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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted thisAfter much reflection, the team at Evergrow is winding down operations and returning our remaining capital to investors 🌱. Since 2021, our mission has been to bring clean energy to communities across America. Along the way, we built one of the industry’s leading tax-credit financing platforms from the ground up, proving that small-scale clean energy projects can be both impactful and investable. Our platform helped power clean energy for schools, churches, farms, apartment buildings, and small businesses across the U.S. Our ultimate vision was to create a better system for funding clean energy, starting with tax credits. Unfortunately, following the recent passage of the ��One Big Beautiful Bill," we no longer see a path to realizing that vision and building a venture-scale business. We’re incredibly proud of what we accomplished as a team, and grateful for the customers, partners, and investors who shared this journey with us. Though Evergrow’s chapter is closing, the ideas, technology, and momentum we helped spark live on — and we’re excited to see what comes next for clean, distributed energy ⚡.
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James Richards posted thisWe’re announcing today that we’re winding Evergrow down and returning our remaining capital to investors. I started Evergrow in 2021 to make it easier to fund clean energy. We began by helping small solar projects get tax credit funding. Over time, we built one of the most sophisticated diligence and underwriting platforms in the market and helped bring solar to farms, schools, churches, factories, apartment buildings, and communities across America. Our vision was to create a better system for funding clean energy, starting with tax credits. But after the passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which rapidly phases out solar tax credits, we no longer saw a viable path to realizing that vision. Therefore, we’re winding down and returning capital. Startups live and die by timing, and this time, the timing was not on our side. I still believe that building more renewable energy everywhere is one of the most important and urgent things we can do to power AI’s growing demand and to meet the moment on climate change. I’m grateful to have worked with such a great team, including Addy Mistick Marissa Jacobus Tayler Knight Lettie Malan Assaf Adam Lord Adam Morris Julian Dreiman Brendan Olski Shreenidhi Hegde Rishma Bora Artem Palamarchuk. My deepest thanks to our partners and investors, including Ross Fubini XYZ Venture Capital Abe Yokell Congruent Ventures Rishi Taparia Garuda Ventures Bill Trenchard First Round Capital Max Mullen Michael B. Tannenbaum and many more who believed in and supported us along the way.
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted thisGood morning with some bad news: Last night Republicans voted to bring the big House bill to a vote, signaling they likely have the votes to pass it. That they were able to get enough votes for this bill says a lot about some of these elected leaders. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) said he couldn't vote for the bill if it had steep cuts to Medicaid. ~60% of the people living in his district rely on Medicaid for healthcare. But he caved and voted party over people, politics over country. The House Freedom Caucus said they couldn't support further increases to the federal debt. Most of their members are signaling that they will vote to increase America's debt by $4.5 trillion. More than 20 House Republicans wrote a letter in March urging their colleagues to preserve the clean energy tax credits that have led to an historic infrastructure investment boom in recent years. They voted to end those tax credits. Politics is full of exaggeration and theatre. But it takes neither of those things to explain how much suffering this bill will cause everyday Americans. The bill cuts nearly a trillion dollars in Medicaid spending. Think about that program for a second and what would need to happen to save a trillion dollars. The program only pays out when a sick person with no money needs treatment. Each dollar of savings is a poor person's medical debt, a kid's rejected cancer treatment. The bill cuts food assistance funding by roughly 25%. Numbers like that don't do its description justice. Food assistance puts food in hungry kids stomachs. Spending cuts only come when kids go hungry. If all of this doesn't make you feel anger and sadness, I don't know what to tell you. But for everyone else what I'd say is this: The best antidote for anger is action. For the last two months, I've written about this bill and its potential impacts everyday. With all of your help, these stories have reached more than 15 million people. They've been read by Senators and House Reps—including on the Senate floor this weekend. Personally, they've helped me turn my anger and sadness into something more meaningful and productive. The fight to build a better world doesn't end with a single House vote. Tomorrow there will be more bad policies to fight. Next year, there will elections to win. There's so much more work to do. But the first task—one of the hardest tasks on days like today—is for each of us to reject despair.
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James Richards shared thisSadly, I think this is spot on:Would you rather have cheap energy, or stupid culture wars?Would you rather have cheap energy, or stupid culture wars?
