Inevitable (an MCJ Podcast): "Building the Future with Patrick Maloney, CIV"

Host: Cody Simms
Guest: Patrick Maloney (Co-founder and CEO, CIV)
Date: May 1, 2025
Event: LA Climate Week, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Episode Overview

Cody Simms sits down with Patrick Maloney, a veteran cleantech entrepreneur and newly minted venture capitalist, in front of a live audience at LA Climate Week. They explore Patrick’s personal journey through clean energy entrepreneurship, his pragmatic philosophy for societal impact, founding his new investment firm CIV, and co-founding a platform-based nuclear company. The conversation balances real-world hardship—including Patrick’s family losing their home in recent California wildfires—with a forward-looking optimism at the intersection of industry, technology, and climate solutions.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Motivation and Climate Disaster

Timestamps: 01:39–04:12

• Patrick shares the deeply personal impact of the destructive LA wildfires in January 2025; both his mother and in-laws lost their homes.
• Emphasizes the paradox of experiencing both loss and “so much beauty at the same time” in the wake of community support.

  "My mom showed up at my house with a half-pack duffel bag and that's it. She has to rebuild her life from a half-pack duffel bag." — Patrick (02:40)

• Links personal experience to the urgency and purpose of building solutions for climate resilience.
• Maintains optimism: “We've been doing this since the beginning of time. We just consistently create new issues and then we have to go solve those problems together as a community and as a civilization.” (03:51)

2. From Philosophy to Cleantech Entrepreneur

Timestamps: 04:12–10:13

• Patrick’s university foundation (philosophy, political science, economics) taught him that energy is the “horizontal enabler of everything else.”

  "Every moment in human history... every massive inflection point was some significant change in our ability to harness the power of resources..." — Patrick (04:37)

• Views energy not just as a sector but as central to everything—"the input to the output of everything globally." (05:49)
• Quick lesson: He started his career during a time of energy market restructuring, capitalizing on new opportunities created by the transition from monopolies to competitive markets.
• Early companies refocused on consumer choice in energy, improving customer experience, and leveraging policy/tech shifts.
• First entrepreneurial steps were catalyzed by a desire to overcome scarcity through “building something of significance.” (07:12)

3. Building and Selling Inspire: Entering LA’s Tech Community

Timestamps: 10:13–15:40

• Inspire was founded to be the "utility of the future"—a technology-enabled, renewable-powered platform for homes and businesses.
• Innovated around consumer experience to drive demand for renewables.
• Chose to base Inspire in Santa Monica, noting LA's unique, open culture for dreamers and builders vs. East Coast “structured, hierarchical systems.” (13:59)
• Sold Inspire to Shell for practical reasons—scale, speed, and impact—and reflects on the need to work with and within large systems to create real change.

  "If you hope to affect change, you have to work with people and in systems." — Patrick (14:38)

• Pragmatic “practivist” stance: Mission and systems change best pursued from inside, rather than by trying to overthrow incumbents outright.

4. Advice, Mentorship, and the Founder’s Journey

Timestamps: 11:01–13:28

• Patrick’s transition to CEO was driven by his compulsion to build with communities of shared values.
• Emphasizes leadership as authenticity and the courage to make decisions, regardless of external advice:

  "Don't take anyone's fucking advice. Nobody knows the problem better than you... That moment was the most freeing." — Patrick quoting a mentor (11:44)

• Cody relates this to "mentor whiplash" from his Techstars days—founders must weigh advice, but ultimately trust their own judgment.

5. Philosophy of Venture: Building CIV

Timestamps: 17:39–22:30

• After multiple founder journeys, Patrick wanted to amplify his economic and societal impact by building an “evergreen platform”—his venture firm CIV (short for “Civilization”).

  "Societal impact without economic value doesn't scale... Economics without societal returns just doesn't feel like that much." — Patrick (18:16)

• CIV combines founder-operational experience (Patrick, Jeff Rosenthal) with institutional investment acumen (Abajoy Mitra).
• Unique approach: CIV is primarily a venture fund (backing companies), but once a year may co-found and build a company when the conviction is strong, merging investor and founder mindsets.

6. Investment Framework and Market Focus

Timestamps: 22:30–24:35

• Fund 1 targets the intersection of technology, industry, and energy, recognizing that “the rev limiter to AI isn’t chips, it’s power.” (22:30)
• Focus is on seed and Series A, with a “back-and-build” thesis—occasionally co-founding a company themselves for the highest-leverage opportunities, like the nuclear company.

7. What Makes Outlier Founders—and Companies

Timestamps: 26:18–27:11

• The critical variable is the founder’s “maniacal focus” and never-quit resilience.

  "At the end of the day, the most important question is always what about this person as an outlier?" — Patrick (26:18)

• Gives examples from CIV’s portfolio (Verse, Basepower, and the nuclear company) of “madman” founders who will do whatever it takes.

