Climate CEOs

The leading weekly briefing for climate founders and CEOs. Hosted by Dr. Chris Wedding, executive coach and CEO of Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI), a peer group capped at 90 CEOs & investors representing $40B in enterprise value and assets under management. Climate CEOs delivers playbooks from the front lines of climate tech, with insights on raising capital, scaling startups in clean energy, batteries, carbon capture, and the circular economy, plus the founder mindset, mindfulness, daily habits, book recommendations, and resilience needed to thrive.

Climate CEOs is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 324 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Climate CEOs, a business show with 324 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Climate CEOs

  The Climate CEO’s Method for Hiring A-Players

  Aug 21, 202611 min

  Most hiring mistakes don’t happen because CEOs can’t recognize talent. They happen because interviews reward candidates who are good at interviewing. This minisode explores a more rigorous method for hiring executives (topgrading), and how climate CEOs can uncover performance patterns before making an expensive mistake. Look for patterns, not polish — Walk through a candidate’s career job by job to understand what they accomplished, where they struggled, why they left, and what patterns repeat. Ask the same questions about every role — What were you hired to do? What did you accomplish? What were the low points? Why did you leave? Consistency makes comparisons easier and exposes gaps. Use the Threat of Reference Check — Ask candidates what each former boss will say about their performance. Knowing you may verify the answer tends to produce more candid responses. Test for startup fit, not just executive credentials — A successful Fortune 500 executive may struggle when the job requires getting into the weeds during a funding round, factory scale-up, or major customer deployment. Spend more time before the hire — A rigorous interview process takes longer upfront. But that cost is tiny compared with losing six months to the wrong executive and starting the search again. The core lesson — Your goal isn’t to hire the best interviewer. It’s to find evidence that someone has repeatedly produced the results you need in environments similar to yours. Get the written summary: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com/p/the-climate-ceos-method-for-hiring -- 1️⃣ Join our confidential CEO community. Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs. → entrepreneursforimpact.com 2️⃣ Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter. Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read. → entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com 3️⃣ Leave a podcast review. If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor. It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

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  Climate CEOs

  How to Buy Clean Energy on 1,000 Buildings, Easily | VECKTA Energy

  Aug 19, 202646 min

  What if commercial businesses could cut clean energy project costs by up to 45%, all while someone else finds, buys, finances, and operates on-site systems on massive real estate portfolios? Company bio: VECKTA Energy is a technology platform that helps businesses design, procure, finance, and operate on-site energy systems, including solar, batteries, and generators. Its platform can analyze thousands of data points across large property portfolios, identify the best opportunities, and connect buyers with a network of 4,000+ suppliers, developers, equipment providers, and financiers. Speaker bio: Gareth Evans is the founder and CEO of VECKTA Energy. An environmental scientist by training, his career took him from oil and gas projects in Iraq to leading a global power consulting practice, where he saw firsthand both the vulnerability of traditional energy supply chains and the complexity of buying distributed energy systems. Five lessons for entrepreneurs: Turn complexity into your moat – Vecta sits between consultants, developers, financiers, equipment providers, and customers. Instead of avoiding a fragmented market, it built technology to coordinate it. Align your business model with customer outcomes – Customers pay a subscription, but Vecta also earns a success fee when projects actually get contracted. The company wins more when customers move from analysis to steel in the ground. Sell economics before sustainability – Gareth has watched customer priorities shift from sustainability toward cost, predictability, and increasingly reliability. Meet customers where their budgets and pain actually are. Follow customers into new markets – Rather than expanding internationally because the TAM looks attractive, Vecta follows existing customers into new geographies, pressure-tests the model, and then decides where to invest at scale. Earn your stripes before chasing the title – Gareth’s advice to younger leaders: be patient, learn the craft, take difficult assignments, and build credibility. Responsibility is more valuable when you’ve developed the judgment to handle it. -- 1️⃣ Join our confidential CEO community. Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs. → entrepreneursforimpact.com 2️⃣ Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter. Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read. → entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com 3️⃣ Leave a podcast review. If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor . It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

