s climate crisis. We need tech that replaces high CO2-emitting processes, tech that removes carbon from our atmospheres, tech that connects it all — and more. That’s why Hannah Davis, Program Director of the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, is talking with Nan Ransohoff, Head of Climate at Stripe, and Shawn Drost, CEO at Diversified Hydrogen. Listen for a dive into the...

From carbon capture to hydrogen to climate intervention/geo-engineering to synthetic biology and more, exciting new tech, and new uses of established tech, are transforming how we work to slow and reverse climate change.  Clay Dumas, Partner at Lowercarbon Capital, is watching the growth in climate tech companies carefully, and investing in them: his investment thesis, described on the Lowercarbon Capital website, is to “support the firm’s preposterously ambitious companies working to undo...

In order to survive the climate change crisis, we’re going to need solutions from all over. That’s why Hannah Davis, Program Director of the Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, invited Dr. Chip Fletcher, Professor at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and Sierra Peterson, entrepreneur and climate tech investor, to talk about climate change and the solutions they see coming from research and from business — and how entrepreneurs can get...

We’re all trying to wrap our minds around climate change, its enormous consequences if left unchecked, and how people and organizations can fight it.  In this first episode of the Techstars Climate Tech podcast, host Cody Simms, SVP for Climate & Sustainability at Techstars, talks with Dr. Kamal Kapadia, Cofounder of Terra.do, about the big questions, like what exactly is going on with our planet, and what our lives may look like in 20 or 50 years, before diving into the ways that...