⛰️ Carbon tech wishlist from a $350M fund | 225 millionaires fit into 4 categories | 2 climate tech podcasts
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:
⛰️ A carbon tech wishlist from a $350M fund.
😲 You don’t need VC funding.
🎙️ Climate tech podcast #1 — “Making ESG Investing Easier for $2 Billion.”
🎧 Climate tech podcast #2 — “$100M Love Letter to Pioneering Climate Businesses Leaders.”
💰 225 millionaires fit into four categories.
📣 I’ll share your pitch deck with 25 early-stage climate investors.
Enjoy.
Chris
⛰️ A carbon tech wishlist from a $350M fund.
As you know, Lowercarbon Capital raised a $350 million fund for carbon removal startups in April 2022.
In this recent article, they lay out their wishlist of carbon removal tech that they’d like to fund.
Thanks to Ryan Orbuch, Partner at Lowercarbon, for this:
“The rest of this post is going to be pretty geeky. But, in fairness, that’s who we are. We will not apologize for the climate nerdery that follows.
They probably won’t all work, and most of them require a lot more fundamental research to understand potential risks and tradeoffs.
But the stakes are so damn high and the opportunities are so big, it’s worth really digging in.”
Physical And Geochemical Pathways:
Zero-Emission Metal Oxide Production
Carbonation And Monitoring Of Zero-Carbon Alkalinity
Mass-Transfer-Driven Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement
Durable Storage Of A Dilute Co2 Stream
Low-Volume Injection Sites
Flipping The Economics Of Storage Vs. Capture
Low-Energy Approaches To Rearrange Co2 Into Other Stable Products
Biological Pathways:
Cheap, Stable, And Easy-To-Monitor Preservation Of Existing Biomass
Growing Biomass That Doesn’t Decompose
Biologically Accelerated Silicate Weathering
Biology-Inspired Co2 Concentration And Mineralization
Finally, a fun fact from their research.
“Less than 1% of the carbon atoms on earth are in plants, animals, bacteria, and all living things.
99+% of earth’s carbon is in rocks in the crust (e.g. limestone) and rocks dissolved in the ocean (e.g. bicarbonate in solution) as part of the slow carbon cycle.”
Holy hydroxides! (Calcium and magnesium, of course.)
😲 You don’t need VC funding.
OK, well, maybe many of you do.
But other founders should consider the following types of alternative capital:
Grants — Federal funding, state support, or nonprofits
Revenue-based financing — For companies with predictable (e.g., contracted) revenue and strong gross margins (e.g., 30%+)
Startup debt funding — For example, LACI’s loans for working capital (for post-revenue startups) and bridge financing for pilot projects
Asset-backed lending — Loans tied to a startup’s accounts receivables, hardware, or inventory
Project expansion capital — For example, financing infrastructure using newer climate tech, aka, first-of-a-kind (“FOAK”) deployment
Read more here via interviews with:
Joel Armin-Hoiland, CEO and Founder of Climate Finance Solutions
Dimitry Gershenson, CEO and Co-Founder of Enduring Planet
Hyder Shuja, Senior Manager of the LACI Cleantech Debt Fund
Mark Paris, Managing Partner of Third Sphere
Kyle Adkins, Partner at FullCycle Climate Partners
Shout out to Daniel Kriozere for putting this together.
🎙️ Climate tech podcast #1 — “Making ESG Investing Easier for $2 Billion.”
Ethic is working toward a future where all investing is sustainable investing.
Backed by almost $100M of funding, they empower wealth advisors and investors to create portfolios that seek to align personal values with financial goals.
Their solution has catalyzed $2B of capital into more responsible funds to date.
Jay Lipman is the Co-founder and President of Ethic.
He is also a Top LinkedIn Voice for the Green Economy and a member of our Climate Mastermind peer groups at Entrepreneurs for Impact.
Check out his entertaining and educational ESG videos here.
He claims that his sophisticated British accent is not a factor in his success, but the jury is still out. 🙃
Listen to the Entrepreneurs for Impact podcast here:
🎧 Climate tech podcast #2 — “$100M Love Letter to the Pioneering Climate Businesses Leaders.”
Sweep is a SaaS company that helps large companies reduce carbon emissions in their businesses and supply chains. Sample customers include multi-billion-dollar global enterprises such as Saint-Gobain and HP.
Rachel Delacour is the Co-founder and CEO of Sweep.
She is also a Board Member at 2MX Organic, an Investment Committee member at RAISE France, and a Board member at Shine, as well as the former President at France Digitale and Co-Founder & CEO of BIME Analytics (acquired by Zendesk).
She also speaks French very well; that's because she is French and lives in France.
(I wonder who reads these podcast summaries. If that's you, Tweet at me here. 🧐)
Listen to the Entrepreneurs for Impact podcast here:
💰 225 millionaires fit into four categories.
Based on five years of research talking to oodles of millionaires, the four types are:
“#1 — Saver-Investors: No matter what their day job is, they make saving and investing part of their daily routine. They are constantly thinking about smart ways to grow their wealth.
#2 — Company Climbers: Climbers work for a large company and devote all of their time and energy to climbing the corporate ladder until they land a senior executive position — with an extremely high salary.
#3 — Virtuosos: They are among the best at what they do, and they’re paid a high premium for their knowledge and expertise. Formal education, such as advanced degrees (e.g., in law or medicine), is usually a requirement.
#4 — Dreamers: The individuals in this group are all in pursuit of a dream, such starting their own business, becoming a successful actor, musician or best-selling author. Dreamers love what they do for a living, and their passion shows up in their bank accounts.”
—
Which one are you?
Get a free summary of Tom Corley’s research here.
📣 I’ll share your pitch deck with 25 early-stage climate investors.
That’s just one of the improvements to my “Fund Your Climate Tech Startup” course from September 5 to 16.
Other benefits to pre-seed and seed founders who enroll include:
A 5-step process for raising capital
500+ climate investor list (with emails)
A 9-step method for your 1-page business plan
6 tools for assessing your competitive edge
20 top startup mistakes to avoid
Verified certificate of completion
New library of climate tech funding resources
Small breakouts with peer feedback
Lots of practice pitches
A new tribe of allies to support your journey in climate tech
It’s online and cohort-based, with about five hours of practical learning per week.
If you’d like a $200 discount as friends of Entrepreneurs for Impact, use this code at checkout by Monday, August 15. => CLIMATE200
But…
Enrollment is capped at 25, so don’t miss this train.
It’ll be an intimate setting. Like your first date with your partner, but slightly different. 🤣
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”