Scaling Clean: Jacob Susman on How to Successfully Sell a Clean Energy Company
In this episode of Scaling Clean, I sat down with Jacob Susman, Senior Vice President of Development at Electric Hydrogen and founder of Ambient Fuels, recently acquired by Electric Hydrogen. With more than 25 years in clean energy, Jacob shares hard-won lessons on leadership, perseverance, and the importance of community in advancing the clean economy.
Clean energy CEOs are under growing pressure to scale faster, fund smarter, and lead teams through unpredictable market cycles. Jacob Susman has done all three… multiple times.
Here are his big three points:
Forming a community early is vital
Jacob emphasizes that success in the clean energy sector is built through relationships and shared purpose. From early board service to co-founding the Cleantech Leaders Roundtable with Jigar Shah, he highlights the power of trusted networks to provide guidance, partnerships, and emotional support. “If you're a C-level leader building a growth company in our sector, you need friends, you need community, you need people who can bring you ideas and hear your frustrations and help bring you to the solution,” he says.
Great leaders communicate with clarity and empathy
Reflecting on difficult leadership moments, Jacob says that direct, transparent communication is the best approach. When challenges arise, you need to communicate clearly and quickly… and keep the human aspect in mind. Leadership is defined as much by how you treat people during challenges as by how you celebrate success.
Know when to say no
One of Jacob’s most valuable lessons came from a 10 MW wind project early in his career. His company pushed the project through to completion, but it consumed years of effort and exhausted the team. The experience taught him that founders need to guard their team’s time and energy as fiercely as their capital. Sometimes you have to stop and say, “This isn’t the right project for us.” Reallocate the people, reallocate the dollars, and focus on what truly advances the strategy.
Why This Conversation Matters
- For me, this episode reveals three key insights:
Leadership that lasts starts with community and credibility. Relationships are the real infrastructure of clean energy. - Discipline, not momentum, determines which companies scale. In clean energy, the hardest part isn’t getting started; it’s knowing when to stop. As excitement grows, only companies that prioritize the right projects, and execute with clarity and speed, will survive.
- Breakthroughs shaping our future will come from integrating finance, execution, and technology, not just advancing one.
Also listen on Apple, Spotify, Radio Public, Amazon Music, and iHeart.
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Overview
- A Lifelong Outdoorsman Finds His Career Path in Clean Energy
- Serial Entrepreneurship: Why Relationships Are the Foundation of Every Exit
- Board Service: Why It’s Worth the Investment for Industry Leaders
- Ambient Fuels Meets Electric Hydrogen: Inside the Acquisition
- What 25 Years in Renewables Taught Jacob About What Changes and What Doesn't
- Data Centers and the Offtake Equation: Is the Old Rule Being Tested?
- The Role of a CEO: Determination Over Theory
- Mentors Who Made the Difference: Garrett Nicholas and Michael Skelly
- How to Have Difficult Conversations: Clarity, Speed, and Humanity
- What to Do vs. What Not to Do: A Wind Farm Story and a Hard Lesson
- Advice to a Younger Self: Slow Down and Think More
- The Power of Community: Why Clean Energy Leaders Need Strong Networks
- Which Rooms to Be In: Events That Shape Policy and Deals
- Books, Podcasts, and the Reading Life of a Clean Energy CEO
- How Jacob Stays Sharp: Triathlons, Skiing, and the World's Greatest Brunch
- Keeping the Team Motivated: Purpose Over Paychecks
- Climate Optimist or Pessimist? Jacob Makes His Call
Introduction
Melissa Baldwin:
Welcome back, Cleant Techers. My guest today is Jacob Susman. He's a Senior Vice President of Development at Electric Hydrogen. Jacob's green hydrogen company, Ambient Fuels, was just acquired by Electric Hydrogen earlier this month. Jacob envisions a future where green hydrogen stands out as the breakthrough that decarbonizes heavy industry. He's here on the show to talk about what's next and what he learned through the acquisition process. So, Jacob, welcome to the show. Glad to have you on Scaling Clean.