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted thisWe’ve raised a $35M Series B led by GV (Google Ventures). This new capital means we can move faster toward what we set out to do when we first started Metaview: rebuild recruiting with AI at the core. We’re building an enterprise-grade AI agent colony for recruiting. A platform where humans and AI use the same tools, interfaces, and capabilities to get work done orders of magnitude faster and better than before. As we enter this next chapter, we’re not just growing our London office—I'm moving to San Francisco to open our new office in South Park. Come say hi! Now is the time to build. Now is the time to join us. https://m.careers/
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted this✨ 𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 Bloomsburg Carpet Industries, Inc. — 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 Solar Power World 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆! At Evergrow, we're on a mission to help American small businesses and manufacturers thrive in the clean energy transition. 🇺🇸⚡️ We’re proud to share how our 𝘁𝗮𝘅-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗴 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗽𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 $𝟮𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀 with a rooftop solar system. ☀️🏭 📌 Project Highlights: ✅ 𝗔𝗻 𝗶𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗰, 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆-𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀: Bloomsburg Carpet, based in Bloomsburg, PA, makes carpets for the U.S. Supreme Court, both chambers of the Capitol, Carnegie Hall, and other landmark institutions. 🏛️🎭 ✅ 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀: Electricity prices are rising fast in PA and across the mid-Atlantic. Bloomsburg's CFO acted fast to secure long-term savings by building a 1.49 MW rooftop solar system. 🌞 ✅ 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: A USDA grant and local utility rebate covered part of the costs — but about two-thirds of the project still needed financing. 💰 ✅ 𝗧𝗮𝘅 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: The solar system qualified for $660,000 in investment tax credits (ITC). Evergrow provided full-service diligence and guaranteed the buyer against recapture loss, clinching the sale of the tax credits. 🔒💡 ✨ 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗺𝘀𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗴: 💵 $250,000 in annual savings on energy bills and renewable energy credits — keeping manufacturing jobs local and competitive. 🌱 Stronger sustainability credentials, giving this small business an edge with customers who value greener supply chains. 👏 We're proud to support American manufacturing and help more businesses go solar! 🔗 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆: https://lnkd.in/gjmpQ3sR #SolarEnergy #CleanEnergy #SmallBusiness #Manufacturing #TaxCredits #EnergySavings #Sustainability #ClimateAction #SolarPower #EnergyTransition #EvergrowEvergrow tax-credit transfer on 1.5-MW project keeps iconic PA carpet factory in operationEvergrow tax-credit transfer on 1.5-MW project keeps iconic PA carpet factory in operation
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted this🧵 Yesterday, House Republicans on the Ways & Means Committee unveiled their proposal for budget reconciliation—a plan that would slash spending on clean energy and begin an early phaseout of the tax credits that have powered a surge in investment and job creation across the U.S. over the last three years. ⚡🏗️ This proposal is just the beginning of a long negotiation process—not least because it was made over the objections of more than 20 Republican members who previously urged Chair Jason Smith to preserve the credits. So this deal is far from done—and everyone should be paying attention. 📍 The map below makes the stakes clear: Clean energy tax credits have supported investments across party lines, with Republican-led districts receiving the majority of funding. 🗺️ According to the The New York Times (using Clean Investment Monitor data), more than 77% of post-IRA low-carbon energy investments have flowed to districts represented by Republicans. This isn’t just about dollars—it’s about long-term American strength and resilience. 💪🇺🇸 🌱 Clean energy tax credits support: 👷 𝗝𝗼𝗯𝘀: Clean energy investments generate high-quality, future-facing employment in construction, installation, engineering, and more. The clean energy economy has added more than 400,000 across the U.S. since the passage of the IRA. ⚡ 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Distributed energy and battery storage are critical to maintaining a modern, flexible grid capable of handling the projected surge in electricity demand over the coming decades. 💡 𝗟𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀: Renewable energy makes electricity more affordable for everyone—including American families and businesses. 🛡️ 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: A grid with a strong foundation in distributed solar and battery storage will make the U.S. more resilient against threats. 🏭 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: As the U.S. rebuilds manufacturing and onshores supply chains, American manufacturers will need access to inexpensive, on-site, behind-the-meter renewable energy to remain competitive with foreign industry. 👀 We’ll be watching closely—especially what happens to the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which has been critical for community-scale projects that bring clean energy to schools, churches, farms, and small businesses. ⚠️ There’s a lot at stake here. Let’s make our voices heard! #CleanEnergy #ITC #EnergyIndependence #Manufacturing #AmericanJobs #ClimateAction #GridModernization #PolicyWatch #InflationReductionAct
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted thisToday, Republicans in the House of Representatives are forcing a devastating bill for U.S. public lands and waters out of committee (they're still going at the moment thanks to strong objections from friends like Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Ana Unruh Cohen, Brandon Bragato and others!). Short story: Congress is rushing to pass President Trump’s bill to give tax cuts to billionaires while ripping services away from millions of Americans. The natural resources section of this massive bill would sell out public lands to the highest bidder to fund those insider tax breaks, while cutting sweetheart deals to benefit fossil fuel companies. If passed, this would be the largest attack launched by Congress on U.S. lands and waters in modern American history. It would give the oil industry free reign over more than 293 million acres of public lands and waters—an area larger than Texas and California combined—for drilling through the bill's first rounds of mandated lease sales alone. It also shamelessly target iconic lands like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters for reckless development. More here this new paper from Jennifer Rowland-Shea and me: https://lnkd.in/ggyQqdScCongress’ Tax Bill Is Selling Out America’s Public Lands and WatersCongress’ Tax Bill Is Selling Out America’s Public Lands and Waters
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James Richards reposted thisJames Richards reposted thisToday during SF Climate Week 2025.... We had a full house of energy enthusiasts and climate catalysts! ... 💚 🌎 💙 The topic was "Clean Energy, Local Impact: Financing Commercial and Community Infrastructure"......here at our own Banyan Infrastructure HQ Our panel: John Moon, President of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Andreas Karelas, Executive Director at RE-volv and author of Climate Courage Khaim Morton, California State Deputy Treasurer James Richards, CEO, Evergrow Moderator: Amanda Li, COO, Banyan Infrastructure Bringing together a discussion on solar, energy credits, philanthropy, and the strong need for more projects and more financing! #climatetech #SFclimateweek2025 #Banyaninfrastructure #projectfinance
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7mo
Super cool!
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisI’m fired up to share that Metaview has raised an additional $60M led by Insight Partners, with participation from GV (Google Ventures), Intrepid Growth Partners, Seedcamp, Vertex Ventures US, Plural, and Garuda Ventures. This brings our total funding to $110M. We're re-engineering hiring with AI at the core. Always-on agents that take on huge chunks of the end-to-end recruiting workload. So people can focus on what humans do best: judgment, relationships, and making the right calls. The next era, we need to go beyond adoption and move onto actual transformation of how this vital work gets done. We'll make it 100x more efficient and precise. We’ve got a lot to build. Time to lock in.
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisMassive congratulations to Siadhal, Shahriar and the entire Metaview team on raising their $60M Series C. Here at Garuda Ventures we are (mostly) first check investors, typically backing founders when there isn't much more than a deck and a dream. This was certainly they case when we met Siadhal and Shahriar. It has been awesome to watch this team execute, and we are proud to continue to support them as they lead the shift to agentic recruiting. Welcome Insight Partners to the journey! Let's go 🚀
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisFirst stop on a busy conference szn: the McLeod Software user conference in Nashville! It’s been awesome getting face time with our partners, experiencing the vast McLeod ecosystem, and hearing their thoughts on the future of AI in freight and logistics. If we haven’t spoken yet come say hi and share a chip with Jordan and Richard at the Woflow booth! ⛳️
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisSome big news I'm really proud to share! Kanin Energy just raised up to $100 million in new equity financing, led by S2G Investments, and alongside Canada Growth Fund. When we started Kanin Energy, we wanted to put waste heat to power on the map. Over half of the energy that goes into an industrial process is wasted. We saw the opportunity that industrials had in managing their power costs and achieving aggressive sustainability goals, while also managing bandwidth and resource constraints in their core business. Waste heat to power was a viable resource that could solve all of these problems, but it needed the right business model and developer to unlock it. It is so cool to see how the market is catching on and recognizing the value we bring. Being once an investor, I've learned the importance of selecting the right capital partner for a business. Money is only one component. For a business operator, what is more critical is having capital partners that truly understand the company, what you're building, and the dynamic, complex realities that a