Oct 132014
 
We helped Building Robotics raise new capital to pioneer human-centric approach to energy efficiency in office buildings

“Over the last ten years or so, we’ve been interested in algorithms to control buildings. We looked at both increasing sensors in buildings and running fancy algorithms to automate settings. I’ve never seen anything [like what] Comfy does,” said Nat Goldhaber, The company does not rely on robots to deliver efficiency, as its name would suggest. It relies on humans with smartphones.

Sep 242013
 
I'm interviewed in the The Mercury News: Elevator Pitch: Claremont Creek’s Nat Goldhaber

Peter Delevett covers startups and venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News. He’s been a journalist in Silicon Valley since the dot-com daze. Elevator Pitch: Claremont Creek’s Nat Goldhaber In this week’s installment of Elevator Pitch, we meet a rather unconventional gent. Nat Goldhaber studied transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (guru to the Beatles); played a key role in the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown; and was the 2000 Reform Party nominee for vice-president of the United States. (For a while, anyway.) But Goldhaber also boasts serious tech chops. The Three Mile Island event — at which Goldhaber […]

Feb 152012
 
Venture Capital is the Essence of Everything Good in Capitalism

February 14, 2011  source: this article was a guest post at I was heartened this month to see that the Private Equity Growth Capital Council launched a multi-million-dollar education and public affairs campaign on the Internet highlighting the basics of private equity. Hopefully, this will address a general lack of understanding about private equity, which, among other things, is too often confused with venture capital. This misperception was in the spotlight last month, when Republican and Democratic attacks focused on Mitt Romney’s time as the head of private equity firm Bain Capital. The message was that Romney was a “vulture […]

Dec 132011
 
CleanTech Remains Hot In A Post-Solyndra World

December 12, 2011  source: originally published at  Pessimism about the clean tech space has been on the rise recently, thanks in part to a pair of high profile failures of government-backed companies. Congress and the media have pounced on the carrion like starving scavengers. In the frenzy of sensationalism, it is hard for the public to derive a reasoned understanding of the facts and even more difficult to feel comfortable about the future. An attitude of pessimism is understandable, given current events. Yet it’s short sighted. The “doom and gloom” scenarios being posited by some parties are wildly overblown. The […]

Aug 022011
 
You’d Better Shop Around: Doing Due Diligence on Your VC

August 2, 2011  source: this post appeared originally at Xconomy For a first-time entrepreneur, dealing with a venture capitalist can involve an equal mix of excitement and apprehension. If the VC has any sort of reputation or prominence, entrepreneurs are often grateful simply to be pitching their idea in the first place. Should discussions get far enough along that a term sheet is offered, a new entrepreneur is usually thrilled beyond words. Those certainly were my emotions back in my entrepreneurial youth, the first time I dealt with venture capitalists. It was one of the most exciting times of my […]

Jul 132011
 
How to survive the next bubble

July 13, 2011  source: GigaOm Raise money when you can Who: Nat Goldhaber, General Partner Claremont Creek Ventures Bubble Cred: In 1994, Goldhaber founded an early web-advertising platform called CyberGold. In 1999, the company filed for an IPO and was valued at several hundred million dollars, or what we now call “ a rounding error,” says Goldhaber. Interviewed by Cortney Fielding Lessons Learned: Raise money when you can. If there is a bubble, why not take advantage of it before it bursts? While the lean startup movement is gaining momentum and many are touting the virtues of only taking what […]

Jun 102011
 
Further musings on TMI and Fukushima in the Mercury News

Q&A with Nat Goldhaber on the Three Mile Island crisis By Peter Delevett Mercury News Columnist Nat Goldhaber may have the most offbeat resume of any venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. In early 1979, he was a few weeks into a job running energy policy for Pennsylvania’s new governor — a post for which he cheerfully admits he was unqualified — when the Three Mile Island meltdown happened. The front-row seat to America’s worst nuclear disaster helped shape Goldhaber’s subsequent career as an energy investor, but it wasn’t even the most colorful chapter in his career: That honor belongs to founding […]

 Posted by at 3:03 pm
May 072011
 
BrightSource IPO Could Spark Clean-Tech 'Gold Rush'

Nat Goldhaber, managing director of Claremont Creek Ventures in Oakland, said a monster showing by BrightSource could spark a “Google effect” that leaves investors as enthusiastic about pioneering energy firms as they have been about information technology. May 3, 2011  source: New York Times BrightSource Energy Inc.’s plan to go public this year could spur a wave of clean technology startups looking to follow suit if investors flock to the solar developer in large numbers, experts say. The Oakland-based company recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to start the initial public offering process, following the example of others […]