Jacob Susman:
Great to be here, Melissa. Thanks for having me.
A Lifelong Outdoorsman Finds His Career Path in Clean Energy
Melissa Baldwin:
Excellent. So we're going to start this interview the way we start all of our interviews, and that's by getting an understanding of how you landed where you are today. You've been the CEO of a company. You just went through an acquisition. Give us more of your background. Tell that story of the journey of where you started and how you got to where you are today.
Jacob Susman:
I can actually take it as far back as childhood, Melissa, and just being a skier my whole life, an outdoor sports person my whole life. That really got accentuated at the University of Colorado in the business school there, where I started to put some ideas together about how you could really combine all this love of the outdoors and have it be part of your career.
That is still a motivating force for me today. It's the love of skiing in particular, and all kinds of outdoor activities, and the very grave concern that the environment is not going to be there in order to do all those fun things outdoors. So that's really what got me started on this journey, and it's still a driving force today.
Fast-forwarding through about 25 years in the sector, with time at development companies and IPPs like AES, and then later on the investor side, helping to build Horizon Wind Energy while at Goldman Sachs, then building my own wind development company called OwnEnergy, which we eventually sold to EDF Renewables, pretty much takes us to the pandemic and eventually to a career pivot moment I found myself at.
A friend turned me on to green hydrogen and pointed out that, from all these past experiences I'd had, I'd already built the playbook for how to create a renewables development company. And green hydrogen was really set to have a big run-up. Why not see if I could go make something happen in that sector? Kudos to that friend of mine. That's kind of what brought us to today.
Serial Entrepreneurship: Why Relationships Are the Foundation of Every Exit
Melissa Baldwin:
And it seems to me like you are a bit of a serial entrepreneur. You've started several different companies and had some successful exits or acquisitions. What can you share about the most recent acquisition? What did you learn? And generally speaking, a lot of the listeners of this podcast may be in a similar place to you. They may want to build, grow, and sell a company. So what advice do you have for them?
Jacob Susman:
First of all, you can never start too early in forming the relationships that may later play an important role in being able to get to the point of selling a company. But those relationships can come in a lot of different forms.
Earlier in my career, I was fortunate to serve on the boards of the American Wind Energy Association, now part of American Clean Power, on ACORE's board, and CIBA's board and its predecessor, REBA. So you are in conversation with other leaders from around the sector, able to secure offtake agreements, and sometimes maybe get help with an individual project monetization. But more importantly, it helps you establish a reputation, credibility, and trust amongst a lot of the other players in the sector.
So at the time that OwnEnergy was acquired by EDF, for example, Tristan Grimbert, its CEO, and I served on the board together at AWEA, and so it was an easy conversation to have. Start building those relationships early. You just never know how they're going to help in your future endeavors.
Board Service: Why It’s Worth the Investment for Industry Leaders
Melissa Baldwin:
I actually want to ask you more about that. I noticed that when I was reading through your LinkedIn profile, you've served on a lot of boards. So it sounds like that's worthwhile. I imagine it takes time and maybe even money to serve on a board. Any advice for people out there in the audience who are thinking, maybe I should serve on a board? Is it worth it? How do I approach that?
Jacob Susman:
It's a really challenging balance to strike, Melissa, because there were definitely times where I had to check myself and say, you know what, you're almost putting too much into the policy side of things. But back then, when we were trying to get the PTC for wind power extended, for example, it felt existential.
And frankly, on a personal level, it's something I believed in. I really believed that a major source of our energy in the US could come from wind and solar, so it was worth fighting for. Not to mention, it's always nice to be part of a team that's banding together and trying to accomplish a BHAG, as they call them.
It's in the scrum during those processes where you really get to know people, and where people really get to see you in action. So might I have dialed it back a little if I could scale it perfectly? Sure. But yes, it was 100% worth allocating the time and effort.
Melissa Baldwin:
All right, you just used two acronyms, and I knew one of them but not the other. So you've got to tell us, for our listeners who don't know, why don't you explain both BHAG and scrum?
