Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
Select Quotes From This Episode:
“If you’re selling to engineers, you have to think like an engineer and you have to talk like an engineer.” –Mishal
“We’re a 13-person team and everyone is either building product or selling product and there’s no in between.” –Mishal
“I think patience is definitely one thing, and to not be dissuaded when things may not work in your favor.” –Mishal
“Knowing what to prioritize, just like when we build our risk models, prioritize the top X percentage of activities and then just let the rest slide away, and you will eventually hire people to take care of the rest, right? So knowing how to prioritize is huge.” –Mishal
“In the utility sector, you can’t start off cold and expect that email and LinkedIn is going to get you anywhere. You have to show up in person if you want to get anywhere.” –Mishal
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Hey everyone, welcome back to CleanTechies!
Today, we’re diving into one of the most overlooked but fast-growing parts of climate tech right now: grid resilience.
When we think about the clean energy transition, most of the attention goes to building more solar, more batteries, more generation. But what about protecting the systems we already have from extreme weather?
That’s where Rhizome comes in.
My guest today, Mishal Thadani, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rhizome, a climate resilience software company helping utilities prepare for the future. Their platform helps grid planners and operators assess vulnerabilities, model investment scenarios, and understand how climate change will hit their systems over time.
In simple terms: they’re helping utilities figure out where to spend every dollar smarter so they can keep the lights on when the next hurricane, wildfire, or heatwave hits.
We dig into:
How Rhizome turns weather data, climate projections, and utility failure history into real, actionable investment maps
Why insurers and credit agencies are pushing utilities to start taking climate risk seriously
The behind-the-scenes of selling into utilities — and why a 6–12 month sales cycle isn’t for the faint of heart
How Mishal’s background in engineering and regulatory strategy shaped Rhizome’s design from day one
How rising energy prices and the AI data center boom are reshaping utility priorities, putting a new spotlight on affordable solutions like energy efficiency and demand response.
And here’s what I love best about this conversation: Mish shows how the climate tech space is expanding, showing adaptation and resilience.
If you’re building in climate tech, especially in data, software, or infrastructure, this episode will give you a front-row seat into where the next wave of opportunity is.
P.S. We’ve got a big announcement coming this quarter, stay tuned and keep listening so you don’t miss it.
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📝 Show Notes:
Topics
Here are some more key timestamps from the episode:
1:00 Policy and Business Creation
3:30 Urbint Leading Regulatory Policy
4:13 How to Create Incentive Structures
6:50 What is Rhizome?
9:00 Forecasting Climate Change Data
10:15 Tree Trimming ($100M/year budget)
12:10 Why Resilience Matters: Investor and Insurer Perspectives
15:50 27 Billion-Dollar Disasters in 2024
17:35 80% of Restoration Costs are Labor
18:25 Hardened Transmission Lines: No Failures Since Upgrades
28:55 Selling to Engineers: Think and Talk Like an Engineer
33:00 Sales Cycles: 3 to 12 Months for Utilities
34:00 By Committee Stakeholder Management
34:40 Budget Approval and Contracting
37:00 How to Reach Salespeople: Show Up in Person
44:10 Team Building Lessons: Patience, Stability, and Prioritization
Links
Connect with Somil on LinkedIn | Connect with Silas on LinkedIn
This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.
