Climate CEOs

21 episodes scanned. 100% of ad slots promote the show's own products.

Recent Episodes

1. Beyond ChatGPT: AI Built for Energy, Mining & Climate | Lium

   Nov 3, 2026

   Co-founders Ryan Thill and Josh Knutson of Lium describe their AI operating system for the physical world, which connects AI agents to large satellite, weather, grid, and subsurface datasets without data migration. The conversation covers how domain-expert knowledge is built into reusable workflows, use cases in climate and geothermal or carbon sequestration subsurface work, and how their background in mental health and prior startup exits shaped the company. The episode also includes a closing segment on founder habits, book recommendations, and mentors.

2. Climate Tech Is Getting Funded. Just Not for Climate.

   Oct 30, 2026

   Chris Wedding presents a solo minisode of Climate CEOs reviewing about 20 recent North American climate, industrial, and energy tech financings. He identifies five trends: AI data center demand creating new capital for energy, climate tech's value as a national security asset, investability of scarcity and bottleneck removal over substitution, cost parity becoming the baseline, and the best climate companies pitching on non-climate benefits. He walks through the deals by category, including fusion, nuclear microreactors, thermal batteries, metals, food, and transportation fuels.

3. Your Sales Pipeline Is Fiction: "The Mom Test"

   Oct 27, 2026

   In this solo minisode of Climate CEOs, host Chris Wedding argues that climate and energy startups often mistake customer interest for buying intent, inflating their pipelines with imaginary revenue. He walks through the sales-discovery approach from Rob Fitzpatrick's book The Mom Test, including spending most of a first meeting diagnosing the customer's pain and quantifying its cost. He closes by urging founders to audit every deal against four questions: is the pain measured in dollars, is there an approved budget, who signs off, and has the customer made a concrete next commitment.

4. Can AI Find the Next Billion-Dollar Lithium Deposit? | Atana Elements

   Oct 23, 2026

   Tom Wilson, co-founder and CEO of Atana Elements, explains how the company applies AI, data science, and oil-and-gas subsurface expertise to find and de-risk overlooked lithium and critical mineral deposits. The conversation covers its approach to scraping and digitizing legacy geological data, its strategy of securing mineral rights rather than only selling technology, and its tie to Lilac Solutions' direct lithium extraction technology. The episode also includes personal segments on decision-making, habits, and recommended books and mentors.

5. The $1.5 Billion Solar Heat Project Replacing Fossil Fuels in Heavy Industry | GlassPoint

   Oct 20, 2026

   Rod MacGregor, founder and CEO of GlassPoint, discusses why industrial process heat is "too cheap to abate" and why customers adopt solar heat for economics and energy security rather than climate alone. The conversation covers GlassPoint's technical approach, including greenhouse-housed solar mirrors and molten-salt storage, and how borrowing mature greenhouse-industry supply chains reduced cost. It also covers target industries such as aluminum refining, ethanol, pulp and paper, and oil and gas, along with the founder's reading list and early influences.

6. The $440M Bet to Reinvent Climate Innovation | NY Climate Exchange

   Oct 13, 2026

   Sanjayan Muttulingam, CEO of the New York Climate Exchange and former CEO of Conservation International, discusses the planned $440M first phase of a climate hub on Governors Island. The conversation covers the project's goal of bringing business, government, academia, and civil society together year-round, its mass-timber, geothermal, and solar design, and its workforce and education programming. He also addresses the financing challenge, since about half of phase one is committed, and why he frames climate through opportunity as well as fear.

7. What 45 Climate CEOs Are Teaching Me About Leadership

   Oct 7, 2026

   Chris Wedding, CEO coach and founder of Entrepreneurs for Impact, discusses his work building a peer advisory group for 45 investor-backed climate and energy CEOs. He shares lessons from his unique background spanning environmental science, private equity, entrepreneurship, and teaching at Duke and UNC, and explores how leadership styles must evolve as companies scale from early stage through later rounds of funding.

8. The Climate Investments Unlocking the Next 100 Projects

   Oct 2, 2026

   Chris Wedding, CEO coach, investor, and founder, explores the Transition Acceleration Framework developed by CalSTRS, Generate Capital, and Rhodium Group. The episode examines why catalytic capital focused on system-changing technologies—like low-carbon cement, steel, and enhanced geothermal—can unlock the next 100 climate projects by reducing costs, building supply chains, and strengthening policy support. Wedding discusses five types of catalytic investors (family offices, venture capital, corporate venture, philanthropy, government) and five financing tools (recoverable grants, revolving funds, first-loss capital, pre-purchases, and SAFEs) that bridge the gap between early-stage innovation and mature infrastructure deployment.

9. 70% of U.S. Substations Are Outdated...Here’s What's Next | NovaTech Automation

   Sep 29, 2026

   Conrad Oakey, CEO of NovaTech Automation, discusses how 70% of aging U.S. substations built before digital technology must be modernized to support renewable energy, EVs, and AI data centers. NovaTech, a 45-year-old family-owned company with equipment in roughly 25% of U.S. substations, provides automation and control technology that helps utilities transition from centralized "plan and predict" grids to distributed "sense and respond" systems. Oakey shares lessons on selling into risk-averse utilities, the value of acquiring established businesses over startups, and why customer pull matters more than technological elegance.

10. The 6 People You Should Never Hire

    Sep 25, 2026

    Chris Wedding, a CEO coach, investor, and founder, delivers a masterclass on hiring for climate tech and energy startups using Patrick Lencioni's "Ideal Team Player" framework. The episode teaches how to identify six dangerous hiring archetypes (Accidental Mess-Maker, Lovable Slacker, Skillful Politician, Pawn, Bulldozer, and Charmer) by assessing three core traits: humility, hunger, and emotional intelligence. Wedding emphasizes that character and self-awareness matter more than climate expertise, and that recognizing which virtue is missing in candidates can prevent costly hiring mistakes.