Undaunted: Tackling climate change with innovation’s Post

Green is the startup world's new gold. Sustainability is now intrinsic to future-forward startups. The rise in climate tech startups is undeniable, fueled by a commitment to the planet, not just profit. Yet, their success depends on an age-old factor–talent. The clamor for professionals passionate about sustainability is escalating, sparking a cross-sector hiring trend. Engineers, data scientists, and marketers are leaving mainstream sectors for climate tech, promoting rapid innovation. The challenge? Fierce competition for talent. To win, startups must offer more than just high salaries. They need flexible work, diversity, inclusion, and a clear impact vision. Looking forward, startups investing in sustainability and inventive hiring will lead the market and shape our sustainable future. Ready for the green revolution? Let's discuss how we can attract top talent in climate tech.

Vista Climate is thrilled to team up with Series A and Series B climate startups 🌱🚀 Here is why: 📈 Startups at this stage are often experiencing rapid growth and need to scale their teams quickly to meet evolving demands. 💡 Startups are known for their innovative and dynamic work environments, which can be attractive to job seekers looking for exciting opportunities. 🤝 Working with startups allows us to build strong, long-term partnerships from the ground up. 🌍 Partnering with Series A and Series B climate startups enables us to stay at the forefront of emerging industries and technologies, giving us valuable insights to enhance our recruitment efforts. Also, in the case of the climate startups, the Silicon Valley cliche of "making the world a better place", actually applies 🌎 🌈

I’m moving towards a new core thesis — and it’s all about ecosystem creation & systemic change. This is an open letter to myself, my colleagues, and all of the amazing people I’m yet to meet who could become my future partners, likeminded friends and collaborators. People often ask me what is it that I really do. Why am I building several startups, isn’t that awful for focus? And advisory? And other roles? It’s odd It’s new Frankly, untested And I’m doing it from a place of deep conviction. 🌐 Here is what I see happening across the board: ▶ The current pace of change outruns the capacity of our institutions to adapt. ▶ AI in particular advancing faster than we can meaningfully & usefully implement it into our workflows. ▶ Gen Z breaking away from many of our systems while also pushing to transform them. Across all of these, there is a trend — systemic change. Change at a scale that one single company struggles to meaningfully tackle. Organisations, nations, all struggle to keep pace. 👤 On the other hand, here is where I come in: I would best describe myself as a “deep generalist” — being broad IS my specialty, reinforced with several skills I push to their limits of depth. Among these I count storytelling, strategic & systemic thinking, and the ability to transfer expertise across domains, challenges, places and people. Having worked in startups, NGOs, university roles and done corporate internships, I have a good coverage of how different organisations work and solve problems. I am also global to the very heart, and every country is a little bit my own. 🔷 Taken together, I see a colossal opportunity to innovate not just through products, but by nurturing new kinds of systems By bringing founders together By linking resources By creating communities By lifting other founders By actively working to innovate our systems at scale, from education to early careers to global mobility It’s hard I have no blueprint I don’t have the resources to affect something this large all at once Which is why this is a long-term mission, and I will never accomplish it alone. I’m expanding scope. Finding partners. Advising and accelerating other founders. Bringing entrepreneurs and innovators together. Creating spaces & communities. Working on projects whenever I can. 📌 And so this is my emerging thesis — to move towards creating & growing whole ecosystems of projects and people as my North Star. I want to go beyond what I alone can make, and create cascade, systemic effects. If this resonates — we should speak. This is a coalition effort. I’m building links with founders & innovation-aligned organisations worldwide. Let’s work together. Collaboration works magic.

I’ve seen several interesting startups shut down over the past year where there was valuable IP, smart teams, and customer agreements. The founders often don't get feedback on potential paths as investors need to spend their time on the highest-performing investments from a returns standpoint. Always sad to see from an ecosystem perspective since it sometimes hurts momentum, delays innovation that could have built on something prior, and stops and starts tech careers. In tech-heavy ecosystems its very common to see some type of solution, even acqui-hire, but in Canada you have companies working on the same problem spread between several major centers instead of concentrated. Lots of times shutting down still makes sense but if you are a founder looking at options for a company I’m happy to send you a list of thing you may want to investigate and even make intros based on the company type (an example would be US companies entering Canada that may simply value the shell and footprint, larger firms that would deploy the IP etc.). Happy to help if it creates more longevity for important ideas. Particularly if you are in cleantech. 

