Jeffery: Welcome to Impact Investing, brought to you by the Supporters Fund from the city with the only castle in North America, Toronto, Canada. I’m your host, Jeffrey JP Potvin. And let’s please welcome from sunny Riverside, California, United States, Serena Courante from snowcat. Welcome, Serena. It’s a real pleasure having you join us today.

Shrina: Thank you so much for having me, Jeff. I really appreciate and appreciate all the work you’re doing to talk about all of the world of impact investing.

Jeffery: I love it. Well, I’m excited because to get the opportunity to chat with you and share a bit of your story, and the reason really dives down to it is that I don’t think I’ve actually got to interview a person that went for Congress, and that to me is exciting. But more exciting is the way you took what you did in working and in approaching Congress. And that’s what I want to dive into because one, you’re an entrepreneur, two, you invest in companies, and three, you have that same mindset of an entrepreneur and how you approach Congress. And that’s pretty cool, because I could tell you every day I look at how people operate in big government, and I think, why do they not think like entrepreneurs? Why don’t they shape everything they do around thinking like they are going to die tomorrow if they don’t work this better, or they don’t find better money or find cleaner ways to do things. And I think you probably found that entire approach. And maybe somewhere we got to print this into a big presentation or a book or something, but I’d be excited to explore this. So but the way we like to start our show off before we do is we want to hear all about you. So if you could share one thing about you that nobody, nobody would know, and then dive a bit into your background from the education all the way forward, and we’ll go from there, of course.

Shrina: Yeah. Well, let’s say something that people wouldn’t know. I think the biggest one might be, when this sort of combines my passion for music and dance and the time that I’ve spent abroad. When I was doing my master’s in Lund, Sweden, which is in southern Sweden, I actually got involved with a lot of different organizations that were putting together and trying to bring forth, amazing artists and local artists and especially female artists. And I actually ran an underground hip hop club in southern Sweden. So I think there is it’s not exactly a secret, but I don’t think it’s something that a lot of people know about me. I think it’s actually a good place to start with my, my background as well. So, my background is as a mechanical engineer, I’m born and raised in Riverside, California and initially got my career started, looking at how to make things work better. That’s always been something that I’ve been interested in is like taking a problem with, like, okay, this doesn’t really make sense. Why do we do it this way? How do we make this work better? So my first, like, engineering project was actually with NASA, working on a lunar outpost, to be able to create a shirt sleeve environment. So that was my, my first thing. I was like, okay, how do we make it so that people can actually hang out on the moon for extended periods of time and do research? I realized that I wanted to work on problems a little bit closer to home. And so I, was actually working on energy efficiency for Southern California, trying to get large natural gas, customers for anywhere from Chipotle is right on the commercial side, all the way through to large manufacturers. To actually move off of natural gas and to electrify is a very, very slow and arduous process. And I have to admit, not particularly successful. And so I wanted to learn about the bigger picture. And there was the sense of, look, we only have so much natural gas left, in Southern California, in terms of what we can tap into, what’s economical to have so much of our economy and society relies on natural gas. What are all the different pieces that are at play, like how do we make that work better? And so I started looking at different programs and ended up in Sweden, which is, for as many people might be aware, really doing a lot in terms of sustainability from the research perspective, in terms of policy, in terms of implementation and sort of just societal awareness. And so I did my master’s there, and that during that time also ran an underground hip hop club and realized that there was a lot more to the sustainability picture than just engineering. Right? There is the technology, but there’s the uptake of technology, there’s the various business models that can be deployed. And so I really wanted to understand and once again, like how to how do we make things work better. So I started on the nature based solution side. So was working with the European Union on climate change mitigation as well as adaptation, across in various case studies, across the EU. And as someone in your early 20s, while I, as you shared earlier, while I did end up running for Congress, or last cycle, at that time, working in government is not exactly the most exciting thing. And so I got bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. Started a couple of companies really deploying my engineering background to actually solving these problems. And, ended up helping build a couple of companies, most of which failed. But then the last one, we were able to sell, and that’s when I got into the investing side. So that’s sort of been my journey, as you know, as an engineer, sort of trying to apply that as a founder. And then recognizing that there were a lot of gaps in the investment space of looking at certain types of problems, figuring out how to get the right types of investors to understand what those problems were and how to actually support and, think through some of these timelines for this technology development. And, that’s sort of been guiding for the most part, my investment career, which started in about 20 1718, in terms of how do we understand the problems that need to be solved, how do we how do we determine the investors that, can actually assess the technology that can help it become successful itself? And how do we ensure that we’re actually making the change in the world that we need to see just because we’re we’re resource constrained, right. So how do we ensure that future, how we do that from a technology and investment perspective? So, spent the past few years, working on the sustainability thesis for a fund out of the Bay area called Better Ventures. Went on to build out an investment platform with Republic to help democratize access to entrepreneurship and capital investing as well. And that’s ultimately what brought me to running for Congress. I was working quite a bit on the, not quite the policy side, but sort of understanding and interpreting the, the regulations around investing in sort of who was able to invest, who was able to raise capital in certain ways, and recognizing that there was a lack of understanding to be frank, of what was needed when it pertains to technology, when it pertains to the future of our economy and how our financial system operates and who has access to it. And also just having some fresh blood in Congress who comes from an entrepreneurial perspective, who’s really there to solve problems. And so I ran for Congress, in 2022, in my hometown in Riverside, against now a 32 year incumbent. So it was, definitely an uphill battle, but like you mentioned, I think not only can we take the perspective of entrepreneurship, in terms of how we design policy and how we how we think about how the government works, but also, how we run campaigns. And so that was also quite interesting to sort of treat my campaign like a startup in a way, and really sort of take a lot of the principles that I had either worked with and coached founders with from an investor perspective, or had deployed myself as a founder, and ran a very lean and scrappy campaign. And ultimately, actually had a lot just in terms of dollars to vote sort of perspective. Had have had a very successful campaign. And so I think there is a a lot to be learned from, not just throwing money at things and how to, how to make things work better. Both from a campaign finance perspective, from a technology perspective. And so sort of across the board, unfortunately didn’t make it through the election. And after the, the actually the day after the election, my one of the partners at Snow Cap has been a dear friend of mine for many years. Gave me a call and he’s like, hey, look, I’m really sorry to hear about the election, but what are you doing next? And so Snow Cap was born, so, I’m sure we’ll we’ll dig into that a little bit later, but, focused on early stage deep tech climate technologies, and really trying to sort of close the gap in terms of the types of technologies that I think need to exist that already do exist. But investors just don’t understand, and how to really commercialize those technologies, so that we can utilize them in our day to day life from an infrastructure perspective, all the way through to, sort of everyone’s day to day, your food, your water, your the roads you drive on the, the, ideally not having to drive at all. Right. Like, what are the different ways that we can implement new technology to sort of make our lives better and also address the climate crisis?

