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Welcome to "INNOV-8 presents Entrepreneurs in Tech," where we delve into the minds of trailblazing innovators who have left an indelible mark on the technology world. Join us as we explore the journeys, challenges, and triumphs of these visionary entrepreneurs, uncovering the strategies and insights that have propelled them to success. From disruptive startups to industry titans, our podcast showcases the diverse stories and groundbreaking ideas that shape the future of technology. Tune in for inspiring conversations and actionable takeaways that will ignite your entrepreneurial spirit and drive innovation forward.
Bob Shami (00:01)
Welcome to another episode of Innovate Presents Entrepreneurs in Tech. And we're delighted to have our guest today, Matt Misunis. Matt, pleasure to have you, buddy. Absolutely. Before we get started and dive into it, I would like you to give us a small introduction of yourself and a little bit about your insight in the tech industry or background.
Matt Macunas (00:11)
Pleasure to be here.
So for myself, I'm a co -founder with a European based climate analytics startup. I also mentor a few other startups, either being involved with Innovate or through Clean Tech Open. Had a long history in public service, not as any sort of elected official or anything like that, but just seeing public policy and how it intersects with clean energy and sustainability.
get me involved in that sort of realm. So that's probably the direction of our conversation, I'm guessing, today.
Bob Shami (00:58)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, we'll start by you sharing your journey with us in promoting electric vehicle adoption and running a campaign and what were the key challenges that you faced.
Matt Macunas (01:10)
Yeah, so talk about a passion of mine for a while there. I can actually date that back to maybe 2010, reading a Time Magazine article about electric vehicles. It was like GM's EV1 and by the way, the Volt and the Leaf are about to come out, right? And so that's what kind of sparked the interest right there. Like, I really like this sort of thing. My next vehicle, maybe. Well, it turns out it was like maybe...
Bob Shami (01:28)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (01:39)
2015, picked up a used Nissan Leaf. I was working for like an environmental clean tech type organization, the Connecticut Green Bank at the time. And I was kind of this exemplar, the only one bold enough to get a short range electric vehicle and test the bleeding edge of range adequacy around like, I'll be at small state, right? And so that's what got me into electric vehicles, really paying attention to that space. Kind of the next,
Bob Shami (01:58)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (02:09)
at that moment in time, almost 10 years ago, like the next big thing in clean tech, right? Like, okay, what do you do to solve climate change? Well, you know, shift off fossil fuels, go to electricity, try to jump a bunch of sectors of the economy onto electricity, and then transportation is the big one, right? So doing the Gretzky move, going to where the puck was going to skate to, right? So to that effect, I wanted to run a few different programs there.
One of them, I partnered with Nissan to run a group campaign selling electric vehicles. Of course, it was their electric vehicle. I was partnering with them on the leaf, selling to largely solar power customers, people we knew who already had solar, like me, so that they could just make their own fuel, right? The value prop is just there all day. Even if you're in...
Bob Shami (02:41)
Yes.
Ahem.
Matt Macunas (03:02)
a state with high retail electricity rates, you could still beat it, right? So the best thing for yourself, both in terms of economics and environmentalism, as I was seeing it at that moment in time, go all in, you know, make the power, drive on it. So sold over 100 Nissan Leafs. That was a lot of fun. For a moment in time earlier on,
Bob Shami (03:25)
Wow.
Matt Macunas (03:28)
Before the market started taking off. There's a whole bunch of Teslas in my town now Whenever I saw one driving around on the road I would have that same pride that like a car dealer might have like that was one of mine, right? So that was great I ran this other program It was really experimental. It was involving the voluntary carbon markets trying to create carbon offset credits from electric vehicle charging so like turning
Bob Shami (03:32)
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (03:56)
kilowatt hours into avoided tons of emissions using this complex methodology is actually relatively simple methodology, but like complex to implement. And we were doing something that was really cutting edge on that tip. Electrify America was first to base with that. We were kind of second, but we were having a group campaign that wasn't just our assets. And so this was
Bob Shami (04:16)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (04:20)
kind of head spinning, right, of a project. Like I was involved in trying to draft the legal agreements that would bind over like 30 ,000 partner assets to us. Like, okay, we'll lend you the environmental attributes of these avoided emissions so that you can turn them into offset credits so that then maybe you could sell those offset credits and then maybe you could remit those proceeds and then speed up.
the market for getting more electric vehicle chargers out there faster. Right. Like that was the whole premise. So it was complex. It involved utility partners. It involved app developers and involved network owner operators. And it was a blast. I mean, talk about like soldiering through a murky environment that you're not used to. Like California, they had a government run program for something very similar. A few more states have it now.