It’s been a busy few weeks at ARIA – here’s the latest👇 ⚡ Live programme funding ⚡ We’ve launched the first funding call for our programme, ‘Safeguarded AI’. Backed by £59m and led by David ‘davidad’ Dalrymple, this programme aims to develop the safety standards we need for transformational AI. Apply by 28 May: https://lnkd.in/e-nHj4a4 🚀 Activation Partners 🚀 We’re looking for Activation Partners to design and deliver bespoke activities focused on science entrepreneurship and translation across our opportunity spaces. Submit an initial proposal by 29 May: https://lnkd.in/gEqRgxVV 🔍 Latest programme thesis 🔍 Our latest programme thesis, 'Exploring Options for Actively Cooling the Earth', led by PD Mark Symes sets out to explore the research required to better understand approaches that could be used to delay/avert dangerous climate tipping points. Read it now. https://lnkd.in/e8usKKAZ 🚨 Live jobs 🚨 Technical Specialist – Synthetic Biology Essential to our upcoming plant synthetic biology programme led by PD Angie Burnett, as a T-Spec you'll have the chance to catalyse world-changing breakthroughs. Apply by 20 May: https://lnkd.in/eJikPNCT Technical Specialist – Climate Science / Engineering As a T-Spec to Mark Symes, you’ll help direct teams to answer fundamental questions as to the practicality, measurability and controllability of technologies that might one day be used to actively cool the Earth. Apply by 3 June: https://lnkd.in/giQ-kwaJ Technical Specialist – Climate Monitoring + Modelling Working on an upcoming programme with Gemma Bale and Sarah Bohndiek, you'll help deliver an early warning system for climate tipping points. Apply by 3 June: https://lnkd.in/g-84G2cr Executive Assistant Providing essential support to Communications, Procurement and Finance, you’ll be part of a wider Executive Assistant team assisting across critical moments in the programme lifecycle. Apply by 26 May: https://lnkd.in/gTkWE4GK  👀 What's coming up? 👀 We’ll be launching more theses and funding calls across our opportunity spaces over the next few weeks – including ‘Robot Dexterity’ led by Jenny Read. Find out more in our Q&A with Jenny on Substack: https://lnkd.in/gD-WAPrN

What we are reading... In October 2023, 31 communities across the country were designated as Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs) to stimulate regional innovation and job creation. These hubs will receive direct investments to enhance their global competitiveness as innovation centers and foster collaboration between public, private, and academic partners to drive inclusive regional growth. While only 31 Tech Hubs have been designated so far, the program's benefits are expected to significantly impact economic growth nationwide. Click the link below to read about the selected tech hubs and how they're impacting regional innovation. The ETSU Research Corporation is on a mission to drive economic prosperity in the Appalachian Highlands. Follow us for more updates on these exciting developments. #TechHubs #Innovation #EconomicGrowth

🚨 Candidate Alert 🚨 I frequently meet talented job seekers and am always happy to help promote them on LinkedIn. You never know—they might be the right fit for your team! If you want to be featured in one of these alerts, send me a DM. I am excited to feature someone today with a unique background spanning materials science, software engineering, and startup entrepreneurship. They are looking for an entrepreneur in residence or analyst role at a VC or a chief of staff type position at a startup. They are based in the UK but are open to relocation anywhere globally. This candidate: 🔬 Spent nearly 2 years at Harvard researching nanomedicine and applied physics. 💻 Worked as a mid-senior software engineer at one of the major tech firms in San Francisco for over 2 years. 🎓 Withdrew for a master’s degree at Harvard to join a recent Entrepreneur's First cohort (a leading London-based incubator). The digital health startup developed an MVP and received a term sheet, but due to the nature of startups, the company wound down. If you want to connect with this exceptional candidate, please reach out! #CandidateAlert #VC #Analyst #EIR #Entrepreneur #SoftwareEngineering #Nanomedicine #AI #Startups #Harvard #TechTalent

Helping to spread the word, do check out details in Alex’s post below. It’s about supporting others with their next step.

Vista Climate is excited to work with Series A and Series B climate startups 🦄 There are few reasons for that 👇 1️⃣ Startups at this stage are often experiencing rapid growth and need to scale their teams quickly to meet evolving demands. 2️⃣ Startups are known for their innovative and dynamic work environments, which can be attractive to job seekers looking for exciting opportunities.   3️⃣ Partnering with Series A and Series B climate startups enables us to stay at the forefront of emerging industries and technologies, which gives us the opportunity to gain valuable insights and expertise with innovation in climate that can benefit our overall recruitment efforts. 4️⃣ Working with startups allows us to build strong, long-term partnerships from the ground up. 5️⃣ It’s exciting to help passionate, motivated, hard-working folks find top talent to help them disrupt old ways of doing things to move our world to net zero carbon emissions and help solve the climate crisis. If you know a startup that is looking to grow its talent pool, please let us know. We’ll be happy to help 🤝📈🌍 #Sustainability #NetZero #ClimateTech #ESG #TalentAcquisition #RecruitingAndStaffing

For Climate Techs, opinions on growth prospects are as diverse as the technologies themselves 🤯 Yet, amidst this uncertainty, a silver lining emerges The job market within Climate Tech is showing promising signs of recovery And at the forefront? Business Development As we pivot towards a greener economy, The ability to → Forge strategic partnerships → Understand market needs → Drive sustainable growth Has never been more critical So, what does the future hold? Climate Tech startups are in a unique position to revolutionize industries But they need top business development talent that can build value propositions and navigate these turbulent waters of innovation The stakes have never been higher!" #businessdevelopment #climatetech