Ep. 137: Josh Felser, Angel investor and Co-Founder of Freestyle VC

Today's guest is Josh Felser, Angel investor and Co-Founder of Freestyle VC.

I was excited for this episode, as Josh is among a growing group of very successful people coming from other industries who are looking to get serious about addressing climate change. Josh is a several time entrepreneur, (founded Spinner, acquired by AOL Time Warner and Grouper, acquired by Sony), and went on to co-found Freestyle Capital, a venture capital firm focused on backing early stage internet and mobile startups.

After working with Bill Trenchard from First Round Capital on a California task force to connect startups with the government to help in the COVID-19 crisis, Josh realized that he wanted to do something more to help with these huge societal problems. He’s been working in and around climate for a long time. He started an organization called #Climate.org, and he’s donated to nonprofits and been on different committees at the Sierra Club and tried to effect change through the nonprofit path. Josh found the nonprofit path to be challenging, at least for him, to leverage his background into impact, and his experience working with Bill gave him the conviction to try to forge a professional path combining investing with tackling the climate crisis. A great article on Josh’s transition is here.

If you can’t tell, Josh’s story is pretty similar to yours truly! So I was especially excited to hear how Josh’s process is going and compare notes. It is a great discussion, and I hope you enjoy! I didn’t know Josh before we both transitioned from tech into working on climate change, but I am glad to know him and hope we do more together in the future!

Enjoy the show!

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Episode recorded December 7th, 2020