John Tough's guest appearances

John Tough

Kauffman Fellows Podcast

Heavy Hitters: The Digital Industrial Podcast

Entrepreneurs for Impact

OwlTail

⭐ My guest today is John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures. Energize Ventures is a leading climate software investor that manages $1.2 Billion across two strategies: venture capital and growth equity.  In addition, John is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Choose Energy, the largest online energy marketplace in North America, and a former investor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers.  🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How they make investment decisions using the PMTEDI model - The size of checks they write for Series A through C stage companies, and what revenue targets they aim for - The four megatrends they’re investing in - How they develop investment theses with deep dives and active pursuit of 60-100 companies that might be the sector winner - The benefits of investing in climate startups in the EU - The importance of asking “Why now?” when picking the right CEOs to back - Why he’s read 200+ biographies as a way to be a better investor - The reason that you shouldn’t be so concerned with your competition - How scarcity creates clarity (I know, sounds like a verse from the Tao Te Ching) - Why “problem first, technology second” is their preferred approach  - And lots more  🙏Hope you enjoy it!  📣And please give John and Energize Ventures a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.  --  👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here.  -- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: ⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠ Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: ⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠ Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself.  ---   Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message

⭐ My guest today is <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjtough/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">John Tough</a>, Managing Partner at <a href="https://www.energize.vc/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Energize Ventures</a>. Energize Ventures is a leading climate software investor that manages $1.2 Billion across two strategies: venture capital and growth equity.  In addition, John is the former Chief Revenue Officer at Choose Energy, the largest online energy marketplace in North America, and a former investor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers. 🎙️ In this episode, we talked about: - How they make investment decisions using the PMTEDI model - The size of checks they write for Series A through C stage companies, and what revenue targets they aim for - The four megatrends they’re investing in - How they develop investment theses with deep dives and active pursuit of 60-100 companies that might be the sector winner - The benefits of investing in climate startups in the EU - The importance of asking “Why now?” when picking the right CEOs to back - Why he’s read 200+ biographies as a way to be a better investor - The reason that you shouldn’t be so concerned with your competition - How scarcity creates clarity (I know, sounds like a verse from the Tao Te Ching) - Why “problem first, technology second” is their preferred approach - And lots more 🙏Hope you enjoy it! 📣And please give John and Energize Ventures a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. -- 👍 Please leave a review or rating on your favorite podcast player. This is the #1 way that more listeners can discover the amazing climate CEOs and investors I get to interview here. -- 🌎 Entrepreneurs for Impact is on a mission to help climate innovators grow faster with new investment capital, share best practices among peers, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Here's our weekly newsletter — A 3-minute summary of climate tech startups, better habits, and deep work trends: <a href="https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com⁠</a> Our main program is a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group community: <a href="https://entrepreneursforimpact.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">⁠https://entrepreneursforimpact.com⁠</a> Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today’s highly curated Mastermind members represent over $8B in market cap or assets under management. Programs are led by Dr. Chris Wedding — 4x founder, $1B of investment experience, and Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill professor, with 70,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself. --- Send in a voice message: <a href="https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message</a>

#123: $1.2B for Investment in Climate Software — John Tough⁠, Managing Partner at ⁠Energize Ventures

This series of interviews by Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, focuses on investing in the Midwest. In this episode, Maggie talks with John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures in Chicago, on his company’s focus on digital transformation of energy and industrial markets and focus on emerging tech and capital-intensive industries.

This series of interviews by Maggie Kenefake, Venture Partner with Royal Street Ventures, focuses on investing in the Midwest. In this episode, Maggie talks with John Tough, Managing Partner at Energize Ventures in Chicago, on his company’s focus on digital transformation of energy and industrial markets and focus on emerging tech and capital-intensive industries.

Venture in the Middle: John Tough, Energize Ventures Managing Partner On Investing in Industrials in the Midwest

John brings a very unique investment perspective having been an active participant in the famous 2010 energy investment wave and now actively investing in the broader digital industrial wave of venture investing underway. He gets very candid with how Energize Ventures evaluates deals and defines what he coins the "Pre-growth" round of financing. Finally, we dive deep into the importance of taking a data-driven exit analysis from the very earliest stage of company formation.

John brings a very unique investment perspective having been an active participant in the famous 2010 energy investment wave and now actively investing in the broader digital industrial wave of venture investing underway. He gets very candid with how Energize Ventures evaluates deals and defines what he coins the "Pre-growth" round of financing. Finally, we dive deep into the importance of taking a data-driven exit analysis from the very earliest stage of company formation.