Electrifying Homes, Home Air-Quality & Health, Merging Blue & White Collar Talent w/ DR Richardson (Elephant Energy)

Today we are joined by DR Richardson the Co-Founder and CEO of Elephant Energy. DR started his career in a ClimateTech Fund for about 8 years. Then eventually left to scratch his entrepreneurial itch and build a ClimateTech startup. After about 2 years of testing ideas, he and his Co-founder Josh Lake landed on Elephant Energy where they are removing the friction of electrifying homes. 

A few of the things we talked about today are...

• their product & the benefits - an interesting one was the health benefits of it
• how they got started
• the challenges of being a ClimateTech founder
• his experience fundraising for the company
• the talent challenges 
• how important blue-collar work is and the challenges of making it attractive 
• and his outlook on the future 
• how you don't need to be a technical person to found a climate tech startup 

It's a really fun episode and hopefully an inspiration to those without a technical background who are motivated to build a business and want to help reverse climate change in the meantime.

Topics: 

• 3:19 How he started
• 15:02 Benefits of electrifying a home (Financial, Climate, Comfort, Health)
• 21:54 Finding good contractors and working with them
• 25:06 Insurance COs & cleaner homes
• 26:30  Launching and advice to other founders
• 28:48 How PE exp informed his decision making process
• 31:32 His experience fundraising (How wide, Luck, Just need one yes)
• 35:10 Loyal to a fault
• 37:23 Behind the scenes - the hard things
• 39:38 The mental gymnastics of being a founder
• 41:47 Talent and making Blue Collar work sexy
• 49:13 Outlook on the future 

Links: 

• Connect with DR on LinkedIn:
• Elephant Energy Website: 
• Check out our Sponsor, NextWave Partners: 
• Join the Slack Channel: 
• Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn:
• HMU on Twitter: @silasmahner

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We are proud to continue working with NextWave as our official show sponsor for this podcast. NextWave and all of its staff are highly motivated to advance the ClimateTech revolution and are constantly innovating ways that they can help affect that transition. From experts in the talent space to ESG experts, NextWave is taking on Climate and Social responsibility head-on and helping companies build great cultures that not only make the world a better place but also increase workplace satisfaction. Reach out to NextWave Partners today to learn more about how we might partner with you today. https://www.next-wavepartners.com/ / info@next-wavepartners.com