Capturing CO2 profitably using cooling towers - René Haas of NeoCarbon

Rene Haas, the co-founder, and CEO of NeoCarbon. A company that has created a product that removes CO2 from the atmosphere by retrofitting industrial cooling towers with direct air capture devices. Direct air capture has been promoted as one of the most promising solutions to climate change.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• [0:47] Rene Haas’s background.
• [4:33] Do entrepreneurs have to start from bigger companies before committing to start-ups?
• [7:45] Intentionality of building a company around your life
• [11:07] How does NeoCarbon work?
• [14:49] How far along is the technology? 
• [15:50] NeoCarbon business model
• [18:16] Business benefits for cooling tower manufacturers
• [19:06] Clients benefits from using NeoCarbon
• [20:24] Next steps to achieve target cooling tower solutions
• [22:16] Inflation reduction act client's impact 
• [23:44] Lessons learned along the journey
• [29:57] Co-founders therapy, how does that work?
• [31:31] Is a business start-up exciting or not?
• [32:58] Rene’s 10-year vision  

KEY LESSONS & QUOTES

“Hardware is different to scale than software for manufacturing companies” [16:05]

“Big companies and manufacturers have crazy high margins on their products hence easier for them to do service maintenance on their equipment” [18:29]

”Our next step, is going from lab to the real environment as fast as possible, because we started, prototyping super early, before we had proper models” [20:44]

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