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
Who Wins ARPA-E Grants?
tl;dr: You can’t cheat your way to an ARPA-E grant by gaming the system. The program appears to be run in a remarkably unbiased fashion. Most folks in energy start-up land know that ARPA-E – the U.S. government agency launched … Continue reading
Posted in Current events, Numbers
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Q&A Roundup
I’ve gotten a ton of feedback on the “state of cleantech VC” series – thanks so much to everyone who reached out! I’ve found myself discussing some of the same points with different people more than once, so I figured … Continue reading
Posted in Numbers, Venture capital
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The State of Cleantech Venture Capital, Part 4: Parting Thoughts
(A version of this post also appeared at GigaOM.) tl;dr: We’re in the early innings of a long ball game. This week we’ve analyzed the state of cleantech venture capital and used data to discern myth from reality. In summary, … Continue reading
The State of Cleantech Venture Capital, Part 3: The Companies
(A version of this post also appeared at GigaOM.) tl;dr: Half of successful VC-backed cleantech start-ups stumble along the way. Entrepreneurs who raise big financing rounds at sky-high valuations can end up shooting themselves in the foot. Most cleantech start-ups … Continue reading
The State of Cleantech Venture Capital, Part 2: The Investors
(A version of this post also appeared at GigaOM.) tl;dr: There’s a widespread perception that cleantech venture capital must be tanking compared with VC overall. That perception is wrong. In yesterday’s post, we looked at the amount of capital that’s … Continue reading
Secret Formula 