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WK602: The slowdown that isn’t“There’s definitely no going back…” – GT-XL launch video Please join us for our NY Climate Week events. We may or may not have an actual electric jet engine and we’ll be introducing Speedstrapping. Thank you to our sponsors Aumni / JPMC, SVB, NEXT / Shulman Rogers, and Withum.
Despite political pushback, renewable energy is still advancing. This time powered by oil & gas know-how repurposed for geothermal drilling and, even less glamorously, by good old-fashioned land grabs. Contrast that with EVs, where most assume a slowdown in adoption (at least in the US). We think that assumption is right on volume growth, but wrong on value. Every new datapoint keeps proving EVs aren’t just better for the climate; they’re better for people and budgets long term.
The irony is that key unlock has nothing to do with AI and everything to do with humans. Team members need a deep understanding of all stakeholders, especially customers. Closing any gaps there is now a part of everyone’s job. But also, you need to adopt mental frameworks for building & working around probabilistic outcomes. And as AI takes on more tasks, the human role looks less like specialist labor and more like middle management of machines. Many hope that functional robots are delayed long enough for skilled trades to have their moment. But Robot.com hit 1 million tasks this year, and foreshadows what’s coming. The good news for the planet is that more robots ideally mean less human error and therefore less waste.
Chicago Venture Summit is hosting Future of Food, an opportunity for folks working around food (ag, food waste, etc), to get more visibility. Exelon has a good program to understand and connect with utilities. There is a small grant too. DARPA is looking for resilience solutions. There’s still time this month to put your breakthrough directly in front of DARPA reviewers. Focal is hiring their very first Product Manager and we have 205 more open opportunities across the portfolio.
Mill & Kansas City just greenlit 50 new composting sites. Nevoya raised $9.3M to expand its EV truck fleet. Firedome raised $7.5M to deliver wildfire resiliency-as-a-service to communities at risk. Ohm partnered with ChargePoint on their new Safeguard Care program to proactively maintain EV chargers. Onewheel unveiled the Rally XL, a high-performance, off-road model that takes their ride-anywhere ethos to the next level. Thalo Labs is featured in the Commercial Observer among firms using AI for predictive maintenance. And Cove is in a separate feature on AI for architecture. Sonic Fire just shared their Proton Pack backpack fire suppression tool and is counting down to their first commercial install: 30 days out from deploying their Structure Defense system against wildfire risk. As hurricane season intensifies, Near Space is capturing critical imagery for insurers and communities. They’re also highlighting AI’s impact on claims. Applied Carbon unveiled their latest robots in production as it scales its biochar fleet. Adiona took the top prize at the Pegasus Tech Ventures Startup World Cup.
Shaun recently shared some AI lessons learned from team Outrun Carbon’s 24 Hours of Lemon car race prep (in partnership with many Third Sphere portfolio companies!). Best, If you think of any founders we should meet, please hit reply and let us know. We invest in pre-seed companies that have a deep understanding of their customer and are building for speed and scale. We exist to help enhance the likelihood of success for startups that help align human systems with planetary systems. Did someone forward this email to you? Here’s how you make sure not to miss the next one. You can find our previous updates here. |
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