📊 $2T climate adaptation market, Billionaire investor dismisses climate hype, How to build your network
Your 3-minute summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Good morning, folks.
In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these juicy nuggets:
💰 Billionaire VC investor — “We made a mistake.”
🏳️ Investing in climate adaptation is not surrendering to sorrow and darkness.
📽️ Movie | The Story of Stuff.
🤮 Your network is your net worth. (Vomit.)
🗓️ TGIF? Nope. Thank God it’s Monday.
Enjoy.
Chris
💰 Billionaire VC investor — “We made a mistake.”
In this recent Bloomberg interview, Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr shares some useful tidbits.
#1. Even investors get it wrong. Often. With big financial misses.
“Inside Kleiner — and it may be different in other firms — you don't have to have everyone agree. Some of our best investments were very controversial. Google was controversial within the partnership and within the industry. It was a $100 million valuation on a company with no revenues and no business plan, and founders with no business experience. It turned out to be an epic idea and company.”
#2. Climate science — All the cool kids are doing it.
“‘Climate science is going to become the new computer science,’ said Doerr. ‘It's where all the young people want to work for all the right reasons.’”
#3. Are climate tech valuations overblown? Maybe not.
“At the start of the internet revolution, I went around and kicked up a lot of controversy declaring that the internet had been under-hyped. I say the same thing today about the climate revolution.”
#4. The past does not predict the future.
“There have been 400 new car companies in the nation's history. Every one but one has gone bankrupt. But I was still very attracted to the market, and we had the choice of backing a brilliant car designer by the name of Henrik Fisker, or an ambitious, slightly crazy entrepreneur by the name of Elon Musk at Tesla. Well, we made the wrong decision.”
🏳️ Investing in climate adaptation is not surrendering to a bleak future of sorrow and darkness.
Climate change is happening.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
So mitigation is not enough.
There I said it.
But investing in prevention is still more energizing than adaptation.
Repeat after me — We. Can. Do. Both.
7% of climate-related investments are chasing a $2T market in five years. Who wants to join this game?
“According to a 2021 report from the Climate Policy Initiative, these types of initiatives receive only 7% of climate-related investment, allocated across a vast spectrum of needs such as flood and wildfire prevention, resilient agriculture, clean water supply, infrastructure modification, and population resettlement.
They deserve far greater business investment, especially because they represent near-term opportunities at lower capital expenditures that offer faster paybacks.
Indeed, according to this Bloomberg report, Bank of America analysts estimate that the climate adaptation market could be worth $2 trillion a year within the next five years.
Because of their fixed location, real estate assets — valued at $200 trillion worldwide — are uniquely vulnerable to natural disasters and resource shortages.
The insurance conglomerate SwissRe warns that a global temperature rise of 3.2°C by 2050 would wipe 18% from global GDP.
But, as a pair of OECD studies point out, widespread climate adaptation measures can have a positive impact on growth, especially in G-20 economies.”
Dig deeper in the Harvard Business Review.
📽️ Movie | The Story of Stuff.
Tired of all the stuff you buy, store, trash, donate, and recycle?
Me, too.
This movie is an oldie but goodie.
Want proof? Collectively, their movies have garnered over 50 million views.
The Story of Stuff, originally released in December 2007, is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns.
And to be further educated visually, check out their other short animated “Story of…” videos on:
Cap and trade
Bottled water
Cosmetics
Electronics
Microbeads
Microfibers
Water
🤮 Your network is your net worth. (Vomit.)
When you read that title, you might want to regurgitate a bit of your last meal.
Or…
You may feel that building and adding value to a community of people with similar goals and interests is exciting and empowering.
(Uh, that’s me, for sure.)
Either way, here’s a podcast that is super practical and relevant to this goal.
It’s by my boy Tim Ferriss, so you know it’ll deliver.
How to Build a World-Class Network in Record Time (#99)
Here’s a flavor:
“Don’t dismiss people.
Don’t be a dick.
Don’t rush. Play the long game.”
🗓️ TGIF? Nope. Thank God it’s Monday.
On a recent Friday afternoon call with a Climate CEO Mastermind peer group member at Entrepreneurs for Impact, I asked:
“How do you feel on Friday afternoons — exhausted and ready for the weekend, or something else?”
Doug Willmore, CEO of World Tree, responded:
“At our company, the saying is not TGIF.
Instead, it’s “Thank God it’s Monday.”
We love our mission of planting one of the world’s fastest-growing trees so much that we can’t wait to get back to work.”
I feel the same way.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
Chris
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Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
We help CEOs and investors tackle climate change with mastermind peer groups, online courses, newsletters, and podcasts
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P.S. Good vs. perfect?
“The maxim, "Nothing prevails but perfection," may be spelled PARALYSIS.” - Winston Churchill
If you’re waiting until everything is just right, maybe you should reconsider.
Instead, pretend the time has to be now.
Try it. Build it. Launch it. Kill it.
We learn by doing, not just by repeated analysis.