Shows
InevitableBuilding a Real-Time Wildfire Alert Platform with Watch DutyJohn Mills is the Co-Founder and CEO of Watch Duty, the leading app for real-time wildfire alerts in the U.S.In this episode of Inevitable, John shares how Watch Duty became a vital public safety tool—rising to #1 in the App Store during the recent Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Watch Duty delivers live updates on fire spread, evacuations, and recovery efforts. While historically funded by donations and memberships, the platform now also offers a pro version for first responders, utilities, and emergency managers.John discusses his vision fo...2025-04-031h 06
InevitableStructured Capital 101: Keyframe’s Approach to Climate FinanceJohn Rappaport is the Chief Investment Officer at Keyframe Capital, a special situations fund manager. They help management teams solve complex asset and corporate financing requirements. In finance speak, this is often referred to as structured capital—the process of separating a company's capital structure into layers, enabling each layer to be fit for an investor seeking that specific risk-return profile.As John shares, structured capital can often be a good fit for companies in the energy transition, as those in renewable energy and adjacent categories often have high upfront capital costs and a relatively low cost of...2025-02-0640 min
InevitableAdvancing Nuclear Innovation with INL’s Dr. John WagnerDr. John Wagner is the President of Battelle Energy Alliance and Director of the Idaho National Laboratory or INL. INL is one of 17 national labs in the United States and leads the nation in work on advanced nuclear research. INL boasts a rich legacy in the narrative of nuclear energy, marked by its pivotal role in producing the inaugural usable electricity from nuclear sources on its premises. Dozens of reactors have been built at INL during its decades of operation. Dr. Wagner has been with INL since 2016 and has been director of the lab since 2020. Pr...2024-06-1039 min
InevitableDigitizing Environmental Commodities with XpansivJohn Melby is CEO at Xpansiv. Xpansiv operates what they claim to be the largest carbon offset exchange in the world, purportedly covering 40% of the voluntary carbon market volumes and 90% of exchange traded volumes. Beyond carbon, Xpansiv provides global market infrastructure for registering, managing, trading, settling, retiring, analyzing, and reporting a wide array of data-driven environmental commodities, from water to renewable energy to digital fuels and more. John and Cody have an in-depth conversation about what it means for something to be an environmental commodity, how these environmental commodities are bought and sold, how registries exist, how c...2023-12-1849 min
InevitableCapital Series: John Tough, Energize CapitalThis episode is part of our new Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress. John Tough is Managing Partner at Energize Capital, a leading climate software investor. Energize partners with best-in-class innovators to accelerate the sustainability transition, and they have both an early-stage traditional venture vehicle as well as a growth v...2023-09-1355 min
InevitableStartup Series: Rondo EnergyJohn O'Donnell is the Co-founder and CEO of Rondo Energy. Rondo is tackling the massive emissions problem of industrial heat. Almost everything around us requires heat to be made, from chemicals, to paper, to cement, to steel, and historically, nearly all of that heat comes from burning fossil fuels. Renewable energy is now becoming cheaper to procure than fossil fuels, but as we know, it's intermittent, and a factory needs access to heat for its processes when it needs it. So how do we harness the fluctuating availability of renewable power and let industry turn it into a...2023-06-221h 01
InevitableClimate Action on Capitol Hill: Methods for Driving ProgressLori Lodes is the executive director of Climate Power, a strategic communications operation focused on building the political will and public support for bold climate action. It was founded going into the 2020 US presidential election and played a key role in establishing climate as core messaging pull through for the Biden campaign and Build Back Better agenda. Before stewarding Climate Power, Lori spent a handful of years in corporate communications at Apple. She was deputy director of communications for Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016, and she spent many years working on communication initiatives for the Affordable Care Act and healthcare...2023-05-2247 min
InevitableJohn Bissell & Rich Riley, Origin MaterialsToday's guests are John Bissell and Rich Riley, co-CEOs at Origin Materials, a carbon-negative materials company that turns carbon found in biomass into chemical outputs.John co-founded Origin Materials as an undergraduate at UC Davis in 2008. Rich became an investor in Origin in 2010, and joined as co-CEO in 2020 after a successful tech career, including most recently as the CEO of the music startup Shazam, which he sold to Apple in 2018. So what kind of opportunity brought a wunderkind chemical engineer and a seasoned software technology executive together? The way they tell it, it's the once-in-a-century opportunity to...2023-05-0146 min
