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Climate Takes Venture Builders
37 Plays2 months ago
Welcome to Carbon13's podcast "Climate Takes" where we ask founders, investors and builders for their "takes" on their industry and climate challenge, as well as setting a call to action, asking what will it take to solve the climate emergency?
On Climate Takes Venture Builders, we’re joined by two serial entrepreneurs who work within Carbon13: Puja Balachander and Nishul Saperia. Using their Founding and Venture Building experience, we take a look at the very model of Carbon13 itself.
Our conversation includes: What are venture builders, how do they differ to accelerators and venture studios, how do they work, and how do they make meaningful change in climate innovation?
Carbon13’s own Venture Builder has seen over 1000 founders pass through our programmes, resulting in nearly 80 invested ventures, collectively worth over £230million, with a potential to reduce emissions by 500 million tonnes per year.
Subscribe to Climate Takes to find more content on founding and investing in climatetech, with Takes on green chemicals, innovative materials, AI, and hard won lessons in climate entrepreneurship.
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Transcript
Introduction to Climate Takes
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Climate Takes, the carbon 13 podcast where we look at what it will take to solve the climate emergency, but also get our guests takes on their industry and climate challenge.
Exploring Venture Builders
00:00:25
Speaker
This is a special episode of Climate Takes Venture Builders, where we're going to be looking at the model of venture builders, how they build ventures, ah why, ah who for, and how the model works. I'm delighted to be joined by two of my favorite colleagues at Carbon 13, Puja Balachanda, Director of Venture, and Nishal Sapiria, who is an entrepreneur in residence. ah Both are founders. Nish is a co-founder of a company which is now, I believe,
00:00:54
Speaker
a unicorn status, and Puta is a serial founder. And we're going to dive into their experiences and what they're working on at the moment in a bit.
Advantages of Venture Builders
00:01:04
Speaker
And I think for the builder, there's some really key advantages. So one, like you said, is just the number of runs at goal that you have.
00:01:16
Speaker
That's simply one of the most important characteristics of a founder, because there's always going to be adversity, right? I think there's a quote, you know, you've got to wake up and eat problems for breakfast, right? We have institutional knowledge that we've gained from actually supporting these startups through it. So, for example, you're no longer making up what a techno-economic analysis is.
Venture Builder's Role at Carbon 13
00:01:45
Speaker
Hello guys, how are you doing? Great. been great thanks Thanks for having us. ah Very excited for this. You've got a lot of great stories to tell. First off though, let's do the basics. What is a Venture Builder?
00:02:01
Speaker
I can get us started. So from Carbon13's perspective, Venture Builder is where we bring together founders to start companies. So effectively, as opposed to relying on serendipity for people to come together and start their own start a startup that has this massive decarbonization potential, we try to create the enabling environment where that those teams can form and we provide them with the tools that they need to come up with those ideas and start building those ventures with some support.
00:02:31
Speaker
So it's it's like a it's it trying to access a program of support for these founders and investment as well? Definitely. I mean, I think there's a program of support, probably the most important of which is forming your team. um And then there's also, yes, the chance to access to to get investment to get started as well. Got you.
Venture Builders vs. Accelerators and Studios
00:02:55
Speaker
And Nish, how is that different to an accelerator or an incubator or a venture studio? Yeah, sure. I mean, accelerators tend to focus on companies that I've already formed. They've maybe made a little bit of a but bit of progress. And I mean, if you're looking to actually just start a business like Carper 13, which is a venture that just helps you from day zero,
00:03:18
Speaker
before day zero, because before you've even started the business and incorporated the business, you got support from Carver 13, not just around how, not just around finding a co-founder, which is actually possibly the most challenging aspect of starting a startup, but also how do you pick what you're going to solve? How do you start modeling it, thinking about it? um And if, you know, you might start reaching out to people before you've even incorporated the business in terms of like an industry and Things like that. So I think much earlier support, much earlier um ah focus and then you've got venture studios that tend to be much more about spitting out just a few ideas and typically what you have is a few but core members in a venture studio and they are generally looking to validate ideas and then they bring someone external in who
00:04:08
Speaker
yeah typically ends up with much less um of the equity to go and actually build it. And so I think, and and they they're spending a bunch of startups because you've got a core team really focused on um trying to validate each idea. Whereas here we facilitate um many more people to go in and explore many more ideas. Right. So Adventure Builder is more about volume of founders working on startups.