Jeffery: That’s amazing. I love it how you went through and kind of gave this great overview of all of the things that you’ve kind of been part of, from building companies, as you mentioned, the field view, but also, selling a company to then going and running projects and diving into NASA. So there’s lots to unpack there. And I’m going to take just, call it a step back because I think maybe you could share a little bit more of, when you started to do this project for NASA because I think your engineering side really helps you better kind of understand how to break something apart and really refine it down to what is the main problem you’re trying to solve. And I think a lot of startups tend to have this, as I would always, classify when you go into a football match, there’s a million doors, a million seats. Well, maybe not a million probably. 50 to 100,000. But that’s how an entrepreneur thinks. There’s just so many opportunities and options, and they don’t realize that they got to really focus in their brain to get to that one door, into that one small room. And how do I get in there? Because that’s where all the corporate people are. They figured out how to get hyper focused and solve a problem, make money off that one solution. And taking this NASA project, your hyper focus to say, we got to solve one problem. My job is to figure out how we can go sleeveless, which maybe didn’t cross my mind that I would need to do on the moon. Or if I get to the moon, what I’m going to be thinking about doing. So how can you break that down to give a better view of how an entrepreneur would actually think or needs to think when they’re tackling these types of problems?

Shrina: Yeah, that’s a great point. And I think a big part of how you can use the engineering sort of systems thinking approach, where of course, you’re breaking things down to every sort of minuscule component, and you’re trying to make sure that every aspect has the redundancy that’s required, but it’s not overly redundant. That has the tolerances that it needs, that things work and can work well, but don’t have to only work one way because it’s something fails, then there’s sort of no way out. Right? And I think that aspect of sort of designing from an engineering perspective is really powerful. But what’s also really interesting is that from the engineering sort of viewpoint, you also have to take the entire system to account. And I think space is a really interesting one when we’re talking about what’s called a shirt sleeve environment. For this lunar outpost, it literally means like, so you can hang out in a shirt sleeve, right? So you can just be comfortable. The temperature’s comfortable. You’re you’re in a wet area in an environment, that allows you to effectively feel like maybe not quite like you’re on Earth, but at least that you’re you’re fairly comfortable. Right? And so I think there’s a lot of lessons to be learned from. What are those environmental constraints that you need to take into account which ones matter and which ones don’t matter. Right. And so what are the things if you’re if you’re a user facing company, what are the things that your users expect? What are the things that they think they need but they don’t actually need? And what are the things that you want to deliver? And what is the the, the the value that you want to create from what is the problem that you’re ultimately solving for them? And so I think from that larger systems perspective of what are your actual constraints? If you’re looking at that entire stadium, are you realistically looking at the seats? Are you looking at the field? Are you looking at the temperature inside of the stadium? Are you looking are you can get sound levels inside the stadium, right? There’s so many different factors to consider. And so understanding what your particular constraints are for the problem that you’re trying to solve, I think are is is one of the most fundamental aspects of entrepreneurship is designing your own constraints. Because so much of entrepreneurship is around ideation, it’s around innovation. It’s breaking down those walls. It’s breaking down, some of those predispositions that we have towards the way things should work. And so you have to really be able to distinguish what is what is important, what is important for my user, what is important for this problem that I’m trying to solve, what is my scope and what’s actually important. And those are the ways that you can ultimately become laser focused is by being able to Ida within constraints.

