The Climate Hardware Playbook: Strategies for Founders and Investors with Christian zu Jeddeloh and Sophia Escheu

Hardware to Save a Planet

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, Dylan interviews Christian zu Jeddeloh and Sophia Escheu about their newly developed Climate Hardware Playbook, designed to help founders build and scale climate tech startups. They discuss key challenges facing climate hardware companies, including the European funding gap, the chicken-and-egg problem of commercial traction, and the common talent shortage in founding teams. The conversation also touches on creative financing solutions, the evolving climate tech investment landscape, and differences between the US and European markets. Christian and Sophia offer valuable insights into emerging trends and practical advice for those looking to make an impact in climate tech.

Christian is an Investment Associate at Norrsken VC, where he focuses on the German-speaking market. Prior to joining, he was at biotech scale-up Atai Life Sciences, where he worked on business development topics, including the firm’s IPO. He has an educational background in Finance from Frankfurt School, with exchanges at Harvard and MIT.

At Speedinvest, Sophia is looking for next-generation technologies to tackle the most polluting industrial sectors. Before joining Speedinvest’s Climate Tech and Industrial Tech team in Munich, she gained experience at several startups and in strategy consulting. She is also the co-founder of Amelia, a personal growth accelerator for female young professionals.

Episode Resource

• Sophia Escheu on LinkedIn
• Speedinvest Website
• Christian zu Jeddeloh on LinkedIn
• Norrsken VC Website
• Dylan Garrett on LinkedIn
• Synapse Website
• Hardware to Save a Planet Apple Podcasts
• Hardware to Save a Planet Spotify

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Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.
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