Bob Shami (04:51)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (05:13)
But this was something where it was like the program wasn't even there yet. It wasn't even like developed and you're just like testing things out. Are they going to work on the front end? It very much resembled startup world actually, which I'm sure we'll get to. Like it resembled being at a startup and trying something new for the first time in tech. It was fascinating.
Bob Shami (05:32)
Hmm, very interesting, very interesting. I mean, what inspired you to start the also clean energy revolution? And, you know, and what impact you would hope it have in the energy space?
Matt Macunas (05:48)
So I knew there was all sorts of like hunger out there for information about the clean economy, right? Like everyone wants to know a little something. There's a collaborator team that was international. They were willing to be authors on this. They all had different specialties and interests. They were all kind of rowing in the same direction, but it would be like battery storage.
Bob Shami (05:55)
Yes.
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (06:12)
electric vehicles, environmentalism, carbon management, you know, whatever it is, solar and wind. And so we would just, you know, have a good time getting our feet wet, practicing. What's the term for the music industry like behind you? Practicing your chops, getting a chop. When it comes to writing and authorship and with myself, trying to combine generative AI, like I'd be having a lot of fun.
Bob Shami (06:29)
Yes.
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (06:40)
in the early days of having AI make these images. They were just past the three -legged and six -fingered picture outputs that you would get, and good enough to pair with some articles. And so I was having some fun with the written word and trying to find the right image for it. And then putting that out there in a way that we could just educate people and have that content running.
Bob Shami (06:49)
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (07:08)
There's a lot of different places you can find that sort of thing, but you know, it was our effort to make a contribution in that space, for sure.
Bob Shami (07:14)
Amazing. I mean, two things already we talked about you involved with. Now, what about Weather Trade Nets mission and how it fights climate change?
Matt Macunas (07:25)
So with Weather TradeNet, what I like to say is the world probably should have attacked climate change mitigation in the 1990s. And now it's an adaptation game. Like, it's here. You know, we got our postcard from the future last year. We're like record breaking extremes every year, kind of possibly the new normal now. And so fighting climate change, I guess it's less about us bringing the brass knuckles than bringing the armor, right? Like by...
Bob Shami (07:34)
Yes, yes, mm -hmm. Yes.
Matt Macunas (07:55)
forewarning, foreshadowing people, educating them in advance of what might happen on their property. So Weather TradeNet is a physical climate risk analytics firm formed by climate data scientists who decided to, they want to write, still write some papers, but make products while they're at it, right? And there was an opening space for this really.
that was being driven not only by corporates that want to analyze their own risk, like what's my uptime downtime profile and years to come due to wildfires or floods or things like that. Can my employees access my property or should I take a long holding position on these like shoreline resorts, right? If it was sea level rise. It's not only for voluntary like mitigation reasons like that, but also like,
80 governments around the world are now implementing regulations that are pushing in that direction in the interest of investor transparency. Like, all right, how is your balance sheet exposed?
to the physical risks that are driven by climate change, right? And so all sorts of corporates as of really it's kicking in this year and next year in a lot of big ways. The SEC in the US, it's on pause right here, but all of Europe is moving forward. There's a lot of other countries around the world, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, I could just run a list that are saying, hey, large enlisted corporates, banks, insurers, et cetera, get smart on this.
So this is a space where we feel like we can play. And it's a blessing I could contribute on this team, helping them out as a kind of B2B spot player strategy, Swiss army knife, to the extent I could support. So Weather Trade Net, yeah, that's what they do. They'll kind of forewarn with regards to that sort of thing. I'd be remiss, Bob, if I didn't even mention we made a free web app.
It's the simplest possible depiction of our product you can imagine, but it's still informative as to the type of thing we can do. You can go to yourclimaterisk .com and just see what it looks like for your area. Yourclimaterisk .com, your greatest risk, now your greatest risk in 10 years.
