On Deck Climate Tech Fellowship (ODCT)
Come together to build world-changing climate companies
The Climate Tech Fellowship is a 10-week program for startup and climate experts looking to found, join, invest in, and advise climate tech companies. It is a space for fellows with deep and diverse subject matter expertise to exchange ideas, accelerate each other’s careers, and build impactful climate tech startups.
"Inequality & climate change are the biggest challenges of our times. Through ODCT I was able to collaborate with global change makers to build an equitable & decarbonized future."
"I’ve been studying and working on climate for ~8 years and I was blown away by the caliber and passion for change of the fellows I met in ODCT."
"Everyone I met during ODCT were highly accomplished people tackling really tough climate problems. Speaking with them gave me the determination and insights I needed to move forward with my own climate tech venture."
"Climate is eating the world and the time to act is now. The ODCT community is the perfect place for any investor, operator or founder looking to build towards a sustainable future."
Bridge the gap between founders and experts
Immerse yourself in the climate tech space
Find partners and expand your network in the space
Validate & fund your climate idea
Join a community of entrepreneurs and climate experts
Sedale Turbovsky
Peter Light
Aina Abiodun
Clea Kolster, PhD
Michael Keating
Monica Varman
Kathleen Egan
Etosha Cave
Ryan Allard
Cassandra Xia
Sierra Peterson
Jamie Alexander
Apply for the Climate Tech Fellowship
On Deck helped me realize that writing was a viable career. As a Software Engineer in SV, thought founding a tech startup was the only path. Then ODF1 happened.
12 months later, and I got a book on the way & a newsletter with 44k subscribers. Big fans of @david__booth & team!
At @BainCapVC we are huge fans of @beondeck, and thrilled to be involved in this Fintech Fellowship. We need more builders in fintech, and this program will be part of building, and diversifying, the pipeline.
I'm in @beondeck #ODF4 for the last few weeks and it's easily the best decision I've ever made. It's a perfect combination of what I love about school - fun, engaging, incredible community and lots of valuable knowledge without the tests.
Plus the community is so so helpful!
@beondeck has created an unparalleled product, community & a loyal, authentic member base like I’ve never seen before. In my time in SV I’ve seen many attempts at creating communities large & small. On Deck is magical because the team behind it is just relentless & good people.💕
Teaming up with @beondeck here.
Whoever I hire will get to participate in On Deck's Chief of Staff Fellowship.
It’s an incredible community to connect with and learn from others doing the CoS role.
I'll cover the cost.
On Deck Sessions
Bill McKibben
,
Founder and Senior Adviser Emeritus of 350.org
Fireside chat
Fireside Chat with Bill McKibben
About this session
Bill McKibben is founder and senior adviser emeritus of 350.org. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. In this talk he discusses how to talk about climate change in a way that motivates action, how to address the scale of the problem with big systemic changes, and many other topics of interest.
Amy Duffuor, Principal at Prime Impact Fund
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and Alicia Seiger, Lecturer, Innovator, and Catalyst at Stanford Law School
Fireside chat
Catalytic Capital in Climate Tech
About this session
Join us for an introduction to catalytic capital and a discussion about the role it plays in the advancement of climate tech companies!
About the speakers:
Amy Duffuor is a Principal at Prime Impact Fund, with responsibility to identify and evaluate investment opportunities, serve on company boards, and manage investments toward business and impact goals. Her professional background spans business, finance, and impact across three continents.
Prior to Prime Impact Fund, Amy was a renewables and power investment banker at Bank of America. There, she worked with CEOs of public and private companies to raise investment capital including the IPO of Sunnova (NYSE: NOVA), a residential solar company initially valued at approximately $1 billion. Before her stint on Wall Street, Amy ran early-stage social venture accelerators around Southeast Asia for a Singapore-headquartered impact investing firm called Impact Investment Exchange. Earlier in her career, Amy was a management consultant at State of Flux, a London-based consulting firm that specializes in supply chain and procurement. She serves as a board member for Prime Impact Fund portfolio companies Clean Crop Technologies and Noon Energy in addition to serving on the board of the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC). Amy holds a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.Phil with Distinction from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Alicia Seiger is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and leads sustainability and energy finance initiatives at Stanford Law, Graduate School of Business and the Precourt Institute for Energy. Alicia serves as Managing Director for both the Stanford Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and the Sustainable Finance Initiative. Her work focuses on business and financial innovations to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized, equitable, and climate resilient global economy.
