CleanTechies
CleanTechies Podcast
#162 Impact Metrics Liability, Navigating Reporting, Profit-First, & More w/ Zécca Lehn (Responsibly Ventures)
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#162 Impact Metrics Liability, Navigating Reporting, Profit-First, & More w/ Zécca Lehn (Responsibly Ventures)

🌎 Welcome back to the CleanTechies PodLetter, VC edition.

🚨🚨 Listen to the new takeaways section at the end of the episode!!

Today, we are talking to Zécca Lehn from Responsibly Ventures.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • How he uses data in impact reporting and communicating with LPs

  • How Responsibly Ventures maintains an ethical and integrity-based focus in their investing

  • Maintaining focus and presence in what you do despite the noise

And a lot, lot more.


Ask yourself this: is the content we put out valuable enough to you that you’d be willing to buy us a latte 🍵 once a month?


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The Guest: Zécca Lehn

  • Zécca is the GP at Responsibly Ventures where he invests at the Pre-Seed stage in sustainability and social good

  • Zécca was interested in sustainability from when he was a child, before cleantech 1.0 and majority of what we know as climate tech today

  • He started off his career as an environmental economist and data scientist, two skills that clearly benefit his ability to lead an impact-focused fund today

  • He was able to combine his passion for economics and environmental consulting into running a fund which today is Responsibly Ventures


🚨🚨🚨 Shoutout to our sponsor Net Zero Insights — Net Zero Insights is the leading market intelligence platform on climate information with all the latest you need on funding rounds, VCs, and the climate tech ecosystem. Use this link to schedule your demo and get a 10% discount! 🚨🚨🚨


The VC: Responsibly Ventures

Responsibly Ventures is a PreSeed VC Impact Fund, backing remarkable teams, focused on both Sustainability and Social Good.

They encourage competitive moats, rapid scale, all aspects of inclusion, 
ethics, integrity, and customer love.

They support our Founders in achieving Venture Scale Positive Impacts, considering a company’s impact-moat to be their financial opportunity. 


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📝 Show Notes:

Topics

  • 1:45 Introduction and Background

  • 10:23 Early Interest in Sustainability

  • 13:43 Investing in Sustainability and Social Good

  • 15:52 What is Customer Love?

  • 17:13 Ethics and Honesty in Investing

  • 25:26 Balancing Returns and Impact

  • 27:21 Data and Reporting in Venture Investing

  • 30:52 Subjectivity in Measurement and Reporting

  • 31:57 Challenges of Collecting and Using Data

  • 34:05 Privacy and AI Concerns in Impact Investing

  • 37:09 The Power of Follow-on Investors

  • 39:50 Maintaining Focus and Presence

  • 42:08 Climate Anxiety and Perspective

  • 45:16 The Role of Returns in Climate Investing

  • 52:04 Addressing Desertification as an Impact

  • 54:05 Takeaways

Links


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Here’s the thing: Somil and I both have day jobs, so if you’re in the helping mood, we both have an ask for you today.

Somil: I’m currently seeking to connect with founders in the built environment space for a project I’m working on. If you’re in that space, schedule a chat here!

Silas: As many of you know, my day job is solving people’s hiring headaches in climate - do you have a hiring headache? Well, let me be your Advil. (booking here)


🚨🚨🚨 Attention Hiring Managers!!! Are you struggling to find qualified candidates? Maybe getting candidates but can’t bring them across the line consistently? Or not getting sufficient applicants? — Reach out to our sponsors, NextWave Partners today to help solve that for you.

NextWave Partners is a leading Global Renewables, Climate, & Sustainability recruitment consultancy solely focused on these impact areas. They are also B-Corp Certified.

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🙏🏽 Thanks for tuning in, and see you all next episode!

Discussion about this podcast

CleanTechies
CleanTechies Podcast
We are CleanTechies, the #1 Podcast for ClimateTech Entrepreneurs. Whether you’re an active ClimateTech entrepreneur, an aspiring one, an investor, a service provider…anything that touches supporting early stage climate tech, this is the place for you.
Each week, we publish two interviews with leading experts in the field telling their stories, insights, and advice to help ClimateTech Entrepreneurs like you be inspired by their successes and learn from their mistakes.