00:04:36
Speaker
An accelerator is a lead slightly later stage. So you're considering a venture builder before you're at the accelerator stage. And then a venture studio, the balance is you might be coming in on a venture idea, which somebody has de-risked to some extent or done some of the work on. So you're joining it after a bit of work has been done.
Importance of Team in Venture Building
00:05:00
Speaker
So if you then join as a founder, you are probably likely to get less equity in that company, just because some of the important work has already been done. Rose on the Venture Builder, it's completely your startup. Exactly. And I think for the builder, there's some really key advantages. So one, like you said, is just the number of
00:05:19
Speaker
runs at goal that you have, for example, so you have so many of these companies. But at the same time, you're controlling for the factor that's the most important, which I don't know, maybe this is an opinion, or maybe this is carbon 13 sort of theory of change. But it's that it's the people that are the most important there, it's actually not necessarily, you know, validating the market. That's the most important thing. So I think de risking, you know, in a venture studio model, where you're sort of de risking the idea,
00:05:46
Speaker
and then bringing in almost the ideal team members. As opposed to doing that, we're kind of trying to optimize for the best people in the room and trusting them to come up with ideas and validate the market and do all these other things. And at the same time, giving ourselves a lot of runs at goal so that we have the best opportunity, both to create the most economically sort of viable and powerful ventures, but also the ones with the most decarbonization potential.
00:06:13
Speaker
That people point is really, that that's the that's the key, isn't it, to something like Adventure Builder. It's how do you find the top people, top scientists, engineers, ah software engineers as well, the commercial co-founders, those who can build relationships, investors' network. Adventure Builder is a people place, right?
00:06:39
Speaker
yeah And I do think that that's where Carbon 13 stands out, is bringing those those people who are particularly motivated around the climate crisis together.
00:06:50
Speaker
Right. i think we Sorry, I was just saying, I think that people think it's really important because ideas change. You get startups, they pivot a lot, but the right people have to navigate that path and you know they're going to go and explore. Even in one startup, you may explore multiple different aspects of an idea or multiple paths to delivering an idea. And the right people who are motivated in the right way to really deliver on that are are the key. And I think the best investors always invest in the people more than they invest in the idea, I think.
00:07:24
Speaker
and ah And this also then would reflect on your own journeys as founders. So because Pooja, you were doing a startup a few years ago and you were really struggling to find that co-founder role. Like how was that journey for you?
00:07:41
Speaker
Exactly. So I mean, I guess I support i so I did an MBA program, which is sort of a venture builder, I suppose, in terms of bringing together a lot of people that have these diverse interests. And the idea is that you you do find ways to kind of support each other. So I found my co founding team, we had a great dynamic.
00:07:59
Speaker
But I think at the end of the day, that commitment factor was missing because people, you know, I was really committed to our venture at the end of the day, but others found better opportunities or found that actually the entrepreneurial journey wasn't really for them. So I think that, you know, an MBA program doesn't filter for that in the same way that maybe a venture builder does. So yeah, I found those people by the end of the program, when we had had some traction, i actually had some investment on the table, the other two decided not to continue.
00:08:26
Speaker
So then I found myself in the position of being a solo founder with neither the subject matter expertise nor the technical expertise. Like I was the commercial kind of product person and the two people that were really bringing most of the value um ended up leaving company.
00:08:42
Speaker
So I had to find those people externally. And then it became really, really difficult to find those people organically. Again, like I ended up finding the wrong people, hiring them too quickly, needing to fire them. That ended up wasting a lot of runway and time. And of course, it was just mentally really, really challenging um in terms of just our energy and enthusiasm for the company. And eventually, yes, we did find that group. But you know it was probably at least a year of basically trial and error where our traction and progress was so much less than it could have been um because we were just going through these teaming issues rather than actually advancing on the startup. And so, yeah, I think the the value of finding a committed team with the right skills earlier on and bringing those people in the room just can't be overstated. By far, that was our biggest pain point. I think
00:09:39
Speaker
to sum up what you've just said. It's not that a venture builder is a shortcut, but it cuts short time. You you don't waste that year trying to find the right co-founder in theory. ah The Carbon 13 Venture Builder is a cohort of 80 people who come together on this program who are trying to find co-founders. And that teaming phase is is a few weeks. And by the end of those few weeks, you know if you found that team or not and can make decisions after that.