Bob Shami (10:03)
YourClimateRisk .com For our viewers and listeners YourClimateRisk .com
Absolutely. You know, before I jump into your green bank that you, you know, the project that you worked on at Green Bank, I want to ask one thing. I want to go back to the electric cars, you know, and again, I'm not a scientist or an engineer. Why a lot of these electric car companies, they're not doing self charge through solar, whether it's in the paint.
Or the V or in the glass, like the roof, like, why don't they make it a, is it, it doesn't generate enough power for it to run. Does it have to be always plugged in by regular electricity and you know, and always, you know, electricity, we all know how electricity being generated. So. I mean, you want clean air and clean energy and all of that. Would it, wouldn't it be that kind of really.
kind of saying, okay, now we are kind of with the message. Like the message is accurate. let's have clean air, but we need to plug in electricity. But how is electricity being charged? Being generated. So you know what I mean.
Matt Macunas (11:19)
Right, I mean you've got coal burners in some jurisdictions still, right? It's still cleaner to drive electric, even on that basis, than a gas -powered vehicle, but still the emissions are somewhere in that case, right?
Bob Shami (11:31)
But could it be at least for vehicles? Forget about trucks, trains, ships, fire jet fighters, airplanes. It doesn't have maybe the power yet to power that. I don't know. Again, I'm not an engineer. I'm just saying. But could we...
Matt Macunas (11:44)
And neither am I, but you do know, because you hit on the right answer. So going back to that Time Magazine article I was reading in 2010, like the sort of depiction that they would have, and this is still true, for these cross -country single -person racers, those are the sorts of things that have electric, or sorry, solar panels on the roofs, right?
Bob Shami (11:48)
Yeah, yes, yes.
Matt Macunas (12:04)
On the spoiler of my retro style Nissan Leaf, I got some solar panels, but it's really meant to recharge like the car battery and the AC, that's not the traction battery, because that requires too much power for just a single solar module pasted onto a roof, right? There's a lot of experimentation going on about that. There's other sorts of formats going, if you'll let me, into the heavy duty sector that folks are trying. Over in Europe, they got the catenary lines for the heavy duty.
Going back to my nerding out on my video game days like the F -Zero recharge strip, right? Like you drive over this sort of road embedded electricity conveyance and you know, you can charge the battery a bit. So some, you know, like roundabout town transit buses, they already do that sort of thing. Generally speaking, yeah, it's that the electric grid, they've got the 100 % uptime.
Bob Shami (12:43)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (13:00)
they've got the volume of power that they could push out to a vehicle that you need for a traction battery, which just takes more.
Bob Shami (13:04)
Got it. Got it. Let's talk about the project that you worked on at Green Bank and how did they advance energy?
Matt Macunas (13:16)
Ooh, so there was a few projects, like during my last few years over there, it was like my title just kind of changed depending on what I was trying to do, you know, like as kind of a strategic projects guy for the most part. One of them.
Bob Shami (13:18)
Yes.
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (13:33)
had to do with being involved in solarized campaigns, right? I mean, some of the earlier campaigns I was talking about with electric vehicles, that was all under them too. It's an innovation agency. They deal with financing commercializable clean tech, like finding the gaps where some deployment multiplier is needed, right? So that's what they do. When it comes to campaigns other than electric vehicles, the solarized campaigns, I was involved in that. I was actually involved in that from the community.
perspective the year before I went to the Green Bank trying to knock on doors and get other people to go solar because then when I got solar the group purchase would become that much more affordable. It was this kind of time limited group purchase offer to make everything more affordable when it comes to the acquisition of solar. And so involved on that side with community campaigns involved in trying to pass some laws because they were
what's called a, it's like a half state agency. They're like a creature of law. So if you want to play offense or defense on anything, you need to pass a law. Right. So we did some creative stuff over there. I can't lay claim to any of this, even though I was the go between like intergovernmental guy, because that's always been my area, you know, studying public administration, politics, things like that. And so for that reason, I'd be the guy on the grounds trying to talk to lawmakers like, all right,
let's establish a program that could create renewable energy credits from people's solar that they have on their residences, which wasn't a thing up to that moment in time, and then use those proceeds to help finance more people getting solar on their residences, right? So all sorts of innovative things like that, augmenting...
