Disciplined entrepreneurship for climate and energy ventures

Join our climaTRACES Lab workshop

Speaker: Ben Soltoff, Ecosystem-Builder/Entrepreneur in Residence, Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship, MIT

Ben will provide an overview of his new book Disciplined Entrepreneurship for Climate and Energy Ventures, which is the first how-book specifically on climate and energy entrepreneurship. It offers a hands-on guide to building impactful solutions for people and the planet, developed from the 2-decade track record of MIT’s Climate & Energy Ventures course, which has spun out over 65 ventures that have raised US$2.3 billion in funding and created over 2,500 jobs. The book launched in November 2025.

Ben will delve into the unique challenges and opportunities that climate and energy entrepreneurs face, highlighting why a specialised framework is essential for success in this field. He will also share case studies of companies that have navigated this unique journey. In particular, he will discuss how the book integrates lessons learned from these ventures, such as developing robust financial strategies, navigating complex policy landscapes and measuring planetary impact. This will be a highly practical and actionable session for anyone starting a venture, aspiring to start a venture, or generally supporting entrepreneurs in climate and energy.

The weekly climaTRACES workshops, organised by Kamiar Mohaddes and Henning Zschietzschmann, are attended by a diverse group of people from economics, geography, politics, engineering, business, earth sciences, natural sciences and history, generating interdisciplinary discussion. One person leads the session, on either a paper they have written, a work in progress, or just an idea they have and would like feedback on. This is also an opportunity for people to find our more about the team on what climaTRACES have been up to and what future events and research projects are being developed.