The Man of Many Hats — Taj Eldridge, Investor at Include Ventures & Director at Jobs for the Future

My guest today is Taj Ahmad Eldridge.

Taj is the Director of Climate Innovation at Jobs for the Future, and Cofounder of Include Ventures, a fund of funds investor focused on emerging managers at the intersection of “Alpha + Inclusion + Sustainability.”

In addition, Taj is…

• Advisory Panel member @ The Schmidt Family Foundation
• Founding Advisory Board member @ GreenTech Noir
• Board Member @ Homeboy Industries
• Former Director of the Startup Accelerator @ University of California, Riverside
• Former Senior Director for Investment @ the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)
• And investor in Invictus Growth Partners, SparkCharge, Form Energy, ChargerHelp!, and many more high-impact ventures

In this episode, we talked about:

• Who holds the real power in allocating capital
• The importance of place-based innovation
• How talent is universal, but opportunity is not
• Jobs for the Future’s goals of creating 25,000 new jobs in climate resilience
• The need to reframe climate change as a mission around public health, social equity, and economics
• Two of his portfolio companies led by Black founders and CEOs that are changing federal transportation policy and making EV charging super easy
• How he believes a focus on minority-led ventures creates alpha opportunities
• The need to bring your whole self to work
• Wisdom from the beat poets like Jack Kerouac and one of our favorite books, Dharma Bums
• And lots more

Hope you enjoy it!

And give Taj a shout-out on LinkedIn or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.

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