Carbon 13's Venture Builder Approach
00:10:05
Speaker
Why would you say Carbon 13 is a venture builder? When you look at our mission and what we're trying to do, why do you think it's a venture builder that has been built and not an accelerator or just a pre-seed investment fund?
00:10:20
Speaker
Well, I guess, I mean, I think that the key about finding a co-founder is a really first thing. I mean, it's not just about finding the right person with the right skill set that matches you. It's also about finding someone who's at that moment in time in that mindset, because like, finding a startup is not an easy thing to do. And it's not something that you can just you know, decide one day you're going to do like, you know, you might leave a job and you think, okay, yeah I'll go and find a startup because there's there's impact on your home life sometimes, like, you know, um and being able to select from a pool of like 100 plus people um who who are all in that moment, in that headspace is really important. um so And I think that is, and especially for car climate, where
00:11:07
Speaker
It's not just about hiring a software developer. you need to you need really like This is it a hardware problem. You need a really ah balanced team. um of I mean, it's been well known, you need a commercial person, you need a tech person, but it's not just having a tech person, you need a tech person who's going to be able to solve the problem in that specific space. right like and And climate affects many different industries, but you need experts in that specific industry, in in in your in in that cohort. If you're going to go and solve a problem around water, you need someone who might be able to develop
00:11:39
Speaker
hardware around water or the same with cement, you need people who might be able to have some experience in developing cement alternatives. So that's not easy to find, right, at all, right? Whereas before, like 10 years ago, you're going to go and do a software startup, that skill set is much more widely available, right? Whereas like the specific skill sets for solving specific climate problems is quite hard. So I think the people very much, right? And then, yeah, I think Puja, I don't know if you have I don't have much more to add. I think, you know, that team aspect is just the key phase. Like an accelerator assumes you have that team figured out a pre-seed, pretty much you're just investing in the team. So at this point, we're effectively making it so that there are more qualified teams out there in the market to be able to get that accelerator support, to be able to go get that pre-seed funding. And of course, you know, we get first dibs on that as well by being able to seed those.
00:12:36
Speaker
So yeah, we're really, I think we're playing in a really unique space and and really focused on where um most of the value is created. I think um it's also worth adding the support that Carbon 13 brings. It's not just about putting people together and saying, hey, go in go and pick a co-founder. Like, Carbon 13 has done a lot of thinking and research on like how do you pick a co-founder. It's not just a skill set. It's also the mental side of things. It's like, you know how do you have the same values? Do you have do you desire the same outcome? I mean, some one co-founder may just want to go and build something which gets to a certain level and then sells it. And another co-founder may want to go and develop something and go and IPO it of after 15 years and may be ready for that journey.
00:13:17
Speaker
um um And then also about ideation, I mean, Carbon 13 already brings a network that you can go and tap into quite quickly to go and start um testing our ideas in a way which, you know, if you're going to go and do this from scratch, even if you've got the right co-founder, there's ah there potential this is an advantage there as well. so Exactly. I think there's the framework for ideation. And then I think just because we've been supporting so many of these startups for such a long time, and it's been specifically in the climate space. And like you said, Nish, also focusing on deep tech, focusing on hardware, focusing on these really difficult, hard to obey industries.
00:13:56
Speaker
I think we have specific networks there, but also we have institutional knowledge that we've gained from actually supporting these startups through it. So, for example, you're no longer making up what a techno-economic analysis is. You potentially have some templates that you can start with to actually build those unit to do those unit economics and that sort of thing. So I think that's a huge, again, not a shortcut, like you said, Sarah, but a way to cut short the time that you're fine that that that could be better spent actually working on your startup and not reinventing the wheel.
Funding and Financial Model of Carbon 13
00:14:27
Speaker
And I think I've heard, so when we say pre-seed investment, that's usually the first check and it's anything between often 50,000, 200,000 or so on. And often that's to enable the founders to have the resources to explore the idea. And I think if you wouldn't hire those founders to do that job, if you wouldn't hire them, you wouldn't invest in them ah either.
