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: Unsolicited advice
Five Lessons Learned From Bringing Cleantech to China
tl;dr: Experienced cleantech CEOs leverage China instead of fearing it – enlisting self-interested partners to defend IP and manage risk. This post was co-written with George Miller, an MIT MBA student who conducted this research while interning with me. A … Continue reading
Posted in China, Unsolicited advice
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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
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“Financing Your Start-up 101” in 45 Minutes
For this year’s ARPA-E Summit I was asked to give a talk about different ways to finance an energy start-up. The challenge as it was given to me was “cover all sources of financing – VC, angels, grants, debt, everything … Continue reading
Posted in Unsolicited advice, Venture capital
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Secret Formula 