John Tough is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Energize Capital, a Chicago based climate software investor focused on the intersection of software, services and the energy transition. Since founding Energize, John has built one of the few specialist firms backing companies from Series B through to profitable growth buyouts across climate, industrials and built environment.

In this episode John traces his career from bioethanol banker in Chicago to Kleiner Perkins investor to operator at Choose Energy, and explains why that combination of finance, investing and operational experience became the blueprint for Energize. We explore what it really means to build a specialist firm, why John believes generalist investors are leaving the climate market at exactly the wrong moment and how AI is creating an entirely new wave of budget for the companies Energize backs.

Key themes from this conversation:

• Why climate tech deserves a specialist investor and why John has never doubted that conviction
• Building a world class firm from Chicago without the Silicon Valley playbook
• The co head structure that shapes how Energize makes decisions
• Being early is being wrong — how Energize uses proprietary data to know when to lean in
• Why AI is creating the fastest emergence of budget in Energize's history
• Decision making frameworks and the power of knowing who to call
• Career advice from John to his 21 year old self

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