00:14:50
Speaker
um Let's talk about the business model of ah of a venture builder. and How does it work? How is carbon-13 funded as a model? maybe mean if you want to take one start um I mean, there's two aspects. like when you're When you're doing a business like this, you need to A, you've got a program, you need to pay for that program and you need to, and and then you need and money to invest in those companies, right? So short term, you need to go and basically deploy capital. um And then the returns on that typically tend to be a bit longer term because you reinvest in these companies and that's when you get paid, right? So there's two things. One is, A, um you you know, Carp 13 works with sponsors who understand that
00:15:40
Speaker
yeah this is sponsoring company of a program like this is a way of investing and helping to fight climate change, right? So that's a really important aspect of how carbon editing has got going and and you know we've got some key sponsors and partners in that respect. um and then And then investors come in to provide funding to actually invest in the startups. um And um And then, yeah, over time, some of these companies are gonna exit and um with ah and you know some of that money hopefully will get to a point where carbon-13 is self-sustaining just from from from those exits. Absolutely. So yeah, I think we have the standard sort of fun model and then we have corporates as well that support. So people like Barclays and Arm and Siemens Energy Ventures have been really, really important partners for carbon-13.
00:16:33
Speaker
When I first joined Carbon-13, I was like, in a way, we don't really have customers. In a way, it's not like we're sort of directly selling some something to somebody to somebody, and that's brilliant. Don't have to worry about customers. oh Oh, but the bad news is our investments in our startups are 10 years.
00:16:49
Speaker
How do you fund the operating costs in the meantime? And we have invested through SEIS funds. um We've done nearly eight million through SEIS funds and also um a first close of an LP fund.
00:17:04
Speaker
as well so we're taking fees from that in order to reinvest into the startups and you know our check ah into the startups is usually fixed according to the cohort so for example I think the latest um venture builder was 150 000 pounds But then what's key to understand is the founders then return a fee of about 40 or 60? 60,000 pounds, which pays for the next stage of that program and then covers operating costs. And from the founder's point of view, until that point, they don't pay us anything. um If they have formed the team on the venture builder and do not receive our investment, we may take options.
00:17:50
Speaker
and but they're not giving us say a program fee you unless we invest in them, um which I think is an important thing to to understand. um So carbon 13 is therefore investing through SAIS funds. um What would you say would be a USP for angel investors to invest in a venture builder fund over a normal pre-seed fund or to do their indirect investments, why would you look at a venture builder fund?
Benefits for Angel Investors
00:18:26
Speaker
I can start. I'm happy to take it. Firstly, at the end of the day, when you're investing in startups, you need diversification. It's as simple as that.
00:18:38
Speaker
Not many of them. These are high-risk bets. Not many of them are going to succeed. And you want to be in a position where you've got at least you know quite a number of um companies in play that to to potentially come and give you a return.
00:18:54
Speaker
Um, so you get that diversification straight away and in particular to get diversification focused on climate, right? So if you want to go and invest in a lot of climate tech, you really want to push and support the climate, um, climate change is one way of doing that and supporting quite a few bets. Um,
00:19:10
Speaker
And, you know, in particular, like, you know, you can be sure, you know, that every single company has been forced, is being asked to report, how are you going to get to 10 million tonnes, 10 megatons per annum impact, right? um Like,
00:19:25
Speaker
Not everyone who's investing in startups is doing that. And if you're an angel investor, do you have the time and capacity and even know how to go and ask them to do that and vet that? So not only are you getting diversification, you're also getting an assurance that we are We are trying to make sure were we're we're asking them to verify how they're going to actually have that impact. So, I mean, I think there's that's a couple of the reasons which um which come to mind. And, and you know, like you're going to invest in 10 startups in a cohort.
00:19:57
Speaker
um with one check rather than having to go and do due diligence on 10 checks, 10 companies. And you know that also carbon-13 is doing due diligence. I mean, it's one thing about doing due as an investor often, you meet a startup and then two months later you go go through an investment process and then you make you write the check. We're working with these startups, right? So we get to see how they operate. We get to see how um how the team dynamics work, how quickly they move. So that gives us like a bit more of a, um a bit more of an insight than a typical fund might have or an angel investor is likely to get in a startup when they're actually looking at an investment.
00:20:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think the last thing I would add to that is just you're investing earlier so you do get a benefit um compared to investing at a pre-seed stage, for example. um So yeah, there is there is a you know monetary benefit as well in terms of the stake that we take in companies. It is you know earlier and therefore you you know you have an advantage for getting in earlier as well. And you still get the the benefits that you might in a fund as opposed to an angel investment of diversification and de-risking by working with us.
00:21:03
Speaker
So you're saying the terms of an investment of a car of a a venture builder are slightly more advantageous for a venture builder because they're accessing even earlier stage deals. So you're saying there's a relationship between earlier stage deal and slightly better terms for the investor because of the of the risk? Exactly, exactly. Because we're guaranteed basically a certain stake in the venture by the time they're going into their pre-seed round. Got you.
