Hi .
“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir people’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” - Daniel Hudson Burnham
Our new startup investments are tackling affordable and multifamily housing, networking and power for buildings, climate risk analysis, infrastructure outage intelligence, resilient communities, secure bike parking, and e-commerce for micro-mobility, green hydrogen production, electricity carbon-intensity intelligence, and designing new energy systems. More on Techcrunch and Bloomberg.
Cities in the cloud
For many of you, 2021 is still mostly work-from-home and there are persistent questions of which cities people will choose to call home. So far, only some employers are adjusting pay based on location, and thanks in part to courting from mayors, talent appears to be moving around and trying out new US cities. This effort to lure businesses may not have the same economic impact when the office doesn’t move with the CEO. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the distribution of where people intend to build their startup, while smoothing a bit, still features power-law distributions. Perhaps most importantly, the Bay Area has taken second place only to “the cloud”. The cloud is also the biggest winner in B2B business activity shifts.
Density refactored
We’re examining what a potential disconnect between economic activity and density might mean for our thesis. We suspect density still matters for dating and other social activities, but probably less for a growing universe of work. In 2020, the conversation in the US, went from the cost and resilience benefits of density to defending it from blame for COVID-19 deaths. Maybe the trend towards bringing urban amenities to the suburbs is an indication that US society just can’t quit density. Outside the US, there doesn’t seem to be the same flight to the suburbs or smaller cities.
The climate decade
Conversely, sustainability and climate change startups have never had stronger tailwinds. From policy commitments to the $120 trillion wave in the public markets including a number of sustainability-related SPACs, and beyond, it’s clear we’ve entered the climate decade. In general, we’re seeing a ramping up of energy transition investments continuing a multi-year trend. And if the numbers on EV adoption are any indication, consumer trends are the next big climate investment tailwind.
Not so deep adaptation
Climate denialism seems to be defeated and emissions are falling, both thanks in part to the pandemic. But it’s already hotter than it’s been in 5000 years and life on Earth is not yet adapted. Resilience/adaptation solutions are still hard to invest in but consumer behavior around this is ramping up in response to the increasing wild weather events and continued track of “warmest year” record-breaking. One approach we’re interested in investing in is climate proofing homes and businesses. We’re monitoring very closely what solutions consumers and businesses have for climate adaptation, including how to manage the stress.
Startup resources
2021 has brought a lot of great new content for startups including how to pitch journalists, how to pivot, how to get momentum raising equity, how to run an a/b test, and even how to manage stress (also useful for climate adaptation). But there’s still very little on how startups should think about or manage debt. Perl Street is producing the first report on startup debt. Please consider taking a few minutes for their survey in return for early access to the results.
#asks_opportunities
- Kibbo just started fundraising on Republic
- Starcity’s is also on Republic sharing the opportunity to back it’s SF Minna property development
- Lloyd’s Lab seeks innovators including climate change/decarbonization for their 6th cohort
- Bloomberg Philanthropies has released a call for applications for their Global Mayors Challenge
- Coord is recruiting cities for it’s Digital Curb Challenge
- Cisco is offering up to $1 Million in prizes for startups creating good in the world with applications open till 1/ 29/2021
- Learn more about Venture For ClimateTech by Secondmuse/NYSERDA
- Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative’s application window has been extended
- Newlab launched its open call season, inviting innovators to apply transformative technologies on a range of challenges and opportunities across industry and society, spanning 5G, mining, and macro and micro-mobility challenges.
#jobs
#wins
- This Govtech list has some great examples of startups working closely with local governments to support their communities. Lots of friends on the list and we’re proud in investors in 3AM Innovations, Citymart, Coord, HAASalert, LiveStories, RoadBotics, One Concern, Qucit, and Varuna IoT.
- Loop raises $3.25M seed round to build more inclusive car insurance and adds industry veteran, Ed Arovas, as Head of Insurance
- Kiwibot is bringing hundreds of delivery robots to LA
- Thrilling cuts emissions by making it fun and easy to shop vintage. And they serve local businesses, 95% owned by women and/or POC. They just launched their 80’s & 90’s retro line
- Urban Us is ranking high on this list acknowledging leading investors in the sustainable energy transition
What hasn’t changed in 2021? We’re still investing to optimize cities for climate change but we’d love your comments in this working doc on how our thesis is evolving and this working doc on SPACs. Or just hit reply, we’d love to hear from you.
Best,
Mark, Liz, Shilpi, Zeev, Shaun, Anthony, and Stonly
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