Jeffery: Brilliant. So to paraphrase some of that, if in a way, we’re overengineering everything that we’re doing and what you’re doing is you’re kind of saying, here is our focus. We’ve chosen the line of focus, which is comfort. And someone might come to you and say, well, how do we get there? Shouldn’t we just be happy we’re there now and that I can wear a suit? I don’t care if I’m wearing a snow suit with a helmet. I’m just on the moon. This is cool. Let’s just leave it at that. And your goal is to say, yeah, someone else is doing that job, or someone else is focused on that. Someone else is focused on the equipment you’re going to wear. Someone’s going to focus on how we get to the moon, and all of these other pieces are broken down. They’re already focused on our focus is, how do we make you comfortable as a user once you’re on the moon? Once everything’s functional, our job is to figure out how the rest of those elements will line up to maybe your experience on Earth. And in order for us to do that, we have to take many layers back because again, as you mentioned, different atmospheres, all these different pieces, all tie in, but they’re all effective of that one moment that you’re trying to solve. And if it’s if you’re working on the startup side, it’s trying to get them to realize that there’s a million pieces to their business, and they have to really hyper focus on what is the change that people are willing to pay for and willing to accept and want. And that’s why they’re going to come to your business. And if you can isolate that and build it out and really build something that has all of the backups and, protecting itself from IP and everything else so that they don’t fail, you’re going to end up just having this big, convoluted mess that nobody can understand or have any interest to participate in.

Shrina: Exactly. And there’s so many different pathways there, right? You can focus on so many of the different elements, but you have to determine what you want to focus on. What is it that you think customers are willing to pay for? What is it that there is that is their true pain point? That is the problem you’re trying to solve for, and then you can go crazy, right? And then you can think of all the different ideas, you can get excited, you can come up with, with all the crazy ideas. But first you have to determine what those parameters are for which you’re actually solving.

Jeffery: Now that’s awesome. Almost everybody should have to go work at NASA then, I think, so that they can get their engineering minds on on how to focus and how to really build something that’s, going to fit into a market because it’s so important for a startup to survive is that they’re solving a problem, or they’re breaking down a problem so that other people can say, wait a second, what are things changing, too? Like today, I was listening to a podcast where they’re talking about the shift from alcohol to nonalcoholic drinks and how restaurants and everybody have to make the shift. If they’re not envisioning the shift, they’re not going to be able to accommodate all of these different people. If they’re not focused on what can be a new paradigm that’s going to happen. Can I just build a lot of nonalcoholic drinks and build a shop that just focuses on that? And if that’s my focus, then I should be able to come up with the best solution and keep working with my customers, iterating on that to get to the right focus.

Shrina: Yeah. That’s right.

Jeffery: So in taking kind of what you’re doing at the end, I saw an understanding on the engineering side. And again, engineering brains are amazing because they do have to modularize everything and break everything down. You started to move into your own businesses and started to build those out. Did you find as you’re progressing through entrepreneurship and as you said, taking that chance and doing things as an entrepreneur, did you start to find that you’re falling back to what you’ve already learned through schooling and through obviously, working at NASA in other places. Did you start seeing that this became easier? And I oh, I know how to do this. I’ll just whip this business together and, we need to focus on this area. Did you find yourself stumbling? How did that process, work over the first few businesses that you mentioned that you failed? What were the main learnings that you gained from that? You would say, you know, please pay attention to these top five things because they’re going to help you stop before you fail and help you get out without losing your shirt.

Shrina: Yeah. That’s, I was it was a huge learning curve in so many different ways. And I think I will I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say that entrepreneurship is easy, or it comes sort of naturally in the sense that you can just take one skill set and immediately figure out all these other things you need to do in entrepreneurship. Because so much of being an entrepreneur and starting a company is, of course, at its core, all the things we just talked about, right? Like identifying the problem, figuring out the solution, understanding what those parameters are. But there’s so much more than that. And there is team. And I think that is one of the biggest learnings for me is when you’re working on an engineering project, your scope is defined, it’s understanding just how to do it better. And not saying that it’s easy to be an engineer either and to come up with that best solution. But in a sense, you have all of the pieces that you need, and you just need to keep working to ensure that you’re finding the right solution. Whereas the ability to motivate a team, incentivize a team, keep people together, keep folks aligned, understanding how people communicate, the words that they’re choosing to use and what they actually mean by them. That was an aspect that I think I completely underestimated was the importance of the people around you, the people around you sharing the same vision, but not necessarily the same mindset, and being able to really bring their diverse perspectives together to ultimately design the best company possible. But there were I think it’s it’s all of the things aside from the actual engineering, aside from the problem solving, aside from all of those those things that can be broken down and it’s understand adding market conditions, right? It’s trying to figure out how to make something that you’re building palatable to an investor. So that way they understand what they’re investing in. So that way they they see the opportunity. But then also your ability to communicate that, both to the people that are working with you, but then also and potential investors. And so I think, yes, in some ways, I think having an engineering mindset is incredibly helpful for, for so many different things. Just the ability to have that systems thinking perspective, to be able to break things down, to be able to focus. But I also think that ultimately that is a, a, a framework that is, that is the skeleton for which you need to add all of these other pieces around. And it’s and it’s not quite enough. So I would say my, my biggest takeaway, from the, the first two companies in particular were to really emphasize who you’re working alongside and how you’re able to complement each other’s skill sets. But then also recognizing that entrepreneurship is hard enough. End of the day, if people aren’t all in, then the likelihood of success, it just just dwindles right. And so there, there’s there was a lot to learn, around sort of starting my own company, especially the first one that I started because there was I thought it was just about solving a problem. I thought it was just about building a product. I thought there was just all these steps that I had to take. And as long as I followed the steps and everything would work out. But unfortunately, on an entrepreneurship is not quite so linear.

