Bianca Caban

Company building in energy is shaped by early decisions that compound over time—how capital is structured, how technical risk is absorbed, and how teams prepare for scale well before it arrives.    Much of my work with founders centers on navigating those choices as deep science becomes real businesses. The details differ across power, materials, and industrial systems, but the challenge is consistent: building companies that can operate, adapt, and grow over long horizons.  You can see that work taking shape across the Breakthrough Energy portfolio. https://lnkd.in/eXd72trE

88

4 Comments

One of the most important conversations I heard in Davos today wasn’t about more AI. It was about whether we trust the systems we’re building enough to deploy them at scale. At a Rethinking Risk session at Davos 2026, leaders from media, government, multilateral institutions, and global finance kept circling the same concern: the erosion of trust. The conversation included Ravi Agrawal, Editor-in-Chief, Foreign Policy; Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Amer Bisat, Minister of Economy and Trade, Republic of Lebanon; Amb. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Stephanie von Friedeburg, Managing Director & Global Head of Public Sector, Citi. Across very different vantage points, the message was consistent: misinformation, selective or low-quality data, and a growing post-truth environment are undermining consensus, multilateralism, and sound risk analysis. When trust erodes: — due diligence weakens — uncertainty rises and risk premia increase — fact-based decision-making breaks down for governments and businesses alike The key takeaway: AI doesn’t fail at deployment because the models aren’t powerful enough. It fails when the systems around it aren’t trusted. Rebuilding trust isn’t just a technical challenge. It requires rigorous verification and higher-quality data; transparent analytics and governance; and inclusive, cross-stakeholder consensus-building. As the World Economic Forum continues to emphasize, trust isn’t a soft value layered onto innovation. It’s a prerequisite for scale, resilience, and long-term economic coordination. If we want AI to reduce risk rather than amplify it, we have to start by designing systems people and institutions can trust. That may be the hardest work ahead. And also the most important.

59

3 Comments

Dayna Grayson is a leading VC who has “sat in every chair” at a young age. She founded Construct Capital with Rachel Holt, an early leader at Uber. Together, they are tackling the digitization of industry. Dayna will discuss macro trends, what it takes to be a founder, and the potential for AI. She is one of the few who have successfully blended a career of operations and investing.  Check out our discussion at: https://lnkd.in/eYBUGjbW #leadershipdevelopment

111

9 Comments

Excited to launch the 2026 Climate Tech course with Bruce Usher and Alan West! Teams now will include Columbia Business School, Columbia Engineering and Columbia Climate School grad students. These interdisciplinary teams will work with 10 VC funds on deep dives in sectors for innovation in climate mitigation, resilience, efficiency, and decarbonization. Thanks to the participating funds - Active Impact Investments, Aligned Climate Capital, Blackhorn Ventures, Blue Bear Capital, Buoyant Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Lime Rock New Energy, Prelude Ventures and Renewal Funds!

98

3 Comments

Maybe it’s old-fashioned, but at Adaptation Ventures we actually write our own newsletters - and my favorite part is looking across history, industries, and cultures to share insights about disability, innovation, and capital allocation. This past quarter, it was Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed his Ninth Symphony while profoundly deaf, turning constraint into creative advantage. The quarter before, it was “Crumbling Barriers: Graham Crackers and Growth Mindsets”: Paul Graham of Y Combinator and Benjamin Graham, author of The Intelligent Investor and Warren Buffett’s teacher and primary mentor - two very different, but deeply influential guides for founders and investors alike. Before that, we dug into Epictetus, one of history’s most influential Stoic philosophers, born into slavery nearly 2,000 years ago and disabled as a child, whose ideas still resonate with how resilient founders can navigate adversity. With the speed of information and constant innovation, it can be grounding to pause and explore how the themes of history apply to the modern world. As the saying goes, it may not repeat - but it often rhymes. If you enjoy this lens on disability, neurodivergence, and accessibility - our quarterly digest is for you. Check out the latest edition and sign up for the newsletter for the most timely access.

62

4 Comments

The Climate Capital Reset: What 150+ conversations told us   Over the second half of 2025, Bill Tarr of MOTIV Partners, Daniel Firger of Great Circle Capital Advisors and I joined forces to interview well over 150+ leading allocators, fund managers, executives, and policymakers to assess the current state of climate capital and map the road ahead. Despite enormous progress, the last 12 months have been massively disruptive for climate investing. We saw a need to take a step back and do a sense check for both private investors and philanthropic allocators. The hundreds of private interviews allowed us to surface honest perspectives that are often unvoiced, and identify shared beliefs in a moment of historic uncertainty.   We're releasing the findings today — in the midst of yet another battle over oil resources and waning interest in climate — arguably no better time to recenter the discussion on the opportunities and needs of a real climate transition. The report is the tip of many icebergs. We expect to convene follow on discussions with principals and other leaders. The findings point toward the need for ruthless pragmatism in the near term, and greater alignment and coordination between private and philanthropic allocators going forward. The research reveals both choppy waters ahead and genuine cause for optimism. Key takeaways: • The strategies deployed from 2015-2025 will not be sufficient in this new era. • Consolidation, distress and integrated models offer outsized near-term opportunities • Principal-Agent problems continue to limit allocation to the sector • Plenty of commercial opportunities exist for the traditional capital stack, but climate itself will not be solved without new models • The market is ripe for longer duration, asset aggregation, and vertical strategies • Underlying macro trends are only adding broader demand for solutions Allocators with clear eyes and the willingness to act will find this moment full of opportunity — discounted assets, consolidation plays, geographic arbitrage as US retrenchment creates openings elsewhere, and breakthrough tech that fits this macro cycle better than most realize. The transition hasn’t stopped—it’s just being restructured. The bottom line: forget 2030 and 2050 deadlines. Build strategies that survive near-term uncertainty and accelerate the long-term transition. Read the full report: 📄 https://lnkd.in/g7zcTBeC

41

7 Comments

So fun to nerd out about climate industrialism and venture capital with Sarah Chen-Spellings on her Billion Dollar Moves Podcast, who interviews some of the sharpest minds in our industry 🤓 I've been beyond fortunate to learn the craft of early-stage investing from five very different investors who’ve earned spots on the Forbes Midas List, including our very own Chris Sacca. In this episode, I share the lessons that stuck: how to spot extraordinary founders, how to truly co-conspire with them from 0 → 1, and how to double down on category kings before it becomes obvious to everyone else. We also dig into our latest work at Lowercarbon Capital. The technologies our portfolio companies are developing put us on a path to energy and material abundance, without destroying the planet. If you’re curious about where advanced manufacturing, AI, and resilience are headed, tune in here https://bit.ly/4qbi2Pd #tech #climatetech #venturecapital #investing #startups

74

4 Comments