Climate Cowboys

#291 Building Physical Infrastructure at the Speed of Software | Cole Ashman | Pila
How Pila is decentralizing home energy storage, cutting $7,000 in installation soft costs, and upgrading the grid one smart node at a time.
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
Key Quotes
“We’re reinventing the home battery by spreading it out throughout the home... they automatically recognize each other, they communicate over this mesh network.” – Cole Ashman
“A whole home battery today is gonna cost like $15,000. About half of that is soft cost installation, design, permitting, like BS.” – Cole Ashman
“The power grid that we have is built around like the worst case. You know, like we’ve built a 10-lane super highway, but on most days the utilization is 40%.” – Cole Ashman
“Software is becoming so easy to replicate in the world of LLM-generated code... having a physical place in the world and a platform that’s generating new useful data is being so much more interesting and defensible.” – Cole Ashman
Episode Overview
Whole-home backup power traditionally requires $15,000 upfront, expensive electrical work, and months of permitting. As retail electricity prices skyrocket and outages multiply, home energy resilience remains out of reach for most people.
Cole Ashman, Founder & CEO of Pila (ex-Tesla, Span), is fixing this with modular battery nodes that plug straight into standard wall outlets. Operating over a wireless mesh network, Pila delivers instant outage protection and load balancing with zero installation costs—making energy storage accessible to renters and homeowners alike.

Key Topics Covered:

Positioning CleanTech: Why pitching safety, comfort, and savings beats leading with "climate."
Hardware Moats: How physical infrastructure protects against AI software replication.
Grid Economics: Using distributed batteries as shock absorbers to lower peak-demand costs.
Check Out Our Sponsors!
Lehmann’s Terms: Executive media training and message positioning for CleanTech leaders preparing for high-stakes investor pitches and national press. Learn more.
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Expert grant funding strategy. Secured over $1.6B in non-dilutive government funding for climate tech startups with a 90%+ success rate. Learn more.
Roosevelt Talent: Technical headhunting for frontier and energy tech companies. Delivering top 5% candidates at half the price of traditional recruiters. Connect with Roosevelt.
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro & The Pila Solution: Modular batteries for every outlet
04:33 – Un-stealthing and fundraising against rising retail power rates
08:19 – Storytelling: Sell reliability and savings over climate anxiety
16:36 – Bypassing the $15K installation barrier and permitting bloat
18:40 – B2B Playbook: Deploying networks across multi-family real estate
21:54 – Smart Monitoring: Predicting appliance failures via outlet data
34:19 – HardTech Moats: Why physical infrastructure wins in the AI era
43:00 – Hardware Velocity: Tesla Energy takeaways on scaling manufacturing
54:07 – Grid Optimization: Distributed batteries as shock absorbers
Links & Resources
Guest: Cole Ashman | Pila Energy
Host: Silas Mähner on LinkedIn
Socials: Climate Cowboys on LinkedIn | YouTube
Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.


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#290 Meet The Hottest Grid Solution... A Kitchen Stove? w/ Sam Calisch | Copper
How Copper is bypassing expensive electrical panel upgrades and grid bottlenecks by hiding smart battery storage inside beautiful induction stoves.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
Select Quotes From This Episode:
“You could have free wind and solar out on the grid, and you’d still be paying about as much as you are today just to get it to your house.” – Sam Calisch
“Installing the best home batteries are like 1200, 1500 bucks a kilowatt hour... If we instead put batteries into an appliance that already has efficient sales channels... we cut out that extra 10x.” – Sam Calisch
“What you see is what you get. There’s an authenticity in material... It’s real California walnut. It’s not spray-painted plastic.” – Sam Calisch
“For too long homes have been just a consumer of electricity... We’re entering a world where homes have the opportunity to be bi-directional consumers and producers of power.” – Sam Calisch
What’s the solution to rising electricity prices? Kitchen stoves.
Despite dropping solar and wind generation costs, home electric bills continue to surge—with up to 70% of utility costs going toward delivery infrastructure.
In this episode, Sam Calisch, co-founder of Copper, breaks down how putting smart batteries inside induction stoves bypasses expensive 240V panel upgrades, avoids peak grid demand, and elevates the home cooking experience while turning homes into active grid participants.
Check Out Our Sponsors!
Lehmann’s Terms: Media and pitch training for clean tech founders and executives preparing for high-stakes media, TV, and investor appearances.
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Global consulting firm helping climate tech companies secure non-dilutive government grant funding ($1.6B+ secured with >90% success rate).
Roosevelt Talent: Specialized headhunting and recruitment for energy tech, battery, and frontier startups—delivering top talent at half the traditional recruiter cost.
📝 Show Notes & Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro & Sam’s background in math, physics, and early climate tech.
04:33 – The grid’s delivery problem: Why cheap solar doesn’t mean cheap electricity bills.
08:18 – The “Trojan Horse” Strategy: Why Copper put a battery inside an induction stove.
10:35 – Bypassing the electrician shortage and avoiding 240V panel upgrades.
14:00 – Building Emotional Value: Why a product needs to be more than just a spreadsheet ROI.
16:00 – The Design Philosophy: Authentic materials, California walnut, and the “walk-up test.”
24:47 – Expanding the Vision: Selling to apartments and licensing tech to legacy appliance OEMs.
33:21 – Timing the Market: Why legacy companies couldn’t build this 10 years ago (The battery cost curve).
38:43 – Escaping “throwaway culture” and building durable, high-quality hardware.
47:04 – The Bi-directional Home: Transforming houses from passive consumers to active grid participants.
51:06 – Manufacturing in the U.S. and reigniting the American builder’s spirit.
Links & Resources:
Connect with Sam Calisch | Copper
Connect with Silas Mähner on LinkedIn
Follow Climate Cowboys on LinkedIn
Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed on this podcast.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climatecowboys.substack.com/subscribe

