Gigascale Capital

When three-time founder Selina Tobaccowala saw her kids' growing excitement for the environment, she felt inspired to join the climate movement with her latest venture, HomeBoost. HomeBoost helps consumers understand their home energy use, save money, and improve comfort. With fewer than 2,000 energy auditors available in the U.S.—many tied to specific HVAC or insulation companies—it can be tough to schedule an assessment. HomeBoost fills this gap, making energy insights accessible to anyone with a smartphone and the desire to optimize their energy footprint. As a seasoned founder with decades of experience building consumer tech at Evite, Ticketmaster, Gixo (Acquired by Openfit) and more, Selina shares three key lessons for entrepreneurs: 1️⃣ Validate Customer Interest Early – Building a product that resonates starts with understanding your end customer. From the beginning, Selina and her team at HomeBoost tested directly with homeowners to make sure they were solving the right problems. 2️⃣ Focus Your Messaging – Through iterative testing, Selina’s team discovered that cost savings and comfort were the messages that resonated most. Investing in message testing helped them reach their ideal customers faster. 3️⃣ Seek Investors Who Bring More Than Capital – The right investor offers more than funding. Selina advises founders to look for partners who bring strategic insights, a strong network, and lasting support for growth. Congrats to Selina Tobaccowala and the HomeBoost team on last week’s launch. To learn more about HomeBoost, visit our comments. #climatetech #venturecapital #foundertips #Entrepreneurship #Startups

🌍 We had a great time telling alumni stories at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Gigascale Partner Victoria Beasley and Phil K., CEO of Arch—each a Stanford GSB grad—shared their experiences navigating careers in climate tech. Here are some of their top insights: 📚 Storytelling is Key: For founders, strong storytelling powers everything from hiring to fundraising to sales, and more. Clearly communicating your mission is essential to building momentum and inspiring others to join you. 🤝 Take Time Building Your Team: Finding the right people—especially for key roles like co-founders or senior leaders—requires patience. Meet lots of people, ask lots of questions, and remember, it’s an investment that pays off in the long run. 🤖 Don’t Overlook Hardware: Don’t be afraid to dive into hardware. Software isn’t necessarily less capital-intensive. Hardware startups, on the other hand, tend to have stronger customer stickiness, which can lead to larger, more resilient companies over time. Big thanks to Stanford GSB for having us and to all the future entrepreneurs and investors who joined us! 🌍 #ClimateTech #StanfordGSB #startuptips #entrepreneurtips #foundertips

This week, HomeBoost launched BoostBox, a DIY home energy assessment kit that helps homeowners make energy-saving home improvements. For our fellow tech enthusiasts, here’s a peek into how it works.🤓 📸 Compact, easy-to-use hardware: BoostBox includes a thermal camera that plugs into an iPhone and a blacklight. The thermal camera determines where insulation can be improved, window drafts mitigated, and more, while the blacklight shows which incandescent light bulbs can be replaced with longer-lasting LEDs. 📲 Step-by-step guidance: The HomeBoost mobile app—available for free download on the Apple App Store—helps you assess specific problem areas in 30 minutes or less or walks you through a comprehensive scan of your entire home. ✨ Personalized, actionable insights: HomeBoost’s AI and computer vision engine quickly turns the inputs homeowners share into a detailed report, complete with recommendations on product upgrades, DIY maintenance, and larger projects that require contractors. 💰Optimized for cost savings: Every recommendation includes the upfront cost, expected savings, and the estimated of time to recoup the investment. This is boosted by input on how to get the most of local and federal rebates. Looking ahead, HomeBoost plans to expand BoostBox with new data sources, smarter models, and even more precise recommendations—making energy savings easier and more impactful for every home. Congrats to Selina Tobaccowala and the Homeboost team on the launch. Learn more about Homeboost through the link in our comments. #climatetech #venturecaptial #climatechange #technology #innovation

Congratulations to Arbor Energy on being named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024! What began as an ambitious concept—to apply rocket science principles to carbon removal—has become a breakthrough solution for sustainably powering the present while erasing emissions of the past. Arbor converts organic waste into energy, sequestering CO₂ and emitting reusable clean water all in one compact unit. And with a new Microsoft partnership to deliver 25,000 tons of permanent carbon removal while generating clean, reliable electricity, Arbor is just getting started. Here’s to a well-deserved recognition and to the future Brad Hartwig, Andres Garcia-Clark, and the Arbor team are building. #climatetech #venturecapital

Catch the Finalists: Startups to Watch session at #Verge24 today from 1:55 pm - 2:25 pm PST. Mike Schroepfer will take the stage along with Jake Mitchell (Senior Startup Programs Manager, Trellis Group) and Kim-Mai Cutler (Partner, Initialized Capital) to reveal the top startups chosen from a pool of twenty-five innovators. These sector leaders—one from each category of buildings, energy, drawdown, transport, and industrial decarbonization—will take the main stage to present their ideas. The audience will then vote to decide which of these finalists holds the greatest potential to drive real impact. See you there! #climatetech #startups #venturecapital

