Clean Tech Investing

Last week I attended a conference on clean technology / energy investing here in Boston.  Like anything with a sustainability angle these days it was packed to the house with standing room only; although this time it seemed to be more an audience of practitioners as opposed to job seekers.

The two-hour session saw two VCs and an Analyst give their views on the past, present and future of the market.  The speaker I found most interesting was Jim Matheson, a partner at Flagship Ventures.  It is worth reading his background.  He's been doing clean tech investing for the past 9 or so years after having graduated from Harvard Business School.  Prior to that he was a Naval Aviator having been an instructor and adversary pilot at Top Gun (cue the sound track for the movie).  After listening to Jim's speech, two things are eminently clear:

       (1) Substantial height is not a requirement to be a Naval Aviator; and

       (2) Jim is a really smart guy who's been around the block on clean tech.

Jim addressed a number of points, including that there are huge opportunities in the clean tech/energy space because much of the existing processes and technologies are decades (if not more) old and are not designed for today's requirements.  But all was not rosy.  Jim pointed out that one of the biggest challenges today is that those with experience in energy and clean tech come out of utilities or other pseudo-government companies that 9 times out of 10 do not transplant well to startups.  He also talked about how the time horizons of VC funds (10 year funds) are not ideally suited to the time frames of clean tech / energy (sometimes 20-40 years).

As Jim was wrapping up he listed off a bunch of problems that he thought were worth solving (translations, things that he is interested in owning if they are successful) and I thought I would share that list:

       (1) How to make, transport and measure H2O

       (2) What to do about all the CO2 we produce

       (3) How to create more distributed electricity

       (4) How to store energy at large scale cost effectively

       (5) How to build and support electric vehicles

       (6) How to design and build sustainable products

       (7) How to use IT to manage energy usage

       (8) How to make the grid smarter, consumers wiser

       (9) How to use land more efficiently

       (10) What to do about all the waste we create

I've always been impressed most with VCs who publicly talk about the things they want to invest in (as opposed to what they have invested in).  And while this list isn't overly specific, it's such a rarity that it's worth publishing here.

I don't know Jim personally, but were I raising money for a clean tech / energy business I'd add him to the short list of folks worth talking to.