00:21:33
Speaker
And then, um
00:21:36
Speaker
oh, Nish, could you just give us an example of ah of ah of a team where you've been working from them from the beginning on the Venture Builder and you've seen them go on a real journey to the Investment Committee, which can be four, six months later.
Success Stories within Venture Builder
00:21:48
Speaker
What's been an example of a team where if you hadn't had that, where if you don't think you've had that benefit of embedding with them week in, week out, that might have changed your opinion of them entirely. Oh, yeah. um Lots of examples. I mean, I think one comes to mind, which I really rated, was Aladdity. You know, they're doing science, they're doing crop analysis to help regenerative farmers figure out the best ways forward. I mean, I think Scott and Lukash were great, and they had a good background.
00:22:29
Speaker
but um I know that Carbon13 definitely helped them in terms of building credibility for them to find a co-founder, which is a really important thing. um and just the just the support in terms of um helping to move forward every week in, week out, I think was quite, was quite um powerful. And, you know, I think some of the benefits that, you know, I think about quite a few of the programs, quite a few of the teams I've worked with, it's it's like the weekly check-in, like, you know, start-up is like up and down, up and down, just like I had a call literally just before this, right. And, you know,
00:23:02
Speaker
A, having someone around you like who you can lean on um on a regular basis gives you like who you can go to and and voice all your concerns and all your like, you know, i don' im struggling, I think this is going to fail. I don't think we have a mark here. I think and having those um having those conversations makes you feel much less lonely, right? And I think it's such an important thing in a startup, which is mentally taxing with the up and ups and downs, right? It's very difficult. um So I think that that helps.
00:23:37
Speaker
them build resilience and actually they they understand at the end of the end of that program even better the value of ah having good people around them and I think definitely I've seen that the carbon 13 startups who go on to do well have taken that into their next phase and they have done well at making sure that they're surrounded by good people for the next phase of the business as well which carbon 13 will also be there to support them for as well. I guess you'd almost have more faith in a team where you'd seen them hit a low and come through it. That is such an important thing. Like, you know, you see how they're resilient, they are, how have they react to adversity? um And I mean, that's simply one of the most important characteristics of a founder, because there's always going to be adversity, you right? I think there's a quote, you know, you got to wake up and eat problems for breakfast, right? As a founder. And yeah.
00:24:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's just so many more data points in terms of both. Yeah, like exactly the the highs and lows and how people actually navigate those challenges, but also how systematically they approach challenges. I think something that really impresses me with the teams that I work with who are doing really well is that every week they come with, okay, you know, these are the hypotheses or assumptions that we're trying to validate here is like what we're actually doing to do that. And they kind of bring a really almost like product approach to building a startup. um And it's really, and of course we try to teach some of that as part of the venture builder programming and the support that we provide, but the companies that do really well with taking that on and and building really systematically make the most progress in a short time.
Carbon 13's Impact on Climate Startups
00:25:09
Speaker
So we've we've discussed, you know, the venture builder model, it helps generate diversity of ventures.
00:25:16
Speaker
um because of all of the support that they can provide there's some element of de-risking of the building of the venture both for the founders themselves and also for those who work with them and this is all to try and ensure survivability and growth for these ventures and for carbon 13 that's key because if they don't survive they can't decarbonise or address a particular climate challenge, survivability matters for impact um above all else. um And we've also spoken about the importance of working with the best talent when you're trying to write those first checks or you're looking who to work with, you're starting with people first. And I suppose therefore it's, if you're weighing up these models when in comparison to, say, venture capital,
00:26:03
Speaker
It's the deal flow and the access to the deal flow. So if you're an LP looking at a looking at a thesis for a venture capital fund all the way up into the different series, where's the deal flow coming from? Venture builders build their deal flow. They don't source it in the same way that an accelerator or fund has to.
00:26:22
Speaker
um That would be broadly correct. Yes. yeah Anecdotally, whenever I'm at an event or speaking to investors and looking at the early stage startup scene can always identify some carbon-13 startups. So i I really do think that at least in the UK and Europe market, we're really seeding that early stage ecosystem.
