The Energy Seminar: "Venture Capital and Demand-side Decarbonization: How to get rich while saving the planet," Mike Lin, Co-founder and General Partner at Dangerous Ventures

Abstract: Venture Capital investor Mike Lin shares his entrepreneurial journey from Stanford (BS '03, MS '06), to Apple, to startup founder, to venture investing. He'll dive into his venture capital investment thesis centered on demand-side decarbonization, integrative design, and anti-fragility.

Bio: Mike Lin is an investor, engineer and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in tech, startups and venture capital.

Mike is a co-founder and General Partner at Dangerous Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in startups building a more resilient and sustainable future. Dangerous focuses on solutions that empower people, the planet, and society to be more resilient and thrive in a rapidly changing environment. Mike is also a Lecturer at Stanford's Doerr School of Sustainability where he teaches SUST 234: Integrative Design, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital for Sustainability.

He was previously a Partner at Big Idea Ventures, a climate fund investing in plant-based food and alternative protein. Prior to working in venture capital, he was Founder and CEO of Fenix International, a renewable energy and fintech startup that currently powers over 9.5 million people across nine countries. He raised over $45M in venture capital and venture debt, developed patented energy technologies and forged strategic partnerships with the world’s largest mobile telecoms including Vodafone, Orange and MTN. Fenix grew to over 350 employees and was successfully acquired in April 2018 by Engie, one of the world’s largest utilities, and continues to operate under ENGIE Energy Access.

Mike believes that business can be a vehicle for positive change and combines his passion for social and environmental prosperity with design thinking, business strategy and new product development. He is a serial entrepreneur and worked at Makani Power (acquired by Google) and Squid Labs, a startup studio (Instructables, acquired by Autodesk). He has worked with Apple on climate change and environmental technologies, Al Gore on the “Inconvenient Truth” presentation and lectured courses on green design and entrepreneurship at Stanford and Yale.

Mike has six patents, has received over $1.7M in grants from the US Environmental Protection Agency and UK Government, awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Aspen Institute, BusinessWeek, and Popular Science, and has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, Wired, The Guardian and others. Mike earned an MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering and Product Design from Stanford University.

He is an Eagle Scout, a champion Junior Olympic Archer and co-founder of the Stanford University Archery team. He enjoys spending time with his family outdoors mountain biking, growing food, and cooking over an open fire.

LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeltlin/