CleanTechies Podcast

00:00 – Intro: The $500M deal with Jupiter Power.
02:15 – Landon’s Background: Lessons from Tesla and Northvolt.
06:30 – The "Magnet Hire": How to attract A-Players by hiring one star first.
12:00 – Why Sodium-Ion?: The cost and supply chain advantage over Lithium.
18:45 – The Jupiter Power Deal: How they negotiated a massive off-take agreement.
24:10 – "Engineering Bankability": Selling the manufacturing roadmap, not just the cell.
32:00 – Supply Chain: Why Peak Energy avoids conflict minerals and China reliance.
41:00 – The Grid Challenge: Why batteries need to last 25 years in the desert.
48:00 – Scaling Speed: How to move faster than traditional industrial giants.
53:00 – Hiring: The specific traits Landon looks for in executives.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe

00:00 – Intro: Recording in-person at 9Zero in San Francisco.
02:45 – Antonio’s Background: From Stanford PhD to Flow Batteries.
06:00 – The History: What is the "Zebra Battery" and why did it fail in EVs?
10:15 – The Chemistry: How Sodium, Iron, and Salt work together.
12:30 – The Economics: Why $1/kWh material cost changes everything.
17:00 – Safety First: No thermal runaway and safer than Lithium-Ion.
22:00 – Manufacturing Strategy: Leveraging existing UK talent and factories.
28:00 – The "Bankability" Challenge: Proving a "new" old technology.
34:00 – Commercialization: Who buys these batteries? (Utilities vs Developers).
41:00 – The Grid Reality: Why "Non-Wires Alternatives" are the immediate market.
46:00 – Founder Advice: How to hire A-players for a hardware startup.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe

00:00 – Intro: Why energy regulation is the "unsexy" bottleneck of the transition.
03:11 – Hudson’s Background: From SEC Attorney to rewriting federal data laws.
05:55 – What HData Does: The platform for rate cases, compliance, and wildfire plans.
06:40 – The Natural Monopoly: Explaining the "Regulator vs. Regulated" conflict.
10:13 – The Rate Case Process: How utilities get paid (and why it takes so much paper).
14:00 – The ROI of AI: Moving from "Control-F" to vertical AI agents.
22:20 – The Urgency: Why grid modernization creates a compliance explosion.
35:00 – Hyperscalers & AI: How data center demand is changing the regulatory game.
46:18 – The Future of Work: Will AI replace regulatory lawyers?
48:00 – Founder Story: The 2022 cash crisis and the "Dark Night of the Soul."
53:00 – Hiring Framework: The 3 motivations Hudson looks for in talent.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe

What happens when an oil well dries up? Usually, it becomes a "zombie" liability—leaking methane and waiting to become a taxpayer burden. Kemp Gregory, CEO and Co-founder of Renewell Energy, joins the show to explain how he’s turning these multi-million dollar liabilities into clean energy assets.
Renewell converts idle wells into mechanical gravity batteries. By using existing deep wellbores to raise and lower heavy weights, they’ve created long-duration energy storage that is cheaper than lithium-ion and uses the infrastructure we already have.
Key Takeaways:
The Problem: Why the "Orphan Well Pocalypse" is a looming global crisis.
The Tech: How gravity storage works and why it doesn’t degrade like chemical batteries.
The Business: Convincing oil companies to hand over wells instead of plugging them.
The Grid: Why "stranded assets" are actually perfectly positioned for grid stability.
Building Deep-Tech: Why "agency" is the #1 trait Kemp looks for in early hires.
Timestamps:
01:40 – Kemp’s journey from Oil & Gas to CleanTech.
05:00 – The Scale: 900k active wells vs. 2 million idle wells.
14:15 – Gravity storage vs. Lithium-Ion: Cost and mechanics.
18:00 – Turning abandonment costs into revenue shares.
40:15 – Hiring for "Evidence of Agency."
Connect & Links:
Guest: Kemp Gregory | Renewell Energy
Host: Connect with Silas on LinkedIn
Community: Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn
Watch: Subscribe on YouTube
Our Sponsors:
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Secure government grant funding with a 90% success rate. Learn more at ClimateFinanceSolutions.com.
ErthSearch: Specialized CleanTech recruiting. Fast, accurate, and guaranteed. Get started with Silas today.
Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Please do your own due diligence.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe

Speed Strapping: How to Reach Breakeven on The era of easy money is over. For CleanTech hardware startups, the old playbook—raise a Seed, build a prototype, and pray for a Series A—is leading companies straight off a cliff. Shaun Abrahamson, Managing Partner at Third Sphere, returns to the pod to unveil the "Speed Strapping" playbook: a survival guide for 2026.
Shaun explains why the graduation rate from Seed to Series A has plummeted and why founders must stop building "bridges to nowhere." The new goal? Reach profitability on less than $6M of paid-in capital to control your own destiny.
🎧 Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
💡 Key Takeaways:
The $6M Limit: If you can’t reach breakeven on $5–$6M of capital, you are at the mercy of a volatile market.
Avoid the CapEx Trap: Don't build a factory until you’re hitting $10M–$20M in revenue. Use contract manufacturers instead.
The "LEGO" Strategy: Use existing, off-the-shelf components for your V1 instead of reinventing every part.
Negative Churn: In hardware, losing a customer isn't just lost marketing spend—it often means getting a broken product back.
📝 Key Moments:
08:15 – Defining “Speed Strapping”: Why breakeven is the new Series A.
15:58 – The “Bridge to Nowhere”: The danger of planning for non-existent funding.
28:38 – The CapEx Trap: Why you shouldn’t build a factory too early.
36:50 – The “LEGO” Strategy: Moving faster with existing parts.
🗣️ Select Quote:
"Most of the companies that we see failing right now are failing because they were building a bridge to a Series B that doesn’t exist." — Shaun Abrahamson
🚀 Check Out Our Sponsors:
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Secure government grants with a 90%+ success rate. ClimateFinanceSolutions.com
ErthSearch: Specialized CleanTech recruiting for sales, engineering, and execs. ErthSearch.com
Connect with Silas: LinkedIn
Follow CleanTechies: LinkedIn
Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cleantechies.substack.com/subscribe