Jacob Susman:
A BHAG is a big, hairy, audacious goal. It's about setting your sights on something that feels just shy of impossible, like Ambient Fuels and Electric Hydrogen have both tried to do, which is decarbonize the molecules and fuels in our industrial systems today. That is most assuredly a BHAG.
And scrum, that's just a rugby term. You've seen all those large athletes trying to move each other around the field and toward the goal. But better to be in the scrum and fight the good fight than be on the sidelines, I would say.
Ambient Fuels Meets Electric Hydrogen: Inside the Acquisition
Melissa Baldwin:
Nice. Thank you. Thank you for that. Well, actually, I want to share for our listeners, just tell us more about Ambient Fuels and Electric Hydrogen and this news that you just shared. I'd love to hear about it.
Jacob Susman:
For sure. Look, I'm very proud to now be part of the Electric Hydrogen family. We have an amazing group of senior leaders and investors. The CEO is Raffi Garabedian, who, along with Dave Eaglesham, another one of our co-founders, were both former Chief Technology Officers at First Solar.
And I think we're all aware that First Solar is one of, if not the leading solar manufacturer in the US today. A big part of First Solar's success in scaling up to that level was incorporating project development in-house relatively early in the company's trajectory.
We're trying to accomplish some pretty challenging, market-transformational moves here at Electric Hydrogen, and we're following a similar playbook to what First Solar did. So you can read the acquisition of Ambient a little bit as following a similar pathway to First Solar's.
But in general, Electric Hydrogen makes the most powerful electrolyzers in the world, and Ambient, we think, developed the best projects in the US. So it just made perfect sense for us to come together.
What 25 Years in Renewables Taught Jacob About What Changes and What Doesn't
Melissa Baldwin:
And I want you to talk about your career, which spans over 25 years. If you think back, what have you noticed has changed over the decades? What trends have you seen come and go? I'm interested in that both professionally in your career, but I'm also interested to hear your take on hydrogen specifically over that span.
Jacob Susman:
What's changed is easy, because when I broke into the US wind power market in 2005, it would have been crazy to say this back then, but 20 years later, we are the lowest-cost source of new power to get onto the grid, and we can get onto the grid faster than just about any other form of generation. I'd lump solar in there a little bit too.
You would have never imagined 20 years ago that would be the case. That, to me, is the biggest change, those two sectors becoming so established.
What has stayed the same, especially as somebody who builds project development companies, is that the offtake agreement is always the name of the game. You can be the world's best developer in terms of picking a good site or getting the other aspects of the project put together, but if you're not good at originating that offtake agreement, your project is very unlikely to get built. So that's the part that never seems to change.
Data Centers and the Offtake Equation: Is the Old Rule Being Tested?
Melissa Baldwin:
And would you say, though, because what I'm hearing now is that data center developers are essentially cost-agnostic. They're looking for speed. Do you think that changes anything around that fundamental point about offtake agreements?
Jacob Susman:
It probably is a major addendum to this chapter of the book on how to develop projects, because yes, you're right, Melissa, that a lot of the time now there is such strong demand for more data centers to drive, particularly AI, that if you can put a site together that has renewable power access, or power access overall, you've got a good shot at having one of the hyperscalers strongly consider putting a data center there.
There are still precious few developers who understand the formula exactly, and relatively few sites that actually work where you can amass those resources. So getting the offtake is still a challenge, but it's fair to say that this will test my theory that offtake is always the scarce resource in project development.
Melissa Baldwin:
Yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see how that pans out over time. So my next question, I want you to picture yourself. Imagine that you quit your job and that you have just become a lecturer at a business school. And you are giving a lecture to your business students on what the role of a CEO is. What do you tell those business students.
The Role of a CEO: Determination Over Theory
Jacob Susman:
Well, I think the most important personality trait, or aspect of the way that I've tried to lead, has to do with determination. I had an early mentor commend me for just a willingness to run through walls to get things done.
