Pressure of Truth
Exposing the spin on all sides of the news.
Outlet profile

The Cool Down

U.S. center-left (climate and clean-energy advocacy, consumer-lifestyle focus)

Owned byPrivately held, venture-backed U.S. company founded in 2022 by Dave Finocchio (co-founder and longtime CEO of Bleacher Report) and Anna Robertson (former Disney, ABC and Yahoo executive). It is not owned by a larger media group. Investors include Upfront Ventures, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Jetstream, Swingbridge and Niche Capital, plus angel investors such as Bill Simmons.
FundingVenture capital (a reported $5.7 million seed round in 2022) plus revenue from affiliate commerce and partnerships. It has said it avoids traditional advertising and subscriptions. Recent figures were not verified.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The Cool Down launched in 2022 as a content-plus-commerce startup meant to make climate topics approachable for mainstream American audiences. It was founded by Dave Finocchio, who co-founded Bleacher Report, and Anna Robertson, a former Disney, ABC and Yahoo executive. It raised about $5.7 million in seed funding in 2022 from Upfront Ventures and other investors. Its content is mostly short, upbeat, solutions-oriented articles on solar power, EVs, home efficiency, food and consumer products, often written for a general audience and syndicated or surfaced widely through search and social feeds. Its business model relies on affiliate links and commerce partnerships rather than ads or paywalls. Critics, including Media Bias/Fact Check and a bottled-water industry advocacy site, have called it closer to marketing-driven commerce media than neutral news, citing affiliate promotions and ties to industry partners. Its perspective is pro-climate-action and pro-consumer-adoption of clean technology, and it focuses less on political conflict or hard-news reporting. Because it publishes little hard political news, any posture toward the administration is mainly implied through its framing of energy and climate policy.

Sources

  1. Climate media startup raises $5.7 million (Axios)
  2. Online media vets launch The Cool Down (GeekWire)
  3. Climate Publisher The Cool Down Eyes Commerce Over Ads and Subscriptions (Adweek)
  4. The Cool Down - Bias and Credibility (Media Bias/Fact Check)
  5. The Cool Down - About Us
  6. The Cool Down's Marketing-Driven Journalism (Bottled Water Facts)

Profile compiled 2026-10-14; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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