00:26:42
Speaker
um We've, I mean, just to throw some stats out there, ah over 70 invested startups since 2021. Several Earthshot nominations for some of those startups. I think the total current collective potential for decarbonization is 500 million tons per year. um And we've invested about 8 million um as, you know, as a first check. That's 8 million lots of 100,000, 250,000, 200,000 checks. ah The Upround follow-ons, that's,
00:27:12
Speaker
38 million has been invested into those startups. They're collectively worth well over 200 million by now. And this is our first investments. We're in 2021. And I think longevity matters. We're we're passing in, you know we've done our 10th.
00:27:26
Speaker
Venture Builder program already. um we're We're starting to recruit for the 11th and 12th. So we've got all those lessons, templates, taking forward into those. um So speaking of those Venture Builders then, Pooja Nish, what is the best thing about working with these starters? When you wake up in the morning, so you've got a meeting with one of the startups, what makes you most excited to have that call? Maybe Pooja, start with you. Sure.
00:27:52
Speaker
um i mean and Explain your role a little bit as well actually. Oh yes, true. So so at Carbon13 I run both our Venture Builder program as well as our Venture Launchpad programs. So in terms of a lot of the content that we're actually providing, I think having seen a lot of these companies and founded a couple companies myself, we're basically building that content around them and really iteratively building um the support structure that these companies need to really get to that gets those results that we're talking about. um And so things like...
00:28:27
Speaker
For example, this year for the first time we tried, one of the challenges that we always have is that teams need to form teams need to form in those initial kind of 10 weeks with our venture builder programs. um And everyone can network to a certain extent, but to some but eventually you don't really know what it's like to work with someone until you work with someone. And so often we get these we we do get dropouts in that second half because people aren't able to eventually work together.
00:28:53
Speaker
But what we found is that we can actually design challenges for teams to actually work on themselves. And so we now have these sort of climate hackathons that we run during our venture builders, where we work with our corporate partners to get problem statements from them. And then the teams get a chance to actually try working together and really stress test their relationships.
00:29:12
Speaker
And so, I mean, this is the sort of benefit that you get from working with the Venture Builder type program, where we are learning about these learning these things iteratively and really designing the entire experience to select for the strongest teams possible with the strongest ideas possible going into those next phases.
00:29:28
Speaker
um But to answer your question about what gets me most excited about working with these teams, I think there's the relationship with the founders. I think like Nish was referring to, I think it's really valuable to be sort of that constant for them. We're having seen all of these companies and having seen so many of the down ups and downs, we're able to be that sort of calm voice in the room to say, to provide the reassurance or ask the critical questions that will kind of keep people you know on that path and staying systematic in their journey.
00:29:58
Speaker
And I think the other is just, I mean, for me personally, I love the variety um and I love how much I learn from all of these founders. I mean, each of them, I think that the the the thing with being an investor is you get kind of a shallow dive into a lot of things, right, as opposed to going deep into anything. But I think because you're working so closely and operationally with each of these founders, you actually kind of get a little bit of both. I think that the advantage of working at Carbon 13 is you get to have almost a deep dive in a lot of things as opposed to just a shallow sort of um understanding. So it's really exciting to learn about such different things from all of these founders and be that voice of reason that's helping them along. Can I just sum up? ah a Because you were talking about um
00:30:42
Speaker
These are people who are trying out different co-founders, trying out different matchings, doing hackathons, doing different things, working together. So what you've just described is a description of Carper 13, which some people invented right at the very beginning, which was it's Love Island meets The Apprentice. And that's actually what it is.
00:31:01
Speaker
True. We tried to do it in a bit of a kinder way. yeah kind of In a kinder way with ah ah lots of HR training. Nish, what do you love doing most when as an entrepreneur in residence? Also explain that role, please, because ah it's a vital part of what Carbon 13 does. It can be a misowmer misnomer in other organizations, whereas for us, you're the backbone of backbone of the support we give to our startups, and you do a great job, Nish. what do you How do you do it? Thank you. Yeah, I mean, it's an Entrepreneur-in-Residence is is here to work with the teams and support the startups as a kind of a mentor, but um
00:31:42
Speaker
you know, there's a distinguishing between, like a lot of accelerators have mentors, um we're brought in and we're actually um contracted to Garden 13 to do this. So we are, we're committed, like, you know, you go to other other programs and the mentors are doing it, um you know, on the back of their own time. Whereas we've, you know, we've been brought in because of our background and expertise specifically.