When you're leading an early-stage company in a sector that is exposed to policy topics, the overall economic cycle, the commodity cycle, and so many things that can end up being challenges, being able to get up the next morning, put one foot in front of the other, and keep on keeping on is sometimes the most important characteristic. So maybe that's a long way of saying, especially to a class of business school students in your example, that you can spend a lot of time on financial and business strategy theory, but a lot of the time what really counts is execution and sheer force of will.
Mentors Who Made the Difference: Garrett Nicholas and Michael Skelly
Melissa Baldwin:
I love that. And actually, you just touched on my next question for you, which is about your mentors. So can you recall anybody in your life who really made an impact on you, who was a mentor to you, and what did they teach you?
Jacob Susman:
Well, that's easy. I can go to two right away. The first one I'll bring up is Garrett Nicholas, who brought me into the AES Corporation in 1999 over in Spain. Garrett had brought the company there to build a 1,200-megawatt combined cycle gas plant, and I was the junior person on the team. I was very, very fortunate to be kind of right place, right time, because Spain was seeing its renewable energy sector take off probably five years before that really happened in the US in a major way. And Garrett said, Jacob, why don't you see if you can figure out something for AES to do in this sector? So that was a very lucky moment for me.
Melissa Baldwin:
Sounds like you had a lot of freedom there too, and the ability to be creative.
Jacob Susman:
And that's where I was going to commend Garrett on his leadership in particular. That old saying about giving me lots of leash, but not enough to choke myself, I think that's how it goes. So Garrett was always there as an inspirational leader to challenge me also and say, why are you wasting time on this or that? Does this actually make sense for AES or in this market? But he also encouraged me to go off and build a business in this area.
By the way, speaking of determination, the plant we were there to build was one of only two non-incumbents that eventually got built in the midst of Spain's energy deregulation. And we closed what later won a big award for project financing in the middle of the global power sector meltdown. So a big hat tip to Garrett for teaching me the importance of determination early on.
The other one I want to shout out here is Michael Skelly. I was at Goldman Sachs when we owned a company called Horizon Wind Energy. Michael and the team had developed an awesome portfolio of projects. We had to marshal resources around those projects at a time when maybe five or fewer US states had a renewable portfolio standard, where the PTC had this on-again, off-again cycle, and you didn't know if policy was going to continue to be there. Michael really showed me how to motivate team members, people in the community, people in government, and certainly people in financial firms like Goldman, all to keep your eyes on the prize in the face of all that uncertainty, because the big vision was really worth striving for, and he got there in the end.
How to Have Difficult Conversations: Clarity, Speed, and Humanity
Melissa Baldwin:
Very nice. All right. So now I want to move into one of the things that a lot of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and investors are required to do, and that is having difficult conversations. So let's say you need to fire somebody. You need to address a mistake that's been made. You need to address that uncomfortable moment. How do you do that? What's your approach?
Jacob Susman:
I learned this one the hard way, Melissa. The worst thing a leader can do in those tough moments is to muddle the communication and drag it out. Especially in these challenging sectors, where there are lots of things in the macro environment that can affect you that are beyond your control, bad stuff is going to happen. And it's going to affect your team, your investors, and the direction of the business.
You need to communicate clearly, and you need to communicate quickly. For individuals who are going to face bad news, whether it's someone on the team or an investor in the cap stack, you've got to be direct, do it in person, and keep the human aspect in mind. These are human beings. These are people who have their own hopes and aspirations, and if you brought them into your company or into your capital base, you care about them and you want them to be successful.
The last thing I would say is that how you comport yourself in these moments is really going to be telling when it comes to your long-term reputation around the sector. Bringing somebody bad news feels terrible to you, and it feels terrible to them. But being able to do it in a way that is sensitive and humane, and that acknowledges the other person's feelings and how it's going to affect them, speaks volumes about the quality of the leader.
What to Do vs. What Not to Do: A Wind Farm Story and a Hard Lesson
Melissa Baldwin:
Excellent. Now I want to ask you a question that we ask every guest, and we get an interesting ratio of answers to this question. So do you think that success relies on what a company chooses to do or chooses not to do?
