Startup Series: Heirloom

Today's guests are Shashank Samala, Co-Founder & CEO, and Noah McQueen, Co-Founder & Head of Research, at Heirloom. Growing up in Southeast India, Shashank saw firsthand how climate change was impacting people. Prior to Heirloom, Shashank was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon 180 and the Co-Founder & VP of Product at Tempo Automation. Before Heirloom, Noah pursued a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and currently serves as a consultant for CarbonDirect. Heirloom is working towards a more resilient, equitable, and prosperous world for everyone. The company focuses on leveraging carbon mineralization as a climate solution with the hope of removing a billion tons of carbon from the air by 2035. Heirloom's technology enhances a natural process, called carbon mineralization, to help minerals absorb CO2 from the ambient air in days rather than years. By combining the best engineering and nature, Heirloom offers the most cost-effective and scalable Direct Air Capture solution in the world. In this episode, Noah and Shashank walk me through their respective climate journeys and how they founded Heirloom together. They explain what makes Heirloom technology unique, its mission, and the larger Direct Air Capture landscape. We dive into the barriers holding DAC back, the voluntary market, and why this sector of climate tech is hard to deploy at scale. We also touch on the effect of policy and regulation on climate tech. Noah and Shashank are great guests, and I enjoyed discussing Heirloom with them. This is a must-listen for those interested in learning more about DAC solutions and their importance in addressing climate change. Enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.