We had the good fortune of connecting with Deanna Zhang and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Deanna, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I chose to go independent a few years ago. I had a great job with Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co, a prominent energy-focused bank in Houston, building out their energy technology coverage. The people were great, the work was interesting, and the platform afforded me a lot of excellent opportunities….but, I had an itch I needed to scratch. I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, to see if I could hold my own without the cushion of a large name brand, and to build something impactful. I had no dependents & plenty of savings so it was actually a very comfortable decision for me and one that I’m so glad I took.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’m the CEO & Founder of V1 Climate Solutions and a Founding Partner at Node. Both of these organizations work with climate tech companies on bridging the FOAK gap – V1 does this through financial advisory & fundraising work and Node does this through ecosystem convening. I’m grateful that both these organizations have been self-funded and doing well.

One thing I’ve noticed in building these new organizations is that a lot of the work is not necessarily the work you get paid for. In fact, some of the most accretive work is the work that goes into building trust – jumping on calls with startups to talk with them on the issues they’re facing, putting out thought leadership, making connections…all of these taken an immense amount of time but is a core part of building businesses that founders trust enough to work “under the hood” with them.

For those unfamiliar, FOAK refers to the stage for a company when they are building their first asset or first facility, and often times this is the hardest stage in a climate startup’s lifecycle to raise for as its risk/reward is not clearly defined and most stakeholders want little exposure to that uncertainty. But in the future, I can see FOAK being the world’s greatest opportunity, linked very closely to how we can regain the ability to build innovative infrastructure – and I’m thrilled that I get to help make that happen from a unique position.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If they wanted to stay in Denver or the Front Range, we’d probably go hiking around Golden then take a walk downtown. We’d probably also eat ourselves silly at some of my favorite spots: Tikka & Grill, Wok Spicy, Old Town Hot Pot, Temaki Den, Sushi Den.
Honestly, there’s still so much I would like to explore in the city!

If they were amenable to driving a bit, I’d take them to Leadville to hike, raft, or just enjoy being outside in arguably one the most beautiful places on Earth. If it was the winter, we could go skiing at Ski Cooper, our home mountain.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are way too many people to shout out that I know I’m going to miss some. I know that most, if not all, of my success comes from others elevating me, probably beyond where they reasonably should!

To name a few: Maynard Holt, Keeton Little, Kentaro Kawamori, John Gibson, and Gary Morris were instrumental in shaping the early part of my career & more or less how I approach business today.

In Colorado, I’ve had the pleasure of working with people that have generously donated their time to bettering the climate ecosystem & have taken a chance on me in many ways. – folks like Jack Fritzinger, Jeff Knupp, Ken Carlson, Jim Thorson, the CCIA team, Yoni Cohen & Allison Myers. Thanks also to Mike Smith for recommending me for this article. He also does incredible work with Aclymate and his Climate Dad podcast!

And of course, shout out to my parents and sister, for helping me grow into the person I am today, my husband Cole, for always believing in me and being the best partner anyone could ask for.

Website: https://deannazhang.com

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/deanna-zhang

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