00:32:04
Speaker
um And so we we we we will have a call with the teams maybe once a week, once every other week, um help them. At the beginning, like how do we how how did how do they get out to the market? How do they pitch their initial proposition? I mean, what you're pitching day one is very different from what you're pitching when you're actually out selling. Because day one, you're not out there pitching a product. You haven't got something to sell. You've got to go and pitch.
00:32:30
Speaker
you've got you gotta to go out and get interest from people who are willing to talk to you and give their time um to help educate you on whether what you're thinking about doing is going to be valuable for them, right?
00:32:42
Speaker
um rather than you know two years down the line, you're actually going to go and say, hey, here's I've got this product. Can you buy it? Do you want to buy it? um So there's there's a bit of that. And then helping them think about how they look at the market. um But they're also like team dynamics. I mean, like founder dynamics is one of the biggest challenges that most most startups have. um And helping them navigate that is important. um And then also being kind of a bit of a psychological support. um like I think one of the the best things I find most gratifying things that I find is when I get onto to a call and you can see the founders is trashing at the end of it, they you can just tell they they they they feel and look a lot happier. And so it's the impact that you bring on these companies. um And I think, you know, and and you know i second, a lot of what Pooja said, it's like, you learn so much. I get to, you know,
00:33:35
Speaker
i'm I'm doing this for work, but I'm also um kind of getting i'm learning a lot about all these different segments that these guys are working in. And and yeah I really enjoy that. I really want that. I want to understand how climate change is...
00:33:51
Speaker
how had how how we can impact climate change in all these different areas, right? So that I find very gratifying and very interesting. But you know b being just being part of a journey with the startup um ah you know in its first phase is just a very satisfying thing, especially when you see them go on and you see how where they've got to after six months of working with them um versus when you start with them. And you know if you you feel good, you feel part of you feel like you've contributed to that. It's nice.
00:34:19
Speaker
And I think just to put a finer point on what Nish said about just the qualifications of the EIRs, I'm always obviously kind of selling the programs to founders in particular.
Guidance and Support for Founders
00:34:28
Speaker
And I think I always talk about the entrepreneurs in residence because I think it's just such a privilege to work with people who have actually started something. um I just think it's so common that when you, I mean, on my last startup, I think I did five accelerators. um And It was you know pretty rare, to be honest, to be paired with a mentor and advisor that you actually found valuable.
00:34:51
Speaker
And I think all the entrepreneurs in residence at Carbon 13 are mostly successfully exited founders or at least like very capable operators in the past. They're not sort of career advisors. And I think that's huge. And then the other side is the commitment that they actually make. So again, like Nish said, they're contracted by Carbon 13. They're required to give you like an hour a week.
00:35:14
Speaker
um And that's so different than kind of finding 30 minutes of time, you know, maybe once a month with someone who's volunteering their time and not necessarily building that longitudinal relationship with you. So I think both in terms of feeding into our own and investment process, the entrepreneurs and residents just get such a deeper look at the ventures that we're working with.
00:35:35
Speaker
And then the other side is that for the founders, they get so much more of a qualified person who's like a thought partner to them. And that's really invaluable at this stage. You're both entrepreneurs.
00:35:49
Speaker
ah you're you're doing this work as well, but you're both entrepreneurs. um And i you can see it makes a huge difference. just like you You know what the fear is when you talk to these founders. You actually have lived through these problems. um And then I would sum up what what you're also describing is just clarity. um Can you bring clarity to founders thinking? Also reminds me of an ancient Greek quote by Thucydides, which is talking about bravery basically stems from having clarity of thought.
00:36:19
Speaker
People are are brave and founders are brave. People are brave when they can see what they need to do. um Final question then.
Addressing Climate Challenges with Startups
00:36:28
Speaker
COVID-13's mission is to address the challenges to Earth's vital systems, so climate crisis,
00:36:34
Speaker
as well as other challenges such as for example water resource. um what are so and i either Let's end on either an example of ah of a climate challenge which you're really excited about ah seeing solved or you think that not enough people are trying to address or is there a specific carbon 13 startup that you're especially excited about and because of the size of their potential impact?
00:36:58
Speaker
Pooja, do you want to go first? Sure. I mean, I could start with a challenge that's inspiring me, but I mean, I'm a bit biased. It's it's my venture. well but it's inate bar isnt It's in decarbonizing the built environment. I'm acknowledging it. I have a startup in the space, so that is a big bias on my side. But I think um just to to make it a bit more generic, I do think that there's just like the things that fascinate me are where like a behavior or a phenomenon just doesn't make sense.
