Energize portfolio execs on Podcasts

A couple months back I was on the “Entrepreneurs for Impact” podcast with Chris Wedding. At the end of the call he asked who else he should speak with, and we mentioned Mike at DroneDeploy and Casper at Monta. Well, Mike and Casper agreed and their podcasts were similarly released over the last few weeks. I think they are both worth listening to, and the links / summaries are below.

Mike, DroneDeploy

Here is a link to Mike’s episode, they talk about:

– Why he was happy to have an angry customer in the early days
– How drones can help reduce costs for climate and renewable energy solutions
– What a digital twin is and why they matter
– How they’re making work on critical infrastructure safer, quicker, and more productive by avoiding dull, dirty, and dangerous work
– How his love of remote control helicopters and a trip to South Africa helped start this business
– The role of timing in determining the success of a startup
– How AI and robots can make us superhuman
– How to procrastinate in a productive way

Casper, Monta

Here is a link to Casper’s episode, they talk about:
– How he grew his company from 0 to 150+ employees in just over 2 years
– What led investors to commit more than $60M to his company’s growth
– Why Monta aims to be the “Android of EV charging software”
– How their technology allows EV owners to optimize for the lowest power cost and GHG emissions for their charging
– Various hypotheses that they tried and abandoned for the current business model
– How beer among the early team at a summer house led to the core values they have today
– What radical transparency means for them around salary, equity, and financial disclosure to all employees
– Why half of the team is focused on R&D and innovation
– What led to EVs being 50-90% of new car purchases in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway