The Gist
The Ad Hoc Gist: Is Winter Coming for Climate Tech?
Without some meaningful financial exits soon, I’m worried we’re heading for a climate tech winter. The planet can’t afford that.
I wrote a three-part series for Latitude Media with my friend Michael Sachse on the current climate tech landscape and what investors and startup founders should do about it. Part one is about the impending climate tech liquidity crisis, and part two is about what the industry can learn from biotech.
The final installment, out today, is our advice for climate tech founders. We’ve distilled it for this month’s Gist below. But we encourage you to read the full series here.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: It’s Getting Hot In Here
As I write this note, half the country faces a record-setting heat wave while wildfires burn north of Los Angeles. This month, I interviewed Katie MacDonald, the cofounder of Tailwind, on how to get more investors to back resilience tech.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: Beware Climate Tech’s Pits of Despair
In this month’s Gist, my colleague Max Tuttman draws on his Ad Hoc and ARPA-E experience to explain how climate tech startups can avoid falling into some common traps, which he calls the “Pits of Despair.”
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: Geothermal, It’s So Hot Right Now
Geothermal technology is getting a lot of attention lately. There are essentially two types: geothermal power and geothermal heating and cooling. The former can deliver clean power 24/7, while the latter can heat and cool buildings super efficiently.
We enlisted two experts, Joselyn Lai, CEO of Bedrock Energy, and Michael Campos, investor at Energy Impact Partners, to help us understand the enthusiasm, challenges, and bold predictions for the future of geothermal technologies.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: Meet Our New Partner, Julia Hamm
This month, we’re thrilled to announce that longtime senior advisor Julia Hamm is joining the AHG team as our newest partner. Julia brings decades of experience as the former CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), founder of RE+ (now the largest energy trade show in North America), and much more.
Read on to learn about Julia’s career highlights, her vision for breaking down barriers between startups and utilities, and life in southwest Florida.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: I’m the Problem, It’s Me(thane)
Fossil gas is a big problem for the climate. And there are major political battles being waged on how much we need and for how long.
Regardless of their outcome, we’re going to have a gas system for the foreseeable future. So, as Ian Rinehart and Sam Bauer write in this month’s Gist, we should lean in hard to stop methane leaks from gas extraction and infrastructure.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: 2024: Hope Floats or Reality Bites?
As we kick off 2024, I invited five experts to share their predictions for tech, funding, and policy.
Here’s mine: 2024 will be big for resilience. In an election year, when climate action will become even more politicized, resilience tech should avoid the political crosshairs. The reality of extreme weather and wildfires will prompt utilities (no CEO wants a repeat of Hawaii), big real estate, and other vulnerable sectors to invest in their self-interest.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: A Few of Our Favorite Things in 2023
As 2023 comes to a close, we are yet again on track to mark the hottest year on record. But it wasn’t all bad news.
We invited some of my AHG colleagues to share their favorite climate tech achievements this year – things that may not have captured all the headlines but nonetheless demonstrate progress.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: Employee #1
In honor of his four-year anniversary at Ad Hoc, we invited our first full-time team member, Ian Rinehart, to take over the Gist this month. He shares his reflections on how the climate tech market and AHG itself have changed since he joined the company, and what he’s most excited about looking ahead.
In other news, we shared the importance of resilience on the With Great Power podcast, which dropped this week, and how policymakers, utilities, advocates, and startups have to do more to ensure we’re prepared for the worst.
Read MoreThe Ad Hoc Gist: Solar vs. Electrification
Electrification is a cornerstone of any reasonable climate strategy. So is deploying solar at scale. But there is a squabble brewing between the new electrification vanguard and the solar industry. We cover it in this month’s Gist.
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