Prime Movers Lab Spotlight: Josh Agenbroad

Prime Movers Lab welcomed our newest team member, Josh Agenbroad, to the firm earlier this year to support early-stage deal sourcing and diligence with a focus on energy, manufacturing, and transportation. He has a mechanical engineering background with particular expertise in techno-economic analysis of energy systems.

Prior to joining Prime Movers Lab, Josh co-founded a leading climate-tech startup accelerator ecosystem called Third Derivative. Third Derivative works with 12 strategic corporate partners and 20 VC funds to support a portfolio of 100+ startups that have now raised over $500M of follow-on funding. In addition to his role on the leadership team, he led the startup selection and diligence team while also providing portfolio support for 20+ startups. Before Third Derivative, Josh worked for 10 years at the Rocky Mountain Institute, gravitating toward client-driven work done in a management consulting style. He worked with a wide variety of Fortune 500 corporations, governments, utilities, regulators, and startups from around the world, identifying opportunities and presenting the business case for energy efficiency and renewables. He helped launch RMI’s China and Africa programs.

We sat down with Josh earlier this week to learn more about his fascinating background and what attracted him to Prime Movers Lab. Here is an excerpt of that conversation:

You bring an amazing set of technical and public policy skills to our portfolio. Walk through your path to Prime Movers Lab — what brought you here?

I started out as a Mechanical Engineer, and I worked for a general contractor doing large commercial construction projects. I was a project engineer working on-site during the summer, but then I would work as an estimator during the semester. I think that is how I got interested in playing with the cost side of the design equation. I loved finding things that were missing or wrong with the plans. I’ve always been skeptical in this way.

After grad school, I had this idea that engineers could be more impactful if they combined their technical foundations with a business perspective. I got a job as a sort of non-profit management consultant for a think-and-do tank called Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). My managers were former McKinsey or BCG. We would work with large corporations, governments, and regulators making the business case for renewables and energy efficiency at a time when solar, wind, and batteries were just coming down the cost curve. It was a great way to get broad exposure and see the contrasts between the different cultures at each of those organizations. I also saw the role that policy plays in sparking demand for new technologies. But I was frustrated because we saw a lot of interesting technology that should be cost-effective and scalable, but was stuck in the lab or at a university and not mature enough to be adopted in the real world. I started looking at innovation ecosystems trying to find a leverage point that could get things unstuck.

I co-founded a startup accelerator program called Third Derivative with the idea to use RMI’s excellent network and deep techno-economic and policy knowledge in support of climate startup innovation. We built an ecosystem of strategic corporate partners, VC funds, mentors, and climate experts to help startups fundraise and iterate more quickly. I led the research team using techno-economic analysis to find the most impactful and scalable new technologies. Finance played a critical role.

At Prime Movers Lab, I’m excited to dig in deeper, working directly on the investment team. For climate and energy investments, techno-economic analysis is particularly important because these are commodity markets and the incumbent system performance requirements are well known. I’m excited to apply my broad experience across energy and climate technology, policy, and regulation while also learning about other breakthrough science. Sorry that is such a long answer, but I think there is a really logical flow across all of that bringing me here.

What drew you to climate tech?

I wasn’t interested in it at first. Originally, I was interested in energy. I read some work by Amory Lovins, RMI’s founder and chief scientist. He pointed out some of the challenges with our current energy system, but he also highlighted the design opportunity to fix it with a whole range of benefits: lower cost, improved reliability, energy security, and, of course, lower environmental impact. As an engineer, the design challenges appealed to me. This was 15 years ago. Addressing climate change has become a lot more urgent and existential since then, but all of those other benefits are still there. We still need to make the business case work if we want things to scale quickly.

What is the best part about remote work, especially living in a place like Denver?

I think the best part is that you don’t have to make hard tradeoffs for friends and family. I can live in a place where I already have friends, which allows me to be happy, and I bring that energy into my work. For me, access to the outdoors is also a big source of inspiration, and Colorado is a great place for adventures. I can be up on a snowy pass at 12,000 ft in less than an hour.

What are your passions outside of work?

I do a lot of the typical Colorado stuff: hiking, backpacking, and rafting. Last summer, I had the amazing opportunity to row an 18’ raft down 270 miles of the Grand Canyon. But cycling is my main passion, especially mountain biking. I love to go on all-day adventure rides and multi-day tours that are as much about sightseeing, finding water, eating right, watching the weather, etc., as they are about the actual riding. I’ve also been skateboarding for most of my life and can still hang in there with a few tricks despite my age.

Has anything surprised you since you started working here?

I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but I’m really impressed by the outstanding caliber of the teams that Prime Movers has invested in (hence the name). I worked with a lot of amazing entrepreneurs even before joining Prime Movers, but I’m really trying to pay close attention and learn how these teams are doing what sometimes seems impossible.

Have you read anything lately that inspired you or you think would interest our founders/LPs?

I want to recommend a book by Gary Klein called Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making. I read it a while ago, but have been thinking about it a lot recently. I think it is underappreciated, and I’ve never heard anyone else mention it. He takes a bunch of commonly accepted wisdom like thinking rationally or following a checklist and argues that often it is better to follow your instincts, take mental shortcuts, etc. All of this is grounded in real-world case studies from firefighters, bomb squads, and pilots.

You previously helped to coordinate sustainable energy and development efforts between African governments and the private sector. What lessons did you learn from that experience?

I also worked for three years in China with the central government’s National Development and Reform Commission. I think the most important thing I learned in both Africa and China is a genuine respect and curiosity for different ways to see the world and approach problems. You can learn and find surprising solutions if you keep an open mind and take the time to listen.

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.

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