Jeffery: I totally agree with that. As an engineer brain, I just figured that if I build something great, they’ll come and I won’t have to worry about all of the other pieces. And I agree that the communication side and team is huge. And if you’re not the communicator, you need to find someone that can communicate and ensure that they push that across the team, because that aligns incentives that have lines of direction. And people also have, goal setting where they want to be. And it’s understanding where those goals are going to be for them to achieve their own, growth in life as well. So now you’ve kind of taken these great learnings and shape them into your next company, which you ended up selling. Did you find that because of the first two fails and, that all the experiences you had in the past were that did that propel you in the next business where you said, okay, now I’ve figured it out, now I’ve understood how these things are work and these are the types of people I’m going after, and this is the reason we’re going to be successful. Or in your mind, were you still thinking, okay, this time I’ve figured out how to communicate to investors. I figured out these parts. I’m not sure I’m going to be successful in this business, but I’m going to go at it anyways and just see where it takes me. Did your mindset shift to being more, more proactive and positive, or did it still kind of stay in the same line just because you’re always improving every day and you weren’t really paying attention to those other pieces?

Shrina: Yeah, I think with every experience you have, one of the most important aspects is, of course, being all in during the actual experience. But it’s also reflecting afterwards and ensuring that you’re having those insights and takeaways and figuring out what whether you know, it was the right or wrong thing to do. What is your personal assessment of whether you would do it again or not? Right. Like, what are the things that you would change? And so that’s actually an area I would really credit my brother. So the last company was actually one that I was building with him. And he had actually an incredible sort of clarity of vision that he was able to communicate incredibly well. And then being able to sort of piece together the right team, for the company and ensuring that we’re sort of picking up all those lessons. But I will say that not to say that I’ve always done things better, but I think it’s it’s incredibly important, sort of take that time to reflect and understand, what went wrong from your perspective, like do your postmortem analysis and figure out, you know, how would you change things going forward? And I think it’s not about being right or wrong. It’s more about, taking the time to understand how you would change and sort of pausing in that moment, to sort of figure out what that next step is. So I guess to sort of answer your question, I think it’s a it’s a little bit of both in the sense that there’s the daily grind. There’s I’m throwing myself into this, and in some sense I’m not picking my head up for, for air, but also building in those moments where as even if it’s at the end of an experience to at least then sort of take a step back and breathe for one, appreciate everything that you’ve been through and have gratitude for that experience. And then also reflect on, well, what would I change? What are the things that I wouldn’t do? Again, it’s something that I, I think about a lot with my campaign where people, often ask, what would you do differently next time? And there’s in one hand a lot of things that I would do differently, but on the other side, there’s a lot of things that I wouldn’t really change because I was authentic to. I was I ran the campaign the way that I wanted to. I didn’t necessarily compromise my values. And so some of those fundamental pieces will remain. There’s a lot that I learned, of course, and that I you know, being a second time candidate versus being a first time candidate is a very different experience. It’s very similar to being a second time, a repeat founder, versus your first time starting a company. But and I think that taking that opportunity to be grateful for the experience you just had, but then also, really reflecting on what aspects will remain, what our core to you and that you won’t change even if you think that there’s a better path versus one of the things that you think you can actually improve on and, and want to improve on.

