If you've been following carbon removal news, you know that Puro, the carbon removal marketplace, just got bought by NASDAQ, the stockmarket place with 3,000 publicly listed companies.
What does this mean for the carbon removal industry?
A. Major credibility to the carbon removal story
"The world needed solutions to pull carbon from the air. There were a bunch of innovators working on solving this. Then some rich person came in and wrote a big check to get them starter. This grew into real solutions and greater scale. And ultimately into infrastructure and marketplaces where trillions of tons of carbon were removed from the atmosphere". That story....starting to look like NASDAQ is going to have a big role to play in that marketplace part of the story.
B. A view of the future NASDAQ CARBON
In the same way that NASDAQ has 3,000 public companies listed, what if "NASDAQ CARBON" of the future had 3,000 carbon removal suppliers? We're nowhere near that right now. You've heard Stripe and Shopify openly call out lack of supply, not enough carbon removal happening. I imagine pretty soon we'll start to hear a similar story from NASDAQ as they look to matchmake between buyers and suppliers.
How do we get from here to there? From a few dozen suppliers to 3,000?
1. More great new ideas becoming startup companies. As part of AirMiners Launchpad we're helping new companies get started.
2. An path for people to come work in carbon removal, not just startup founders. I estimate 90% of jobs in carbon removal are for startups that did not exist 5 years ago. That's unlike other industries, for example software, where engineers build everything from government infrastructure to banking systems. Supporting and growing carbon removal startups is essential to getting to scale.
Looking for a job in carbon removal? AirMiners is hosting a "carbon removal careers" event on Wednesday, June 16th in partnership with Work on Climate. Come start your career in carbon removal by meeting with companies that are hiring.
3. A onramp for newcomers to get grounded in the basics of carbon removal, and for people already working in the industry to get a broader view. For that, check out the AirMiners Boot Up. It's a 4-week course on the basics of carbon removal to learn about the companies, solutions, and bit meta solutions. I see job-seekers, new hires, and people switching from one carbon removal topic to another joining Boot Up.
TLDR; More startups + more jobs + more education.
Over the next couple weeks I'll be talking and writing more about what I'm seeing from the startup level in carbon removal. Stay tuned, and pass this along to anyone you know who is starting a company or interested in starting a company in carbon removal.
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