Jesse Henry is the CEO and Founder of Heartland Industries, a company that produces drop-in pellets made of hemp fiber.

These pellets are used as an additive to plastics. They reduce the weight and cost of the products, improve strength, and lower scope 3 emissions.

It's a quadruple-benefit product.

Today, Jesse tells us his story - how he started Heartland - how he's the 3rd generation to work in the fibers industry - how they landed BASF as a partner and investor - and he gives a lot of other insights. Including our favorite, how they produce huge volumes of pellets without owning a milling facility.

Enjoy today's conversation!

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Topics:
**2:15 Intro
**2:55 Jesse's Background & Heartland's Mission
**10:06 The Challenge of Developing Reliable Supply Chains
**13:33 From Powder to Pellets
**16:47 What it Means to be a ClimateTech Entrepreneur Today
**22:03 Partnering with Wood Pellet Mills for Scale and Cost Reduction
**28:34 Run Jesse's Playbook
**31:16 The Finance of Materials Companies
**34:00 The Power of CVCs
**41:10 Opportunities in B2B Marketplaces
**43:27 How to Pick the Right CVCs
**47:02 Next Steps for Heartland
**54:58 Process Technologies and Software Solutions
**56:11 Focusing Beyond Carbon
**57:46 Takeaway
**54:51 Using Infrastructure to Skip Building
**56:16 Reducing Risk with Each Fundraising Round

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Links:
**Jesse Henry
**Heartland Industries
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**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X

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Rahul broke down the nitty-gritty of how 2150 built (no pun intended) a leading ClimateTech VC fund focused on decarbonizing the built environment.

We talked investing, fund modeling, learning from general VC, FinTech in ClimateTech, & more. This was a VC-fundamental extraordinaire, and super informative for anyone looking to learn more about venture capital.

AND let’s not forget, Rahul spent his holiday with us to do this. Cheers to him.

Enjoy 🥳👏.
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🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.
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🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies
📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube
🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey
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Topics:
**03:025 Introduction
**05:01 Home Decarbonization
**08:19 Government Incentives and Policies
**24:37 The Breakdown of Investments in 2150
**33:29 Intentional Modeling and Entry Prices
**42:05 Finance x Climate
**45:20 The Urban Stack and City Resilience
**47:29 Adding Value Beyond Capital

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Links:
**Marian Krueger | remove
**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn
**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X

Support the Show.

Marian Krueger comes to us with his experience investing in 120+ early stage CDR startups, and broke down what we should look for and what’s worth watching in the years ahead.

He’s a leading expert in CDR having invested in Europe, which is the leading CDR ecosystem in the world.

Sitting down with him as a blast, and for our US listeners, this episode is VERY timely with the Biden Administration’s first release on voluntary carbon markets, Enjoy 🥳👏.
---
🌎 Want the full PodLetter? Go to our substack to see the written content that supplements the audio interview.
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🌴 https://linktr.ee/cleantechies
📺 👀 Prefer to watch: subscribe on YouTube
🗣️ Take the Listeners Survey
📫 Get Written Summaries of Each Episode in Your Inbox

-----
Topics:
**02:41 Introduction
**05:08 Challenges of the Voluntary Carbon Market
**16:30 CDR Startups
**17:53 Impact-Driven Motivation of CDR Founders
**26:32 Gaps in the CDR Space
**32:27 Role of Policy in Carbon Removal
**39:03 Prioritization, Universities, and A-Teams
**42:10 Collaboration and Partnerships
**42:51 Takeaways

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Links:
**Marian Krueger | remove
**Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn
**@Silas & @Somil_Agg on X

Support the Show.