Dare to Disrupt Episode 13 – Making Sustainability Convenient with Zander Isaacson

Zander Isaacson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Xeal, a technology-first electric vehicle (EV) charging company operating at the intersection of real estate, mobility, clean energy, and IoT.  The company secured $40M in Series B funding in November 2022 after closing an $11M series A in 2021 by leading proptech and climate tech VC funds, and has already partnered with 70+ of the largest real estate companies including Lincoln Property Company, Camden, Greystar, Related, UBS, and Brookfield.

Prior to starting Xeal in 2019, Zander worked as a S&T summer analyst at Citi Global Markets and then full-time in IB at Torreya Partners within the Mergers & Acquisitions division. Prior to investment banking, Zander was the founder & president of Happy Valley VC, the first student-run venture capital fund at Penn State, and was a portfolio manager for the Nittany Lion Fund, a $15M student-run hedge fund. He graduated from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. 

In this episode, Zander talks about how Xeal plans to “stop climate change without bothering people,” which means making clean technology the most convenient option on the market. Xeal is starting with the EV charging industry but has the mission to accelerate the future of smart cities as a whole. Xeal’s patent-pending protocol called Apollo uses a cryptographic token system to bypass the need to connect to wi-fi while using an electric vehicle charging session.

“For us, when we filed the patent, it was about making the technology apply to all industries,” Isaacson said. “This is a protocol that is going to make devices self-reliant. You don’t have any lag, no latency, no IT infrastructure.”

At the end of the episode, Dylan Benson, a 3rd year student studying finance and Chinese language joins the conversation. He’s the director of education in the Nittany Lion Fund and an executive board member at Happy Valley VC. Benson talks to Zander about advice on approaching the career decision of either pursuing a standard finance job or pursuing a startup path.

Episode Chapters

0:00 – 6:09 How wrestling prepared him for entrepreneurship

6:09 – 10:31 Launching venture capital group at Penn State

10:31 – 13:01 Investment banking after college

13:01 – 16:12 Living with monks in northern Thailand

16:12 – 19:45 Healing climate change without bothering people

19:45 – 33:36 The evolution of Xeal’s EV charging solution

33:36 – 44:00 Student section

About Zander Isaacson

Zander Isaacson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Xeal, a technology-first electric vehicle (EV) charging company operating at the intersection of real estate, mobility, clean energy, and IoT. He graduated from Penn State’s Smeal College of Business. 

Download the full episode transcript

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Dare to Disrupt is a podcast about Penn State alumni who are innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders, and the stories behind their success. Learn more.