Bob Shami (15:10)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (15:23)
CPACE, the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program, we were doing that. Writing into our charter, so to speak, what's called environmental infrastructure, so kind of expanding out the Green Bank's mandate just from clean energy to being more like a pan -environmental.
sort of financing organization because that's where as clean tech is maturing, you're actually finding these other areas. There's like, can we apply financing to this too? Can we use those same principles to help out with, let's say, nature conservation, biodiversity, low carbon agriculture, you know, whatever it is. And so, you know,
Bob Shami (15:45)
Hehe.
Matt Macunas (16:07)
That was a lot of fun, right? There was also a lot of not fun places, right? Passing laws is not like the easiest thing in the world. And they have that stereotype about sausage making. You don't want to see how it happens. You don't like the result. You don't want to see how it's. So, you know, there's that sort of aspect to it and it's hit or miss just like anything else is. But we had some good times. We got some laws passed. We ran some community campaigns, got a lot more people.
Bob Shami (16:15)
Yes.
Yes.
Matt Macunas (16:36)
around Connecticut involved in clean energy with adopting that for their home, their business, their institution.
Bob Shami (16:42)
Interesting. How do policy marketing and outreach intersect in clean energy and what strategies are effective in driving the change?
Matt Macunas (16:56)
So, you know, a lot of this is driven by policy. That's what's upstream, right? Like...
Is clean energy affordable in your neighborhood? Well, that kind of depends. What do the tax credits look like? Are there state or utility incentives to adopt that sort of thing? What does the rate structure look like to reimburse you, right? If you're feeding power back to the grid, these all layer together and they form the ecosystem for, okay, it doesn't make sense to adopt one form of clean tech or another.
And so this is like, you could even observe that like writ large with inflation reduction act from the feds, right? Like Biden administration, 10Xing the Obama administration's investments into clean tech, right? Like this generational investment. And now it's on them to sell it.
right, to the electorate. And that's where the marketing comes into play following from the policy. That's where the outreach comes into play following from the policy is, all right, make people aware of it. Now that we've enabled it in their jurisdiction, now the monies are there to make things economic, now make it happen. An example that I think might be good right here is seeing solar PV
Bob Shami (17:55)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (18:16)
salesman at Home Depot or like your local hardware store.
Bob Shami (18:20)
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (18:21)
as opposed to like Whole Foods or like the Granola Co -op. Like they're selling solar modules at Home Depot because it's economical for the everyday person, right? Like no matter what, we could find a way to make this work for you, to make clean energy work on your roof. That's policy right there. That's governed by how policy sets the upstream considerations for the adoption of those sorts of technologies. So that's how I see that sort of nexus.
Bob Shami (18:51)
Got it. Interesting. Very interesting. I mean, I would say extremely insightful for our viewers and for me. How have your degrees influenced your approach in addressing climate and sustainability challenges?
Matt Macunas (19:08)
So, hmm. My degrees earlier on, it was political science in the early years, bachelor's, and then public administration for a master's. At least with a master's, I tried to move in the direction of some electives, like energy law and business, where you could layer some stuff in that starts to relate. And so you could see why...
Bob Shami (19:27)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (19:33)
Like yourself, you were telling me you're no engineer. Like I'm no engineer either. I'm not going to invent your widget. Like I'm dealing with the policy side where it's how does this interact with society? Right? Like that's kind of the lens on which I'm taken. And that's informed by the academic approach that I was doing earlier on. Like since then, it was during the pandemic, there was this all virtual certificate that Yale started offering for financing and deploying clean energy. So that's kind of in the wheelhouse right there.
Bob Shami (20:00)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (20:02)
I had to learn a lot of energy physics and finance that I thought I already knew but I didn't. But for the most part, it was in the political societal sort of area there that my academics came in and informed that. Yeah, that's what I got there.
Bob Shami (20:21)
Interesting. You provide flexible support to early stage tech startup teams. And how do you navigate the uncertainties of it? Inheriting startup... Should I say this in a simpler way? How do you navigate, let's say, the uncertainties of the inherited startup world?
Matt Macunas (20:42)
So I'm saying this not because my wife got home and she might be within earshot, but I have a spouse with a salary for starters because I'm not salaried anymore. Like I'm in the startup world, right? So like, you don't know, here's one piece of advice. You don't know how long you're going to be in that sort of scenario, right? Where it's feast or famine, grow what you eat.
make this machine work whatever it is that you're trying to construct and what that runway is going to look like until self -sufficiency, right? And so sometimes it's fun, sometimes that can be hard, but number one, credit where it belongs with the family right there because I've got the ability to not go instantly into bankruptcy. Working in the startup world, right? You got to fall back on the cushion.
