Podknife - Ep 35: Kathy Hannun, Co-Founder & CEO at Dandelion by My Climate Journey

Help
Help

Suggested Topics
- What is Podknife?
  
  Podknife is a curated podcast information and review site designed to be accessible in your browser from any device. We’re working to build the most useful podcast information source available by providing you with as much publicly available information about each podcast in our database as we can find and keeping it as up to date as possible.
- Can I listen to podcasts on Podknife?
  
  Yeah! There's a player at the bottom of the page.
- How can I get my podcast on Podknife?
  
  We’d love to hear about your podcast and consider it for addition. You can suggest your own by logging in and selecting the “Suggest a Podcast” link from the menu. Fill out the form and we’ll take it from there.
- How can I submit a review of a podcast?
  
  To submit a review of a podcast, go to the page of the podcast you want to review and click the "Submit Review" button below the image associated with the podcast. Clicking that button brings you to a new page where you can select a rating between 1 and 5 stars and write a brief review.
- How can I submit a review of a podcast episode?
  
  To submit a review of a podcast episode, go to the page of the podcast whose episode you want to review and find the specific episode you're looking for. Clicking on any episode reveals a "View Episode" button and clicking on that brings you to an episode-specific page where you can find more information displayed about the episode along with a "Submit Review" button. Clicking that brings you to a new page where you can select a rating between 1 and 5 stars and write a brief review of the episode.
- Is there a Podknife app?
  
  Not yet - we're keeping it in the browser at least for now. No app download required to access anything on the site.
- How can I change my display name?
  
  To change your display name, log in to Podknife and select "Account Settings" in the dropdown menu. From the Account Settings page, enter your desired new display name and press the "Save" button to confirm the change.
- How can I change my password?
  
  To change your password, log in to Podknife and select "Account Settings" in the dropdown menu. From the Account Settings page, enter your desired new password in the two fields below "Update Password" and press the "Save" button to confirm the change.
- How can I keep track of all my reviews?
  
  Within the menu, click on "My Profile", you will then be able to check all your reviews for both podcast & episode. You can also check all your favorite podcasts.
- How can I keep track of all my favorited podcasts?
  
  You can find podcasts you’ve favorited displayed on the My Profile page associated with your account (https://podknife.com/profile).
  You can share your My Profile page displaying your favorite podcasts as well as any reviews you’ve written publicly with a link in the form https://podknife.com/users/[displayname] where [displayname] is replaced by your Display Name.
- How can I favorite a podcast?
  
  On each podcast page you’ll find the outline of a star above the podcast title. Clicking this star fills it in and designates the podcast as a favorite (for logged in users) or invites the user to log in or register for an account (for users who are not logged in). You can find favorited podcasts displayed on the My Profile page associated with your account (https://podknife.com/profile).
- How can I register for a Podknife account?
  
  To register, click on the “Register” button in the top right of your browser window (or visit https://podknife.com/users/sign_up). Enter a Display Name to be associated with your account on the site (alongside any reviews you contribute, for example), an Email address to associate with the account and your password (twice for confirmation). Press the “Confirm” button and you should be all set, logged in and ready to review and favorite podcasts as you wish.
- How can I get in touch?
  
  We’d love to hear from you. You can reach us using the Feedback form (https://podknife.com/feedbacks/new) which can be found either in the footer on each page (for users who are not logged in) or in the dropdown menu (for logged in users).
  
  You can also reach us on Twitter by tweeting us @podknife (https://twitter.com/podknife) or on Facebook by messaging us from our page (https://www.facebook.com/podknife/).
- Log In
- Register
- Feedback
- Help
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Use
© Podknife 2025

This episode currently has no reviews.

Ep 35: Kathy Hannun, Co-Founder & CEO at Dandelion

Podcast |: My Climate Journey
Publisher |: Jason Jacobs, Cody Simms, Yin Lu
Media Type |: audio
Podknife tags |: Climate Change,; Interview,; Science & Medicine
Categories Via RSS |: Business,; Science,; Technology
Publication Date |: Sep 09, 2019
Episode Duration |: 00:54:31

Description
iTunes Summary

Previously, Kathy was a product manager and Rapid Evaluator at Alphabet's X. Prior to Dandelion, Kathy led a team that created technology to extract carbon dioxide from seawater to create carbon-neutral fuel.

Kathy has been recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business, one of Albany Business Review's 40 under 40, and as a Leader of Tomorrow. Kathy graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science.

In today’s episode, we cover:

Founding story of Dandelion
Overview of geothermal and how it works
Its market potential and what has been holding it back
Why now is the right time for it to flourish and how Dandelion plans to make that happen
The process that went into identifying the Dandelion opportunity, and what led to the decision to spin out from X
What utilities like about the approach
The impact Dandelion/geothermal can have @ scale on decarbonization
How special it is that a high impact opportunity like this fits neatly in the venture capital model and timelines
Whether the process to select Dandelion could be repeatable to find other ideas
The pros/cons of launching at X vs independently and how to decide
The magic of finding a solution that makes people’s lives easier while having a meaningful impact
Some key wishes Kathy has for things that would change that would help accelerate the clean energy transition
Some surprising advice Kathy has for people concerned about climate change for how you can help

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

Kathy Hannun Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooperkathy/
Dandelion website: https://dandelionenergy.com/
Geothermal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy
Google X: https://x.company/
Dan Yates: https://www.myclimatejourney.co/episodes/dan-yates
Con Edison partnership: https://dandelionenergy.com/press-release/con-edison-dandelion-energy-partner-offer-westchester-homeowners-5000-off-geothermal-installation
Impossible Foods: https://impossiblefoods.com/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

Get connected with MCJ:

Cody Simms X / LinkedIn
MCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube

*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at info@mcj.vc, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Today’s guest is Kathy Hannun, the co-founder & CEO of Dandelion. Originally conceived at X, Alphabet’s innovation lab, Dandelion is now an independent company offering geothermal heating and cooling systems to homeowners, starting in the Northeastern US. Dandelion is a great example of a company taking a big swing at decarbonization while fitting nicely into the traditional venture capital model, so if you are interested in better understanding how that works, make sure to tune in. Enjoy the show!