business faces every day. Having the right capital partners can be an enabler and catalyst for growth, especially at our stage. Kanin is so grateful to have S2G as a partner. The S2G Investments Special Opportunities Fund understands energy infrastructure, has the resources and reach to help us grow our market potential, and has a long term fund thesis that is fully aligned with Kanin Energy. We truly couldn't have asked for a better partner at this pivotal time in our growth. Enabling more opportunities in Canada is also a strong focus for Kanin, and we are so excited about our partnership with Canada Growth Fund and the opportunities we have to build more waste heat to power projects in Canada! A huge shoutout to the S2G team: Marisa C. Sweeney, August O'Hern, Andrea Woodside, Brian O'Connor, and the Canada Growth Fund team Eric Rashi Lula Azzahra Patrick Chabot. And of course, the amazing and capable Kanin Energy team who has spent years and countless late nights building toward this moment. This raise means we now get to do a lot more of what we set out to do! Read the story here: https://lnkd.in/gRV8pKy4 Read S2G's post here: https://lnkd.in/gJfb_rTuKanin Energy Closes $100M Fundraise to Scale Industrial Waste Heat to Power Across North AmericaKanin Energy Closes $100M Fundraise to Scale Industrial Waste Heat to Power Across North America
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisWhy Natalie Fratto hates analogies. When explaining complicated ideas, the default advice is to simplify them with analogies. Natalie takes the opposite approach. She believes analogies can become a crutch that avoids explaining the actual idea and can leave the audience feeling like their intelligence is being underestimated. Natalie on why she refuses to dumb down complex ideas: “I hate analogies” “If somebody says an analogy to me, I feel offended. I feel patronized” “Like they’re assuming I can’t understand the actual content” “Whether that is true or not, that’s my feeling” “When I write something, I say, what is the actual fundamental building block of this topic?” “Get as dumb simple as I can without any jargon, and then build from there” “Which to me does service to the very smart audience of saying, I know you can understand this. I’m not going to sidestep it for you” “I believe that we can get there together” Natalie Fratto: The Truth About Going Viral via Trailblazers Podcast Youtube: https://lnkd.in/drjyqKj7 Spotify:https://lnkd.in/d77yU9YA
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisNotes.fm is now live on Stripe Treasury for platforms. 🎉 Musicians using Notes.fm can manage royalty earnings from multiple streaming platforms through one financial account. It’s a strong example of how platforms can go beyond payments and embed financial services that make their products more useful to their users. If your platform is exploring a similar path, I’d be happy to connect. Congratulations to Tim Luckow and the Notes.fm team on their launch. Really exciting times. Read the Notes.fm customer story: https://lnkd.in/g4HPYeWwNotes.fm simplifies music royalties with Stripe Treasury for platformsNotes.fm simplifies music royalties with Stripe Treasury for platforms
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisBig news — Clerky is joining Stripe! 🤝 Startup formation on Clerky is booming and more attorneys than ever before are working with clients on Clerky. As part of Stripe, we're going to lean into this momentum and keep building for high-growth startups and attorneys with the same team and focus that we've always had. We're not going anywhere! Over the years, like most startup founders, I've heard a lot about Stripe and how they do things. More times than I can count, I've thought "oh, that's how we do it too" or "that makes complete sense". As we've gotten to know the team at Stripe better, it's become even clearer that we think alike in many ways. Equally important, we're both obsessed with making life as easy as possible for startups. At a personal level, I'm excited for us to join Stripe as well. As a young startup attorney, I remember filing a charter amendment to change the name of a client from "slash dev slash payments" to "Stripe" and kind of preferring the original name ("Stripe" is good too though). And when we started Clerky, Patrick Collison was incredibly kind and introduced us to investors without even being asked. It's been amazing to watch Stripe grow since then and I could not be happier that it'll be our new home. Thank you to all the startup founders and attorneys that have trusted us over the years. And thank you to all our employees past and present, our investors, Y Combinator (especially its incredible legal team), Carolynn and Jon Levy, John Bautista, Scott Porter, Nicole Christa Cadman, and countless others who believed in us. So many people helped us along the way, often unbeknownst to us. We've benefited tremendously from the magic of the startup ecosystem and we're honored to keep building for it. 🙏
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James Richards liked thisJames Richards liked thisI'm excited to share that I'll be joining Norton Rose Fulbright's Projects team as an associate in 2027 in New York! A huge thank you to Becky Diffen, Luke Edney, Christy Rivera, and all the other fantastic NRF Projects team members who welcomed me this summer and let me dive straight into their fascinating energy work. Thrilled to be launching my career with this incredible group!
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