InevitableJohn Kinney, CleanFundToday's guest is John Kinney, Founder, CEO and Managing Partner at CleanFund. CleanFund specializes in PACE financing, an innovative way for property owners to finance public good improvements to their buildings, including clean energy, efficiency, and resiliency through their property taxes. CleanFund got its start in Berkeley, California in 2009 and initiated the first privately funded PACE transaction focused on solar power. Since then, PACE financing options have taken hold in dozens of states across the USA, and CleanFund serves as an enabling mechanism in all of them. CleanFund specifically focuses on C-PACE or Commercial PACE, which means t...2023-04-0342 min
InevitableStartup Series: MillToday's guest is Harry Tannenbaum, Co-founder and President at Mill. Mill developed a household bin that not only collects uneaten food but also shrinks and deodorizes it. The company’s solution aims to keep food in the system and prevent it from ending up in landfills or waste systems, which would otherwise generate significant emissions. Mill recently exited stealth and we're proud to be multi-time backers of the company through our MCJ Collective venture funds alongside other leading climate tech funds such as Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lower Carbon Capital, Prelude Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and John...2023-03-091h 08
InevitableJohn Dees, Senior Science Analyst at Carbon DirectToday's guest is John Dees, Senior Science Analyst at Carbon Direct.Carbon Direct is a science-first carbon management firm that enables organizations around the world to reduce, remove, and monitor their carbon emissions. They combine science, technology, and market expertise to help these organizations take action and reach their climate goals. They’re an incredible organization with clients and portfolio companies spanning 28 countries. Now, if you've been a longtime listener of the show, Carbon Direct might be a familiar name. The CEO, Jon Goldberg, and the Chief Scientist, Julio Friedmann, have been guests in the past...2022-08-1552 min
InevitableStartup Series: SolunaToday's guest is John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna.Soluna is the leading developer of green data centers for batchable computing, powered by wasted renewable energy. Soluna's scalable, on-demand data centers buy every excess megawatt from renewable energy projects, increasing project revenue while eliminating wasted energy. Implementing Soluna data centers is a low-risk, low-friction process due to the company's four pillars of expertise: Project development, energy markets, project finance, and computing technology. Soluna has molded this unique expertise into a proven project finance structure and revenue-generating solution.John is a versatile CEO and serial entrepreneur who...2021-12-1648 min
InevitableEp. 186: Ryan Panchadsaram, Technical Advisor to John Doerr, Chair of Kleiner Perkins, & Co-Author of Speed & ScaleToday's guest is Ryan Panchadsaram, Technical Advisor to John Doerr, Chair of Kleiner Perkins, & Co-Author of Speed & Scale.Speed & Scale is a new book that offers an unprecedented global plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions before it's too late.Ryan joined Kleiner Perkins in 2016 to focus on venture-stage companies across the firm and serves as technical advisor to John Doerr, Chair of Kleiner Perkins. During the Obama Presidency, Ryan was the Deputy Chief Technology Officer for the United States. At the White House, Ryan helped shape how federal agencies can use an $80 billion budget to...2021-12-061h 01
InevitableEp. 141: John Lochner, VP of Innovation at NYSERDAToday's guest is John Lochner, VP of Innovation at NYSERDA.The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is a government agency focused on clean energy and energy innovation. With a team of around 350 people, it supports clean solutions through catalytic capital and public policies. In this episode, John and I explore what led him to focus on energy, his role on the innovation team, and NYSERDA's charter. He also explains where he sees the biggest levers for change, what role the government should play in the energy transition, and why New York s...2021-01-2541 minInevitableEp 49: Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square VenturesToday’s guest is Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures, a NY-based venture capital firm.Before joining USV, Albert was the president of del.icio.us through the company’s sale to Yahoo and an angel investor (Etsy, Tumblr). He previously founded or co-founded several companies, including a management consulting firm and an early hosted data analytics company. Albert graduated from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a Ph.D. in Information Technology from MIT.In today’s episode, we cover:Albert’s assessment of the problem of climate change a...2019-10-281h 00InevitableEp 37: John Larsen, Director at Rhodium GroupToday’s guest is John Larsen, a Director at Rhodium Group who leads the firm’s US power sector and energy systems research.
John specializes in analysis of national and state clean energy policy and market trends. Previously, John worked for the US Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis where he served as an electric power policy advisor. Prior to working in government, John led federal and congressional policy analysis in the World Resources Institute’s Climate and Energy Program.
John is a non-resident Senior Associate in the Energy and National...2019-09-1650 min