Bob Shami (21:27)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (21:37)
that you've tried to build up through that moment in time. And so that's, you know, not to skip ahead, but number one, like a piece of advice for potential entrepreneurs, you know, be ready for that slog, right? So that's a piece of it right there. Let's see. As far as the rest, I mean, some ideas that are out there from entrepreneurs and startups, they could beat others, but for how...
Bob Shami (21:40)
Yes. Yes.
Matt Macunas (22:06)
I assess that, I mean, I just get better with experience. Over time, just you see more, there's more observations and you can integrate that in better in terms of assessing the potential, the capacity, the risk factors that are involved in jumping in on something, right? Whether it's...
we think we've engineered a widget or is one -tenth of what goes into that widget and to make it incrementally better. Is there a market for that, right? Is it a sole supplier market or do you have a million potential customers out there in 15 years time? Like, it's not like anyone knows that instantly right off the bat, but like being able to assess the particulars and the attributes of a situation as one is examining what these brilliant innovators are trying to do out there, you know,
It helps over time figuring that out. Yeah, if you could do it at a glance great, you know that much faster
Bob Shami (22:58)
Yes.
what techniques they use to help climate startups to grow and reach their audience.
Matt Macunas (23:11)
Hmm. Well, I've certainly jumped in on, like I said before, I was a spot player, right? Or I am a bit of a Swiss army knife. I'm not going to invent your widget, but like I've jumped in on like grant writing plenty of times that requires continual refinement. There's you know, I've run into some entrepreneurs who strike it rich the first time like,
We just got $200 ,000 from a science lab and it was our first application. Great. Like that's an outlier right there. Right. Most of the time you're going to be knocking on 20, 30 doors before you get your winner. Right. So as you're going through that process, you could refine your pitch, figure out what works and keep on moving along. So, you know, that was one way of doing it. A lot of it is supporting not.
necessarily with product development, but without bounds, right? Figuring out the strategy behind targeting and segmentation and then what are the tactics that are most effective in getting.
one's product or service in front of an audience, right? One of those, one of our favorite actually is LinkedIn, right? You can find all the decision makers, you could do personal organic outreach, that sort of thing. It's an assessment of which traction channel and marketing is going to be working best, whether it's like bulk cold outbound, if anyone responds to that.
Bob Shami (24:19)
Mm -hmm.
Hmm.
Matt Macunas (24:41)
or if you're actually striking with it or if it's just one -on -one sounding out the market, asking for meetings and requesting things on that basis. You get better over time. But what I've learned, two things. Number one, when you are bootstrapping a company, your pre -revenue, revenue, but pre -investment, then your considerations are vastly different.
Bob Shami (25:01)
Mm -hmm.
Matt Macunas (25:09)
from if you got play money, like here's a million dollars, you know, the seed money came in, like then you could respond to all these vendors who are offering you this, that and the other. Until then, you need to learn from them and then do essentially the function that they're doing or at least test it out to figure out, okay, the overarching general contractor -esque strategy of assembling things or the pieces together and then the tactical implementation of...
which traction channel for B2B outbound are you picking? There's a lot behind that. But the other thing I've learned is that once you're out there as a company founder or some involvement in a startup and a co -founder basis, you're on everyone's marketing list, right? And so you can actually learn from that. Like pro tip, you could take those calls. I understand their pain because I'm trying to reach out to other people to take my calls. So I'll take other people's pitches.
Bob Shami (25:51)
Mm -hmm.
Correct.
Matt Macunas (26:05)
and then just learn what they're doing and how they do it. And then eventually try to, if not integrate that, at least remember them so that with the other startups I try to help, I'll at least be able to give a nice referral to this, that, or the other company in this sector, that sector, that sector. So that's the approach I take.
Bob Shami (26:21)
Well, I mean, you know, that leads to the next question, which really relates to what he just said is building client relationships and partnership is crucial for startup. The same thing, take their calls, build that relationship, see what you can benefit from, how you can help because you feel their pain and any business to me, not just startup, it's all about client relationships and partnerships. And for startups, at least what's your advice for founders who's looking to establish that type of.
you know, a nurture, a meaningful relationship or connection or partnerships, you know, for the climate and sustainability, you know, in that sector.
