About episode
If you’re listening to this podcast you probably agree that climate solutions need to be deployed at scale, across industries, and ultimately influence the lives of everyone. And yet, it’s still hard for most people to invest in and access the solutions our future relies on.
The episode features two companies that are working towards increasing access to climate tech for investors and consumers.
Raise Green is an investment platform that enables non-accredited investors to invest in climate solutions such as climate tech startups, energy efficiency retrofitting programs, green bonds, and renewable energy projects. I’m a fan of Raise Green’s approach – helping people invest across a spectrum of climate solutions and helping more diverse entrepreneurs raise capital, and full disclosure, I’m a Raise Green investor.
WeSolar is a community solar developer. It enables more people to access residential solar, and it successfully raised capital on RaiseGreen.
We’re joined today by the CEOs and Founders of Raise Green and WeSolar: Franz Hochstrasser and Kristal Hansley. Both Franz and Kristal bring fascinating backgrounds and perspectives. We talk about the genesis and aspirations of each of their companies, where they are in their journeys, what it takes to educate people about investing in climate opportunities, and much more. Enjoy.
In today’s episode, we cover:
- [3:04] Kristal’s background & how it led to WeSolar
- [5:24] Franz’s background & how it led to RaiseGreen
- [6:55] The need for a climate-focused online investing platform
- [9:34] Investment crowdfunding, how it emerged, how it’s evolved & its importance today
- [11:01] Companies & projects that have raised money on RaiseGreen
- [12:03] The scale that RaiseGreen has reached so far
- [12:50] RaiseGreen’s track record working with underrepresented founders & improving access to capital
- [14:25] WeSolar & the problem that it’s aiming to solve
- [15:53] How the community solar market has developed and its role in the future
- [18:04] WeSolar’s competitive advantage
- [20:22] How Kristal believes partnerships with solar developers will evolve over time
- [20:53] A walkthrough of WeSolar’s user experience
- [22:14] Getting people interested in solar, educating them about benefits & how it works
- [23:56] What’s working & what isn’t working for communicating with investors
- [28:02] Kristal’s experience raising capital with RaiseGreen
- [30:05] Wesolar’s current campaign on WeFunder & why listeners should check it out
- [31:21] RaiseGreen as a business: How big can it be & key metrics for success
- [34:46] WeSolar’s trajectory: Key metrics & milestones for success
- [35:55] Final thoughts from Kristal & Franz
Kristal’s background & how it led to WeSolar
Kristal hails from Brooklyn, New York and is a former foster youth who was adopted by her grandparents at the age of 12. Her grandmother’s legacy as a community organizer inspired her to become a fourth-generation community organizer and pursue environmental justice through community solar. Kristal has a well-rounded background in politics, having graduated from Howard University with a degree in political science and spent 10 years on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist for nonprofits, hospitals, and schools. She also worked as an adviser to a former United States Senate Majority Leader and as a case advisor in a district office for Eleanor Holmes Norton. With her experience in policy advocacy and community organizing, Kristal saw community solar as an opportunity to merge her passions and make a difference in transitioning away from fossil fuels.
Franz’s background & how it led to Raise Green
Franz, who grew up in California, was captivated by politics early on in life and joined the Obama campaign in 2008 as a field organizer. This marked his first foray into community organizing for electoral politics, which led him to various jobs in the Obama administration in Washington, DC after the campaign. He began his career at the USDA, where he deployed Recovery Act dollars from the previous largest climate investment in US history. Later, he worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the US State Department, where he played a role in negotiating the Paris Agreement on climate change. Franz then pursued graduate school, where he synthesized his experiences and came up with a business model for RaiseGreen. As the CEO and co-founder of Raise Green for the last five years, Franz draws on his community organizing background and inclusive approach to solving problems to drive more capital into climate solutions.
The need for a climate-focused online investing platform
Franz pointed out that the IPCC’s sixth assessment report indicated that the planet is nearing the tipping point of catastrophic climate change. As a result, there is a critical need for everyone, not just governments and moneyed interests, to take action to prevent this from happening. At Raise Green, Franz and his team identified two unmet market needs that they aim to address with their climate investment platform. Firstly, people are seeking more sustainable investment options, and secondly, there is a need to deploy more projects and get more clean energy on the grid to solve the climate crisis. Raise Green aims to enable this whole of society mobilization by connecting climate investors who can contribute as little as $100 to clean energy projects or climate companies seeking capital. The platform also helps climate companies structure their offerings in a way that drives community awareness and more adoption for their products, effectively turning their customers into investors.
WeSolar & the problem that it’s aiming to solve
Kristal explains that WeSolar aims to solve two problems. First, they want to provide economic resilience to communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change by giving them access to renewables and the savings and protection they provide. WeSolar achieves this by generating solar and virtual subscriptions and making them available to communities that may not have had access to them otherwise. This approach promotes diversification and ensures that all communities can access clean technology. Second, WeSolar wants to address community needs through entrepreneurs and co-founders who are from those communities, particularly entrepreneurs of color who traditionally have less access to venture capital.
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Franz Hochstrasser & Kristal Hansley
Connect with Jason Rissman
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