Join 10,000+ founders & investors for actionable tips, premium insights, and growth strategies delivered weekly to elevate your Fund, Startup, and Career 🚀
Nicolas Derrien is the CEO and Founder of Continuum. He's a fervent entrepreneur who believes NO composite should be buried or burned and simply left for future generations to deal with.
We cover:
-The big problem of end of life wind turbines
-The best solutions to recycling composite materials and fiberglass at SCALE
-The best ways to fund a super CAPEX intensive business
-The pathways to global scale and the opportunity for large corporates to play an important role
--------------
ABOUT CLIMATE INSIDERS:
Learn all the insights from Europe's top Climate Tech Founders and Investors. Listen to the stories behind the startup successes, understand the drivers of investment decisions, and become a true Climate Insider.
Check us out at: https://www.climateinsiders.co
--------------
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Nicolas Derrien is the CEO and Founder of Continuum. He's a fervent entrepreneur who believes NO composite should be buried or burned and simply left for future generations to deal with. It’s our responsibility to do something better and Nicolas wants to dedicate all his time and energy to cracking this problem.
--------------
SHOW NOTES:
0:09 - Intro
0:53 – Introduction to Nico’s work
2:05 – What was the inspiration for starting a composite material recycling company?
4:24 – What happens with the wind turbines after they reach their “expiration” date of 20-25 years?
6:12 – Is there a world where wind blades recycling is possible? Why mechanical processes are preferred to chemical ones?
9:44 – The question of funding. What are the core learnings on how to Raise Funding for Super CAPEX Intensive Businesses?
11:49 – Are VCs absolutely necessary to get the permit to start?
13:00 – Opening of the 36000 tons factory west of Denmark, why is it such a big deal for the whole industry?
14:49 – There is the supply side for wind turbine solutions, what about the demand side?
18:02 – Is there room for multiple technologies? Should VCs fund more companies or focus on a smaller number of them?
20:37 – One way to reframe the problem is to talk about government’s sovereignty
22:13 – How to protect companies in Europe? Will the EU technologies remain European? How to use geopolitics in your company’s favor?
23:44 – The role of the big companies? What is the optimal pass for the industry?
25:12 – When is it a good idea to start selling your company in order to maximize the impact?
26:49 –What kind of hires do you need to scale such a hardware startup? Can you offer remote first culture?
29:27 - Outro
--------------
ABOUT THE HOST:
Yoann Berno https://www.linkedin.com/in/yberno/ After a career spent building and investing in top tech startups, Yoann is now a founding member and General Partner at Climentum Capital focused on investing in game-changing technological solutions to our worsening climate crisis.
--------------
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER to stay tuned about the next episodes: https://www.climateinsiders.co
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/yoannberno
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/climate-insiders
Nicolas Derrien https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolasderrien1/
Continuum https://www.continuum.earth/
Founder and CEO of Continuum
Nicolas Derrien is the CEO and Founder of Continuum. He's a fervent entrepreneur who believes NO composite should be buried or burned and simply left for future generations to deal with.
Check out these top episodes
Keiran is the Founder of Entocycle, an insect-farming startup based out of London. They commercialize high-tech insect breeding modules to enable efficient and scalable insect farming. Keiran has a TON of insights to share. -...
Irena Spazzapan is a Managing Partner at Systemiq Capital, a London-based climate fund and spin-off of Systemic Ltd. Systemiq Ltd is an advisory and investment firm focused on climate, that helps build companies that have the...
Benjamin Kayser is a former French Rugby international with a 16-year-long career (he played 47 games with the French National Team, and hundreds in the French and English championships). Benjamin is a Co-founder and Partner ...
Hampus Jakobsson is a General Partner at Pale Blue Dot , a Swedish seed-stage ClimateTech fund investing in startups that reduce and reverse the effects of climate change. He was previously at BlueYard Capital, before that an...
This time we're turning tables. I will not be conducting the interview. Instead, I will be interviewed. By popular demand, you will hear a little bit about me and my thoughts on some awesome topics, such as risk management, w...
In today's show, I'm welcoming Jacqueline van den Ende, Co-Founder and CEO of Carbon Equity, a Climate VC and private equity fund investing platform that enables people to invest in the world's best climate funds. We cover: -...
In today's show, I'm receiving Allegra Kowalewski-Ferreira, Partner at Breakthrough Energy Europe. We cover: - Discussion on the world's largest Climate Tech fund - Exploring Bill Gates' actual role in the fund - The fund's i...
In today's show, I'm receiving Chad Frischmann, one of the co-creators of Project Drawdown, and founder of Regenerative Intelligence We talk about: - Project Drawdown's historical book, and insights from those enormous resear...
In today's show, I'm receiving Timothee Parrique, Dr. in economics at Lund University. He is a rising scholar, who made a big splash at the European Commission Beyond Growth conference. His book on Degrowth has sold more than...
In today's show, I'm receiving Robert Höglund, one of top experts in Carbon Dioxyde Removal (or CDR). He manages the Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund, and co-founded the CDR market overview CDR.fyi. This discussion is pe...
On today's episode of the Climate Insiders podcast, we’re sitting down with Prof. Dr. Martin R. Stuchtey, founder of The Landbanking Group. The Landbanking Group has the ambition to change the way we use land and reward natur...
On today's episode of the Climate Insiders podcast, we’re sitting down with Anna Alex, Co-founder of Nala Earth. Nala Earth is a nature management platform that measures, improves and reports your company’s impact on nature &...
On today's episode of the Climate Insiders podcast, we’re diving into an engaging conversation with Alexandra Perez, a seasoned investor in climate tech. We discuss a range of important topics affecting the VC industry and th...
On today's episode of the Climate Insiders podcast, we’re diving into an engaging conversation with Benjamin Kayser, a former French Rugby international with a 16-year long career. Today, Benjamin is a renowned commentator of...
Ben is a climate tech geek who writes deep guides to energy topics on his blog, benjames.io . His guides to batteries, carbon removal, hydrogen and SAF are read by thousands of investors and analysts around the world. This ep...
Yair Reem is a Partner at Extantia Capital, a climate-first venture capital firm accelerating the path to a decarbonized world by backing daring entrepreneurs with breakthrough ventures. He co-founded BeyondBlack, a fund for ...
In today's show, I'm welcoming Nadav Steinmetz an early stage climate tech investor based in London, UK. Nadav is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Climate First. Nadav delves into he critical role of deep tech in combat...
