#13: Maximizing climate impact and minimizing parental jerkhood with Dimitry Gershenson

Ben sits down with fellow climate papa, Dimitry Gershenson. They head off the deep end into how to balance being a present father with being present for your start up ambitions. They explore if founding a startup makes you more of a jerk to your kids and the importance of vulnerability and apology when you mess up. They reflect on how those same skills make you a much better parent, partner, and leader.

They then turn to the money that makes the world go round and the gaps in the climate funding markets where there’s not enough going around. Dimitry ramps Ben up on the unique ways that fintech tools like revenue-based financing can be applied to climate companies and how many other financiers aren’t doing this right—either giving out bad, dilutive, terms, or taking way too long to finance the companies that urgently need capital. These realizations have led Dimitry to start Enduring Planet to address the market gap.

Prior to Enduring Planet, Dimitry led M&A and served as COO for Rango Wireless, an Enduring Ventures portfolio company. Before that, Dimitry built Meta’s Energy Access program, a $15M+ investing initiative that enabled energy access for 3M people and unlocked nearly $500M in additional capital in underserved markets like Kenya and India. While at Meta, Dimitry also led the development of multiple predictive ML products in the cleantech space and built corporate accelerator programs for impact startups in India and Puerto Rico.

Outside of Enduring Planet, Dimitry sits on the board of Ecosafi, a Lowercarbon-backed climate startup enabling clean cooking in emerging markets. Dimitry holds an MS in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, a BS in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University.

Referenced in the episode:

• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

• Monk & Robot

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

• Enduring Planet Case Studies

Get connected:

• Dimitry - LinkedIn | Enduring Planet

• Ben - ⁠Climate Papa⁠

Feedback? Guest suggestions? Email ⁠ben@climatepapa.com⁠

Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)

Note: Ben is an angel investor in Enduring Planet. Nothing in this episode should be viewed as investment advice.