Matt Macunas (26:58)
Hmm. so this would probably go all over the place. Like, there's a lot of stream of consciousness available between, that prompt and my answer. so, meet other founders, for starters, there's even if it's, you're in the middle of, I don't know.
Bob Shami (27:10)
Yeah.
Matt Macunas (27:14)
Gary, Indiana or Duluthers, you're not in New York City. You can still find places in the online space like Slack channels, Discord, WhatsApp. There's listservs out there where you can connect with other people who are trying to do the same thing and the resource providers who are involved with that. Lots of free content out there for startups either.
Bob Shami (27:36)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (27:36)
on a freemium basis or just like out of the goodness of everyone's hearts, right? Like there's no shortage of people who are trying to spur the economy because they know small to medium enterprises are like the heartblood, the lifeblood or the heart of American business, right? So everyone's trying to make more of them. There's going to be a lot of resources out there to be supporting startups in that regard. I guess number...
Bob Shami (27:46)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (28:05)
two of a main point right there is when it comes to approaching potential clients, do you wanna not necessarily go to them like here's my solution, I know the solution for you, this has gotta be it, right? Use humility and an open ear about that and just ask them like how do you work and what do you work on and what are your pain points, right? That's the main factor is trying to resolve.
those pain points and then just listen, right? And be ready to pivot and be modular as far as what you think you're working on versus what is actually needed in the market after some validation. You know, there's a temptation, I guess, like if you encounter a little gem of advice from somebody like, okay, let me spend the next 72 hours straight remaking my product. Like, don't do that. Like it's unbalancing acts, just incorporate.
Bob Shami (28:58)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (29:02)
that form of feedback though People people buy from people right? They don't necessarily buy a sentence on a website, right? So Don't be afraid to go out meet anyone in any sector. Just talk to people like learn Learn how they work how they think but more so like who they are right and who you let them know who you are as a person because
Bob Shami (29:12)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (29:29)
that can only accrue to your benefit over time, assuming you're on board, right? Everything's above board with you as a person, then you're all good. Because there's no shortage of opportunities out there for people in like a given diaspora to intermingle.
years down the road. Let me use an example. I'm going back to my political days. Like working at the Capitol, there'd be people working in the mail room or like janitorial cafeteria, something like that. And then they decide, I'm going to take a leap. I'm going to do something different. I'm going to try to run for office now. I'm not just going to clean this building. I'm going to help run a committee or something like that. And it actually works. Like there are some people who do that. So you never know if the person who you're meeting,
Bob Shami (30:17)
Ahem.
Matt Macunas (30:19)
in a given spot, even if they're not helpful to you right there when it comes to the whatever it is you're trying to develop, they can still be helpful for you later on down the road in ways that you don't even imagine, right? In their next job or in the next role, something like that. So just get out there and be known, even if you're not putting your product in their face or validating it per se. You know, find people to talk to.
Bob Shami (30:26)
Yeah.
Correct. Absolutely.
Matt Macunas (30:47)
I guess is the right thing right there. And you know, don't shy away from coaching on a variety of fronts, right? Career, personal, whatever it is, just find sources of strength and people that are willing to make you better and then lean into that.
Bob Shami (30:49)
Yes.
Yes, I agree totally agree. so, you know My next thing matt is what aspiration and goals you have for the future both personally and professionally You know in in terms of driving, positive change in the climate and sustainability landscape
Matt Macunas (31:21)
So I'm not going to tell you like, I want to be the VP of whatever for whatever, you know? It's not going to look like that. It is just like more generalistic, like I want to drive positive change, right? Like net zero, climate adaptation, any sort of capacity that I might bring to make connections for others or mobilize like people and capital toward a more just society. I'm down for it, right?
Bob Shami (31:27)
You
Yes.
Yes.
Matt Macunas (31:48)
like it's kind of that approach that I would take, when it comes to just like you actually, I mean, what would innovate or, my work with clean tech open, or, or whatever it is, just helping others achieve their dreams, helping other innovators, find those places for success and, lending one's, own knowledge and expertise, toward that, because you know, that is a multiplier effect.
Bob Shami (32:06)
Yes.
Matt Macunas (32:10)
that goes well beyond yourself, right? So there's few things more rewarding than encountering others out there who ask for your support, advice, mentorship, that sort of thing. It's a rewarding thing, right? And so I guess even though I don't call myself a coach in any official way, like that might be the highest aspiration down the road when it comes to like, what do you want to do with people, right? So.
