Webinar
Energy & Strategic Minerals: The Physical Bottlenecks to Innovation
Join Alumni Ventures’ Carl Choi and Mason Hale for a timely discussion on how critical materials and energy constraints are reshaping the trajectory of innovation.
This session will explore the growing importance of strategic minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements—and how these resources are emerging as key bottlenecks in sectors like AI, defense, energy, and transportation. Carl and Mason will also highlight how supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical dependencies are driving policy, capital, and innovation toward new frontiers in energy security.
Whether you’re passionate about sustainability, national resilience, or long-term venture trends, this webinar will offer a grounded perspective on what’s fueling the next wave of technological advancement. You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how physical infrastructure is critical to unlocking tomorrow’s biggest ideas. Reserve your spot today to learn where Alumni Ventures is investing in the materials shaping the future.
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Why Attend?
- HomeUnderstand how minerals and materials are becoming the new economic battleground
- HomeExplore venture opportunities tied to energy security, critical minerals, and electrification
- HomeLearn how AV is identifying startups addressing these structural bottlenecks
Alumni Ventures is America’s largest venture capital firm for individual investors.
About your presenters
Overview:
Carl brings a systems-level mindset to venture investing, shaped by two decades of experience across public equities, M&A, and technology. He focuses on foundational technologies that rewire how the real world operates—betting on enduring platforms across deep tech sectors such as climate, energy, infrastructure, space, and AI. His work is rooted in a belief that innovation at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds is key to building a more equitable and sustainable future.
Funds actively worked on:
Strawberry Creek Ventures
Investment Areas of Focus:
At Alumni Ventures, Carl backs companies with the potential to tilt markets and drive systemic change. He gravitates toward mission-driven founders with deep technical insight—those unlocking new layers of productivity, resilience, and sustainability while reshaping legacy systems. His thesis centers on platform technologies with long time horizons and compounding strategic advantages—businesses that scale with time and fundamentally transform how industries operate.
Recent investments that reflect this approach include:
- 44.01, permanently removing CO₂ through mineralization in peridotite formations
- Omnidian, providing performance assurance for distributed solar assets
- Equilibrium Energy, building software-defined power markets
- Pebble, creating all-electric smart trailers for off-grid living
- Navier, designing hydrofoiling electric watercraft
- Neo Financial, reimagining consumer finance in Canada
- Radix Health, improving out-of-network reimbursement for healthcare providers
- Cerby, securing unmanageable apps in modern enterprises
- LeoLabs, operating radar infrastructure for orbital tracking
- Samaya AI, deploying expert AI agents in financial services
Prior to Alumni Ventures, Carl was a Principal at Solasta Ventures, where he led investments in deep tech and enterprise software. He previously held corporate development and strategy roles at Upwork and Riverbed Technology, and began his finance career at London Capital Management before moving into investment banking at J.P. Morgan in San Francisco.
Hailing from Korea and Canada, Carl holds a double degree in Mathematics and Business Administration from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, and an MBA from UC Berkeley Haas. Outside of work, he enjoys spirited competition on the soccer field, at the poker table, or over hours-long board games.
Before joining Chestnut Street Ventures, Mason attended Waseda Business School in Tokyo, Japan where he earned an MSc in Finance and wrote a master’s thesis linking founders’ attributes and strategic partnerships to firm performance in new ventures. While attending Waseda Business School, Mason was selected as a G51 Venture Scholar and participated in the Global Venture Catalyst where he served as a graduate startup advisor. Mason also holds a BA in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin.