Where is the Green in Greentech?
LaunchSquadders Amy Neal and Sunshine Mugrabi attended the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference held at the Sofitel in Redwood City last week. The show had a great line-up of speakers with a panel of heavy hitters to kick off the event, including Ajit Nazre, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and former California controller and manager of the Westly Group, Steve Westly. Not surprisingly, the economy and fears of a “green tech bubble” dominated conversations. No one seemed to agree on smart green technology investments right now, but everyone was aware that the future is murky.
A lot of the talk was about looking beyond areas of green tech that are already saturated, such as solar and wind power, to sectors of clean tech that have actually been under-funded, such as water technologies and manufacturing companies throughout the green tech supply chain.
Amy’s take: I found Wall Street Journal reporter Rebecca Smith’s interview with Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, a particularly intelligent and enlightening discussion of California’s green initiatives in light of the economic downturn and the federal government’s “don’t call it a bailout” bill. Smith asked if California was at risk of an energy shortage given the efforts to push renewable resources before traditional power, but with a bad economy increasing the chances of green companies not getting the funding they need to meet energy production and growth goals. Peevey asserted that we have every reason to be optimistic about California’s renewable energy future. He’s also confident that government incentives will provide more opportunities for smaller companies (as opposed to getting pushed out by the big utilities) because incentives have been in place for some time and larger energy companies haven’t taken advantage of them to date and are often slow to change.
Given the universal agreement on the need for immediate improvements in energy efficiency, I left the conference feeling even more confident that LaunchSquad client Optimal Technologies is in a unique position to be a leader in the green energy movement with its AEMPFAST platform, which can optimize the electrical grid now. AEMPFAST serves as a central “brain” for the electrical grid, providing unprecedented visibility into all parts of the system and has been proven to improve energy efficiency by at least 10 percent. The technology has the potential to completely eradicate blackouts, significantly reduce costs for energy producers and end-users, create more reliable and efficient power and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The company is funded by Goldman Sachs and I’m looking forward to seeing the impact their technology will make.
Sunshine’s take: What a difference a month makes. Back in September, the mood at another similar conference - West Coast Green - was one of near euphoria. At that event, crowds packed the San Jose Convention Center to rub shoulders with Al Gore, David Suzuki and other luminaries, and there was a sense that, as Al Gore so eloquently told the assembled crowd, “Instead of a financial bailout … we need to bail in renewable energy and green building.”
Yet, by the time the Dow Jones conference came around last week, it was clear that a certain amount of green fatigue had set in as the reality of the financial meltdown started to hit home for clean technology companies. While the federal bailout contains tax credits and other major incentives to help push forward the move toward renewables, there is also a sense that the pipeline of cash from venture investors for start-ups that are in this space is starting to slow–or, at the very least, that valuations will start to decrease.
Still, there is plenty to suggest that the green technology boom (or, if you’re a pessimist, bubble) isn’t going to tank any time soon. Speaking to the assembled crowd, Kaj den Daas, Chairman of Philips Lighting North America, said he believes that the future in his industry belongs to green innovations like energy efficient LEDs, promising that his company is very much on the lookout for companies to acquire.
Even more to the point, there were dozens of start-ups giving presentations to showcase their innovations in just about every area of green technology, from cellulosic sugar to fuel cells to thin film solar to tidal tech. Every seminar room I poked my head into was close to full, with potential investors and acquirers scribbling away on notepads and asking pointed questions. All of which, to me, bodes well for the continued greenification of clean tech.
This post was co-written by Amy Neal and Sunshine Mugrabi and is also posted (with a few edits) on the GreenAmy blog.
Political Recruiting Hits Your iPhone
Some iPhone applications are useful (like our client Evernote’s) and some not so much…but one that has certainly caught my eye in the past weeks is the app created by the Obama campaign to drive voter registration, boost morale amongst supporters and even help influence swing voters in key states.