00:37:27
Speaker
So, for example, or like seemingly doesn't make sense. So, for example, my startup is in retrofit. One of the things that I was but one of the things that really struck me at the beginning of this was like, OK, all of these technologies already exist. In theory, they already save people money and they're not that expensive. Why isn't this already a thing?
00:37:44
Speaker
And so just I think a lot of the times that's what ven that that's what I coach ventures to look for even in some of our in some of their ideation is to look for these things where like logically this doesn't make sense. There's some sort of market failure that's meaning that this thing hasn't actually reached adoption. um And often those are kind of like the low hanging fruit things that if you can sort of align the market factors correctly to make the make that adoption possible, then you can scale much faster potentially. And there are certain things where like, okay, it actually does require a technical leap, but there are so many of these sort of technologies that just haven't made that adoption jump.
00:38:28
Speaker
And it's because of these sort of things. So i think fine I think those sort of opportunities really excite me in the climate space. And I think our but our our companies are really skilled at identifying those opportunities and sort of aligning the universe and the market to make that happen. Amazing. OK, Nish?
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah, um I mean, maybe I'm a bit biased because of what I was working on before around concrete cement and taking. taking um So I mean, one company which comes to mind is Cocking and Carbon, which is taking slag from steel. um And in particular, one that's hard to use um in in in in cement, but has found a way to actually repurpose that as cement.
00:39:11
Speaker
and having stored carbon in it. So it's creating a carbon cement replacement, which has carbon dioxide stored in it, which is going to massively reduce the carbon footprint of concrete, which is one of the biggest emitters of CO2 today. Now, I mean, there's a lot of companies in that space, but it's such a complicated and huge market that there's going to need to be a lot of variety of solutions, right? So that's one example. Another that comes to mind is Kita, which has, you talk about market infrastructure and changing the way things are done.
00:39:41
Speaker
I mean, you know, you buy a carbon credit today, you don't know for sure that that carbon credit is going to be delivered. Like, and you know, the supply of carbon credits is not necessarily enough that you could actually get a carbon credit to retire today that is of high quality. So you got to get quality and then you've also got to go and get um You've also got, ah need you need a whole lot of things around it in terms of market infrastructure. And and Kid is bringing insurance and and um to that space so that you can, um you know, if that carbon, you buy a carbon credit and it doesn't deliver, you know, you know your your money isn't lost, you can now go and repurpose that. And that's a really important um evolution in the market as well. I mean, there's so many others which come to mind around methane and um all these other different markets. But yeah, there's a couple of them which, but worth mentioning, yeah.
00:40:28
Speaker
I love it when the climate challenge intersects with other ah challenges in our economy as well. um If we think of Matnex, who are using AI for the discovery of new materials.
00:40:44
Speaker
um And they recently ah used AI to discover a new permanent magnet, which are very important for lots of users, not least renewable energy such as wind turbines. The key thing about this permanent magnet, okay, it was the first one discovered since like the 50s, literally, but it's also free of rare earth materials. If you're new to climate, you might not be that familiar with rare earth materials. They're incredibly important to, for example, battery technology.
00:41:09
Speaker
um But 90% of them or something like that comes from China. So if you're looking at, say, the European economy, and you're looking at, okay, what can the future look like? um You're also taking into account ah ah supply chains may become weaker, they may become more fragile, they may become more politically challenged. How can you provide alternative supply chains or materials, um which will be more robust to the local area that you're in? ah If you look at wider trends, decentralization, localization, ah things like that, then they almost always ah intersect with climate, which I find very, very exciting. You know, we need to look into the 30s and 40s, see what's missing and build it now.
00:41:52
Speaker
ah in order to scale it in time. And ah some of the startups you've just mentioned, actually, this podcast has also spoken to. So ah we have an episode with Cocoon Carbon, which are doing cement, NEEM, where we we're doing green ammonia, ah AI and robotics, Samudra Ocean, that's a fantastic episode, Climate Takes Sea Robots. um So do take take a look at our at our other episodes. And there's many more ah that are in the pipeline for sure.
00:42:20
Speaker
um Thank you so much Nish and Pooja for taking us through Climate Takes Venture Builder. I think when we look at this, we can see that climate is going to take diversification, it's going to take some de-risking of ventures, it's going to take early access to deal flow, and it's going to take venture builders. Thank you for joining. Thank you. Thanks, Sarah.