This Week in MCJ (1/9/21)
TPG & USV announce new climate funds, MCJ is hiring, and more!
Hey everyone!
Wow, this week wasn’t boring. The duality of the moment is striking. COVID cases skyrocketing, vaccine on it’s way. Biden taking office soon and Georgia victories, but an attempted coup in Washington and unprecedented polarization and unrest.
We will get through this though, and while things will be bumpy in the short term, I strongly believe there is light at the end of the tunnel and we are laying the foundation for an incredibly productive decade ahead. We also have no other option!
In terms of MCJ-specific news, a few things I want to call out:
1) We are hiring for a marketing consultant at MCJ!
2) We realized that people come for the content and stay for the community, and some of our most valuable content was locked up behind the member paywall. So we made the bonus podcast episodes free for everyone (detailed list below), and are in the process of releasing the audio from the Startup Series episodes on the main pod as well in the coming weeks.
3) As we list below, we set up a climate careers slack channel, and have a kick-off zoom this coming week with whomever wants to learn more about being part of the working group! As a reminder, this initiative is focused on what our roadmap should be to provide more tools/resources to people trying to transition into working on climate, and what partnership opps we should look to explore, as well.
4) This isn’t an MCJ-specific one, but there were two HUGE climate fund announcements this week, TPG Rise Climate & USV! Almost buried in the crazy goings on this week, but in my view, both a big deal in themselves, but also a sign of what is to come from other funds.
5) And last, but not least, I want to call out the magic (and hard work!) that happened in Georgia this week. There was no time to celebrate before the horrible doings in DC, but this was one of the most impactful levers for climate action that I can think of!
Have a less eventful week, everyone!
Jason
🎧 Episodes
Here’s this week’s episode, in case you missed it.
Episode 138: Dave Riess, Co-Founder and CEO of Wunder Capital
Wunder Capital is a technology company that's financing the renewable energy revolution. It develops software and partners with leading solar organizations and financial institutions to build large scale solar projects for businesses, municipalities, nonprofits, and communities. Founded in 2014, Wunder Capital is the #1 commercial solar financing company in the U.S. In this episode, Dave walks me through his career path and how he got hooked on energy.
Prior bonus episodes that are now out from behind the paywall:
Andrei Cherny, CEO & Co-Founder of Aspiration
Katie Rae, CEO & Managing Partner at The Engine
Hydrogen debate with Gene Berdichevsky and Jigar Shah
Tobi Lutke, Founder & CEO of Shopify
Michael Skelly, Sr Advisor at Lazard and Co-Founder of Horizon Wind Energy
Jason Bordoff, Professor of Professional Practice in Intl. & Public Affairs at Columbia University
Rep. Sean Casten, Illinois’ 6th Congressional District
🎧📼 Startup Series
You can hear the audio version wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you’re an MCJ Member, you can watch a video recording here.
Episode 25: Phoenix Tailings with Co-Founder and CEO, Nick Myers
Phoenix Tailings is a metals and mining company that leverages untapped value within mining and refining waste, economically and sustainably. Their solutions minimize waste, reduce red mud, and lower extraction costs while producing high-value metals through a zero-emissions process. Co-Founder and CEO, Nick Myers, explains how Phoenix Tailings got started and the benefits of the Phoenix Tailings approach to mineral extraction.
📌Community News
Survey on Carbon Offsets - MCJer Andy Moon is asking for respondents to a a 15-question survey on “Carbon Offsets and Climate Action.” Please take a few moments to fill it out here!
Climate Careers - Following up on this month’s town hall, we’ve created a #climate-careers channel to organize efforts around supporting career transitions to climate. We invite all who are interested in joining the working group; our first kickoff meeting is on Friday (details in the event section below).
DEI & Climate Justice - MCJers Maki Tazawa & Charlotte Mallo invite you to join the #dei-climatejustice channel. This community is for those interested in discussing climate related topics that intersect with environmental justice, diversity, minority representation, and more.
Los Angeles MCJ Community - Charlotte Mallo is leading the #los-angeles community and organizing a virtual hangout to kick off this new channel. The virtual hangout will provide a space for everyone to meet each other, share the results of the survey, and layout the foundations of the group for 2021. Respond to this poll by the end of the week to vote for a time that works for you!
🎓Alumni News
MCJ Alum, Matanya Horowitz, and his company, AMP Robotics, just raised $55M in new financing from XN, Valor Equity Partners, and GV. Check out their announcement here! You can also listen to Matanya’s Startup Series episode!
MCJ Alum, Albert Wenger, and USV made their climate fund official. You can hear Albert’s MCJ episode here.
📚Startup Resources
Terra.do’s “The New Hydrogen Economy” is a four-week survey course on hydrogen’s role in the energy transition. It starts 1/25 and meets three times each week for an hour. It’s built for analysts, investors, policymakers, and other professionals that need to level up their knowledge on the topic. This is the second cohort of the program. They are holding a preview event (New Hydrogen 101 and Course Q&A) Tuesday on 1/12 at 5 pm PT. More information here!
👋 Welcome New MCJers!