In 2018, Alicia was appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to serve on the first-ever Decarbonization Advisory Panel for the $209 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund. She also serves on the boards of Ceres and PRIME Coalition, and co-founded Stanford Professionals in Energy (SPIE). In 2014, she created Investing in a New Climate, an investor workshop series to help asset owners manage climate risk and capitalize on innovation opportunities.
A serial entrepreneur and pioneer of new business models, Alicia has been designing and executing climate and energy strategies for businesses, foundations, investors, and NGOs since 2004. She has served on the management teams of multiple startups, including at TerraPass, a pioneer of the US carbon offset market, and Flycast Communications, one of the world’s first web advertising networks.
Alicia holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she also worked as a case writer for the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and a BA in Environmental Policy and Cultural Anthropology from Duke University. A native of Silicon Valley, Alicia lives in Menlo Park with her husband and two daughters.
Shayle Kann
,
Partner at Energy Impact Partners
Fireside chat
Grand Challenges of Deep Decarbonization
About this session
Shayle Kann is a Partner at Energy Impact Partners, a $1.5bn venture capital firm investing in companies shaping the energy landscape of the future. He leads the firm's efforts in deep decarbonization, investing at the frontier of climate tech, and is co-host of the popular energy podcast The Interchange.
In this session, Shayle talks through his grand strategic vision for decarbonizing the economy, including a long-term roadmap for decarbonization and tactical steps to get there.
Curriculum & Speakers
Albert Wenger
Emily Reichert
Shayle Kann
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Mary Catherine Lader
Kate Gordon
Jane Zelikova
Ilan Gur
Jason Jacobs
Introduction
Navigating the Climate Tech Fellowship
Navigating Climate Tech
Understanding the climate tech ecosystem
The future of climate tech
Direction setting
Sector-specific Programming
Climate deep dives
Entrepreneurial Programming
Climate Business Model creation
Fundraising
Policy, Regulation, and Legal
Building
Build Sprint
INCLUDING...
Mastermind Groups
Build Sprint
Climate Library
The On Deck Method
We're building a modern educational institution that redefines how community and learning come together. Being part of any On Deck program means you’ll have access to a community of world-class professionals. With every new program we launch and cohort we start, your network gets stronger.
Here are the cornerstones of the On Deck experience:
Deep Friendships
Unparalleled Knowledge
Community Diversity
Scaled With Software
Engineered Serendipity
Spirit of Service
Apply for the Climate Tech Fellowship
FAQ
The fellowship is for accomplished experts in the climate and/or startup space who are interested in starting, scaling, joining, or advising climate tech companies.
To be a good fit, you are:
- Already involved in climate tech or committed to transitioning into the space.
- A bit entrepreneurial, with an independent spirit. While you don’t need entrepreneurial aspirations to be in this fellowship, you should be or want to be a part of the climate tech startup community.
- Eager to be an active participant in a growing community, as much of the value of On Deck comes from the network and peer-to-peer connections.
All of the above. Broadly, it’s for anyone looking to start, join, or otherwise support or partner with climate tech startups.
Whether you are an entrepreneur obsessed with solving our climate challenges, a scientist looking to bring deep, technically complex solutions to market, or looking to join, partner with or support climate tech companies, ODCT provides the structure and framework for spontaneity, fruitful collisions and serendipity that create the grounds for truly innovative and scalable climate tech businesses.
