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April 01, 2022
I heard back that my last message on impossible + necessary was helpful for others. Check it out if you didn't already. One example I heard from a founder who said that the concept kept them motivated during the final push of their $1M+ funding round they just closed this week. Wow!
Today's note is on superpowers in carbon removal (video here)
- What do I mean by superpower?
- A superpower is the thing you're freaking great at. For you it might be chemistry, UI design, or teambuilding. For your team or company it might be capturing, storing, selling, or measuring carbon removal.
- Why do superpowers matter in carbon removal?
- There are likely other industries or projects where the superpower approach is a terrible strategy. But for carbon removal it's key.
- Here's why. If there was one amazing company to go out and capture, store, and sell 10 GT/year of carbon removal, we wouldn't need superpowers. We would just need one super stretchy organization that can do it all. But that's not how it's going to work out, 10 GT/year is way bigger than any one organization can handle. Therefore we need to avoid falling over eachother trying to do it all. That's where your superpowers come in.
- What's so hard about this?
- It can be terrifying to own your superpower. "I'm so good at this one thing but not so much at these other things". It feels like you have to do it all, be amazing at multiple things or even everything. Whether you're applying for a job or raising a million dollars, I understand the pressure. Like I mentioned in impossible + necessary, sometimes it's enough to just know it in your own head, even if you you share something different more publicly. But the more you can, own your superpower everywhere.
- It can be fun too. I was talking with an investor today who made a complicated analogy about outer space, planets, and satellites...I joked "my superpower is in carbon removal and I don't know shit about outer space stuff". Hah!
- AirMiners as an organization is working on rocking its superpower right now. Do we have the courage to focus on our superpower? Will have more updates on that.
Supowers matter for you, your organization, and your industry to get to gigaton scale carbon removal. What's yours?
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