Scientist founders, Negotiations aikido, Praise in public
EFI Climate Fellows program. $25B for circular carbon. “Props” channel in Slack. (vol 143)
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Today’s topics.
💨 New: Circular Carbon Market Report 2023.
😤 Completing your PhD is hard. Understanding VC should be easy.
🏆 The Aikido of negotiations: Make your counterparty look like a genius.
📣 Praise in public. Spread the love.
P.S. If you’re a growth-stage climate tech CEO who wants to grow faster in a private CEO community of vetted peers representing over $15B of market value, apply by Friday, March 8 via early action to be an EFI Climate Fellow.
1.
💨 New: Circular Carbon Market Report 2023.
The latest version of my favorite reports was just published.
Why should you care?
Early stage carbon removal companies raised 13% of all capital reported within the larger climate tech sector in 2023.
Boston Consulting Group recently estimated the market for durable carbon removal alone could reach reach $40B by 2030.
The 997 companies in its Innovator Index have raised $25.7B to date, including $8B last year.
What sectors are covered?
Carbo removal
Carbon conversion
Point Source Capture
Circular Carbon Market Infrastructure
Check out its 48 data-rich pages.
2.
😤 Completing your Ph.D. is hard. Understanding VC should be easy.
These wise words come from Dr. Omri Amirav-Drory, a founder-investor at NFK.
Having experienced this friction in his entrepreneurial journey, he wants to help more scientists grow great companies.
“I made 148 different versions of my pitch deck for my company when I was a scientist-founder.
In hindsight, as an investor, they all look stupid.
What I was missing was an understanding of how investors think and what incentivizes them.”
As a fellow science lover who pivoted to entrepreneurship and investing, I love his message.
How many more hundreds of scientists are sitting on world-changing ideas?
Get his full 7-part blog here.
📅 Apply to be an EFI Climate Fellow by Friday, March 8 (early admission).
If you’re a Series A+ CEO in climate tech, sustainability, or renewable energy, and our EFI (Entrepreneurs for Impact) blurb below sounds useful for your growth, then apply to be an EFI Climate Fellow via early action by Friday, March 8.
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Entrepreneurs for Impact is North America’s top peer group community for growth-stage CEOs, founders, and investors in climate tech, sustainability, and clean energy.
We’re a community of 70+ CEO Fellows, Alumni Advisors, and Mentors representing over $15B of market value or AUM for climate solutions.
With monthly group meetings, annual retreats, guest speakers, and executive coaching, our members help each other boost revenue, impact, capital raised, clarity, confidence, work-life balance, and team effectiveness.
And if you think you’re “too busy to join” a CEO peer group, then you’re in the right place. Every other busy CEO Fellow feels the same way. 😅
3.
🏆 The Aikido of negotiations: Make your counterparty look like a genius.
I may be reaching here, but stay with me…
#1
Aikido is a martial art using an attacker's power and inertia against himself.
And…
#2
William Ury — one of the world’s most trusted negotiation experts and cofounder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation — recommends the following negotiation tactic:
Write out your counterparty’s victory speech.
This doesn’t mean giving them everything they want.
Instead, it means making them look super smart when summarizing the final deal to their partners or board members.
Are these two related? Or am I high on matcha? 😵
4.
📣 Praise in public. Spread the love.
Noah Kagan — the author of Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours — shared this great advice recently:
Create a “Props” channel in Slack or Teams.
Model good behavior for your team and praise people often there.
Encourage others to do the same.
Simple and powerful, just like this quote:
“In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” - Clare Pooley
Thanks for this reminder, Jess. 👍
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week because it’s usually a choice.
~ Chris
Founder @ Entrepreneurs for Impact
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P.S. Over 100,000 CEOs are members of CEO peer groups. Are you? Check out our private community for climate tech CEOs at EFI (Entrepreneurs for Impact).
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(As these photos show, I’m an actual human writing this newsletter. Not AI. 🤖)