Jeffery: I like that. And there’s a couple of lines that you said that are brilliant for all of it’s brilliant, but these ones particular all in, I think it makes such a big difference when you’re all in, in anything you do because you have the potential to fail at any moment. And I think that is what drives people to really work a little extra hard, focus a little more, and do a little bit differently each time because they’re all in. So I really like the fact that you emphasize, you know, that reflecting on I’m all in, I’ve got to do these things. And the other one was, would you do it again? And, you know, I think with your brother, it, it, I think it builds because of the comfort level. It also builds a lot of stability and trust. So you have a lot of things that are already tied in there that help you move quicker because you understand each other in and through. And then of course, when you’re all in, you’re both all in and you’re both driving this. So there’s there’s so many great elements that you take all of this mixture of, of life experiences and everything you’ve gone through. You’re all in, you’re in with, somebody, you know, and you guys have just put together, a fantastic model, and you use your strengths and offset each other to build this company into a more successful space. And of course, you proved that with selling it. And then you went into running for Congress and all the things that I’ve read and everything that you’ve done in this space, I it almost comes down to and, it’s a tough one to to say and maybe I’m completely wrong here, but all it came down to is that you should have won this. But the only thing that was different was they had 33 years of experience, and their name was more prevalent than someone that was up and coming. Which only means that if you ran again in ten years or five years and continued to stay in the forefront, you would be a clean sweep because people start to see the great things you’ve done, the things you’ve accomplished, and how much you work inside of green climbing tech and helping everywhere. That all of a sudden now your name gets as big as someone that’s got 33 years in government and that’s just a landslide win for you. Is that false to say, and am I creating this new way we’re going to cut and snip this out and send it out and start telling people you’re calling for president? I’m just curious. But you know, what do you think.

Shrina: I, I appreciate that, and, my very biased perspective is that I also think I should have won. And I think a big part of I mean, just zooming out a little bit to our larger political system, so much of it really does come down to in politics. It’s called name ID, and it’s effectively how people recognize you, right? Just them knowing your names when they see it on a ballot. And there’s a bunch of other people they don’t know, they’re like, oh, yeah, I think I know who that is. Like, I’ll fill in that bubble. And that is a huge part. That’s, that’s what all advertising dollars go towards, right? That’s what all outreach efforts go towards. It’s just name recognition. So that way when they see your name on a ballot, they’re, they’re willing to vote for you. And so, I think you, you hit the nail on the head in terms of the fundamental aspect of really winning an election is just making sure that people know who you are. So I’m hoping, Jeff, that this podcast is going to blow me up into being the next candidate.

Jeffery: But we’re going to have to focus on that one. But I love.

Shrina: It. A little bit of homework that I have for you. But anyways, I, I do think that that is, is fundamentally an aspect of, of running for office is just making sure that people know who you are, and that can either be very time intensive. It can be very, expensive if you end up going the advertising route. And I think if people understand the sort of weight of building a brand, especially in modern politics, especially with social media, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for people who have not been sitting in Congress for 32 years to really have a shot at, at at those seats.

Jeffery: I agreed, and I think, too, that there’s a lot of value in how you focused on community and community building. Going out to local businesses and solutions that they were bringing. I think a lot of these things change the element of how people view entrepreneurship, how they view their potential. Congressperson that’s going to be running for office and how they’re going to be taken care of. So I think all of those elements create a lot of, intrinsic value throughout the ecosystem. It gets people more excited for, up and coming people that care about them. And I think that goes to building your name and putting you on that ballot. And as you said, they start to see your name and think, this person’s making a difference. And, you know, with the fund and where you’re going with that, I see the same opportunity. Right. And it’s not to say that everything in the fund wise, you’re going to be doing that for the rest of your life. But there is also, I think they said that people get into teaching because they feel the gap that they want to solve, which is they didn’t see that there was good enough teachers and they wanted to improve the system. So it sounds like, and very few people take the risk to become a Congress, woman or anybody, because it’s a tough field, as you mentioned. So it almost sounds like you’re building your way into something bigger. You don’t know where that’s going to be, of course, but it sounds like all the things you’re doing in a planetary perspective, in your own community, that all of these are buildups to something different and who knows where that be in the next two years. But, now, today, with your fund, maybe you can share a bit more about what that buildup has been, because as you mentioned, when it didn’t work out, you got the phone call and decided to to build sno cap, which is pretty exciting. And and I think this keeps you in the forefront of, not just in Riverside, but of course, more globally, across, the United States as well.

