The Carbonauts Sustainability Cocktails | What If Design (NYC) CSE-203

Join The Carbonauts and What if Design for a fast-paced fireside chat followed by relaxed networking with fellow climate builders scaling purpose into profit.

What to Expect

6:00–6:45 PM — Arrivals, drinks, and networking
7:15–7:45 PM — Fireside chat: “The Stories That Got Us Funded, Adopted & Scaled”
7:45–9:00 PM — Open networking

Tickets Include complimentary light bites and drinks from our sponsors Little Saints, Optimist Drinks and Athletic Brewing

Are you planning to attend the HackSummit NYC Climate x DeepTech? We are offering attendees of the Summit 50% off our event - get in touch via email and we'll send over the discount code.

If you haven't already bought your HackSummit ticket, you can also get 25% off using discount code CARBONAUT25 at check out. 

MEET THE SPEAKERS

Cat Clifford | Cipher News

Cat is a climate and energy journalist. Most recently, she was Cipher News's senior science and economics correspondent, based in New York City. Before joining Cipher, Cat helped launch the climate desk at CNBC.com, where she was the climate technology and innovation reporter. In 2023, Cat received the Darlene Schmidt Science News Award, given to her by the American Nuclear Society, for her leading coverage of the nuclear industry, both fission and fusion.

Nathan King | it's electric

Nathan is Co-Founder and CEO of it’s electric, a curbside EV charging network dedicated building clean, resilient transportation in cities. Started in 2021, and based in Brooklyn, NY, it’s electric has deployed curbside chargers in several major US cities. Nathan is a licensed Architect, with over 25 years of building complex projects in challenging urban environments, experience that directly inform it's electric's cities-first approach.

Akhila Kosaraju | What if Design

Akhila is the founder of What if Design, a studio that helps climate innovators turn breakthrough science into market leadership through strategic design and trusted positioning. With more than five years working alongside impact focused organizations, she has seen technically superior solutions lose out simply because their story wasn’t clear, compelling, or trusted. Her team combines deep technical understanding, human centered research, and integrated brand, UX, and messaging systems to make a solution’s value immediately obvious to investors, partners, and customers. Their approach has helped clients backed by the US Department of Energy, Accel, and YC secure more than $45M in funding. The result is simple: climate technologies become the leaders they deserve to be.

Lauren Graham | The Carbonauts

Lauren is an educator and ecosystems strategist focused on planetary and democratic futures, working at the intersection of climate, social impact, and creative media. She brings an eclectic background that spans environmental sustainability, technology for social innovation, and public engagement through documentary film, educational games, music, and virtual reality. She strengthens resource constrained teams by clarifying theories of change, designing responsive communication strategies, and implementing interdisciplinary solutions. She also has deep experience organizing and facilitating events ranging from conferences to workshops and festivals that catalyze learning and action. In addition to her consulting and nonprofit work, she teaches courses on nonprofit management, entrepreneurship, and leadership at multiple universities, drawing on her expertise in curriculum development and experiential learning design.

Why Attend

Climate tech is drowning in sameness: “innovative,” “impact-driven” and “sustainable”
Investors and buyers don’t want adjectives, they want results.

You’ll walk away with:

• Proven frameworks to move from purpose to profit
• Real case studies showing messaging that raised capital or closed deals
• A network of climate founders and growth leaders facing the same challenges

Who’s in the Room

• Founders prepping for scale or fundraising
• Marketing and Growth leads cracking B2B customer acquisition with large enterprises
• Early and Growth Stage climate-focused investors

We'll be deploying our high-impact custom match-making software to pair you with three connections who share similar goals to drive high-impact networking (easy opt-out if you prefer).

About the Hosts

The Carbonauts Sustainability Foundation brings high-impact, live events to several major US cities to build community in sustainability.

• From networking events and panel discussions, to community hikes and run clubs, The Carbonauts are actively bringing folks together to inspire and motivate positive climate action.   

• ​What if Design helps ambitious climate startups build trust and credibility.

• with storytelling across their digital presence to help them raise more money and sell more efficiently. They have worked with companies backed by the Department of Energy, ARPA-E, Accel and Sequoia to support them in streamlining their communications, creating a strong brand, and simplifying complex technical information in deeptech for building decarbonization, clean energy, EV, Carbon capture etc.

Register Now

Space is limited to 70 attendees.

TICKETS INCLUDE

• Complimentary light bites and non-alcoholic drinks
• Access to The Carbonauts' custom match-making program to accelerate impactful networking
• Experience Lutron's epic lighting experience

​We've done over 100 successful sustainability events in the last year. People love'em! (see testimonials below).

Join us for delicious cocktails (including a complimentary one), a bite to eat, and conversations with other passionate sustainability advocates.

​​• Learn a few things while having a blast
​​• Meet old friends, make new ones
​​• Find valuable work/hires/partners/connections
​​• Most importantly, GET INSPIRED!

This is a great opportunity to meet others in the sustainability community, so feel free to share this invite with friends and colleagues. The more the merrier!

​​​Just make sure they register as we don't want to turn anyone away.

Sorry, no refunds.

NO PITCHING/SALES. We want open, inspiring, agenda-less conversations where people feel free to share. Therefore, there is to be absolutely no pitching or selling of your product or service nor fund-raising. If any attendees feel that this request hasn’t been respected, let us know and that person will not be invited back.

WE'RE GOOD AT THIS. We've done over 100 events in the last year and they've been terrific. They've included sustainability folks from over 500 organizations, including large multinationals (Meta, Amazon, Google, Disney, Toyota, Netflix, Microsoft), Investment firms (Third Sphere, Obvious Ventures, Aegon, Collaborative Fund), passionate non-profits (EDF, New Energy Nexus, Surfrider, Apparel Impact Institute) and cutting edge startups (Both Burger, futureAir, New Atlantis, Plant Prefab, Water from Air). 

​​​Hope to see you soon!

Location

Lutron NY Residential Experience Center, 979 3rd Ave #319, New York, NY 10022