Called “Obama 08“, the application is much more than a simple vehicle for Obama propaganda and regular suggestions to Go vote now!! and Tell your friends!! The most impressive feature is the application’s ability to actually identify who in your address book lives in a swing state (by scanning area codes) and then give the user a quick one-step option to call or text them– presumably with strict instructions of who to vote for, when and where.
The application also showcases any upcoming events in your area (based on the iPhone’s geo-tagging and GPS capabilities) and provides basic talking points on Obama’s values and viewpoints for supporters to quickly counter any conservative-leaning friends…
Yet another example of politics entering the Web 2.0 era, and I can only wonder why the McCain campaign hasn’t been turning the wheels on something similar? Regardless of how you feel about receiving political news on your iPhone (is there ever such a thing as too much?) there is no questioning the appeal of reaching voters through new avenues while further empowering active supporters in what looks to be a close election.
Got any friends in Pennsylvania or Ohio? They may find themselves unusually popular in the coming weeks.
That Aha Moment
At LaunchSquad, I wear the hiring manager hat. I interview almost every candidate who walks in our door. Many candidates ask me about our name. LaunchSquad. Some folks like it. Some don’t. Some think it implies we just do launches or that we’re still just a very small firm. “Squad” seems to delineate a set, defined, and usually small number. The word has military roots, and in the U.S. Army, quick research shows that a Squad is generally 8 - 16 soldiers. We’re a bit bigger than that now, having just hired our 38th person. But the question remains: if we do a whole lot more than launches, and we’re bigger than a Squad, why the name?
The truth is that when we started the company, the name fit like a glove. We were three folks initially, then four when I joined in 2001, and we focused on bringing new companies to market. Today, while we still focus on bringing new companies to market, our name is very much a metaphor for what we do and what fuels us. We are a tight-knit team. We are fast moving. We have a lot of kinetic energy. And we love new ideas. Disruption. Entrepreneurs. Doing new things. In short, a launch squad.
I’ve been at LaunchSquad for almost eight years now, and the second question I almost always get in interviews is: Why do you love your job? My answer, which ironically almost never changes, is “change.” Every day is different. Things are coming at me from a thousand different directions and my job, when I do it well, is to look for the patterns, the ideas, the trends, and figure out where and how our clients’ stories can play a role, hopefully a leading one. In short, I’m looking for that aha moment, where it’s crystal clear that we’re onto a great story.
Our “squad” is in the middle of one of these moments now. We just launched a phenomenal company called Brightstorm. They have an online learning network for teens consisting of a series of video-based courses covering a variety of subjects such as history, geometry and SAT prep; and the team behind the company are all profoundly passionate about what they are doing, which if it all goes as planned, will massively impact how young people learn.
We’ve been working with Brightstorm for about two months now and have loved every minute of it. My mother was a high school English teacher for 25 years at a public school in Massachusetts, so the art of good teaching is near and dear to me. Brightstorm is trying to bring the best teachers to students everywhere and give millions of learners that aha moment.
With a company like Brightstorm, we have aha moments on top of aha moments. When our team/squad first dug into the Brighstorm story, our own minds began sending out those adrenaline-fueled signals saying: “Great story. Great story. Great story.” And then you dig a little deeper and you realize, here’s a company that’s also trying to change the world. Disrupt current models. Try fundamentally new things. And all at blazingly fast speed. That’s what we live for. That’s why I get excited to come to work every day.
The newest question that keeps coming up in candidate interviews is how will the current economic crisis affect our business. To paraphrase Steve Jobs from Apple’s earnings call this week, your next door neighbor is as likely to forecast the economy as a LaunchSquad executive. But at the core, we believe there is no shortage of aha moments to be had. Downturns and slowdowns can foster and feed innovation as well as hinder it. The economics may change, but the need for good ideas and stories won’t ever go away, and the role of PR as a facilitator and seeker of interesting stories is needed more than ever. Despite all the turmoil surrounding the business world, I feel very good about that.