Bob Shami (32:12)
Absolutely.
You just gave me a tagline idea. Achieve your dreams by helping others to achieve their dreams. That's it. Yes, you heard it first on entrepreneurs on deck with Matt. Matt, anything you want to share with us? Upcoming, something upcoming in the near future you want to advertise or promote or mentions like, hey, yes, I have a, tell us.
Matt Macunas (32:41)
Exactly. That's exactly it.
Bob Shami (32:58)
for our listeners and viewers to look for, to, you know, maybe they'll find you in Capitol Hill soon somewhere.
Matt Macunas (33:05)
Hopefully in the right format and not being escorted by bailiffs or anything like that. You know, shame on me, I guess if I didn't bring it back to my own startup. So visit weathertrade .net. We're always debuting new products and promotions. It's a...
Bob Shami (33:07)
Yes, in the right format.
No, no, no.
Matt Macunas (33:23)
price points and ideas are spanning the gamut, right? As far as what we might be able to offer, it's an early stage company in an area that's ballooning in terms of global interest in climate change adaptation and resilience. So visit weathertrade .net. I would just direct you there. As for the rest, you know, go to innovate .ai. Did I get your website right, Bob?
Bob Shami (33:49)
Absolutely. Innovate that AI. Our startup platform. Yes.
Matt Macunas (33:51)
I would want to promote that too. Exactly. It's a startup platform. I'm excited about it. And I'm looking forward to seeing what it's going to be doing in the months and years to come in its success.
Bob Shami (33:57)
Yes.
well, definitely. Absolutely. With the help of such ambassadors like yourself and others, definitely with the message that we've given out there, a positive message, clean energy and clean AI. There's no dirty AI, but clean AI. Definitely, yes. Yes, absolutely.
Matt Macunas (34:16)
It depends on who's using the AI, exactly. And from what I know of that, some of the more, let's say like...
I don't even know the words, but like music, technology, video, audio, graphics, the video game, things like that. Anything AV. I'm real excited about it because I dabbled in those worlds. I was a DJ in a past life. I like to make beats. And so it thrills me to no end just talking to a guy who's got a record over his shoulder for his background. You know what I'm saying? So like there's a lot of fun to be had when it comes to in the day.
Bob Shami (34:34)
Yes.
Well.
Absolutely, absolutely. I listen I look at it this way the most common Universal language are two things music and technology these are the two people that they're actually the thriving power behind humanity I would this how I feel, you know music makes everybody happy and technology takes everybody forward thrive progress and I think we should really focus if we focus as human on being happy and
to progress forward by advancing and learning and adapting new ways of technology. And I think will be, Earth will be a better place, a great place to be in. Because I think anything we wanna know, all the answers, it's all in technology. The more we progress, the more we get closer to what we wanna know. Not the whole picture, but at least what we wanna know. It's all in technology. We need to keep advancing, keep learning, keep adapting.
new ways of communicating, working, doing things. Not the old was bad, no, but you got to start from some point, somehow. You got to start somewhere. And from there, you just keep building, progressing forward and going. This is my philosophy. Again, I'm not a philosopher or professor, but this is my own philosophy.
Matt Macunas (36:02)
Your philosophy.
Started as a philosophy major and I was like I could be a monk or a teacher. I'm not gonna keep doing this But you're sending my heart a flutter in a way deepak Chopra never could I Think that that's a lot of The truth right there at its soul. I would add math as a universal language, but I was never good at it So I really can't I can't boost it that much right here
Bob Shami (36:09)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yes. Yes.
I'm not a great at math either, but you know But great, you know what Matt? It really is a interesting Light -hearted and insightful interview. I definitely enjoyed it. Would love to have you again in near future and It was it was a pleasure absolutely and Again to the audience and to our viewers the listeners. Thank you for joining us today on innovate presents
Matt Macunas (36:45)
I appreciate the invite.
Bob Shami (36:56)
and entrepreneurs in tech and be sure to connect with us on socials, on social media and until next time keep innovating and stay curious. I always say that, keep innovating, stay curious and that's it. See you till next time, probably be next week. Definitely, thank you again, sir. Appreciate it. My pleasure.
Matt Macunas (37:18)
Thanks, Bob. Take care.