Below are new members who joined the community and introduced themselves in the past week. You can learn more about them on #introductions, where you can welcome them to the community.
A warm welcome to the MCJ Community!
Roslynn Ricard: Roslynn is a controls engineer scaling a novel battery process in California with Tesla. She is excited to be part of the MCJ and solve hard climate problems with the community.
Leland Chamlin: The Chief of Staff at Bowery Farming (a vertical farming company based in NYC), Leland is excited to join MCJ to broaden his understanding of climate beyond the food and ag space.
Adi Jagannathan: Adi is the co-founder of Carbon Hero, a startup aiming to solve sustainability in the consumer goods space. His day job is as a clinical research manager in the pharmaceutical industry. He is looking forward to learning more about climate change through MCJ.
Ben James: Ben is currently helping out with the next IPCC report. A freelance software engineer and journalist by trade, he is excited to meet more MCJ members.
Rahul Yadav: The founder and funder of ClimateGrants.Earth, where he is awarding money every month to individuals working on climate change, Rahul is looking forward to connecting with and learning from more of the community.
Olle Olsson: Olle is a researcher at the Stockholm Environmental Institute, his research is focused on the intersection of technology development, business model innovation, and public policy. Olle is excited to explore the community and meet more members.
Carson Potter: A Product Manager with a background in ML and data tools for civic tech, Carson is looking for opportunities in the applied AI energy space. He is looking forward to learning more from the MCJ community.
Roman Reyhani: Roman is on the Venture Build team at BCG Digital Ventures. Roman is excited to connect with MCJers as well as finding ways to collaborate to solve climate challenges.
Max Webster: A seed-stage investor at Version One Ventures, Max focuses on energy, climate, and cryptocurrency projects. He is looking forward to meeting exceptional founders at the earliest stages and potential hires for his seed portfolio.
Stephan Ango: Stephan is the co-founder of Lumi, a platform for companies to find the best packaging suppliers. He is excited to dig into all the great projects everyone at MCJ is working on and to be a part of the community.
Andy Mardesich: A web developer in Berkeley, CA, Andy is looking forward to connecting with folks in the MCJ community.
Doreen Wong: Doreen is a Tech Scout with Booz Allen and a Venture Partner with Republic. Her background is in climate and sustainability. Doreen is excited to learn more from MCJ.
Allison Barkel: Allison is a Content Developer for a Pre-K through High School STEM curriculum company but is passionate about sustainability and food waste. She is looking for opportunities in the climate space.
Turab Bajwa: Previously a VP of Finance at Crusoe Energy, a startup deploying mobile digital infrastructure to mitigate oilfield gas flaring, Turab is excited about clean energy and looking to meeting more people with overlapping interests.
Ewan Jones: Ewan is a co-founder of ClimaCrux, a company launching products dedicated to having an impact on the climate. He is thrilled to be in a community of like-minded climate individuals and looking forward to connecting with them.
Alex Millet: With a background in data science and analytics, Alex is a product manager at Twilio. He is trying to better understand how software designed for engineers and marketers can translate to climate.
Rob Kahn: Rob is on the communications team at Climate Policy Initiative where they focus on climate and sustainable finance. He is looking forward to meeting members and learning more from the MCJ community.
Zann Ali: A pre-seed investor at 2048 Ventures, Zann is looking to learn more about climate in 2021. He is excited to be a part of MCJ.
💼Climate Jobs
Here are some jobs shared by members of the MCJ community that we think might be of interest to you. Many of these opportunities and the MCJers who shared them can be found in #climatejobs in the MCJ Slack. Check out this google doc for the jobs from this week!
📰🎧Recommended Reading/Listening
Below are recently published articles and content that we find interesting and/or that were shared by fellow MCJers.
The New York Times: “‘A Slap in the Face’: The Pandemic Disrupts Young Oil Careers”
TechCrunch: “Looking to decarbonize the metal industry, Bill Gates-backed Boston Metal raises $50 million”
The New York Times: “Henry Paulson Returns to Finance, to Run Climate-Focused Fund”
UC Berkeley Law Center for Law Energy and the Environment released a report on “Accelerating Engineered Carbon Removal in California”
The New York Times: “U.S. Disaster Costs Doubled in 2020, Reflecting Costs of Climate Change”
🎟Climate Events
As a reminder, we have a MCJ Events Calendar, where you can view and post events for the rest of the MCJ community to attend. When posting an event, please refer to this checklist.
*We’re highlighting a few upcoming events below; please refer to the events calendar for a complete list.*
Upcoming
MCJ Ideas Jam (Wednesday, January 13th @ 12 pm ET)
Watch Louis Potok, Baptiste Malaguti, and Chris Tolles pitch their startups and receive feedback from guest judges, including our very own Thai. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions and comment as well! Use this as an opportunity to learn more about incredible ideas in the space, meet more people in the community, and potentially spark your own ideas in the process.
Climate Careers Kickoff Meeting (Friday, January 15th @ 1 pm ET)
As mentioned above, we will also be holding a kickoff zoom to discuss and layout opportunities to explore. Please email or DM Sarah Adams to RSVP.
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