Overcoming the Challenges of Scaling Production with Gabriel Scheer (Elemental Excelerator)

This bonus episode provides a peek into a second podcast series hosted by Brandon Bartneck, the Capital Light Assembly podcast. This podcast focuses on what it takes to successfully launch complex mobility and energy products in volumes that are below industry standard.  You can find the Capital Light Assembly podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts, including: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0gtQE3QTqxRRGbEm53688s?si=ca292fb879da4b2f YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@edisonmfg Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-light-assembly-with-edison/id1661691887 This clip features Gabriel Scheer. Gabriel is the Director of Innovation for Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii-based climatetech accelerator founded in 2009. He leads the mobility and energy portfolio and is responsible for pipeline development, cohort management, policy guidance and support, and partnership development. Gabriel joins this episode to explore topics including: How start-ups should think about manufacturing strategy What it takes for a contract manufacturer to be a great partner for a growing start-up Elemental Excelerator's work and why Gabriel is so excited about climate tech right now Prior to his work at Elemental Excelerator, Gabriel was on the founding team of Lime, the leading dockless smart shared mobility company. As the first government relations hire for the company, he developed state and local go-to-market strategies for much of the United States and Canada. He helped grow the company from zero markets to more than 130 cities across more than 20 countries. He also served as Senior Director of Data Policy and Strategic Partnerships, responsible for leading the company’s approach to data policy/data sharing, managing and developing relationships with transit agencies and related industry organizations as well as third-party stakeholders, and coordinating and prioritizing GovTech initiatives with the product and engineering teams. Before joining Lime Gabriel worked as Senior Strategist and frogVentures Partner at frog. Gabriel has founded numerous initiatives, some of which succeeded. Highlights include Seattle Greendrinks, a 4000+ member social network designed to connect and grow Seattle’s environmental community; Agent Green, a company focused on leveraging the power of the crowd to catalyze energy efficiency retrofits for small businesses; and Re-Vision Labs, a social innovation consultancy whose clients included government agencies and global non-profits and corporations. About Elemental Excelerator: Elemental Excelerator is a nonprofit investor focused on scaling climate solutions and social impact for all communities. Elemental fills two gaps fundamental to addressing climate change: funding first-of-a-kind projects for climate technologies in real communities, and embedding equity and access into climate solutions. Elemental has invested in over 150+ growth-stage companies and celebrated more than 25 exits, funded 115+ technology projects and built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions to climate change. Apply here to be considered for their next round of funding opportunities: https://elementalexcelerator.com/applicants/ About Edison: Edison Manufacturing and Engineering is your low volume contract manufacturing partner for capital light assembly of complex mobility and energy products that don't fit neatly within traditional high volume production. https://www.edison-mfg.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/edison-manufacturing-and-engineering/