#100: Six technology roadmaps to 2050 (from $1B+ VC firm)

5 bullets on climate tech, habits, productivity, and deep work

Mar 07, 2023

Good morning, folks.

In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these 5 juicy nuggets below — as gratifying as ignoring your phone until 11 AM so you own your morning. 🌅

Climate Startups & Investment

#1 — 🚀 Six technology roadmaps to 2050 (from $1B+ VC firm).
#2 — ⏲️ How many years from startup founding to exit?
#3 — 🏆 What can we learn from the world’s 540 most innovative companies?

Productivity & Living the Good Life

#4 — 🤔 We’re working so hard, but not making any real progress.
#5 — 🗡️ Can 1 decision eliminate 100 decisions?

Onward and upward,

Chris

#1 — 🚀 Six technology roadmaps to 2050 (from $1B+ VC firm).

I recently heard Dakin Sloss, founder and General Partner of Prime Movers Lab, talk about their Breakthrough Science Roadmap, and I thought you all would like to explore it.

Each of these six pages offers 15-20 scientific innovations, along with a 2-3 page writeup if you double click.

(Bring your 🥕. It’s time to go into some rabbit holes.)

The roadmaps cover these categories of VC investment:

Energy
Infrastructure
Transportation
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Human Augmentation

Why should you care?

The future is closer than we think — Over the last ten years, we’ve seen the rise of mainstream electric vehicles, renewable energy becoming the cheapest form of new power, and productivity gadgets that we didn’t know we needed (e.g., iPads, smartwatches, fitness trackers, wireless earphones).
Prime Movers Lab has some standing when it comes to betting on the future — Over $1B in assets under management, including the Q4 2022 launch of their $500 million early growth fund, and experience conducting due diligence on 1,000s of deep science companies.

#2 — ⏲️ How many years from startup founding to exit?

This piece from Climate Tech VC shows that building a startup is not a get-rich-quick scheme (among many other fantastic, data-driven insights).

The time from founding to exit is about nine years, plus or minus, depending on the type of business you build.

Should we be worried?

Not really.

But we should go in with eyes wide open.

Roughly 20% of our working lives (10/50 years) could be dedicated to our current venture. Are we committed to this specific mission in front of us?

For comparison, this analysis of 129 tech companies in various industries shows that the timing from start to IPO ranged from 4 years (payments) to 11 years (hardware) on average.

#3 — 🏆 What can we learn from the world’s 540 most innovative companies?

Fast Company just published its “Most Innovative Companies” list.

Here are companies to watch in various categories:

And here’s a crazy idea — Instead of wondering why you’re not on this list (I’m not either 😲), consider asking:

What can I learn from these innovators about how to scale my impact?

—

P.S. I didn’t create this list. So if you are not on this list, but think you should be, you’ll have to talk to my superiors. 😂

// 🆘 When we grow, our businesses grow. //

The bottleneck at our organization is often us — not other team members, capital, or customers.

Through Entrepreneurs for Impact, I help growth-stage or post-revenue climate CEOs and founders achieve faster business growth, better decision-making, investor savvy, visionary mindsets, conscious leadership, stronger networks, greater accountability, and personal productivity.

If that sounds interesting, you can join the waitlist here.

(Limited to 5 people.)

#4 — 🤔 We’re working really hard, but not making any real progress.

“We’re running fast but staying in the same place.”

If this describes your situation, then you know what the “Red Queen Effect” is all about.

But there is another way.

Instead of investing more time and resources in the same methods, stop.

Try going sideways instead of forward — New people, processes, geographies, business models, investors, etc.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
— Charles Darwin

Read more on the Red Queen Effect from Farnam Street. See examples from Warren Buffett and Alice in Wonderland. (Seriously.)

#5 — 🗡️ Can 1 decision eliminate 100 decisions?

That’s what Tim Ferriss did in 2020 when he decided to read no new books that year.

He didn’t need to pick which book he’d read and why.

His inspiration came from the words of Donald Knuth, a mathematician who won the Turing Award (aka, Nobel Prize of computer science) when he “retired” from using email in 1990.

“I have been a happy man ever since January 1, 1990, when I no longer had an email address.
I’d used email since about 1975, and it seems to me that 15 years of email is plenty for one lifetime.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things.
But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things.
What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration.”

Read more from Tim about single choices that remove many choices and free up mental space for things that matter more.

That’s all, y’all.

Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.

Cheers,