Arjun Jairaj is an investor with noa VC. The team at noa are building Europe’s largest tech fund dedicated to transforming the built world. They invest in pioneering founders and breakthrough technologies that decarbonise the built world.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:36 - Intro to noa VC and their investment thesis.

3:09 - What stages and areas do noa VC invest in?

3:46 - Is built environment primarily deep tech and hardware based?

5:28 - Arjun’s reflections on 2024’s fundraising market.

11:01 - What do you think companies in your portfolio have that has made them particularly successful?

13:27 - Predictions for the 2025 market for early-stage climate investment.

19:54 - What are noa VC looking for in teams and startups when you invest?

21:30 - What is the minimum you’d be looking for in a team at an early stage and do you think gaps can be filled by fractional executives or advisors?

23:45 - Advice for founders looking to raise this year.

26:02 - Advice for founders on how to manage the fundraising process and make sure the business is still being well looked after whilst their attention is elsewhere.

28:25 - How to get in touch with Arjun and noa VC.

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Stuart Ferguson is an investor with Sustainable Ventures, who as well as offering investment to earth-saving startups, also operate two co-working spaces in London and Manchester, with sole focus on climate tech. In fact, we here at Above & Beyond use their London space regularly.

Stuart is particularly passionate about early stage investing and loves working with new entrepreneurs to help them realise their ambitions.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:27 - What are your reflections on 2024 for investment?

2:38 - Were any of your portfolio companies particularly notable last year? What do you think helped them succeed?

4:00 - What do you predict for the UK climate funding landscape in 2025?

6:37 - Are you seeing a difference in how climate companies are positioning themselves?

8:15 - What do you look for when making investments?

11:34 - What support do Sustainable Ventures offer post-investment?

13:26 - What parts of the climate industry are you excited about and see potential in?

15:41 - Advice for founders looking to raise funds this year.

19:42 - What is the minimum viable amount of traction you’d be looking for?

22:59 - How to contact Sustainable Ventures.

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Roberta Franchi is an investment associate at Counteract. Counteract is a carbon removal company combating the climate crisis through research, development and investment. They give engineer and scientist entrepreneurs the financial and strategic support to turn fresh ideas into self-sustaining businesses with the potential to capture or store greenhouse gases at a global scale.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:37 - An intro to Counteract

3:04 - How was 2024 for the CDR market?

6:48 - What is driving corporates to sign off-take agreements?

9:35 - How do you see the 2025 CDR market developing?

13:19 - What do you look for in investments?

15:45 - What are you excited about in the CDR landscape?

17:49 - What advice do you have for founders looking to fundraise?

19:39 - Where can people find out about grants they could apply for?

21:04 - How to contact Counteract and Roberta.

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Establishing a culture where team members can thrive is vital, but with the move towards hybrid and remote work over the last few years, it can sometimes be hard to know where to start when people aren’t spending as much time with each other.

Geraldine Butler-Wright is a chief people officer with far-reaching experience across multiple areas of tech, international businesses and in both startups and scale-ups, which have operated as fully remote, hybrid and on-site. She’s seen it all!

She helps companies establish people processes and supportive cultures that make team members want to stay. As the founder of RorCas, she works as a consultant to guide startups and scale-ups to get the “people part” right, so focus can be on revenue, product-market fit, investment and growth.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

2:16 - Why do you love working with small, early-stage companies and teams?

3:35 - Do you see patterns in people-related challenges within early-stage businesses?

5:00 - How do you guide people who might never have run a business or managed a team before? How do you learn to be a leader?

6:26 - Are some people not suited to being a leader?

7:33 - At what stage do you think companies should start to think about career pathways?

11:01 - How can you reconcile the tension that can come within startups where employees want career pathways but the direction of the company can change as it scales, meaning opportunities change.

13:29 - How do you help hiring managers to set the bar and understand what makes an A-player for their team?

19:02 - How can leaders handle the feeling of perhaps wondering whether they haven’t done enough to support an under-performer?

21:07 - How can companies build a positive and supportive feedback culture?

24:45 - How do you advise people to manage a function or role, when perhaps that’s not their background and they don’t have direct experience of doing a role?

27:43 - What should founders be mindful of when building remote or hybrid teams?

32:32 - How do you ensure continuity of culture when some people are remote and some are in the office?

33:58 - What mistakes do you see keep coming up with remote work?

36:38 - What are some easily transferrable culture creation tips that could be applied to other companies that came up from your time at Healthily?

40:37 - What important lessons have you learnt about scaling at pace and maintaining a great culture whilst you do it?

44:50 - How do you handle urgency-bias and ensure it doesn’t cause cultural problems down the line?

48:09 - As a startup changes during growth, how do you advise people to handle those difficult conversations when someone who was right for a role at the beginning, isn’t the right person further down the line?

53:20 - What are some simple practices and boundaries you would recommend to founders to protect their mental health?

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The first few hires in any team are key but what about scaling beyond that as you progress through funding rounds and possibly acquisitions and exit?

Dimple Patel is currently CEO at NatureMetrics and as a highly accomplished entrepreneur, she’s seen it all, from MVP to new markets and fundraising stages right through to exit. A strong team is what gets you there, to secure funding and drive growth, so she knows how vital it is to build a team of A players.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:31 - Dimple’s journey from banking to coffee to tech to biodiversity.

5:35 - Why did you choose to join NatureMetrics?

9:49 - What stage was NatureMetrics at when you joined and how have things changed since you joined a year ago?

14:42 - What is the culture like at NatureMetrics and how does your mission feed into that?

19:16 - How do you show up as a leader and how do you feed into the culture?

