#168 Advice for Project Finance, AI x Climate, CleanTech 1.0, Late Stage Investing, & More w/ Mike Jackson (Earthshot Ventures)

In this episode, I sit down with Mike Jackson, Managing Partner at Earthshot Ventures. Earthshot Ventures calls themselves carbon generalists and invest from Seed to Series B. They mainly invest in software and “stepchange” hardware with a preference to double down on existing portfolio companies.

Mike’s story is great because of how intentional he has excelled at every stage and in multiple sides of building in climate. He is a successful founder from cleantech 1.0, a rockstar investing even before earthshot, experienced in project finance, and now investing in a collaborative way that is pushing the whole climatetech industry forward.

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Topics:
**06:49 Journey from Childhood to Leading a Climate Fund
**12:54 Lessons from Cleantech 1.0
**15:54 Preparing for Project Finance
**25:13 Importance of Business Models
**32:35 Rising at the Westly Group
**34:37 Building a Complementary Team
**39:48 Why Earthshot is a "Network Fund"
**43:14 Investing Earlier in ClimateTech
**45:02 AI and its Impact on Climate
**48:31 Attracting Capital from Generalist Investors
**49:50 Advice for VCs 

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Links:
**Mike Jackson | Earthshot Ventures
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