Our Origin Story

When Google X founding member Tom Chi watched a nearby coral reef go from every color of the rainbow — full of life — to gray and brown in a matter of months, he had to do something. With 25% of ocean fish living in and around coral reefs, losing coral reefs would be the equivalent of losing the Amazon rainforest.
Tom realized that the clock was ticking on climate change, and that the window in which we had to make significant changes that could stop or reverse the current trajectory toward total destruction – not just of coral reefs, but of entire ecosystems and economies – was getting more narrow.
Tom left Google to help the planet full-time.
He traveled to places in the world where ecological damage was happening. After getting  an intimate view of the interconnections between issues,  he began to invest and advise on climate tech projects.
In 2020, Tom founded At One Ventures with Laurie Menoud and Helen Lin, to help solve the climate crisis by resetting the industries that are causing the most damage to the planet.
They believed and still believe that the best way to do that is to back deep tech companies that have entirely new ways to produce what our economy needs to thrive.
With a background in physics, electrical engineering, and robotics, Tom brings technical knowledge to investing that many investors don’t have. Laurie, who co-led venture capital for BASF, contributes complementary technical knowledge in materials, biology and chemicals. Helen has held roles in investment banking and micro-finance in emerging markets and has a clear financial lens.
Beyond the technical expertise of its partners, our team includes full-time experts in Talent, Operations (Manufacturing), Marketing, and Fundraising.
We care about our founders and offer in-depth support to help our companies succeed.
Our mission is to catalyze a world where humanity is a net positive to nature. But we don’t expect that to happen overnight, nor at a “green premium.” Most eco-friendly companies ultimately require their customers to pay more, for only a 30% benefit to the environment. We are looking for the companies that can scale a product that, for example, will cost three times less, and be 50% better for the environment.
Our goal is to help humanity 2-500 years out.
We’re here for the long journey—even if it exceeds our lifetime.

Our Team

Tom Chi
Tom has worked in a wide range of roles from astrophysical researcher to designer to corporate executive developing new hardware/software products and services. He's played a significant role in established projects with global reach (Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Search, Google), and scaled new projects from conception to significance (Yahoo Answers from 0 to 90 million users).
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Laurie Menoud
Laurie brings over a decade of deep tech commercialization, company building, and venture capital experience to the team. She's played roles in the chemical industry (Solvay, BASF) and built a dozen ventures out of DoD research programs (SRI International). Biotechnologist by training, Laurie is an ecological transition advocate.
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Helen Lin
Helen has over 2 decades of corporate finance experience across four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, N. America) merging and investing in companies (Baird, Houlihan Lokey), leading the digital transformation of multinational banking operations, and designing products to serve base of the pyramid customers (FINCA Impact Finance). She loves a good puzzle and enjoys finding creative solutions to big problems.
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Luke Zhan
Luke has worked on researching and commercializing novel climate technologies and advising leading companies on their sustainability and innovation agendas. An economist and environmental scientist by training, he is driven to tackle our climate and ecological crises and enjoys bringing scientific rigor, systems thinking, and a clear focus on planetary impact to his work.
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Lisa Noeltner
Lisa has been working with startups and their founders for over ten years now helping them scale their teams and strategize about the best ways to hire. Very passionate about recruiting the right people for the right roles and in turn having honest and direct conversations with candidates as well as the hiring teams. With a bias towards action and transparency, Lisa believes in addressing sticking points upfront in order to save everyone time.
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Ana Yoerg
Ana brings 15 years of marketing, brand-building and communications expertise to the firm. She led editorial at the #1 brand in personal development and previous to that ran her own content marketing agency serving early-stage tech startups. Ana works with mission-driven founders to create and execute on PR and marketing strategies to effectively scale their business, for maximum positive impact on people and planet.
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Dilip Goswami
Dilip is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur solving massive real-world problems with deep tech solutions. In 2014 he left Stanford to found Molekule, using PECO technology to destroy airborne pollutants. As CEO he commercialized the technology, raised $130M in funding, and built a company serving hundreds of thousands globally. Dilip joined At One Ventures as Venture Partner to leverage his expertise in scaling deep tech to help solve the climate crisis.
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Alisha Jani
Alisha holds an M.S. in Sustainability Science and Practice and a B.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University. Prior to joining At One, Alisha co-founded an educational non-profit in East Africa, conducted research on water security and affordable solar deployment, and co-lead BD at a soil carbon sequestration startup. Alisha believes climate health strongly impacts societal well-being and hopes to have a hand in shaping a more resilient, just and sustainable future.
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Danaé Robert
Danaé brings a decade of expertise in addressing the urgent global issue of climate change and driving sustainable solutions. With a strong foundation in green chemistry, she possesses an extensive understanding of environmental challenges and their implications. Throughout her career, Danae has actively invested in early-stage companies with a focus on sustainability. She holds a BS in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and an MS from Imperial College London, specializing in Green Chemistry, Energy, and the Environment.
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Brian Steinberg
Brian brings significant climate investing experience gained at ZORA Ventures, Israel’s leading seed-stage impact fund. His career spans financing urban development and corporate strategy (JPMorgan), working across three global cities (New York, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong). Curious by nature, he loves helping gritty and mission-oriented founders and finding vibing cafés.
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Pari Kumar
Pari brings a wealth of experience launching complex hardware solutions globally, with stints in EV charging (ChargePoint), consumer electronics (Apple), and technology consulting (Deloitte). He has deployed manufacturing lines in over 10 countries across North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
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Bill Dunbar
Bill is a serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Control and Dynamical Systems from Caltech. After a decade as an engineering professor (UC Santa Cruz), he started two deep-tech companies where he served as CTO. Through those experiences, he developed strong technical depth in automation, instrumentation and biology, and drove effective IP strategies across these areas.
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Denise Ross
Denise is a CPA who worked as part of At One's outsourced back office and fund administration team before joining full-time. She holds a BA and MBA with an emphasis in Accounting from UC Boulder. At Deloitte Tax, LLP and Moss Adams, LLP, she focused on complex tax structures for clients that included mutual funds and large family offices.
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James Beck
James is the chief of financial and operational excellence for At One. He brings the wisdom from nearly three decades in the venture capital industry, with 22 years at the legendary VC firm Mayfield and most recently as COO of NewView Capital. His goal is to build a long-lasting, world-class firm that has a net positive impact to nature.
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Tony Moses
Tony understands the complexities of industrial scale-up of new technologies and leads companies to achieve milestones like regulatory approval, commissioning of manufacturing processes and facilities, and achieving competitive unit economics. Over 23 years he has worked in pharma (Merck), food and beverage (Conagra Brands), flavor chemistry (Givaudan) among others, and has a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. He is ultra-passionate about catalyzing commercial success for climate startups.
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