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  Climate CEOs

  Why Good Acquisitions Go Bad

  Aug 14, 202612 min

  Most acquisitions don’t fail because the deal thesis was wrong. They fail because integration breaks exactly what made the company worth buying. This minisode explores why climate tech M&A goes sideways and four questions CEOs should ask before signing the deal. Why good deals go bad — The spreadsheet may show compelling synergies (ugh, that word!), but value disappears when key employees leave, customers defect, or bureaucracy slows down the acquired company. Protect the people who create the value — Identify which employees are essential to technology, customer relationships, and execution. Then build retention plans before closing, not after they resign. Protect customer relationships — A customer who trusted the founder may not automatically trust the acquirer. CEOs need to identify vulnerable accounts and manage those relationships explicitly. Assign owners to every source of value — They need an owner, budget, timeline, and incentives. Otherwise, they remain as tentative numbers in an acquisition model. Know what not to integrate — Sometimes the best integration strategy is leaving parts of the acquired company alone. Preserve the speed, culture, relationships, or operating model that made it valuable in the first place. The core lesson — CEOs often spend more time negotiating the purchase price than planning the first 100 days. That’s backward. The deal creates the possibility of value. Integration determines whether it ever shows up. Get the written summary: https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com/p/the-climate-tech-acquisition-question -- 1️⃣ Join our confidential CEO community. Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs. → entrepreneursforimpact.com 2️⃣ Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter. Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read. → entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com 3️⃣ Leave a podcast review. If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor. It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

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  Climate CEOs

  Why This Electric Truck Is Half the Size and Just as Useful | TELO Trucks

  Aug 11, 202650 min

  Electric vehicles shouldn't just be gas trucks with batteries. They should be entirely different machines. That's the premise behind Tello Trucks' attempt to reinvent one of America's most iconic vehicles. Company bio: Tello Trucks is an electric vehicle company building a mini truck designed to deliver full-size truck utility in a much smaller footprint. The vehicle is engineered for city life, with easier parking, better maneuverability, and strong towing and payload capabilities. The company’s core idea is that electrification should enable completely new vehicle designs, not just “gas cars with batteries.” Speaker bio: Jason Marks is the co-founder and CEO of Tello Trucks. He is a mechanical engineer by training, a lifelong vehicle builder, and an automotive safety expert with deep experience in validation, radar/LiDAR systems, and vehicle crash safety. Before Tello, he worked across the automotive ecosystem, and he brings a highly technical, founder-led approach to product, manufacturing, and team building. Five lessons for entrepreneurs: Use a technology shift to rethink the category – Don’t just copy the old product in a new form factor; ask what the new technology makes possible. For example, EVs allow for a much shorter vehicle with the same or greater functionality. Start with a niche, but tell a big story – A focused wedge can get you moving, but investors and talent need to see the world-changing vision. Think A, B, then Z. Capital efficiency matters – Small design choices can dramatically reduce material, parts, and manufacturing complexity. Don’t ignore the beneficial cascade effect. Customer obsession shapes the product – Direct feedback from users can improve real design decisions, not just marketing. And even better when all your employees want to be customers of your future product. Founder credibility compounds when it comes from lived expertise – Jason’s technical background lets him make unusually bold claims because he can tie them to concrete engineering decisions, not just vision. -- 1️⃣ Join our confidential CEO community. Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs. → entrepreneursforimpact.com 2️⃣ Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter. Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read. → entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com 3️⃣ Leave a podcast review. If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor . It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

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  Climate CEOs

  The Ocean's Billion-Ton Carbon Removal Opportunity | Gigablue

  Aug 4, 202644 min

  What if the cheapest, largest carbon removal machine on Earth isn't a factory, but phytoplankton in the ocean? Company bio: Gigablue is building MCFS (Microalgae Carbon Fixation and Sinking), a marine carbon removal method that uses phytoplankton and carbon carrier pods to capture and store carbon in ocean sediment. They recently raised a $20M Series A to scale their work. Speaker bio: Ori Shaashua is the co-founder of Gigablue and a serial technology entrepreneur, investor, and executive with a multi-sector track record across artificial intelligence, climate tech, cybersecurity, digital health, and smart mobility. Five lessons for climate entrepreneurs: Build for the real bottleneck, not the obvious one – In carbon removal, the challenge wasn’t just capturing carbon; it was exporting it durably. Great founders identify the true constraint and design around it. Trust is part of the product – In a market that depends on verification, transparency, and public credibility, open methodology and measurable outcomes become strategic advantages. Use the business model buyers already understand – Gigablue borrowed contract structures from commodity and energy markets, making it easier for large buyers to transact with confidence. Scale requires timing, not just ambition – Ori emphasized that the market is moving from experimentation to consolidation, and that entering at the right stage can lower risk for both founders and buyers. Tie the mission to durable economics. – A climate solution has to make financial sense, not just scientific sense. The strongest ventures are built where impact and commercial viability reinforce each other. -- 1️⃣ Join our confidential CEO community. Private CEO group for VC/PE-backed climate tech founders navigating capital, strategy, and scale. Capped at 45 CEOs. → entrepreneursforimpact.com 2️⃣ Join 40,000 professionals who get our newsletter. Climate tech finance, strategy, leadership. 2-min read. → entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com 3️⃣ Leave a podcast review. If you got value, take 30 seconds and do the community a favor . It helps push more capital and talent toward scalable climate solutions.

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