Jacob Susman:
Especially in the project development business, Melissa, I would say it's the not-to-do case. And I'll tell you why. I'm thinking about a 10-megawatt wind farm that we were developing back at OwnEnergy in the early 2010s. We wanted to be the best in the sector at the smaller stuff, so it was strategically important to the company to get this 10-megawatt thing completed. And it got built. I'm very proud that the 2.0 Wind Farm is out there operating today, but it nearly killed about half the team for the better part of a couple of years to see that thing through.
And hindsight being 20/20, I'll bet you we could have allocated team time and development dollars to higher purposes. So I give that specific example, and lots of respect to the folks on the OwnEnergy team who developed that project and put in that time and effort.
I give that example, though, to say that sometimes you really have to know when to hit the brakes and when to say, look, we're just going down a rabbit hole that is not likely to yield the outcomes the company really needs right now. Reallocate those people to higher purposes. Reallocate those dollars to projects that are more in line with the company's strategy.
Melissa Baldwin:
Yeah, quite a few people do. That is often the first instinct, what you choose not to do. And it sounds like you're saying you really have to think about the toll it takes on your team when you're pursuing something that's not a perfect fit, and what that benefit ratio looks like.
Jacob Susman:
And now, to slightly contradict myself, the key aspect of that story is that the project did get built. So especially when you're a younger company that's trying to establish itself, or even more so if you're in a new sector or proving out a new technology, sometimes the most important thing of all is to get one done and start establishing that track record. Then you can bring investors, off-takers, or other stakeholders out to the site and say, we built that thing.
So hindsight is 20/20 on these things. Sometimes the most important thing is simply to get something done.
Advice to a Younger Self: Slow Down and Think More
Melissa Baldwin:
When you just mentioned hindsight, that's another question I have for you. If you could get in a time machine right now and go back to the beginning of your career, what advice would you give yourself?
Jacob Susman:
I would probably say: be a little less eager, be a little less passionate, be a little less willing to jump on a plane, and spend more time reading, thinking, and locking yourself in a room for a day or a couple of days to really work on something challenging and eliminate the distractions.
I'm still not great at that, but I've gotten a fair bit better, because I think the younger me believed so passionately, and I still do. But I was willing to put all sorts of spit-and-vinegar energy, and just human effort, into everything, and not enough cranial effort sometimes, if you know what I mean.
Melissa Baldwin:
Allowing yourself to slow down and, in the words of Mike Casey, our president, think. He quotes another person who says this, but allow your soul to catch up with itself.
The Power of Community: Why Clean Energy Leaders Need Strong Networks
Jacob Susman:
Well, I wanted to give a shoutout to Mike Casey as well on another thing that has really helped me get through challenging times in building two businesses where we've had an exit, and that's the importance of community.
I referenced all those great trade associations where I got to serve with awesome leaders from around the sector, and that served as my foundational community that I relied on really heavily, especially in the more challenging times of building those businesses, or building OwnEnergy in particular.
Now, more recently, in building Ambient Fuels, I rely heavily on the Cleantech Leaders Roundtable community. And that's an organization that Jigar Shah and I started in 2017. Mike and Tigercomm were our very first members and put in a lot of the early blood, sweat, and tears into the strategy for what CTLR is today.
And that's a community that now supports CXOs from around the sector in building their businesses. But more importantly, it's a shoulder to cry on. It's an intimate, private room in which to have a real conversation. They say it's lonely at the top. That is for sure. If you're a C-level leader building a growth company in our sector, you need friends, you need community, you need people who can bring you ideas, hear your frustrations, and help bring you to the solution.
Melissa Baldwin:
What you said made me think about RE+, where we just were, and how I think for a lot of people, the feeling there is, hey, this is where I see my people. And there's joy in the convening. So that's a popular event.
Another question I have for you, in the spirit of giving advice to others in the sector, is from your perspective, I guess in hydrogen specifically, is there any must-go-to event, or any events that you think are really important specifically for hydrogen? But feel free to also talk about other events that you think are crucial to attend.
