Matthew Nordan
I'm Managing Director of Prime Impact Fund, where we fund breakthrough start-ups that could have a big impact on climate. I also serve on the boards of five audacious tech start-up companies and two supporting organizations. In past lives I learned venture capital at Venrock, co-founded and led Lux Research, developed energy and environmental projects in China at MNL Partners, and forecasted technology futures at Forrester.
I really do live and breathe this stuff.
I'm also chromosomally incapable of keeping quiet. This blog hosts opinions (mine alone) on energy, venture capital, human behavior, start-ups, societal collapse, hope for the future, and everything in between: hopefully useful, usually numerate, and occasionally long-winded.
Category Archives: Numbers
Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Innovation
I spoke a couple of weeks ago at the NextWave Greentech Investing conference (organized by my friend Rob Day at Black Coral Capital). My aim was to describe the past, present, and future of investment in energy and environmental innovation … Continue reading
Posted in Numbers, Venture capital
1 Comment
The State of Cleantech Venture Capital: What Lies Ahead
(A version of this post also appeared at GigaOM.) tl;dr: Cleantech VC is receding because of poor short-term performance – no surprise in a post-bubble field with outsized time and money requirements. The category is about to go on a … Continue reading
The Very Curious Hybrid Boom
tl;dr: U.S. hybrid vehicle sales were up 61% in 2012. It’s unclear why. Riddle me this: Why did U.S. hybrid sales take off last year? Prior to 2012, hybrids looked like something between a fad and a niche. Sales peaked … Continue reading
Posted in Consumers, Numbers, Transportation
10 Comments
Entrepreneur Tools: The Returns Analysis
tl;dr: To successfully target VCs, view your deal through their eyes. I got an outstanding piece of advice in my first job: “Always see the world from the other person’s point of view.” If you’re trying to sign the pivotal … Continue reading
Posted in Numbers, Unsolicited advice, Venture capital
1 Comment
What Makes a Great Cleantech Team?
tl;dr: Winning cleantech start-up teams are complete at founding, have strong pre-existing relationships, and include the inventor of the core technology. This post was co-written with Josh Rogers, a former Venrock intern who’s now in National Grid’s Strategic Planning and … Continue reading
Posted in Numbers
5 Comments
Secret Formula 