#95: 📊 Afraid to go first, Afraid to be last
4 bullets on climate tech, better habits, and deep work
Good morning, folks.
In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these 4 juicy nuggets below — as enjoyable as seeing yellow daffodils give winter the middle finger by blooming in North Carolina’s 30-degree January mornings. 😆
Climate Startups & Investment
#1 — 📊 Climate tech investment 2018-2022: 3 graphics
#2 — 🎧 Small modular nuclear power project developers with VC backing
Productivity & Living the Good Life
#3 — 👶 Be the beginner, not the expert
#4 — 😧 Afraid to go first. Afraid to be last.
Onward and upward,
Chris
#1 — 📊 Climate tech investment 2018-2022: 3 graphics.
Sometimes we should just shut up and let the data speak.
This is one of those times.
Thanks to PwC for their 3rd annual “State of Climate Tech” report.
#2 — 🎧 Small modular nuclear power project developers with VC backing
My recent podcast guest was Bret Kugelmass, Founder and CEO of Last Energy.
Last Energy is a VC-backed full-service developer of small modular nuclear power projects to transform the nuclear power industry by dramatically reducing the time and cost of construction.
Their mission is to decarbonize global energy production and increase access to clean, affordable power.
They are targeting 2025 for its first units, which require around $200 million to build, and they are investigating 800 other potential sites to deploy the units across Europe.
In this episode, we talked about:
The three most common misperceptions about nuclear energy
What he learned from 800 interviews with nuclear energy experts 😮
Common mistakes made by 50 next-gen nuclear startups
The outsized role that construction finance plans in the overall cost of nuclear power
Last Energy’s initial contracts to build small modular nuclear reactors in the UK, Poland, and Romania
What he means by this quote: “We’re innovative in the way that we are not trying to be overly innovative. We don't reinvent the reactor core, the physics, the chemistry, the materials.”
How to avoid multiplying risks
The role of business model vs. tech innovation to get clean energy to market
The distinction between corporate and project finance for their go-to-market strategy
And lots more
Hope you enjoy it!
And please give Bret and Last Energy a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. 👏
#3 — 👶 Be the beginner, not the expert.
Zen Buddhists love the term Beginner’s Mind — or “shoshin 初 (beginner) 心 (mind, heart, spirit) in Japanese.
The term was popularized by Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, founder of the San Francisco Zen Center and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, where I lived for six weeks back in the day. 🙏
It refers to the ability to see many possibilities instead of one, to approach life with your glass empty vs. full (of how smart we are), to not be blinded by past experiences or mainstream views.
In contrast, experts are really good at saying — “Oh, that won’t work.”
While expertise is great, we might instead follow the guidance of meditation legend Jack Kornfield, “If we rely on assumptions, we lose our freshness.”
How do you want to show up to the next team strategy meeting — as an expert, or as a beginner?
#4 — 😧 Afraid to go first. Afraid to be last.
Last week I spent two days at MIT with the Prime Coalition team and 20 other climate-focused foundations, family offices, founders, and NGOs talking about catalytic capital for climate tech startups.
Though I had to leave a day early to teach my class at Duke University, I was actually the student (with a beginner’s mind!) at this event, learning so much from Prime’s work moving about $300M into climate tech startups from donors and investors.
And the title of this post is something else I learned there. When we’re talking to buyers, investors, or career switchers, this is great advice:
We have to shift the fear from “afraid to go first” to “afraid to be last.”
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
Cheers,
Chris
—
Chris Wedding
Founder @ Entrepreneurs for Impact
Climate CEO peer groups | Podcast