Ep 9: Matthew Nordan, Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund

In this episode, I interview Matthew Nordan, the Managing Director at Prime Impact Fund and the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of MNL Partners. Matthew also sits on numerous boards including Greentown Labs, Sense, and Quidnet Energy. Before Prime, Matthew was a venture capital investor at Venrock, one of the world’s oldest and most successful VC firms, where he and colleagues drove the firm’s investment in Nest Labs (acquired by Google for $3.2 billion). Prior to Venrock, Matthew was President of Lux Research (acquired by private equity firm Bregal Sagemount), an advisory services firm for science-driven innovation that he co-founded in 2004. In this episode we discuss: - The a-ha moment Matthew experienced at a conference that sparked his climate journey. - The differences between traditional VC and the investments Matthew makes through Prime Impact Fund specifically as it relates to moon shot ideas and climate focused companies. - How Matthew and Prime balance the return of capital vs impact along with the differences between catalytic capital and market based capital. - Matthews view on the role and importance of policy in the climate fight. You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show.