#289 The Ocean Cowboy. Will O'Brien. Ulysses | Ocean Robotics & Stewardship Tech
Why the future of marine conservation, national security, and global abundance relies on underwater robots and a true frontier spirit.
Episode Overview
71% of the planet is the ocean, yet it remains largely unexplored—the ultimate geopolitical and environmental frontier. To help us understand it, we sat down with the Ocean Cowboy, Will O’Brien.
He and his crew are building Ulysses to tame the ocean frontier by building autonomous underwater robots to become stewards of the ocean at scale. Starting with restoring seagrass, they’ve expanded across environmental, commercial, and defense markets. Will embodies a strong focus on Stewardship Technology: tech serving humanity and stewarding scarce resources with technological progress, a frontier spirit, and projection of strength.
Select Quotes:
"It’s kind of clear that in the future, robots are gonna do all the important jobs... the ocean’s just getting more and more and more important. It’s gonna need robots, and they’re the ones that we build." – Will
"Functionally, at the end of the day, you want to build a business that really fully realizes your vision... You want to move to a world of abundance, right? Let’s go forth and conquer it." – Will
"I kind of draw the line between what I would call ‘stewardship technologies’ and climate tech... we need this pro-human framing." – Will
📝 Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro & The origin of Ulysses: Discovering the ocean as a massive business frontier.
02:57 – Why underwater robotics? Solving the manual labor problem in seagrass restoration.
05:20 – Moving to San Francisco: Why the Bay Area is still the undisputed king of HardTech.
07:51 – The Strategic Ocean: Geopolitics, AI, deep-sea minerals, and subsea cables.
10:23 – Pragmatic Business Models: Using defense and commercial revenue to fund nature restoration.
13:17 – Grey Warfare & Illegal Fishing: The environmental destruction caused by foreign fleets.
17:35 – The Case for U.S. Manufacturing: Supply chain security, geopolitics, and clean industrial standards.
23:14 – Making Climate Bipartisan: Why focusing on abundance and energy resonates with the median American.
35:44 – Hiring “Farmers” and Builders: Why hands-on projects beat fancy engineering degrees.
42:13 – “Stewardship Tech” vs. “Clean Tech”: Rejecting scarcity for a pro-human, expansionist mindset.
Sponsors:
Lehmann’s Terms – Preparing founders and executives for high-stakes media and investor moments (ltmediatraining.com).
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS) – Securing billions in grant funding for climate tech (ClimateFinanceSolutions.com).
Roosevelt Talent – Headhunting, candidate screening, and hiring consulting for energy tech and frontier startups.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climatecowboys.substack.com/subscribe

