ClimateTech is Flush with Money. Now It Needs (Experienced) Talent.

Billions of investment dollars are flowing into climatetech/cleantech, renewable energy and sustainability right now, both due to the increasingly clear existential need, and due to a turn in U.S. policy., culminating in the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.  It’s night and day versus when I entered the cleantech space in 2016, when investors were few and far between, and most people questioned why I would enter this space when all the money was going into social media, cloud computing, AI and other tech.

It’s wondrous to see investors, business leaders and government officials finally start taking both the challenge and the opportunity seriously. But beyond the inherent technical risk in climatetech, where a lot of new deep tech is being researched, and the typical financial risks of any startup, there are some systemic risks in this flush of investment dollars. 

Any boom cycle such as this means there are investors who are relatively new to the space, and thus less able to ascertain the likelihood of a bet paying off. There are also entrepreneurs who may have a great idea for a technical solution and garner a big check, but have no idea how to start up and run a business.

This industry is relatively new, so there simply isn’t a deep and wide bench of talent who are expert both in climate/sustainability and in their respective business functions. The only way for climatetech and sustainability solutions to be validated and scale is for people from a wide variety of industries to jump into the space. And while it’s great for young people early in their careers to follow their passion here, that’s not enough. 

First, there is a great need for people in the skilled trades such as electricians– we simply do not have enough people to do all the work coming up. Thus it’s important to offer relevant skills training and jobs not only to young people starting out, but also to untrained adults who need or want to switch jobs, for example from a low-paying job in retail to a well-paying job installing solar panels, batteries and EV chargers.

Second, the industry needs the experience and skills of professionals, workers and leaders who have been around the block in other industries, whether that is designing a great user experience, developing sales channels, developing talent, machining new equipment, or leading an organization. 

One of the big challenges I have seen in many cleantech startups is a profusion of highly talented professionals early in their career path who are expert in their functions, but who flounder with things like managing teams, executing with focus and scaling organizations– skills which can’t be learned by reading, only by doing. Many of these talented professionals are starving for experienced mentors who could coach them on topics that can’t just be figured out through raw brainpower or hustle.

What needs to happen now? On one hand, experienced folks need to be ready to make the leap out of their comfort zone into something that may be new but also provide them with far greater purpose and for some, better opportunity. (Yes, for some this may indeed be the proverbial mid-life crisis– in a good way. I went through something like this in 2016 when I entered the cleantech arena.)  On the other hand, folks in energy, agriculture or other climate-intensive industries need to welcome outsiders who can bring much needed skills and who are willing and able to learn quickly (and with some humility). 

Initiatives like the Climate Draft are an interesting experiment in recruiting outsider professionals (in this case from tech) into climate. I suspect it may be successful now in recruiting folks who are relatively early in their careers, especially as the general tech sector is tightening its belt and even laying off workers. It will be more interesting to see if folks who are a couple of decades or more into their career will take the plunge. I hope they do– and I’ll help as many of them as I can.