Which Rooms to Be In: Events That Shape Policy and Deals
Jacob Susman:
I used to focus pretty heavily, Melissa, on events where the real policy discussion was going to happen, because so much of the outcomes in the project development world, the project finance world, and therefore the ability to raise capital around those outcomes, would all flow from where the policy topics were going to get discussed.
So that differs around different sectors. And what I would encourage CXOs in the space to do is seek out those rooms where those policy topics are going to get discussed in the greatest depth. Because if you can gain some insight as to the direction of travel a few weeks or months before the rest of the market does, that could mean everything in terms of the ability to land customers, the ability to secure capital, and so many other things.
So it's a bit of a general response, but that's the direction I'd point you.
Melissa Baldwin:
I think that's valuable. That's helpful. All right, so now we're going to move into learning and development. Is there any book, podcast, or influencer that you're following right now that you'd recommend to our listeners?
Books, Podcasts, and the Reading Life of a Clean Energy CEO
Jacob Susman:
I'm going to disappoint you a little bit on this one, Melissa, because I don't read a lot of business books. I actually do love to read, but I use most of my reading time for fun.
One business book that I, and anyone who's seeking mentorship, I will always point people in the direction of is Ben Horowitz's The Hard Thing About Hard Things, which is about, and I'm flattering myself to say we share this in common, that Horowitz had to build multiple businesses as a wartime CEO, or in really challenging moments, and I did as well.
It's somewhat hilarious, but it'll also definitely get you through if you're feeling like times are tough. But a lot of my reading time goes into fun stuff, historical fiction novels, spy novels, crime thrillers, all that sort of stuff. I've been reading The Economist for 25 years.
And then podcasts I love include Hardcore History and SmartLess. Amy Poehler's Good Hang is pretty great. Broken Record is really good if you're into music.
Melissa Baldwin:
I like it. I like it. And actually, I was just in California last week for INBOUND, which is HubSpot's annual user convention, and Amy Poehler was speaking there, and she was incredible. Claire will tell you, I've been quoting her left and right. So Good Hang is a great podcast. And I'll take fun recommendations too. We can't be all work, right? We have to have a little bit of joy in our life.
Jacob Susman:
All right, then I'm going to give you one more. If you've got listeners who are history fans, and love Hardcore History, if I didn't mention that already, the BBC World Service does these awesome dramatizations of historical moments, like one where the Shah of Iran gets toppled and the effect that had.
Melissa Baldwin:
All right. Well, actually, this next question flows directly from what we just talked about. What do you do in work and in your personal life to maintain your performance as a CEO? There's a lot of demand. What kind of hours do you keep? What kind of schedule do you have? Is there any ritual or habit that you have to help you keep up that endurance?
How Jacob Stays Sharp: Triathlons, Skiing, and the World's Greatest Brunch
Jacob Susman:
Well, I mentioned earlier that I love being outdoors, especially skiing, and that I have a relatively short attention span. So it probably won't surprise you that I've never been very good at going to the gym. I'm constantly looking for excuses to get outside and run around. In the spring and summer, that means training for triathlons. And now, in the fall, that means getting ready for ski season. This year, we've got a big backcountry trip up in Idaho that I'm particularly looking forward to.
There's a reason for that too. It keeps me disciplined, it keeps me on a plan, and it keeps me striving toward a goal. Sometimes you need that extra motivation just to get up and get after it. So I love doing that to keep my conditioning high.
And then I love to cook. I treated myself after the Electric Hydrogen acquisition to a new Traeger grill with a super smoke feature on it. So slowly but surely, I'm learning how to make an extra juicy brisket, which takes a heck of a lot of patience, by the way. That's good for business building too. Sometimes you need 12 hours, or a few years, to make something come out great.
The other thing is that in our family, not for environmental reasons, though it works out that way, I'm known for being great at repurposing leftovers. So I'll take a few recent family meals and turn them into the world's greatest Sunday brunch.
Melissa Baldwin:
Nice, nice. I can just picture it, right? Leftover French fries become the base of some type of breakfast casserole or burrito.