#288 Lessons from 25,000 EV Ports: Scaling SWTCH Energy with Carter Li
How do you bring EV charging to the millions of renters who don’t have a private driveway or garage?
In this episode, Silas Mähner sits down with Carter Li, CEO and Founder of SWTCH Energy, to unpack how they are cracking the hardest puzzle in EV adoption: multi-family housing. Discover how SWTCH bypassed expensive grid upgrades to scale to over 25,000 charging ports, and get a masterclass on navigating the real estate life cycle and transitioning from founder-led sales to a 100-person organization.
🎧 Listen Now
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
📝 Key Timestamps
00:00 – Intro & Special Announcement: The CleanTechies AI Chatbot.
03:03 – Meet Carter Li and the origin story of SWTCH Energy.
07:41 – The Multi-Family Problem: Why apartments struggle with EV infrastructure.
12:43 – Avoiding Grid Upgrades: How smart energy management saves buildings thousands.
16:46 – The Hidden Costs: Why labor and connectivity make up 80% of the bill.
21:18 – Business Models: Hardware-as-a-Service vs. Owning & Operating.
25:23 – Real Estate Timelines: Why developers look past short-term noise toward 2035.
31:52 – Scaling up to 25,000+ ports and 100 employees.
33:39 – The Founder’s Journey: Product-market fit and stepping away from direct sales.
42:06 – Pitching Real Estate: Focusing strictly on ROI and Net Operating Income.
46:32 – The Future of EV Tech: Roaming, plug-and-charge, and avoiding stranded assets.
53:02 – Reliability Matters: The "No-Nonsense" 97% uptime score.
🤝 Connect & Learn More
Connect with Silas Mähner on LinkedIn
Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn
⭐ Our Sponsors
Lehmann’s Terms: Prepare your message for high-stakes investor pitches and media appearances. Learn more at ltmediatraining.com.
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): Secure non-dilutive government grant funding with a 90%+ success rate. Visit ClimateFinanceSolutions.com.
ErthSearch: Specialized talent recruitment for fast-growing CleanTech teams. Find your next key hire at ErthSearch.
Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Please do your own due diligence.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climatecowboys.substack.com/subscribe

#287 CleanTechies Pod: David Reasenberg | Heliene | U.S. Solar Manufacturing & Policy-Driven Sales
How Heliene is leveraging "commercial curiosity," open-book pricing, and deep policy knowledge to scale a massive domestic solar supply chain.
Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Pocket Casts
About This Episode
In the world of solar modules, price has become the main factor for many buyers. The products have nearly all become commodities. However, things changed when the Foreign Entity of Concern regulations were passed under the IRA.
Now, domestic producers are heavily favored. However, it’s not an automatic sale. There is still a lot of nuance that goes into how you sell your product, even when you are a US-Based manufacturer.
Our goal today is to learn those tricks from our guest, David Reasenberg. The Chief Commercial Officer at Heliene. One of (if not the) leading solar module manufacturers in the U.S. They have 1.3 GW of capacity, which has created hundreds of jobs.
Today we cover how they have become so good at ‘policy cycle’ driven selling, opening their books, and hiring and motivating a team that can stick around during the ups and downs of the solarcoaster.
Any company in CleanTech will get some value out of this discussion on how to build a kick-ass sales team.
🤝 Our Sponsors
Lehmann’s Terms: Clear, concise media and communications training to help climate tech founders nail high-stakes moments with investors, on stage, or on TV.
Climate Finance Solutions (CFS): A global consulting firm helping climate tech companies navigate the full funding lifecycle. CFS has secured over $1.6B in government grants with a 90%+ success rate.
ErthSearch: Fast, accurate, and affordable CleanTech recruiting. Leverage a deep network to find specialized sales, engineering, and executive talent on a guaranteed placement basis.
⏱️ Key Timestamps
00:00 – Intro & The CleanTechies AI Chatbot
04:38 – David’s background & Heliene’s North American manufacturing history
07:16 – Scaling to 1.3 GW capacity & navigating multi-gigawatt deals
10:03 – How the IRA & Foreign Entity of Concern rules shifted the solar policy landscape
13:50 – Building a sales engine built around the "capital stack"
19:24 – Hiring for “commercial curiosity” and high-agency sales management
22:42 – Breaking silos and building open-source knowledge floors for reps
34:30 – Policy-driven sales cycles & IRS Safe Harbor rules
41:19 – The transparency moat: Why "open-book" pricing builds trust
45:57 – Training teams on adjacent experience over pre-existing Rolodexes
51:20 – Macro outlook: AI data centers and rising grid demands
Connect with us:
Connect with Silas on LinkedIn
Follow CleanTechies on LinkedIn
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Disclaimer: This podcast is NOT investment advice. Do your homework and due diligence before investing in anything discussed.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit climatecowboys.substack.com/subscribe