Last week, a mix of regulars and new faces converged for the 5^th Quarterly Cleantech  Podcasters Roundtable, perhaps the best we’ve had so far:

Energy storage is a central, even crucial, component in the transition to a clean energy economy.

#Cleantechers, this Thursday at 2:30 EST, we’ll host the 5^th Quarterly Cleantech Podcasters Roundtable.

We describe this show as a podcast for clean economy CEOs, investors and the people who advise them. As both an investor and an advisor, Graham has a foot in two of those categories. But he’s also one of the few people in cleantech who have served in elected office. Mayor Graham Richard served the city of Ft. Wayne, Indiana from 2000-2007 before taking the reins at Advanced Energy Economy to advocate for pro-sustainability policies.

Graham is now a senior advisor at the San Francisco-based investment fund, Finite, a perch that gives him a window into a number of leadership teams. But he was involved in clean energy long before it was cool. Graham is a cleantech “OC,” (“Original Cleantecher”) who installed the floorboards on which many of us now stand.

Here are the highlights of our conversation with Graham.

3:52 – All top-performing CEOs have five things in common:

1.) real passion

2.) purpose-driven solution

3.) ability to tell the company’s stories

4.) they build a trusting environment

5.) a digital-based platform that can scale

Cleantech executive teams are almost universally concerned with the impact of commoditization of their companies’ long-term growth. But if your product isn’t differentiated, then competing is just about winning on price – otherwise known as commoditization.