Discover/EUVC

E702 | Lubomila Jordanova, Plan A: Climate Isn’t “Over”

EUVCFeb 25, 202635 min

Plan A founder Lubomila Jordanova delivers a frank assessment of how climate tech has evolved from early hype to harsh market realities, including legislative rollbacks and investor confusion about sustainability. She exposes the double-edged sword of being a visible female founder in the space, where organic media attention paradoxically became a liability with investors who dismissed her as a 'LinkedIn influencer' rather than recognizing her technical expertise.

Key takeaways

  • •Organic visibility as a female founder can backfire when investors perceive media presence as self-promotion rather than earned expertise.
  • •Climate tech faces mounting complexity from legislative reversals and consumer confusion about what sustainability actually means.
  • •Mixed-gender founding teams capture only 7% of venture funding, revealing massive systemic bias in startup investment.
  • •The climate sector has matured beyond initial hype cycles, forcing companies to prove sustainable business models rather than riding trends.
  • •Market consolidation in climate tech reflects broader investor skepticism and higher bars for proving real environmental impact.

Listen to full episode

0:00
climate-techfundraisingmarket-consolidationfemale-foundersesg

Best moment

19:52· 22sBold/Contrarian

The visibility that we had as a company, which was absolutely organic. We never paid for a single speech that I had given, never paid for a single participation in a conference, beat me back and beat the company back by investors thinking that I'm a male female founder LinkedIn influencer.

19:52 / 20:14

I'll share a few learnings starting with the negative one, and that was that the visibility that we had as a company, which was absolutely organic. We never paid for a single speech that I had given, never paid for a single participation in a conference, beat me back and beat the company back by investors thinking that I'm a male female founder LinkedIn influencer.

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3 clips

Ordered by timestamp. Jump to the moment you care about.

EUVC

Bold/Contrarian

Mixed standard teams only raised approximately 7%. That is far too little, obviously.

Stark statistic with clear editorial stance ('far too little, obviously'). Uses specific data point to make contrarian argument about gender diversity in funding, creating urgency around the problem.

0:18 - 0:3416s

EUVC

Consequences

The space in which plan a operates, a lot of complexity, arose just over the course of the last five years because there's a not so positive sequence of shift of events, change in legislation, absolute elimination of laws in certain countries, and finally, a lot of consumer led confusion about what sustainability really meant.

Explains the downstream effects of regulatory changes and policy shifts on the sustainability/climate tech space. Uses specific timeframe and describes cascading negative consequences that created market complexity.

4:32 - 5:0028s

EUVC

Bold/Contrarian

The visibility that we had as a company, which was absolutely organic. We never paid for a single speech that I had given, never paid for a single participation in a conference, beat me back and beat the company back by investors thinking that I'm a male female founder LinkedIn influencer.

Reveals counterintuitive truth about founder visibility - organic success actually hurt her with investors who dismissed her as just a 'LinkedIn influencer.' Contains specific, quotable details and challenges assumptions about founder marketing.

19:52 - 20:1422s

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