C2V Feb 2020 Notes from the Trenches
Welcome back!
We’ve now been working with our current portfolio for several months: Kambr, Magellan AI, boostr, Beam, Otari and Paladin, and our operator bench is both leaning in to support them and also co-investing alongside the fund. This is the C2V way. Expect big news coming from several of the portfolio companies in the coming months.
And Our Next Investment Is…
In our last newsletter, we teased that C2V was going to announce our seventh investment in the cleantech space and now we finally get to share that company. But first some fun facts (or at least some facts) 😉.
Chris was born in Helsinki, Finland and still considers Finland his second home. The country, which is among those with the "best quality of life” year after year, is progressive and efficient, and a global leader in key areas like healthcare, education and climate change. It’s even home to childhood icon Santa Claus.
As we noted in a previous newsletter, with less than six million inhabitants, Finland punches well above its weight in a number of areas, including professional hockey talent, saunas with adjoining bars/restaurants, and incredible data scientists, engineers, startups and founders (often all in one package).
These last four are undoubtedly a product of Finland’s perennial number one ranking in just about every global education survey (the first two because, well, it’s cold and dark a lot there, and what else are you going to do — actually that probably doesn’t hurt the engineering/startup thing either).
Perfect segue to introduce our seventh investment and first non-US based company: StepOne Technologies. Their eFlexFuel technology enables gasoline-powered vehicles to convert to flex-fuel vehicles capable of running up to 85% ethanol blends, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 88%.
While consumers and governments alike strive to reduce carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions, options for tackling one of the biggest polluters on earth, personal vehicles, remain extremely limited, expensive and restricted by fueling infrastructure limitations. Enter StepOne.
Compatible with billions of cars currently on the road today and costing less than $500 for the basic model, eFlex adjusts in realtime to any mix of fuel from 0 to 100% ethanol. This gives motorists not only an affordable alternative to purchasing an entirely new flex-fuel or electric vehicle, but also maximum flexibility in terms of make and model, as well as an unlimited driving range, as eFlex-powered cars can refill at any traditional or E85 pump.
Step One is doing something great for the planet, society and using innovation to change the game. Already a massive success in sales in the Nordics and France, they are coming to the US over the coming months to sell at a local level. We are thrilled about going across borders and excited to invest in a company that is both a great business and a positive impact, which we are happy to tell our kids about.
Stories Summit
Stories Summit is two months out and we have 100 registered guests and counting, eight sponsors/partners that include: Newmark Knight Frank, GM Ryan, Reconciled, Dentons, First Republic, Carta, Convene and Withum.
The attendee list continues to grow with early-stage founders being the heart and soul of our guest list. We also have several New York Times best selling authors coming like John Battelle, Adam Bryant, David Kidder and a soon to be NYT bestseller in Rishad Tobaccowala.
Mix in yoga instructors, TV personalities, a deejay, prominent and funny investors like Howard Lindzon and leading DTC brands and you have yourself a very special audience.
Stories Summit will focus on founder stories but we also plan on designing break out tracks designed to learn how to launch your podcast, the power of video content and general topics that founders want to understand. We know this because we asked founders some hard-hitting questions like “what general areas were key to your success?”.
You can see the full infographic here.
Check out www.storiessummit.com for more and register before we sell out.
Super Powers Podcast
Our latest guest on the Super Powers Podcast is Ali Wyatt, a badass GirlBoss who is changing the game for women entrepreneurs. In this week’s Superpowers Podcast, we learn how Ali built an ecosystem filled with impactful relationships, wisdom, and strong, powerful women.
Bill and I enjoyed getting to learn about Ali's midwestern childhood roots and hear some fun stories from her time at InStyle Magazine, ELLE, Refinery29, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop.
We look forward to sharing our eighth investment along with some more exciting developments and announcements from our portfolio companies next month.
Stay up to date on all things C2V here and all things Stories Summit here.
As always thanks for reading, supporting and hope to hear from you on any of our news.