Podcast profile
By The founders and futurists building the hard-tech frontier.
Climate Cowboys | The founders and futurists building the hard-tech frontier. A generation of the most talented engineers built photo-sharing apps and SaaS on top of SaaS. None of it helped the power stay on, the supply chains hold, or the country make the things we need. The smartest people in tech are finally moving into real tech. Tech with a physical footprint: batteries, grid software, microbes that mine copper, and machines that pull carbon out of cement. This is the building business. The sovereignty business. The stewardship business. Hosted by Silas Mähner, we interview the elite founders, builders, and operators executing on the hard-tech frontier. No fluff—just peer-to-peer deep dives into what it actually takes to scale hardware, energy infrastructure, and industrial decarbonization. 💼 Building your team? If you need to staff the frontier, get in touch with Roosevelt Talent at roosevelttalent.com. climatecowboys.substack.com
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#289 The Ocean Cowboy. Will O'Brien. Ulysses | Ocean Robotics & Stewardship Tech Why the future of marine conservation, national security, and global abundance relies on underwater robots and a true frontier spirit. Episode Overview 71% of the planet is the ocean, yet it remains largely unexplored—the ultimate geopolit
#288 Lessons from 25,000 EV Ports: Scaling SWTCH Energy with Carter Li How do you bring EV charging to the millions of renters who don’t have a private driveway or garage? In this episode, Silas Mähner sits down with Carter Li, CEO and Founder of SWTCH Energy, to unpack how they are cracking the hardest puzzle in EV ad
#287 CleanTechies Pod: David Reasenberg | Heliene | U.S. Solar Manufacturing & Policy-Driven Sales How Heliene is leveraging "commercial curiosity," open-book pricing, and deep policy knowledge to scale a massive domestic solar supply chain. Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts About This Episod
Here is a scannable, engaging show description tailored for your RSS feed based on the episode details: #286 A Media Training Expert Gives Away His Most Powerful Secrets | Michael Lehmann (Lehmann's Terms) In clean tech, building a groundbreaking solution is only half the battle—you also have to know how to explain it
00:00 – Intro & Sponsors: Lehmann's Terms, Climate Finance Solutions, and EarthSearch. 03:27 – Robert’s background: 30+ years in semiconductors to 3D printing batteries. 06:59 – Reinventing additive manufacturing: Printing multi-material active devices. 14:27 – Addressing the 5 battery pillars: Safety, cost, performanc
00:00 – Intro & Sponsors: Lehmann's Terms, Climate Finance Solutions, and EarthSearch. 03:19 – The Origin of Reservoir: Why target the water heater? 06:33 – The Data: Why heating water uses more energy than driving an EV. 16:06 – The Innovator's Dilemma: Why legacy appliance companies struggle to innovate beyond increm
00:00 – Intro & Sponsors: Lehmann's Terms, Climate Finance Solutions, and EarthSearch. 03:48 – What is Dreamstar Lines?: Bringing overnight sleeper trains to the LA-SF route. 04:39 – The Strategy: Using existing Union Pacific tracks to bypass the nightmare of building new rail infrastructure. 08:03 – The Bottleneck: Wh
00:00 – Intro & Sponsors: Lehmann's Terms, Climate Finance Solutions, and EarthSearch. 03:09 – Welcome to Keep Cool: Nick van Osdol flips the script and interviews Silas. 04:07 – The Evolution of Climate Tech: Shedding the 1.0 vibes and returning to "CleanTech." 08:52 – Silas’s Origin Story: From rural Wisconsin to ren
00:00 – Intro: Coral's $7.5M Seed Round and mission. 02:46 – What is Coral?: The FinTech platform for energy-efficient building upgrades. 04:46 – The Pain Point: Why HVAC experts don't want to be "rebate experts." 06:15 – The Financing Mechanism: How Coral advances funds to make the rebate instant. 08:19 – Contractor B
00:00 – Intro: Andrew Beebe’s background in Cleantech since 2002. 03:34 – Obvious Ventures & Fund V: Deploying a new $360M fund. 04:59 – The Next Vintage: Why the tourists are gone and the real builders remain. 08:23 – The Branding Problem: Why "Climate Tech" mirrors the 1990s Internet boom. 16:30 – Global Markets vs.
00:00 – Intro: Cody Finke returns to the podcast. 04:30 – The "Rock Refinery": Moving beyond cement to co-produce aluminum and critical minerals. 05:39 – The Physics of Scale: Why cost parity is impossible with small reactors. 08:12 – The History of Co-Production: From whale oil to Standard Oil's catalytic cracking. 12
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
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 c
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" c
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 idl
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 Stra
Eclipse Energy: The $0.50/kg Geologic Hydrogen Breakthrough with Prab SekhonPrab Sekhon, CEO of Eclipse Energy (formerly Gold H2), joins us to detail their disruptive technology that is poised to solve the green hydrogen cost problem. Eclipse Energy is taking end-of-life oil fields—which are massive liabilities for oil
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
Hey everybody! It’s Thanksgiving week, and I’m shooting a short, solo episode to share some gratitude for an incredible year and drop a few major announcements. Podcast Announcements * Farewell to Somil: Our co-host, Somil, is moving on! He accepted an amazing offer in the fast-growing AI space with Decagon to advance
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica
JOIN US FOR THE HACK SUMMIT! The HackSummit returns to Newlab on December 10-11, bringing together 500 founders, funders, and industry leaders in Climate Deep Tech. Together we’ll explore abundance, alongside Founders and Investors at Andreessen Horowitz, Brimstone, Crux, DCVC, Durin, Earth AI, Endolith, Navier, Radica