24:27 - What challenges and lessons have you learnt across the variety of businesses you’ve worked in?

27:29 - What are some ways to build trust between team members?

32:47 - When you’re working in an early-stage industry, how does that impact finding the right talent?

38:02 - Advice for leaders who are scaling their business and maybe the people who were in the business early-on aren’t right for the long-term.

45:15 - Have mentors helped you understand team building?

48:26 - How important do you think it is to be part of industry communities?

53:07 - What key piece of advice would you offer for building a culture that will endure?

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As any team starts to scale, it becomes more and more important to have sustainable and repeatable processes in place. But it’s also not uncommon for that to be overlooked in favour of things like sales and fundraising.

Sherry White is a consultant who works specifically with startups and scale-ups to tackle challenges, unblock and improve leadership, establish good foundations, face tough questions and get things moving fast!

She covers everything from culture and employment law, through to health and safety and commercial balance.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:34 - Sherry’s journey from lab spaces to HR.

3:34 - Are there any particular challenges that you see come up in STEM environments?

6:28 - What are the main things you work with people on in early-stage businesses?

7:47 - What parts of HR and People processes do you often see neglected?

8:40 - What basics should people look at getting in place early?

10:20 - Can startups write their own policies or do they need templates or a consultant?

11:50 - How can startups offer good benefits on a tight budget?

14:25 - Thoughts on equity as part of a compensation package.

16:11 - What makes a good onboarding process?

19:08 - Tips for scaling onboarding as the company grows.

20:53 - Can video recorded onboarding work or should it always be in-person?

22:05 - Is it a good motto to hire slow and fire fast?

24:24- What are the legal requirements when letting someone go?

26:19 - Being aware of disabilities in hiring and firing.

32:57 - How early should you consult with an HR expert? Is it ever too early?

34:53 - How often should you review your HR policies?

36:36 - How to get in touch with Sherry.

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Supporting and engaging neurodiverse talent is a vital part of team building. Parul Singh comes from a background in tech and recruitment and has first-hand experience of the challenges faced by neurodiverse people in the workplace, having been diagnosed in 2021 with autism and ADHD.

Prior to diagnosis, she had experienced burnout, self-destructive behaviour and had struggled in both education and workplace settings. Now with a better understanding of her own needs and divergence, she is the founder of Parallel Minds. She is dedicated to creating positive change for neurodivergent people in the workplace, and supports businesses with recruitment training, coaching for leaders and line managers, running neurodivergence awareness sessions and more.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

3:00 - What was your personal journey towards diagnosis and what made you seek that out?

7:41 - Was there a sense of relief that came with being diagnosed?

11:08 - What led you to leave the workplace and set up Parallel Minds?

13:00 - Key definitions around neurodiversity.

19:08 - Why is it important to talk about and understand neurodiversity in the workplace?

21:56 - Why is there a lack of disclosure between employees and employers?

25:22 - What can companies do to create a safe environment where people feel comfortable to have conversations about their neurodivergence?

28:15 - Startups are very fast-moving and experience a lot of change. Autistic people often struggle with change, so how can you create an environment where everyone can thrive?

31:47 - You can’t be everything to everyone, so at what point do you say ‘this is our company and it might not be for everyone’?

35:33 - What could companies be doing better to tackle common challenges?

46:36 - What coping mechanisms and toolkits do you use to help you?

RESOURCES:

Connect with Parul

Neurodiversity resource bank

Neurodiversity in tech report 2023

Research on the link between ADHD and burnout

DARE report on adjustments

CIPD neuro-inclusion at work report 2024

Equal tech report 2023

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There’s a lot that goes on within a hiring process but what is it actually like from the perspective of founders and the C-suite, when trying to scale a business and build out that initial team?

Sebastian Leape previously worked as a sustainability consultant at McKinsey and has now turned his attention to encouraging people to embed nature into business decision-making. He is CEO at Natcap, where they offer a simple and scalable platform to bring together the world's best science, data and technology to create actionable insights and empower organisations to measure, report and ultimately act on their nature-related risks and opportunities.

During this series, we’ll be discussing the art of building strong, high-performing teams to give your startup the best foundation possible.

I’ll be speaking to industry experts about inclusion, employer branding and establishing culture, plus I’ll be hearing both the VC and founder viewpoints and experiences when it comes to finding and supporting the best talent.

So, whether you’re a founder starting to scaling your team, a hiring manager looking for top talent, or simply curious about how diverse teams are tackling the planet’s most pressing challenges, this series is for you.

1:50 - Where was Natcap in the People journey when you joined and where are you today?

5:22 - How have you stayed true to your scientific and academic roots, and progressed without alienating early employees?

8:43 - What challenges have you faced over the last couple of years when it comes to building out the team?

11:18 - How did you plan your benefits package and what did you decide to include, particularly in light of a tighter budget as a startup?

13:38 - How much did you consult with the team about what to include in the benefits package?

15:14 - Where did you not do onboarding so well and what have you learnt and changed during the process?

19:43 - How did you ensure that managers were able to take over onboarding as the company grew?

23:24 - As your strategy and headcount have changed, how have your company values had to evolve?

30:01 - Did you have any external support when finalising your branding, values and mission?

32:16 - How do your values feed into your recruitment process?

34:34 - How intentional were you when it comes to gender diversity and were there challenges?

39:03 - How have things changed from a People perspective now that you’re post-Series A?

41:41 - Have the characteristics and experience of team members changed in light of Series A and has the team changed overall?

43:28 - What have been your key learnings from the last couple of years and what advice would you give to early-stage founders for team building?

48:26 - Would you advise starting to hire before closing a round, as you did with your Series A, and did that room to hire slower make it better?

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