Before every call with a carbon removal startup, I read everything about the company, check out the website, I get what they’re doing and I know 3 other companies doing something similar.
So to start I basically that, and then ask “What’s your big goal for the next month, what’s your biggest challenge getting there, and how can I help?”. I’m looking for a snapshot of where the company is at.
But 9 times out of 10, they launch into a big story about the entire company and story, all that stuff I already know, and nothing about their next month, and our conversation seems to go nowhere.
Overall, founders need to be able to stop pitching and break their work down into what's next, business goals, and describe what is making you stuck right now. Tha's what will enable co-founders, advisors, customers, and even investors to help you pull more carbon from the sky.
Simple...not easy. I struggle with having this clarity myself. I’ve had many meetings where I do exactly this, end up going on about the long term vision or my life story and avoiding talking about the next month because I really haven't thought it through enough... the conversation goes nowhere, the project goes nowhere, and maybe even the business goes nowhere because of it. I can get better at this, and so can you.
The reason I'm talking about this is my goal is to get to gigaton scale carbon removal through 1,000 shots on goal. I want to help raise the quality of every carbon removal company so we can get there faster.
In the next month we're graduating our first batch of Launchpad companies, and our goal is to bring in 10+ great startups in the next batch, so if you're working on a new carbon removal startup or know someone who is, check out AirMiners Launchpad.
I write a weekly newsletter highlighting the AirMiners community and carbon removal industry.
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