In the middle of the tech world coming together in San Francisco last week, Celine King took the stage. King, CEO of GreenIRR, a Brown and White Ventures portfolio company, explained to those in attendance at the Startup World Cup how her carbon accounting company could, like innovations at the event from around the globe, reinvent entire industries. King shared a stage with Marc Tarpenning, co-founder of Tesla, and Sachin Kansal, CPO of Uber. The issue that dominated the World Cup conversation:AI. CEO's and industry analysts explored which technologies are undervalued, which are overvalued, and what actually holds up once the hype settles.

In six regions across the country, Stak Mobility and its partners are building parking systems that prove to be catalysts for electric vehicles. Stak, A Brown and White Ventures portfolio company, builds vertical parking carousels. A single unit can charge 14 electric cars at once, The structure rises in a space that would normally take up just two vehicles in a normal parking lot. Drivers can book a spot on an app. They’re then able to drive into the smart self-service carousel. Stack charges the vehicle while storing it. Non-electric vehicles may also use the carousels, but EV's return to their drivers fully charged when their booking expires. "What we’ve done is we’ve taken automated parking towers and introduced charging, so we have the ability to vertically scale charging infrastructure," Stak co-founder and CEO Diallo Powell said. Powell says Stak has found cities desperate but inhibited from making the transition to clean transportation and electric vehicles. "There’s a lack of scalable infrastructure that really works in the urban context," Powell said. "We’re talking rideshares, fleet vehicles, or car sharing. This gives cities the opportunity to be able to deploy these things at scale without cars taking up more space in the city." Stack mobility’s carousels can be assembled and disassembled in days. They reduce parking footprints by up to 85. This frees up space for residents and businesses and expands EV charging without the need for costly retrofits. In its early stages, Stak has helped its partners reclaim about 50,000 square feet of real estate. In one North California project, Stak built multiple carousels on 3,500 square feet of property. It parked cars that would have previously taken 30,000 square feet of surface lot. "That's 26,500 square of buildable space that they used to build an additional 25 units on the property," Powell said.

Wonsuk Cho is an MBA candidate at Fordham University and a venture capital analyst intern at Brown and White Ventures. My internship at BWV has given me practical experience in evaluating early-stage companies and preparing for investment discussions. The most valuable part has been working through actual investment opportunities, where information is incomplete and the important questions are not always obvious. Preparing investment memos and questions for the Investment Committee has helped me connect my academic background with the work involved in making an investment decision. One strength of the internship is the range of businesses I have been able to review. Startups in construction SaaS, precision manufacturing, women's health and animal communications require a different approach to understanding their customers, business models, and growth potential. A site visit to a heavy machining plant was particularly useful because it connected the business discussion with the company's operations. My previous experience in automotive quality management gave me a useful perspective on manufacturing processes and operational risks. And by preparing questions for founders, I learned how investors assess a founder's answers. That sharpened my decision making in determining which information matters and where further diligence is needed. Discussions with the fund's Investment Committee provided a chance to compare my initial assessment with the concerns raised by more experienced investors. This has been especially relevant to my interest in healthcare and impact investing, where a compelling mission still needs to be supported by a workable business model. Brown and White Ventures is accepting applications for its Winter 2027 internship program. Students may apply with a cover letter and resume at: invest@brownandwhiteventures.com