Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
Select Quotes From This Episode:
“Most homeowners are not trying to get a heat pump. They just need heat in their home. We can make the heat pump really the best economical choice for you.” –Samir
“The biggest bottleneck is how do you make these systems affordable? So that’s what was really the origin of Coral.” –Samir
“Contractors offering these instant rebates with Coral are seeing a 20 to 30 percent sales conversion lift.” –Samir
“Everyone wants to save money. And I think that’s how clean energy becomes really the best way to do that.” –Samir
“I don’t even know if we had climate in the deck, to be totally honest, but it didn’t matter because it’s around, this is where the industry is moving for purely economic reasons.” –Samir
The Bureaucracy Bottleneck of Home Electrification
When a furnace breaks down in the middle of winter, homeowners don’t care about decarbonization—they just want heat. While upgrading to an energy-efficient heat pump is the logical choice for the climate, it often costs thousands of dollars more upfront.
There are billions of dollars in local and utility rebates designed to offset these costs, but the system is broken. Homeowners don’t want to wait months for a check in the mail, and HVAC contractors don’t want to deal with the mountain of paperwork required to claim them.
Enter Coral. Samir Pendse and his co-founder, Nizar Dhamani, realized that the biggest bottleneck to home electrification wasn’t technology; it was affordability and bureaucracy. Coral is a B2B fintech platform that advances rebate funds upfront. This allows contractors to knock thousands of dollars off the invoice immediately at the point of sale. Coral then handles all the automated filing with the utility companies and takes a small 1-2% fee, making the contractor whole instantly.
The results speak for themselves: contractors using Coral are seeing a massive 20-30% lift in sales conversions. Armed with a recent $7.5M seed round and a new debt facility, Coral is rapidly expanding across the country.
In this episode, Samir explains how they sold their vision to FinTech VCs without even putting climate in their pitch deck, the realities of building trust with blue-collar contractors, and why making clean energy the “cheapest option” is the only true path to mass adoption.
Check Out Our Sponsors!
Securing Billions in Grant Funding for Climate Tech
Since 2020, Climate Finance Solutions (CFS) has helped climate tech companies secure over $1.6 billion in government grant funding, with a success rate of more than 90%.
Its team has also won over €500 million in European funding and managed $275 million in grant projects.
As a global consulting firm, CFS guides clients through the full funding lifecycle, from strategy and funder engagement to proposal development and post-award management. Its Grant Identification Platform enables real-time monitoring and custom matching of opportunities, with alerts as new grants are released.
CFS also supports investors, accelerators, and ecosystem builders through its partnership program, offering pro bono support for portfolio companies.
Learn more about CFS’s work and approach at ClimateFinanceSolutions.com.
ErthSearch: Fast + Accurate + Affordable CleanTech Recruiting
Delivering specialized CleanTech talent with unparalleled efficiency and results.
For the past ~6 years, I have been placing sales, engineering, and executive talent at CleanTech companies in the US (over 80 placements total).
Because of this podcast, I have a network that no other CleanTech headhunter can claim, meaning I’ll get you access to talent no one else can.
Past Work:
We helped ChargeScape (JV between Ford, Honda, BMW, and Nissan) make 8 key hires in 6 months, while saving them ~$380k in recruiter fees.
Hired Head of Sales, PM, and Marketing Manager at OptiGrid (resurrection of FreeWire Technologies) (PS: they are hiring again, reach out to Silas to learn more).
Guaranteed placement or you don’t pay!
It’s time to take your hiring seriously — get professional help today.
📝 Show Notes:
Topics
Here are some key timestamps from the episode:
02:46 – What is Coral? The FinTech platform for energy-efficient building upgrades.
04:46 – The Pain Point: Why HVAC experts don’t want to be “rebate experts.”
06:15 – The Financing Mechanism: How Coral advances funds to make the rebate instant.
08:19 – Contractor Benefits: Saving time, avoiding bad reviews, and winning more deals.
11:44 – The Economics of Rebates: Why most incentives come from local utilities trying to lower grid demand.
15:43 – The Origin Story: Quitting jobs to solve the $8,000 savings bottleneck for homeowners.
21:00 – Mission Alignment: Balancing climate goals with helping small businesses grow.
24:17 – The “Chicken and Egg” Funding: Using early VC dollars to prove the rebate float model.
31:24 – Depoliticizing Clean Tech: Leading with comfort, safety, and pure energy savings.
36:09 – Co-Founder Dating: How Samir and Nizar built trust before building a company.
42:37 – Pragmatism and Empathy: Why climate founders must be chameleons to succeed.
46:27 – Raising Capital: Why they pitched FinTech VCs instead of traditional Climate funds.
Links
This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.
PS: If you’re looking to work with them, reach out to us. We’re helping them fill a software engineering role.