8. Nuclear: The Platform Play

Timestamps: 27:11–31:31

• CIV co-founded a new nuclear company driven by (a) inflecting energy demand (AI, supply chain reshoring, geopolitics), (b) a supply lag in electricity, and (c) US geopolitical priorities.
• Key insight: The bottleneck is not reactor tech—existing gigawatt-scale nuclear can provide what the US needs—but cost and speed of deployment.

  "The reactor itself is only 10 to 15% of the cost... The other 85% is everything else. So... we may have already solved it. What we haven't been good at is deploying reactors." — Patrick (27:21)

• Company was spin-out style: CIV, Arcadia CEO Kiran Batraju, and Jonathan Webb (AppHarvest) converged, with Webb as CEO (Patrick as active chairman).

9. Impact, Climate Tech, and Strategic Communication

Timestamps: 31:31–34:40

• Patrick’s philosophy is to drive net positive societal impact without getting lost in over-quantifying impact metrics, which can become detached from reality.
• Cautious about “climate tech” as a label—prefers language that includes, not excludes, critical partners (e.g., Shell, Exxon) in order to do systems-level work.

  "If the first thing I tell them about is how I'm 100% focused on climate, I've immediately lost half of that room." — Patrick (33:03)

10. Views on Tariffs, De-Globalization, and Market Building

Timestamps: 34:40–38:49

• Current uncertainty (tariffs, regulations) accelerates CIV’s industrial thesis: need for reshoring, power-hungry manufacturing, and robust domestic infrastructure.
• Key investment principles:
  1. Scale tech, not deep tech: Focus on what can scale within a 10-year fund, not long-duration R&D projects.
  2. Demand-driven markets: Avoid “build it and they will come;” there must be clear, present buyers.
  3. Unit economics: Technology must be economically superior to incumbents—impact and scale hinge on cost competitiveness.

  "At the end of the day... does this make or save me money? That's the only question that's ultimately going to matter." — Patrick (37:17)

11. The Future of Energy Companies & Role of AI

Timestamps: 38:49–42:04

• Media/tech saw new category leaders in 20 years; energy is more entrenched. But Patrick expects increased fragmentation, distributed generation, and a slower, but inevitable, shift.
• AI viewed as both a massive energy consumer and a huge lever for efficiency and value creation.

  "Literally efficiency becomes one of the greatest levers for value creation across every sector in the global economy." — Patrick (41:16)

• The proliferation of AI is lowering capital requirements for new companies—"The number of companies that have gone to $100M in ARR with teams sub-20 in the last 12 months is incredible." (41:59)
• First hiring question for founders: "Should I hire AI to do this first?" (42:04)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Every moment in human history... every massive inflection point was some significant change in our ability to harness the power of resources..." – Patrick (04:37)
• "Don't take anyone's fucking advice. Nobody knows the problem better than you.” – Patrick, quoting a mentor (11:44)
• "Impact without economics doesn't scale. Economics without societal returns just doesn't matter after a while." – Patrick (18:16)
• "If the first thing I tell them about is how I'm 100% focused on climate, I've immediately lost half of that room." – Patrick (33:03)
• "Scale tech, not deep tech... invest into demand-driven markets... unit economics." – Patrick (36:26–37:17)
• "The number of companies that have gone to $100M in ARR with teams sub-20 in the last 12 months is incredible." – Patrick (41:59)

Section Timestamps (Quick Reference)

• [01:37] – Wildfire impact and personal motivation
• [04:12] – Academic background and the centrality of energy
• [07:12] – Early entrepreneurship and market opportunity
• [10:13] – Inspire: clean energy, LA venture scene, Shell exit
• [11:44] – Advice for founders: trust yourself
• [17:39] – CIV: Launching a founder/investor hybrid platform
• [18:16] – Economic vs. societal returns
• [22:30] – Fund strategy: intersection of tech, industry, energy
• [26:18] – The outlier founder factor
• [27:21] – Nuclear company thesis: focus on deployment not reactors
• [31:31] – Impact philosophy and skepticism of "climate tech" as a label
• [34:40] – Tariffs, supply chains, industrial reshoring, investment focus
• [38:49] – Energy incumbents vs. new entrants
• [40:31] – Role of AI as energy consumer and efficiency driver
• [42:04] – Hiring AI, company efficiency, closing thoughts

Conclusion

Patrick Maloney’s journey illustrates the blend of philosophy, pragmatic optimism, and gritted realism now reshaping climate entrepreneurship and climate-focused investing. CIV’s hybrid approach—betting on both founders and systems—sits at the intersection of tech, energy, industry, and impact. Maloney’s emphasis on scalable business models, founder authenticity, and communicating across ideological divides makes this episode as relevant to new climate founders as it is to established industry operators.

This summary skips ad breaks, show intro/outro, and focuses on main content only. All notable quotes are timestamped and attributed as in the original episode transcript.