147: How a Cool Climate Collective is making a difference with Tristan Pollock and Mehrad Yaghmai

In this episode, we talk to Tristan Pollock and Mehrad Yaghmai. They are the are the founding partner and partner at Cool Climate Collective. Which brings together investors and operators at the intersection of climate and technology.  https://mehrad.io/ (Mehrad) is an instructor in Terra's https://www.terra.do/climate-change-for-vcs-and-investors/ (Climate Change for VCs) program as well as a partner at https://climatefoundry.com/ (Climate Foundry) and has been involved in various programming at MENA-based accelerators, while also being a mentor to various Techstars programs. He’s also built deep relationships in the academic and scientific communities, including at Yale, Berkeley, and other tech transfer offices.   https://www.tristanpollock.com/ (Tristan) has spent the last decade building, selling, and investing in startups and is bent on spending the next decade dedicated to fixing our climate problem. He's been a VC at 500 Startups where he directed $30M in funding, an EIR at Google for Startups, listed at Forbes 30 Under 30, a Terra ClimateTech VC Fellow, and a mentor at hundreds of accelerator programs, including Techstars, Katapult Climate, and Norrsken Impact. He’s also built and sold 2 startups at the intersection of impact and technology.  During this episode we talk about their reason for wanting to help climate focus start-ups. We also look at some of the key things they look out for when finding the next start-up to join the collective? They also provide some great tips for all your crazy bird entrepreneurs that would like to launch their one start ups.   Links from the episode https://mamaearthtalk.com/episodes/055/ (Episode 55 with The Concept) https://angel.co/company/akua-4 (Akua - Kelp Burgers) https://angel.co/company/waste-development (Wasted - Tesla for Toilets) https://angel.co/company/riide (Riide - Ebikes) https://angel.co/cool-cli