Shrina: Yeah. I think there has been a really exciting shift, especially in these past couple of years, where even the term climate tech has emerged right. We’ve often talked about whether it was green sustainability solutions, whether it was clean tech. There’s just all these sort of different words, that didn’t quite capture all of the aspects of climate, right? Whether it be water or food and agricultural systems, whether it be waste, transportation, mobility, energy, there’s just so many aspects that really touch our every day. And with snow cap, I think we have a real opportunity because we’re focusing on deep tech and sort of high up in that supply chain is to fundamentally innovate on what those inputs to supply chains are. Right. So as an example, we’re looking at the energy sort of revolution that’s happening with electrification. Obviously with EVs, I think something that people are very familiar with, there’s all of the aspects that need to be implemented from infrastructure for charging through to the EVs themselves for long range vehicles. And as we think about what some of those bottlenecks are, especially for electrification at large, we’re seeing transmission lines, right, be one of the biggest issues for actual infrastructure. But then when we look at what our tools are, for actually rolling out the whether it’s, let’s say long haul trucking, for example, we’re seeing issues in batteries, right? Our batteries are not quite at the state where, they can sort of fulfill all of the, the needs we have, whether it be from grid stability through to trucking. Now for the batteries themselves, there is all sorts of different form factors. There’s different ways that you can implement them. But we’re also seeing a bottleneck in lithium. Right. So it’s like what are the actual materials. What are the battery configurations from the anode through to the materials to the way that the batteries themselves are formed and designed? That actually are all contributing to the fact that we’re not ready just yet from a technology roll out perspective. To fully electrify everything. Right. And that’s where we’re investing. So we’re looking at what are those material inputs, what are those sort of scientific breakthroughs that if we’re able to find, a new input, a new material, a new, configuration, a new way to actually fundamentally change how we view what a battery is, it could completely transform the outlook for electrification across the US and ideally across the globe. And so I think that’s an element that a lot of investors really shy away from. Right? As soon as you say deep tech, as soon as you say science and R&D, as soon as it starts moving away from B2B SaaS and getting into the real hard, nitty gritty stuff. That’s where I think snowcapped really excels is our entire Jeep is all engineers. Right? So it’s myself as a mechanical engineer. Nate, to talk for Peter, who gave me that phone call, who’s backgrounds also as a mechanical engineer, as a PhD and has now been in nuclear for quite a while. And our third partner, John Azoff, also an engineer. Right. And so we’re really kind of going back to the the initial part of our conversation is taking that system’s thinking mindset. It’s looking at this bigger picture of climate, and it’s saying that how do we understand what these bottlenecks are? How do we pinpoint what some of those major unlock could be for that step change of innovation, and so that it’s high enough up the supply chain, that it doesn’t matter whether it’s going to be used for drones or the grid, or for long haul trucking or whatever the end the actual use case might be, we can fundamentally transform what a battery looks like right from the inside. And I think that’s something that is incredibly exciting for me, is to really be able to be at that forefront of really reshaping some of those those fundamental building blocks of our infrastructure, of how we look at, all of these systems around us and really identify what those choke points are. And then put the money into the innovation that we think can continue and really transform them.

Jeffery: That’s awesome. And I, I can I guess taking from what you shared is that you’re really kind of going into the granular process of what the final output is, and understanding is there bigger change here that’s not happening? Is there a way to modify how we look at batteries? Is there a way to modify how the supply chain is pulling materials? Is there new materials out there that could better assist or create duration of batteries so that they have a longer runtime, whatever those changes are, you’re kind of looking at it in challenging, how can we find the fix and what business is doing this today? And then if we implemented that and put capital behind it, would that be able to scale into a larger based entity because it would be filling the gap that people aren’t currently seeing right now? Is that fair to say?

Shrina: Yeah, that that’s exactly right. Very well summarized. I feel like I’m still trying to figure out how to communicate our thesis, that you just spit it right back at me. So I done.

Jeffery: All right. I’m hired. Yes. All right. We’re in. This is good. But no, it’s good. I love it because I think, again, this goes that entrepreneurial brain is I have to figure out. And the engineering brain is I have to figure out is how do I communicate where and what that pieces that we’re trying to solve. So how do I get into that room? And once I get into that room, I can do anything because I figured out what that one nugget is. That has to change. And once you start to hyperfocus on that, then you can explode it out. Right? And I think every big business has got that. And you guys are now kind of figuring out, okay, somewhere along this supply chain there’s other breaks and we don’t know what they are to talk about it. In every podcast. They talk about it all over the news that supply chain broke. This doesn’t work, but they don’t really go granular. So you just think, how is it broken? What’s wrong with the supply chain? But when you really think about it, the supply chain is broken because they’re trying to source material that doesn’t exist, or they’re trying to source material that has very limited quantities, and you can only get in one little rural area of China. So there’s so many things that are broken that we don’t understand or see, because we’re also not getting and feeding that information out. And that’s kind of where you’re going after. And trying to attack that little spot and say, we have to get off lithium. We need to go into this space where there’s an abundance of X and start to test, and there’s a company doing this. Let’s get behind that. So you’re being just as innovative on finding these companies that are challenging status quo.

Shrina: Yeah, I thank you for summarizing that so well.

Jeffery: I love it. Well, that’s a great way for us to jump into our next segment. And the next segment is our 62nd rant. So are you ready for this?

Shrina: Gosh, I need it. There’s so many things that I can rant about. I need to give me 30s to figure out what I’m going to rant about.

Jeffery: All right, you’ve got 30s to think, and then I’m going to start the clock. As I will say, no one has ever hit the the 62nd mark. So take your time, let it roll. And, I will try my best to, to hit a rebuttal, but you’re on one. We’re ready to go.