"Even if [consumers] care about the climate, it’s not motivating enough to make change. What’s motivating consumers is the cost of electricity bills." –Selina Tobaccowala, CEO of HomeBoost With the average household energy bill up 8% over the last year, more people are searching for ways to save at home. While professional energy audits can locate inefficiencies, they’re often expensive, tough to get an appointment, and out of reach for many. HomeBoost offers a simple, affordable, DIY alternative to assess their home using their phone. The BoostBox app scans the home and recommends updates like sealing windows, reducing drafts, upgrading light bulbs, and more, that can lead to big savings over time. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), following a home energy audit’s advice can lower a typical energy bill by nearly one-third. Congratulations to Selina Tobaccowala and the HomeBoost team on the well-deserved Fast Company feature. #climatetech #venturecapital #energy #climatechange #sustainability

🚀 A look behind the scenes at developing Arbor Energy’s carbon-negative power system. Their new CO₂ combustor has arrived at their test facility. This tech heats CO₂ directly, cutting both time and costs on essential testing. The combustor will power Arbor’s next steps in turbomachinery, high-pressure testing, and beyond. If building the future of carbon-negative power is your calling, Arbor is also looking for an experienced test engineer to join their team. Apply through the link in our comments. #hiring #engineerjobs #openroles #engineering #cleantech

🌟 Meet Adam Ward, one of the amazing Talent Partners at Gigascale. With over 20 years of experience building teams at companies like Pinterest, Meta, and Qualcomm, Adam has mastered the art of finding the right people to help companies grow. He’s also the co-founder of Growth by Design Talent, where he guides early-stage founders in building their teams with purpose, right from the start. 🌱 Background: Adam fell into recruiting early in his career and never looked back. "I love connecting people with opportunities and helping them find the right career path. If I could spend all of my time introducing people, I would. It’s the best part of my day." 🎯 What Drives Him: For Adam, recruiting isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about finding people who make a company’s culture thrive. “It’s about getting everyone involved in recruiting, not just HR. That’s how you build teams that stick.” 🛠 What Surprised Him About Climate Tech: “The diversity of skills—chemical, biological, mechanical engineers, and more—keeps things exciting. And there’s this collaborative spirit in climate tech. Everyone’s rowing together to solve the world’s biggest challenge.” 🌍 Why Climate Tech: Living on the California coast, Adam has seen firsthand the effects of climate change. “Climate change is our generation’s biggest challenge, and I want to be part of the solution. Helping companies build teams to tackle this challenge is deeply motivating.” 📚 What He’s Into: Adam stays up to date with curated newsletters like Superorganism and finds a lot of inspiration from his network on LinkedIn, where he shares and learns from others working in climate and talent spaces. Curious about working in climate tech? Check out the link in our comments for open roles. #climatetech #hiring #recruiting #openroles #jobs

It’s been a busy few months at Gigascale. Fall is always packed in the climate tech world, and our team has been on the move—from hosting workshops to speaking at events and celebrating some portfolio wins. Here are some key highlights from our latest newsletter: 🔥 Event Spotlight Our team joined discussions at some of the leading events this fall. From Mike Schroepfer’s fireside chat with Chris Anderson on AI and clean energy at Geothermal House, to connecting with founders at New York Climate Week and the Tough Tech Summit, we’ve been all in on innovation. 🚀 Portfolio Wins Our portfolio companies have also been busy making waves: → Form Energy raised $405M and opened a new factory in WV → Arbor Energy secured a major deal with Microsoft → Mill and Dioxycle appeared on Netflix’s What’s Next? with Bill Gates (Episode 3) And there’s more! We’re rounding out October at with a talk on the future of climate at today's Masters of Scale Summit. And next week, we’ll see you at #Verge24. For more on what we’ve been up to, news from the portfolio, and more—check out the full newsletter. #climatetech #venturecapital #climatechange #nycw

Congrats to Arbor Energy on being named a winner of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Carbon Negative Shot, the first major U.S. government effort focused on carbon dioxide removal! 🎉 This recognition shows that carbon removal is no longer just an emerging idea—it’s becoming essential to the future of clean energy. Government support like this is a major boost for the entire industry, speeding up the path to scalable solutions. For Arbor, this is a huge milestone. Their technology, which turns organic waste into clean energy while capturing CO2, is gaining real momentum. Along with the DOE award, Arbor secured a multi-year agreement with Microsoft earlier this year to remove 25,000 tons of CO2, and their pilot plant in San Bernardino is set to go live this December—another step toward reshaping the future of carbon removal. Congratulations to Brad Hartwig, Andres Garcia-Clark and the entire Arbor team. We’re excited to see what’s next for you! #climatetech #venturecapital #climatechange #energy #sustainability