Jacob Susman:
I've done exactly that. And like I said, we're reducing food waste along the way, so we're pressing lots of buttons.
Melissa Baldwin:
Yeah, it's a win-win. Nice, nice. All right, so that's how you stay motivated. What about your team? Right now, there's a tough atmosphere out there. And you've been in the business for 25 years. You've been on several of these coasters, wind, solar, hydro coasters. How do you keep the team motivated during tough times?
Keeping the Team Motivated: Purpose Over Paychecks
Jacob Susman:
Well, I would start off by saying that the real measure of success isn't the money you made or the project you completed. It's the people who go on to build their own great projects, great companies, and great careers, and who you had the privilege to see establish themselves within your framework.
I'm so proud of the OwnEnergy folks, the people on my origination team at EDF, and the people now coming out of Ambient who are establishing themselves as true long-term leaders around the sector. The more you invest in the people around you as a leader, the more it comes back in very positive ways. If nothing else, it just makes you feel good. So that's probably my greatest point of pride, seeing all those team members have their own success.
Melissa Baldwin:
That's great. I share that view. I think it's so rewarding to see teams grow and come into their own. Something else I hear from a lot of CEOs on this podcast is that you don't want to be the smartest person in the room. You actually want to hire people who are bringing something new to the table that you don't have.
Jacob Susman:
Yeah, fortunately, I've never had that problem. The people around me can put me to shame in terms of brilliance. But I think my job is to keep everybody moving ahead, especially when things get really hard, and focused on purpose more than anything else.
Everybody who joined Ambient, everybody who joined OwnEnergy, was there because, in the case of OwnEnergy, we wanted to bring the benefits of renewables back to local communities. In the case of Ambient, we wanted to decarbonize heavy industry. And I think those people are still out there in the sector working on those same goals today.
So you've just got to remind people of the purpose. Remind people why we're doing what we do. And the rest, that brilliance they bring to the table, kind of takes care of itself.
Climate Optimist or Pessimist? Jacob Makes His Call
Melissa Baldwin:
Nice. So this is my final question. Has your work left you a climate optimist or a climate pessimist?
Jacob Susman:
I have no choice but to be an optimist. The climate is not getting any better, as far as I can tell. But I still want to be out there running around in the outdoors.
I got to see the whole movie on wind and solar scaling up in the US from the very beginning. And now it's the lowest-cost form of new generation and the most logical new generation to install. The fact that we were able to accomplish that in 20 years makes me optimistic that in the next 15 or 20 years, we ought to be able to have a similar impact on green molecules and green fuels, and decarbonize that part of the sector too.
But we've got to do it, because it isn't getting any cooler here in mid-September in New York City. We have to keep redoubling our effort toward these goals and staying optimistic.
Melissa Baldwin:
No, I couldn't agree with you more, Jacob. Let me give you a chance. Is there anything else you want to add? Anything we didn't cover in this conversation? Or any words of wisdom for somebody out there who wants to grow a business and have a successful exit, or wants to get more into green hydrogen? Anything else you want to share with our listeners?
Jacob Susman:
I would hearken back, Melissa, to the conversation earlier about community, and not just the privilege of being part of those communities, but also the responsibility to pay it forward and help subsequent generations accomplish what they need to accomplish.
You may be building your business right now. You may be riding high. I hope that stays that way for a long time to come. But eventually, you may not want to work anymore, or at least not as hard. And we need to set up a next generation of leaders, and a generation after that, to keep fighting this climate fight and to keep building these exceptional clean economy businesses.
That way, this becomes a virtuous cycle and we perpetuate all the innovation, all the job creation, and all the awesome businesses that can get created when we do pay it forward, when you take somebody under your wing and show them the ropes, and when you sign a contract with somebody whose company not everybody totally believes in yet, but you believe in them.
So keep paying it forward. Keep helping others in the community. That will have a great long-term benefit not only for our sector, but for society at large.
Melissa Baldwin:
Excellent. Great advice, Jacob