30 days of silence. 200+ startup resources.
Plus, leaked UN report on climate risks. 25 way to build a moat around your billion-dollar business. Cold showers are, like, totally hot.
UN report: “Worst is yet to come” on climate change.
Here’s a one liner on the leaked United Nations report last week:
“By far the most comprehensive catalogue ever assembled of how climate change is upending our world, the report reads like a 4,000-page indictment of humanity's stewardship of the planet.” — Phys.org
And here are some other painful takeaways:
“‘Life on Earth can recover from a drastic climate shift by evolving into new species and creating new ecosystems,’ it says. ‘Humans cannot.’"
“They are also deeply unfair: those least responsible for global warming will suffer disproportionately, the report makes clear.”
“Recent research has shown that warming of two degrees Celsius could push the melting of ice sheets atop Greenland and the West Antarctic—with enough frozen water to lift oceans 13 metres (43 feet)—past a point of no return.”
“In 2050, coastal cities on the "frontline" of the climate crisis will see hundreds of millions of people at risk from floods and increasingly frequent storm surges made more deadly by rising seas.”
“Some 350 million more people living in urban areas will be exposed to water scarcity from severe droughts at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming—410 million at two degrees Celsius.” [We’re currently on track for three degrees.]
Nobody likes doom and gloom, but we can’t ignore it.
But we’re not throwing in the towel.
As Pawl Hawken, cofounder of Project Drawdown, puts it:
“If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren't pessimistic, you don't have the correct data. If you meet people in this unnamed movement and aren't optimistic, you haven't got a heart.”
For me, and I think most of you all, optimism is easier because we spend all day focused on investing in and growing companies that are scaling climate solutions.
Keep up the good work, y’all.
30 days of silence. For water (#plastics #equity).
I want to give a quick shout out to Samuel Ian Rosen, aka Captain Planet, for his recent announcement to speak no words for the month of July with these three goals in mind:
“Raise awareness for the plastic pollution crisis and inspire you to refuse single use plastics in your life this July.”
“Raise awareness for the dire needs of children, women, the poor, and BIPOC communities who are disproportionately affected by lack of access to clean water.”
“To inspire silence in you — be it an hour, a day, a week — because ‘the quieter you become, the more you can hear.’”
When I told my kids about this, at the suggestion of our 10-year-old, we agreed to be silent for the rest of the afternoon. Baby steps. (Or giant steps if you knew how much they talked!)
His challenge is a great reminder to keep asking…
“How else can I make an impact, beyond what I’m currently doing?”
…While also keeping in mind the counterbalance of…
“What is enough?”
With only so many hours in a day, it’s often a struggle to balance work/impact with rest/recharge.
Maybe the first step is carving out more quiet time so that we simultaneously recharge while gaining more clarity on how to make the biggest impact.
As somebody much smarter than me once said:
“You can do anything. But you can’t do everything.”
(Oh, how I love and hate that quote.)
Build an alligator-filled moat around your business.
If we’re seeking to create a billion-dollar business around a climate solution, it might be best to look outside of the energy/impact/climate sector for models.
And to get there, we need to create and maintain a competitive advantage — aka, a moat around our “castles for climate” — often over the business as usual set of products and services that we see today.
To the end, research firm CB Insights has made it easy for us in their recent report:
Here are examples for your weekend reading:
Marketplace: The virtuous circle that made Amazon an $850B business
Sunk cost: The business model that made Gillette a $57B company
Cost advantage: Why GEICO going D2C made them Warren Buffett’s favorite stock
Brand: How Patagonia grew by understanding its customer identity
IP: How Qualcomm uses 130,000 patents to generate billions in revenue
Regulatory: How years of regulatory and compliance efforts are paying off for Coinbase
Startup accelerator in a box. (Or in a monster spreadsheet.)
OK, by analogy…
You’ve heard this wise advice before: If you had access to a magic genie, then don’t ask for one thing. Instead, ask for as many wishes as you’d like.
If we ignore for a moment the implied “I want more, I’m not enough” underpinning herein that should concern us all…
Then I’ll make the comparison to this amazing resource below from the Third Derivative & New Energy Nexus Startup Resources, seeded and spread widely by Ryan Kushner.
It includes 200+ links (i.e., “as many wishes as you’d like”) to startup guidance on pricing, sales, legal, IP, insurance, pitch decks, product development, tools, HR, team building, negotiating, financial models, and how to train cobras* with flutes.
OK, I exaggerate slightly on that last one, but for a quick jaw drop, check out this Indian snake charmer video, viewed by 100 million folks.
* Why are cobras randomly showing up in ZERO, you may ask? Last week, a pet venom-spitting zebra cobra (!!) got loose from a home in Raleigh, North Carolina, about 20 miles from where I live. It was the top trending item on Twitter for a while. (I know, we’re so cool.) But don’t worry. It was caught.
Cold showers are, like, totally hot.
In case you missed this contrarian health tip, here you go.
Standing in a cold shower for 1-5 minutes, on a regular basis, has been shown to:
Improve metabolism
Increase endorphins and help manage depression
Improve circulation
Reduce inflammation
Make you shiver vigorously and wonder why you’re not in warm water
I’ve been experimenting with this practice lately, but only after the hot shower portion.
For more on the benefits and science, go here and here.
That’s all, folks.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
— Chris
P.S. Food for thought…Are you awkward enough?
"A person's success in life can be measured by the number of uncomfortable conversations he or she is willing to have." — Tim Ferriss
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Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
Peer-to-Peer Advisory Groups + Executive Coaching + Investor Intel for Climate CEOs
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Join the waiting list for our next Climate Mastermind: Apply here
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Securities offered through Finalis Securities LLC Member FINRA/SIPC. IronOak Energy Capital and Finalis Securities LLC are separate, unaffiliated entities.