Shrina: All right. Okay. I’m ready. I think one of the fundamental pieces that we’ve been talking about a lot is the engineering mindset. It’s entrepreneurship. It’s government and policy, and how all of these different things play together. And I think one of the things that I think is so fundamentally important for people to understand is the importance of the engineering mindset and entrepreneurship, but also how government by design has an opportunity to provide that stability, to provide that trust and not necessarily move as quickly as entrepreneurship can. And I think that is one of the most important aspects of when we talk about, you know, public private partnerships about the role of government, the role of private sector is to figure out what that interplay actually is. What are the spaces where government can build those transmission lines, where government can really come in and build that foundational infrastructure, but then private sector can come in and actually move quickly. It can break things because it’s not building transmission lines, it’s not building the fundamental things that everyone needs. In order for all of these different aspects to be successful, the private sector can innovate on the business models, private sector can figure out how to reach people that are hard to reach. Private sector can sort of take on the responsibility of moving quickly, of breaking things, of finding solutions, of funding them and pulling funding when it doesn’t work. But if we sort of put that responsibility on government to say, great, we’re going to run a six month pilot and something if it doesn’t work, we’re all of a sudden going to shut down access to power. We’re going to shut down access to something that’s so fundamental for society, for humanity to sort of be able to rely on. I think being able to sort of have that distinguishing factor between, understanding the role of a public sector government entity and the ability to provide the stability to actually solve the problems, that maybe it’s not as economical for private sector to actually tackle, and then for private sector to take on that role of being the innovator, of being the entrepreneur, of moving quickly and being able to roll out those very quick pilots, of being able to roll out small scale project on top of that funding and fundamental infrastructure that, that the government has provided for.

Shrina: So I think the the importance of public, private and those two working together and each understanding the other’s role in allowing both to actually do what they do best in terms of providing that underlying fundamental structural stability and access to baseline resources, and then also allowing innovation to thrive and to build on top of those fundamental needs and understand, sort of fill out all of the different, whether it’s fringe, whether it’s comfort, whether it’s what all the different use cases that we we want and we want to continue to be able to have access to, but don’t necessarily have to rely on the government for each one of each, each and every one of those things. So and rant.

Jeffery: Done. Well, that wasn’t 60s, but it was a fantastic grant, and I loved every part of it because you broke it down. You hit a lot of points that I 100% agree that there is a better way to work with government and business. I’m going to counter with. I find the issue though, is that if you give too much leeway to the government, the government takes too much control and screws it up because the government doesn’t understand the direction of innovation that a founder is trying to take. Rules and regulations are in to control these aspects. So how do you set it up and impose that? Government takes on the first chunk of the test, meaning that they support it? Big corporations find the way to make money, but they can’t steal the IP, meaning that you have a lot of young entrepreneur businesses that come into this space. They try to get into some into some testing, and big corporations start pulling and taking this new innovation before it’s been patented, and then they walk away with all the dollars and they allow the startup to fail, or they allow the startup to lose out on this. How do you protect these systems? So that when the startup comes into the space, the government offers a safe zone for them to come in and run small pilots so they can get this technology out, which includes patents and structuring, so that the big corporations can’t come in and steal any of this. But the big corporations can come in and support it so that these entrepreneurs can build a business, and they can do it again in a safe spot where they’re getting government funding, grants and support and big business support and backing. Is this something that fits in this world? Because if you can build this, I think it’s a home run.

Shrina: That’s a really good point. And I think the aspect of ensuring that government isn’t sort of overstepping and isn’t overregulating stifling innovation, but that also larger corporations, aren’t coming and sort of gobbling up all of that early innovation and that entrepreneurs have the ability to continue to actually innovate. I think is fundamental to the success of a any sort of, arrangement between the government, between public and private sector and I’m going to give a very quick answer, because I know we’re coming up at the end of our podcast, is that I think we just need to sort of comes back to that team piece of a building. Anything from scratch is we need the right people on both sides, right? We need people in government who fundamentally understand the process of innovation, who understand the needs that early stage entrepreneurs require and who also, sort of have the overarching sort of good will to actually build out the space on infrastructure. So I think, I think what it really comes down to, of course, there’s the nuance of actual policies that you would write off the way that regulations can be structured of the, the, the sort of, safe bubbles for entrepreneurship and that can be supported by public sector. But I think what it ultimately comes down to is having people who understand innovation and people who understand the need for a stable, public sector to be able to work together.

Jeffery: I love it and agreed that there is a fine balance. And I think if you create that safe zone and provide the right protections and governance, then these technologies can thrive. And if you allow it to be in a controlled state for testing, you can then decide if you remove that tech because it’s not going to be valuable or that you move it forward. And then that’s where the rest of the investors and the environment can start to pick up on it and and drive it into some value. So I think that’s awesome. Well, we’re getting down to the last, last portions of the podcast. So we’re going to ask a bunch of rapid fire questions. And then we’re pretty much done. So I’ll jump right into them.

Shrina: Perfect.

Jeffery: All right. So from an investor standpoint, you choose what you look for when you start to invest. Pick one or the other. When you’re investing, do you prefer a founder or co-founder?

Shrina: Okay. So can you take the question again? Sorry. What I prefer.

Jeffery: Lasting from your perspective. When you find a company to invest in, do you prefer they have a founder or co founder like multiple founders in the company, or are you like one solo founder when you’re making an investment? Oh.

