01
Learn
Learn from VC-backed climate founders who are already doing it, like Kevin Kong, Founder of Everstar (pictured), who has raised $5M+ to date to get nuclear online at rapid speeds.
Meet the person you can build a climate startup with.
Someone whose ambition matches yours, who takes the work seriously, and who you trust to build at the speed and scale climate change requires. C2FM is how you find your co‑founder, on purpose.
Apply to join8+ member events a month45% second meeting conversionNYC only6 founding teams formed to date
The problem
Most co-founder relationships start the same way. Luck.
Proximity. Timing. Whoever happened to be in the room. That’s how most startups decide who to build with.
C2FM is NYC’s co-founder matching platform for high-conviction climate builders. We aren’t an accelerator or an incubator, just the engine that forms the founding teams solving the world’s biggest problems.
Why NYC
NYC has the talent. It’s missing the infrastructure to connect it.
Every year, NYC produces serious climate talent, researchers, operators, and engineers who want to start companies and can’t find each other. The capital is here and the talent is here, but the room where they meet is not.
That’s why C2FM is NYC only, on purpose. Chemistry gets tested in a room, not on a video call, so this is an in-person platform and members are expected to show up.
Who it’s for
You don’t have to call yourself a founder yet.
C2FM is for people who are all-in on climate and ready to meet their co‑founder.
- Solo founders looking for a co-founder
- Operators looking to build
- Repeat founders wanting to build again
- Students locked in on building
← Drag to explore →
Everyone in this room cleared the same bar.
Every member applies and is reviewed before they’re approved. Everyone here is building in climate, in NYC, with full conviction that what they build will be a fund returner. Nobody is browsing. That’s what makes a Tuesday night worth showing up for.
You don’t need an idea, a deck, a prototype, or a co-founder.
How it works
Finding your co-founder takes more than one introduction.
There’s a progression here: learn how to be a founder, meet the person you might build with, then test whether the fit is real by working together. It isn’t linear, and you don’t have to start at the beginning. If you’re already past a stage, jump in where it’s most useful. Most members move across all three over time.
02
Meet
Meet the person you might build with, through curated founder speed matching.
03
Build
Test whether the chemistry is real by working together. Pick your intensity: hackathons are high-intensity, build nights are low-intensity.
Underneath all three
Community
Monthly dinners, weekly co-working, and member nights. Everyone here is somewhere in the same process, and they lend a hand, make an intro, or talk through what you’re dealing with.
How to engage
8+ member events a month.
Learn
Where you get ahead of the curveMonthly
Breakfast w/ Builders
AMA breakfasts with VC-backed NYC climate founders.
Members Only
Every other month
Dinners w/ VCs
Founding teams meet NYC-based climate VCs over dinner. No pitching.
Members Only
Meet
Where you find peopleEvery other month
Founder Speed Matching
Curated founder speed matching, usually built around a specific climate sub-sector rather than generalist climate.
Members OnlySometimes open to the public
Build
Where you test the fitMonthly
Build Nights
Low-pressure activities where pairs test co-founder chemistry by working together.
Members Only
Semi-annual
Hackathons
High-pressure build against a real potential customer’s problem. Prototype at the end.
Public
Community
Where you stay in itMonthly · First Thursday
Member Speed Networking
Members meet each other and compare notes on the stretch before you have a company. Not co-founder matching.
Members Only
Monthly · Third Sunday
Sunday Family Dinner
Members share a meal and bring a +1 who’d be a good fit for the community.
Members Only
Weekly · Fridays
Weekly Co-Working at Brownstone Social
Every Friday, members work alongside each other at Brownstone Social.
Members Only
Plus one-off member socials and public events throughout the year.
& an online platform and community to serve as connective tissue between events.
Portal Access
- Weekly curated matches
- View and respond to match requests
- See everyone you’ve matched with
- Sign up for events
Community Slack
- Post needs and share leads
- Events around town
- A direct line to the rest of the community
Upcoming events
Here’s what’s coming up next.
Founding teams
Six teams have formed. Here’s what three of them are building.
01Stealth
Fuel cells that convert biogas into data center–ready power.
Met on the C2FM portal, 2025
02Stealth
Energy commodity trading platform bringing transparency to the chain of custody.
Met at a C2FM MEET event, 2026
03Stealth
Peer-to-peer electricity trading for multifamily buildings: lower bills, new revenue.
Met at a C2FM BUILD event, 2026
In their words
Here’s what our members have to say.
[He] and I met and want to pursue this startup. Like I’ve never been more pumped to do anything.
In less than a week, [C2FM] has already helped me meet so many brilliant and interesting people! Already scheduling follow ups.
The most organized IRL event I’ve been to in years... people showed up as strangers and left as collaborators. That kind of connection is rare.
Membership
Climate problems don’t get solved at small scale.
Every member applies and is reviewed before they’re approved. The $20/mo is a signal of seriousness, and it keeps the community full of people who are genuinely in it to build.
$20/mo for commitment, community, and access.
Member Benefits
MEMBERS-ONLY IRL EVENTS
WEEKLY MATCH DROPS
PORTAL ACCESS
COMMUNITY SLACKA note on the fee
If you’re a serious builder and the $20 a month just isn’t affordable for you right now, email sammie@c2fm.network and we’ll work it out.
Stop relying on chance to find your co-founder.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. The next speed matching event is in October.
Apply todayFAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is C2FM?
C2FM (Climate Co-Founder Matching) is NYC’s climate co-founder matching platform. We drive climate startup formation through curated in-person events and an online portal powered by our proprietary founder matching algorithm. Every member applies and is reviewed before they’re approved. We don’t share the full criteria, but the shape of it is simple: climate, NYC, fund-returner ambition, and readiness to build with someone. Read more about who runs C2FM and how members are reviewed.
Who can join C2FM?
C2FM is for climate-serious professionals in the NYC area: operators, founders, engineers, scientists, and domain experts who are all-in on climate and ready to find a co-founder. You can already have an idea, be actively building, or be exploring which problems in climate you want to solve. What isn’t optional is the ambition: everyone here has full conviction that what they build will be a fund returner. We started with the Columbia community and have expanded to include the broader NYC climate ecosystem.
What makes C2FM different from other co-founder matching platforms?
Our matching algorithm weighs the intangibles (working style, values, decision-making, what you need in a partner) alongside skills and experience. Most platforms stop at the skills column, and we don’t think that’s enough to build a company with someone. We’re also hyperlocal. C2FM is NYC-only because it’s hard to vibe-check someone virtually, and we think a lot of the important signal comes from being in the same room. Our events are built around that. And we’re climate-only. Climate change is urgent, and we want to make it easier for people who are serious about building in this space to find each other. Narrowing the focus to climate-serious founders in NYC means every person you meet through C2FM is already aligned on the things that matter most.
Is there a cost to join?
Yes, membership is $20/month, and it comes down to two things. The first is access. You get weekly curated match drops, members-only events, our community Slack, and a curated network of serious climate builders across NYC. All C2FM events are free for members, and most are kept small, so RSVP early to grab a seat. The second is commitment. The criteria are what filter (every member is reviewed and approved before they join) and the fee is a small signal on top of that, a way of saying you’re actually in it. If you’re a serious builder and the $20 a month just isn’t affordable for you right now, email me at sammie@c2fm.network and we’ll work it out.
If you back climate founders in New York — as a fund, a corporate partner, or an ecosystem funder — we should talk. hello@c2fm.network