MARYLAND TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

Mtech’s Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund, in conjunction with Bethesda Green and the Baltimore Roundtable for Economic Democracy, hosted the second Chesapeake Bay Green Entrepreneur Roundtable on Thursday, April 17, 2025, online.

The event was designed to highlight environmental and social entrepreneurs, helping to connect them to resources, build awareness of their work, and amplify their current needs—including funding, partnership-building, customer introductions, team-building, and more.

During the roundtable, attendees heard from entrepreneurs addressing ecological and collective health in communities across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including:

​Greenlift (Vanessa Bright, president)

• ​Vanessa is leading an effort to transform natural spaces through conservation maintenance, stormwater management, and eco-friendly product creation in Anne Arundel County, while providing meaningful career opportunities for returning citizens.

​Ridge to Reefs (Paul Sturm, executive director)

• ​Paul is leading the development of bioreactor gardens, a nature-based method of treating septic wastewater, across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

​Green Mechanics (Larry Davis, business lead)

• ​Larry is leading an effort to build algal turf scrubbers to remediate nutrients in waterways across the Chesapeake Bay watershed while generating algal biomass, which can be used in a variety of products including concrete, fertilizer, and more.

​GaiaXus (Lee Brindel, CTO) 

• ​Lee is developing affordable and easy-to-use sensors that allow citizen scientists to measure and share environmental data.

​NomadIQ (Joe Sexton, founder)

• ​Joe produces satellite-based land use, biomass, biodiversity, and climate risk data for governments, businesses, and nonprofits; and he is developing NomadIQ, a mobile app to make this information accessible as maps to homeowners, land managers, and other individuals with a personal stake in the health of their environment.

NextStep Living (Patrick Jordan)

• ​Patrick is managing NextStep Living, which uses green, efficient homebuilding to create pathways for underloved residents to build wealth through real estate development.

The Chesapeake Bay Green Entrepreneur Roundtable increases connectivity between different stakeholders across the region’s climate and entrepreneurship ecosystems, including entrepreneurs, supporters, funders, government, community members, and more. 

The next roundtable event will be on May 29; if you’re interested in attending, please register here. 

If you’re interested in participating in future roundtables, please reach out to Scott Christensen at schris14@umd.edu.