Shrina: Definitely multiple co-founders.

Jeffery: I do unicorn or a four year ten x exit.

Shrina: Four year, ten x.

Jeffery: Tech or CPG.

Shrina: Tech.

Jeffery: AI or blockchain.

Shrina: Oh, interesting. I think both can work together. Do I have to pick one?

Jeffery: They can work together. Agreed. For, first one?

Shrina: Yeah.

Jeffery: Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Shrina: Oh, no, I’m going to I’m going to take the path.

Jeffery: Okay. First money. Our series A.

Shrina: First money in.

Jeffery: Board seat or observer.

Shrina: Board seat?

Jeffery: A number of investments per year.

Shrina: Five.

Jeffery: Ooh, nice safe or convertible note

Shrina: safe.

Jeffery: Lead Or follow.

Shrina: Lead.

Jeffery: Favorite part of investing?

Shrina: Meeting entrepreneurs.

Jeffery: And lastly, verticals of focus.

Shrina: Broadly. Climate tech. But early stage deep tech and high up in that supply chain.

Jeffery: All right. We’re almost there. Favorite book.

Shrina: Ooh I’m going to have to pass on this one because I have a portfolio approach to my reading that, I can’t I can’t just pick one.

Jeffery: I love it. Yeah, a couple hundred books, but all right, fair. Favorite sports team?

Shrina: Oh, I’m not a sports person. I don’t know. I grew up watching the Lakers. I guess the Lakers.

Jeffery: Lakers, rock. Well, it’s only because they’ve been in the movies a lot, too. Favorite movie? And what character would you play?

Shrina: Oh, okay. I’m going to have to pass on this one as well. I’m not a big movie watcher, to be honest, so. All right, all right.

Jeffery: These are the personal questions. So they’re always hard hitting a bit. So, what piece of advice would you give nine out of ten times to founders?

Shrina: Piece of advice. Be all in.

Jeffery: I like it. Who is your hero mentor and why?

Shrina: I have to say, my brother, someone that I look up to. And it’s incredible to have someone to. To be able to go through life with and, and continue to look up to.

Jeffery: Awesome. And, lastly, what is your superpower?

Shrina: Positivity. I think there’s a lot of things to be solved in this world and a lot of problems, but we have to believe that we can solve them.

Jeffery: I love it, brilliant. Well, this comes to the end of our show, and I want to say, Trina was a real pleasure getting to dive into all of the things that you’ve done. It’s been fantastic to learn more about yourself and what you guys are working on today, and the way we like to end our show is we like to give you the last word. So anything you want to share to the investor community, to startups, so anybody out there in the community, I turn it over to you and please share how people can get Ahold of you. But again, I want to thank you very much for sharing. It was fantastic learning.

Shrina: Thank you so much for having me. Would love to be able to connect with anyone that is, looking at the climate tech space, whether you’re an entrepreneur, you’re another investor. You’re working on the government side on really any sort of stakeholder or actor that’s trying to address climate change. So feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn and let me know that that you, heard about everything that we’re working on this podcast. And excited to to just meet new people. We’re excited to solve the same problems.

Jeffery: I love it. Thank you very much, Trina.

Shrina: Thanks so much, Jeff. All right. Take care.

Jeffery: Trina shared some, some fantastic insights and, on building companies working for the government. Lots of great things. And we touched on a bunch of them. And I really liked how, you know, talked about how you can get into democratizing things, figuring out how you can run things like a startup, hyper focused, mean and lean. Lots of great things around, around that side of it. And of course, you talked a lot about the right team and the right people that you’re working with. How do you motivate, how do you incentivize? How do you get on the same vision? You know, things are going to be a little bit different, but you have to be going in the same direction. So I guess All in was another big one, as she mentioned, all about how do you make sure that you’re going after everything you want and you’re doing it on, you know, your time and doing it with everything in, another part we didn’t talk too much about, which is the postmortem and, you know, Srinu did mention that you got to kind of look back on the things that you’ve done, test them, figure out what the outcome is, and then move forward, which sounds like sometimes you need to take a breath and say, did this work? Why didn’t this work? And then take site, build your KPIs so that the next project or the next implementation you do. You’ve got those insights to improve on, and this way you have metrics that you can keep improving on everything that you’re building up inside of your business. And lastly. Focus. I think focus is a big one. It really does, talked about it from the engineering brain and working at Nassau. So you really did talk a lot about how do I get into that room, how do I figure out exactly what I’m building in that granular spot? Is it solving a real problem? And then from there, I think you’re going to be able to find a lot more structured, an easier way to operate. So thank you for joining us today. If you enjoyed this conversation, please feel free to share with your friends, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or please follow follow us on Spotify, Amazon or Apple. You can find us on all social platforms, including LinkedIn at supporters. Fun. Your support and comments are truly appreciated. Please visit us at Supporters fund.com or startup events at Open People now Worldcom. Thank you and have a fantastic day.