From Blake Newcomer
The beginning of a year is a perfect time to start a newsletter.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Heard Around The Grove. This weekly slice of your inbox serves as a weight-bearing pillar in Earth Onward's mission to provide actionable GTM playbooks and inspiration to the cleantech community.
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Episodes
Today's edition highlights episodes of the last few weeks.
Below you will find conversation themes. Episodes cover much more ground than just these themes, but this was a nice and straightforward way to organize them.
Featured Theme of the Week
Customer-First Product Development
This theme discusses how to approach customer discovery in the R&D phases that cleantech is so familiar with. You'll learn proven frameworks for conducting meaningful customer interviews, strategic pivoting based on market feedback, and building sustainable competitive advantages through relationship-first approaches.
Mastering Startup Pivots with Jimmy Chiu, Co-Founder & CTO @ Loop CO2 Discover the three-channel approach that landed conversations with major corporations and the pivoting strategy that identified the highest-margin beachhead market. article youtube spotify
Entrepreneurship Unfiltered with Celine King, Founder & CEO @ GreenIRR Inc. Learn the channel partnership framework that created a go-to-market strategy after 14 months of customer validation revealed direct sales wasn't viable. article youtube spotify
Turning Waste into Value with Mo Balapour, CEO & Co-Founder @ SusMax Explore the patient validation process required for industrial customers and how to maintain momentum during extended sales cycles. article youtube spotify
This Week's Other Themes
Deep Tech Hardware Scaling
The milestone frameworks that transform complex technologies into market-ready products over multi-year timelines.
Carbon Recycling with Freya Burton, CSO @ LanzaTech Learn the systematic approach that took carbon recycling technology from initial lab data to operating commercial plants. article youtube spotify
The E-Waste Vision with Agabas Agudor, Founder @ AppCyclers Discover how to create entire industry ecosystems from scratch in emerging markets with limited resources. article youtube spotify
Rethinking Water with Quantum Wei, Founder @ Harmony Desalting Explore the team-building and operational challenges of scaling desalination technology for real-world deployment. article youtube spotify
Young Founders Breaking Barriers
Confidence-building techniques and team-building strategies that help young entrepreneurs navigate experienced industries.
Bio-Industrial Innovation with Sophia Xu, Co-Founder & CSO @ Carbon Bridge Learn the team-building philosophy that prioritizes learning ability over experience and creates adaptable startup culture. article youtube spotify
Climate Entrepreneurship with Ben Soltoff, Ecosystem Builder & Entrepreneur in Residence @ MIT Discover the framework that democratizes entrepreneurship and why technical expertise trumps charisma in climate tech. article youtube spotify
Clean Air Innovation with Austin Riesenberger, Founder @ SWERV Explore the milestone-driven approach that validates product concepts on minimal budgets while maintaining momentum. article youtube spotify
Systems Thinking & Ecosystem Building
Business model innovations that align profit with environmental impact through strategic ecosystem design.
Navigating False Summits with Ben Silton, CEO @ TrelliSense Learn the customer development process that translates complex technologies into commercially viable solutions. article youtube spotify
Regeneration and Innovation with Rob Avis, Co-Founder and Chief Engineering Officer @ 5th World Discover the systems approach that aligns economic incentives with environmental outcomes at ecosystem scale. article youtube spotify
Takeaways
Though Celine, Jimmy, and Mo are featured under the theme, I ask all guests about how they navigate the valley of idea -> first customer. As many of your reading can personally attest to, it is a long + ambiguous path.
It gives me lots of energy to connect with so many builders across such different companies, markets, personal backgrounds and see the common bridge of persistence through this valley. There may not be immediate revenue or data supporting the future you see, but if you push forward honestly for long enough you will find your way.
Rob's conversation was more abstract but he asks some fundamentally challenging questions that I enjoy chewing on.
The approach that Agabas and his team used to grow AppCyclers is the definition of grassroots. Individual school partnerships and ads on hyperlocal radio stations? Amazing.
I still can't believe Freya and LanzaTech have been operational for 20+ years. What a fascinating perspective to capture.
Feedback
Have any thoughts about what you'd like to see? Let's build together
Roundtables
Curated, pitch-free roundtables that spark real collaboration between and your prospects. GTM solution for long and complex sales cycles.
Cohort-based event series
Small groups (10-15 people) + industry expert speakers + 4-5 targeted sessions = accelerated career development. Want to participate or present? Reply to this email.
Podcast Guests
Would you or anyone you know like to be a guest on The Grove? Reply to this email to get the conversation started.
With love, Blake
See you next week!
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