Rich Hilt

Rich has been involved in the energy business -- some in CleanTech, others in NotSoCleanTech -- for over 35 years. In the 70s he worked for a Fortune 100 company doing energy management. In the 80s he was in DC working on strategic issues for the deregulating natural gas industry. In the 90s he tried that again for electric utilities. He’s been involved in several energy startups. Most recently he was a Founding Partner in Arare Ventures -- first time VCs focused on CleanTech -- that “morphed” into LiveFuels, an algae-to-biofuels startup. Rich is currently looking for new opportunities in CleanTech in order to atone for his past sins. He can be reached at brightline at sbcglobal dot net.

Recent Posts

The new, old alternative fuel — Algae?

(Editor’s note: When entrepreneur Rich Hilt told VentureBeat that his Menlo Park, Calif. company, LiveFuels, is developing algae as an alternative fuel, we asked him to explain. Here’s his piece.)

President Bush has asked us all to consider the liquid fuels market as an important priority. His recent State of the Union Address challenges all Americans to reduce our absolute consumption of gasoline by 20 percent over the next 10 years • 15 percent from substituting… Continue Reading