Before my presentation in Pittsburgh at the Department of Energy meeting, I was feeling hesitant.

I was worried someone would laugh at me for our goal of 1 billion tons removed cumulatively by 2030. Isn't it pretty much impossible?

I told a friend of mine about my thoughts. He said a billion tons sounded doable. And that it was important for me to set the target and go for it.

Then I got up on stage and shared our goal of removing 1 billion tons cumulatively by 2030.

An hour later something big clicked into place. I went into the next workshop where the government team outlined their $100 per ton goal by 2032. Potentially hundreds of billions of dollars of research spending and tax incentives towards carbon removal. WOW! That would be a huge piece of how we get to 1 billion tons removed by 2030. I'm in.*

If I hadn't shared the AirMiners goal, I don't think I would have seen the connection the same way.

You know, sometimes I want to pull back on big things. I worry about people thinking I'm bonkers. But these thoughts don't have to be the final word. Instead, I can get out and take action.

Here's a look at our progress towards 1 billion tons removed by 2030:

• 95 startups graduates

• $93M of venture capital and grants raised by our teams

• Thousands of tons of carbon dioxide removed and on track to remove millions of tons by 2030.

• 2,200 AirMiners members worldwide, hundreds of attendees at every online convening, biggest Boot Up cohort ever, biggest Launchpad batch ever

• 116 applications to the Kiloton Fund, the pilot for the Megaton Fund

No, 1 billion tons removed cumulatively by 2030 is not reasonable.

And we're doing it anyway.

It’s go time.

Building a startup? Applications for batch #10 of our accelerator close October 13th, apply here.

Tito

*I'm in Washington DC this week and bought a collared shirt and slacks to wear.