🌏 3 Climate Week guides, ChatGPT is a free PhD, 4 climate CEOs share lessons
+ Japanese toilets and leadership (#163)
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It's four short posts about climate tech startups, finance, wisdom, and a little humor.
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Climate Startups + Investors
1.
Going to Climate Week in NYC? Me, too. Confused about where the venues are? Me, too.
Here are three things to create order from the climate chaos.
#1
The Great NY Climate Week 2024 Guide
Thanks to:
Alec Turnbull: Founder at Climate Tech Cities
Sonam Velani: Managing Partner at Streetlife Ventures, Mentor with us at EFI (Entrepreneurs for Impact)
Nicole Kelner: Climate artist
#2
NYC Climate Week 2024 Map & Calendar by ClimateTechList.com
Thanks to:
Steven Zhang, climate data wizard
#3
Insider's Guide to NYCW
Thanks to:
Kim Zhou: CEO of Sightline, Co-founder at CTVC
Sophie Purdom: Co-founder at CTVC, Managing Partner at Planeteer, Carbon Council member with us at Terraset (carbon removal purchaser)
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2.
Lessons learned from 4 climate CEOs. [Free webinar]
The rockstar panelists included three friends and EFI CEOs:
Kameale Terry: Co-founder and CEO at ChargerHelp!
Amit Gupta: Founder and CEO at Aeroseal
Bryan Hassin: CEO at Dexmat; former CEO at Third Derivative
On this Trellis (fka Greenbiz) webinar, we talked about topics such as these:
Bootstrapping before raising $100M
Learning from prior company exits worth > $300M
Being curious vs. judgmental
Focusing on input vs. outputs
Asking who vs. how
Measuring psychological safety among the team
Creating a feedback culture
Building a network to make fundraising easier
Personal Growth => Business Growth
3.
ChatGPT is a free PhD. **
Having earned a PhD, does this hurt a little? Maybe.
Is it true? Not really.
Is it worse or better than a PhD? Don’t care.
But I do care about this prompt engineering list to help AI make us better leaders.
For example:
"Act like a Priority Management Expert well-versed in the Eisenhower/Covey decision matrix.
For [topic], construct a detailed Eisenhower Box, categorizing tasks or challenges into the four quadrants: (1) urgent and important, (2) not urgent but important, (3) urgent but not important, and (4) neither urgent nor important.
Delve into the strategic implications of each quadrant and advise on the best course of action or focus for each."
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** This quote comes from AI educator Ruben Hassid.
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4.
Is it your fault? Poor guidance = poor performance.
When I was managing interns in my early private equity days, sometimes things didn’t go as planned.
It was easy to blame them.
But then a Senior Adviser said, “Have you tried giving them more detailed directions?”
In his brain, I think he wanted to say, “You’re the problem, you long-haired hippie.”
As they say, three fingers point back at us when we point our finger at another person.
In funny contrast to directions that lack detail, consider the sign below, which I saw in Tokyo last month.
[“Don’t sit backwards on the Western toilet lid.” Arigatou gozaimasu.]
Sometimes, we actually do provide instructions that should be obvious. And if the other person makes a mistake, it’s 100% their fault.
Can I help you grow your climate tech business?
Join our private climate CEO peer group. You’re not alone. Deadline: August 31.
Talk to me about executive coaching. We’re often the bottleneck to growth.
Learn from 180+ climate CEOs and investors in our podcast.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.
~ Chris
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P.S. One of my favorite Duke University students delivered an excellent TEDx. Casey Goldstein talks about his 100 hours of silent meditation, struggles with depression, and insights about setting goals the wrong way. 👍
Love Casey's talk!