# Turning Students into Founders at Stanford Climate Ventures

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/inevitable-16764/turning-students-into-founders-at-stanford-climate-ventures
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/inevitable-16764/turning-students-into-founders-at-stanford-climate-ventures.md
Podcast: [Inevitable](https://stenobird.com/podcast/inevitable-16764)
Published: 2026-04-15T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.mcj.vc/media/podcast
Audio file: https://cdn.simplecast.com/media/audio/transcoded/78a97c6c-cb51-46aa-a214-65daa2554af6/a40ab607-6c05-44d6-b237-5cd4abd47ac6/episodes/audio/group/cc658230-41b8-419e-a87f-f9aeb03dd342/group-item/271d34f3-a815-4645-bff0-fda88fc39642/128_default_tc.mp3?aid=rss_feed&feed=XFfCG1w8
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/inevitable-16764/episodes/turning-students-into-founders-at-stanford-climate-ventures
Duration seconds: 3967

## Resource

Dave McColl is Executive Director of Stanford Climate Ventures (SCV), a program designed to help students build climate companies through rigorous go-to-market strategy and hands-on company building. SCV is a project-based course at Stanford University that has helped launch dozens of startups across energy, infrastructure, and industrial decarbonization. In this episode of Inevitable, Yin Lu, General Partner at MCJ, sits down with McColl to unpack the SCV playbook—from “earned secrets” to the importance of customer discovery. The conversation also features three founders who came out of the SCV ecosystem: Carla Pinzon, Founder of Expand Power, solid-state transformers for a more flexible grid Raj Tilwa, Founder of Focal, personalized heating systems for commercial spaces Nico Pinkowski, Founder of Nitricity, decentralized fertilizer with air, water, and renewable power Together, they share how SCV shaped their companies, from early pivots and customer insights to product-market fit, and what it takes to build sustainable businesses.

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## Transcript

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