From Inspiration to Action - My climate tech mission!

I have been in the energy sector for just short of a decade now. In my role, I have traveled to many places, including Malaysia, Singapore, Qatar, Holland, the USA, and Iraq, worked hands-on in various oil and gas operating sites. Reflecting on my journey, I've seen Energy industry embrace Zero emissions strategy, that was once unthinkable. For example, companies once commonly accepted flaring (burning gas into the air), but now they aim to stop it completely.

Huge Shift in Business Metric - The Net Zero Emissions Target.

The Turning Point: The Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement signed in 2015 during COP 21 sparked this shift. Now, companies across all sectors aim to cut their carbon emissions, making it a key metric. Companies began to publicly commit to net-zero targets—for example, Apple by 2030, Shell by 2050, and even countries like Germany by 2045 . 53% of the world's 2000 largest companies have pledged to achieve net zero. This transformation reflects a broader global trend where emissions reduction is not just a metric but a mission.

The challenge of Net zero emission

Despite widespread commitments to combat climate change, progress in reducing emissions remains slow. To achieve NZE by 2050 (limit warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial averages) we need to increase our speed of decarbonization by atleast 7 times

According to the IEA, only a third of emission reductions will come from currently developing technologies, highlighting the need for more investment and entrepreneurs /innovators in the climate tech space to meet net zero goals.

The Pace of Innovation in Climate Tech vs. Software Industry

Over my seven-year tenure in the technology (software) sector, where I founded both SAAS and gaming companies, I've observed the rapid pace of innovation in the software industry. The software industry benefits from venture capital, lowering entry barriers and fostering a cycle of Build, fail, learn, and repeat. This process is both cost-efficient and swift.

In contrast, the climate tech sector presents more intricate challenges. The straightforward "fail fast" approach common in software development doesn't apply as seamlessly to climate tech, where the complexities of hard tech require cautious progression to mitigate both financial risks and ensure safety.

If software eats the world, hardtech gives it teeth.

Software alone can't address climate tech challenges; hardtech innovations are crucial too.

Only hardware can produce or consume energy, food, materials etc, whereas, software can create a efficiency layer and a usability layer on top to create a killer solution.

Thus, we need a new wave of entrepreneurs who embrace first-principle thinking across traditional sectors, challenge the status quo to create hardtech solutions, and leverage software to enhance user experiences for broader adoption.

Tesla stands as a prime example of this innovative approach. Elon Musk, with a background in software, applied his strengths and first-principles thinking to the hardtech space, completely revolutionising the automotive industry and making Tesla the quickest in its sector to achieve a trillion-dollar valuation.

As an entrepreneur with experience in both software tech and the hard tech space (energy), I've navigated the challenges of entering the climate tech space. The main hurdles for entrepreneurs are:

  1. Content: There's often a lack of clear understanding regarding the problem statement and how to execute solutions, primarily due to insufficient industry knowledge.
  2. Connection: Addressing climate tech challenges requires collaboration across a broad network of investors, policymakers, academia, and experts for building solutions and hiring. Building such connections is challenging but essential.
  3. Capital: Tackling hardtech issues demands significant financial resources, from innovation through to deployment, involving diverse funding sources. Navigating this financial landscape can be difficult.

Therefore, I am on a mission to enable faster progress towards net zero by empowering entrepreneurs with content, connections, and capital.

How will I solve this?

I believe in creating open ecosystems to tackle complex problems and climate tech is a critical area that demands a community-centric approach.

Therefore, I my strategy to solve for Content, Connections and Capital will be through creation of community, that will execute the following:

  1. Content - Create clear and easy to understand content around climate tech with frameworks. This will help in creating better mental models. A community driven weekly newsletter will be started, it will cover simplified research pieces, industry news, VC thesis etc.
  2. Connections - A slack channel will be created that will enable networking and exchange of ideas among various stakeholders.
  3. Capital - Capital raising framework in climate tech, list of key investors and thesis and interviews.

The roadmap to execute the above plan will follow shortly.

Climate tech is a global mission and can be solved with everyone involved. If the mission that I am to solve rings a bell then reach out to me directly at akill.gupta@gmail.com