Yesterday I had the pleasure of visting CU Boulder, as a guest in the Boulder Climate Ventures entrepreneurship course. Boulder is my backyard, and programs like this one – combining entrepreneurship education with a genuine climate mission – are exactly what I want to support.
I grew up going to work with my mom at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. From childhood I was surrounded by the machines that carried human beings to the moon. That context is why, when Nobel Laureate Rick Smalley challenged my generation to “be a scientist; save the world” during a talk I attended at Rice University, I didn’t just find it inspiring. I found it actionable. The biggest problems, I had already learned, are addressed by people who refuse to accept that they can’t be solved.
Twenty-five years later, I’m CEO of DexMat – an advanced carbon materials company commercializing Galvorn, a material Rick Smalley himself co-invented – and I spend a meaningful portion of my time doing exactly what was done for me: walking into classrooms full of people who are one good idea away from changing the world, and helping them illuminate the path.
The Origin Story (Or: Why I Do This at All)
The students asked me the usual questions: What surprised you most? What do you know now that you wish you’d known then? How do you stay grounded on the roller coaster? I started with the origin story:
Over 25 years, I’ve founded or co-founded more than eight climatetech startups – software first, then progressively harder tech. That journey led me to co-found and lead Third Derivative, which became the world’s largest climatetech innovation ecosystem, mobilizing $4 billion into nearly 300 deep-tech climate ventures. Today, I lead DexMat, which I think of as the full-circle capstone of everything that came before.
What Surprised Me (Good and Bad)
The biggest positive surprise of my career has been the unconditional nature of real community. When a hardtech venture failed earlier in my career, I expected people to walk away. Instead, they lined up to help – investors made introductions, mentors challenged me to apply my learnings, teammates were eager to collaborate again. That experience humbled and energized me in ways I still draw on daily.
The mission matters for resilience in ways that aren’t just marketing. On my worst days, “the climate needs me” wasn’t melodrama; it was the thing that got me back up. If you’re solving something you believe matters, that’s fuel.
On the negative side: the emotional extremes are wilder than advertised. Building a startup is like having a child – when it fails, it feels like grief. And everything takes longer than you plan. Fundraising, hiring, sales cycles, regulatory approvals. The clock is always working against you.
What I’ve Learned About Fundraising
Early-stage investors are betting on you, not your deck. More than your TAM slide or your technology, they’re asking: can this person learn, execute, and adapt? When my hardtech venture failed, my investors didn’t blacklist me – they recommitted. Because they had been investing in the person all along.
A few other things I’ve learned the hard way, chronicled in more detail here:
- Your warmest investors come from your professional past. At my startup Smart OES, former colleagues contributed more capital than any other source across all three rounds. Trust is built working alongside someone.
- Activate FOMO deliberately. Hit all prospects simultaneously, orchestrate parallel diligence, and push for multiple term sheets at once. Nothing motivates an investor like the sense they might miss out.
The Team Is Everything
If there’s one thing I’ve learned across all eight ventures, it’s that success is ultimately about people. Technology is table stakes. The team is the variable that determines whether you win or lose – and I’ve learned this the hard and expensive way, more than once.
Hire spiritual warriors, not just résumés. Startups need people who believe in the mission viscerally; passion cannot be trained in. Whatever you tolerate, you endorse – and your first few hires set the cultural DNA of everything that follows. Eradicate toxicity immediately, no matter how uncomfortable. I kept telling myself a toxic team member would become more marginalized as we scaled. That was a fantasy. Kill it with fire, early.
What I’d Tell Myself Sitting in That Class
A few things I wish someone had said to me:
Start building your network now. The investors, co-founders, and advisors you’ll need in year 5 are people you should be meeting in year 0. Relationships take time to compound.
Failure is not the end – it’s data. I had a failure that felt like the end of everything. It turned out to be the crucible that led directly to Third Derivative and DexMat. The arc is longer than you think.
Find your mentor sooner. One honest conversation with someone who has been through it is worth a hundred hours of podcasts. Seek people who will tell you hard truths, not just the ones who cheer for you.
How I Stay Grounded
When a student asked how I stay grounded on the roller coaster, I gave them my honest answer: anchor to the mission.
I grew up staring at the rockets that took humans to the moon. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, “does this matter?” is the most reliable reset I have. If the answer is yes, get back up.
My dad fought cancer for a decade after being given a much shorter prognosis. My mom reinvented herself as a single mother and became Chair of the Department of Space History at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. When encountering adversity, I think about about them – and all my ancestors who had so much less than I do – and decide that everything they went through was not so that I could be a quitter.
The dark forest is part of the journey, and it ends. Every founder hits a wall where they’re not sure it’s going to work. That is universal. The ones who come out the other side are the ones who had enough faith – in the mission, in themselves, in their team – to keep going.
The Climate Needs You
The climate challenge is the Rick Smalley problem I’ve been working on since I was at Rice. And I wasn’t the only one; there was a CU professor of chemical engineering in the room who had been similarly inspired by the “be a scientist, save the world” lecture. The participants in Boulder Climate Ventures are exactly the kind of people who are going to take the Smalley challenge to the next level.
Go build something that matters. Life is too short not too, and there are myriad mentors, co-founders, partners, customers, investors, and teammates just waiting to help you succeed.
Want to learn more about DexMat and Galvorn? Visit dexmat.com.