The fellowship builds a space for fellows to explore ideas, meet collaborators, and start, grow, or support companies in the climate tech space. Through ODF, On Deck has already launched 330+ companies that have raised over $250m. We are focusing on climate to create serendipity for truly innovative and scalable climate tech businesses.
Many great entrepreneurs and technologists want to help solve the paramount problem of our times, but they often don't know where to start or who to talk to. And many climate tech experts want to build companies alongside entrepreneurial talent. But right now, their communities are generally siloed with little overlap. This fellowship bridges that gap.
ODCT brings together ~150 startup and climate experts and helps them navigate the complex regulatory, funding and technical landscapes through a community of incredible peers. Ultimately, the fellowship's goal is to accelerate the speed at which talented people can contribute to the climate tech space through community, content, and structure you’ll need for the next 70+ years of climate innovation.
We’re offering the program at $2,490. Applications submitted before 5/14 will get access to Early Bird Pricing of $1990. We also have scholarships available for each cohort through the On Deck Access Fund.
As a participant, you get access to:
- A 10-week program & curriculum, including live and recorded programming, breakout sessions and mastermind groups.
- On Deck’s online community and On Deck Directory. You’ll be able to search and filter the Directory and Slack community to learn more about your peers and ask or answer questions.
- Climate-specific and cross-program build weekends with special guests and partners.
- And ultimately, the opportunity to build relationships with high potential scientists, experts and operators. This community should follow you deep into your ever-evolving climate tech career.
To accelerate the speed at which talented people can contribute to the climate tech space, we will help fellows meet their goals through networking and serendipitous connections with other talented and committed people in the climate tech space. This community of high caliber scientists, experts and operators will follow you deep into your ever-evolving climate tech career.
The 10-week program consists of a mix of event formats and tools so that fellows can meet and engage with each other. These include mastermind sessions, office hours, deep dives into climate tech topics and fireside chats with top leaders in climate, tech, and their intersection. The fellowship will culminate in a 3-week build sprint to build on existing projects/startups or something new from scratch. Investors will have the opportunity to mentor and advise these builds and/or join an investor focus group during this time.
There will also be ongoing Slack conversations, and access to our On Deck directory. In fact, many Fellows tell us that the most valuable part of the fellowship is exploring the directory/Slack, and reaching out to other Fellows to set up 1:1 conversations.
To help you navigate it all, the ODCT team will support fellows in leveraging the On Deck Slack and Directory for efficiency in use, developing relationships, and navigating resources.
The power of this program is in the community, and like any community, you get back what you put in. You should plan to invest a minimum of 3 hours per week in On Deck Climate Tech. Some fellows will find themselves wanting to spend up to 10 hours a week, given their goals and the value they’re getting back.
The events and curated resources are designed to help you leverage time, networks, and resources to your advantage. Depending on your schedule and interests, you could choose to:
- Attend everything and “gorge” yourself on knowledge until you explode
- Tune in at your leisure to attend sessions that interest you
- Or just search the directory and connect with interesting people one-on-one
Yes: ODCT will be run entirely remotely. This enables participation from all corners of the world. We’ve spent the past few ODF cohorts mastering the playbook for building remote communities and relationship building online, and will apply the same approach here.
Post-COVID, we’ll return to organizing offline programming like dinners, small gatherings, and retreats, but the core Fellowship will remain a remote-first experience.
Yes!
Our goal is to make the Fellowship accessible to the absolute best talent, no matter their situation.
While many accepted participants have the means to support themselves, many others don’t. We’re excited to be able to offer scholarships thanks to the generosity of alumni and partners.
There are no fees to apply so please submit an application to be considered for the fellowship — we only ask about financial assistance requirements after fellows have been accepted in order to avoid discrimination during the evaluation process. Learn more about the scholarship and sponsorship processes.
After the fellowship ends, you’ll maintain access to your cohort and community.
Thanks for asking!
You would be directly supporting a climate tech leader in a less fortunate situation. Learn more about donating to the On Deck Access Fund here.
