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It was the summer of 2022 and David Rusenko had completed 15 years of a classic Silicon Valley success story. It started back in 2007 when he applied to the 4th batch of YC two hours before the deadline with his startup--Weebly. He grew Weebly, a website and ecommerce platform, to hundreds of employees and hundreds of millions in revenue and was acquired by Square in 2018. At Square he took on integrating Weebly and leading all of the growing company’s ecommerce products. When it came time for David to pop his head out to think about what was next he came to a familiar conclusion--he would deeply regret not spending this essential next decade working on climate.
This conversation was filled with an abundance of agreement on the urgency to work on climate, founder-company fit, and the values we want to bring to our work with founders. We talk about some of the areas most interesting to us and the underrated role that YC has played in bolstering the climate tech ecosystem.
As I've gotten to know David over the last few months, I've consistently found a kindred spirit--someone trying to take the last 15 years of product and company building and apply it to climate tech. Putting to use all the founder empathy muscles possible, and trying to dust off our electrical engineering backgrounds. We also love hearing our kids comment on the slow and smelliness of fossil fuel burning machines.
David invites climate tech founders that are raising their pre-seed or seed rounds to get in touch at leapforward.vc--and to maybe look for some fun easter eggs on his website.
Referenced in the episode:
Get connected:
David - LinkedIn | Leap Forward
Ben - LinkedIn | Climate Papa
To get in touch, email ben@climatepapa.com
Music: Slynk & Lazy Syrup Orchestra - Mellow Kinda Hype (Balkan Bump Remix)
Note: Nothing in this episode should be viewed as investment advice.
#14: The urgency of this decade and YC's role in climate tech with David Rusenko