Silicon Valley is recognized globally as *the* tech hub and is so iconic that the region itself essentially co-starred in an eponymously named, self-mocking comedy.
Now a venture capitalist wants the Seattle area to plant its flag as the “Silicon Valley” of climate technology.
Speaking at an event at the University of Washington on Thursday, Seattle venture capitalist Jonathan Azoff introduced “Carbon Sound” — a riff on the region’s climate-driven focus to decarbonize the economy and its physical location on the shores of Puget Sound.
The moniker might need a little workshopping. And perhaps Seattle doesn’t need to carry forward the Bay Area tech bro culture and self-aggrandizing founders.
But Azoff is bullish about the region being known as the premier place for climate tech innovation.
“I believe quite strongly, having moved here from Silicon Valley where I spent 20 years there building venture-backed businesses — that we have better, if not at least comparable mechanics, to do what they did there,” Azoff said.
Azoff was speaking at an event for climate entrepreneurs hosted by the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds.
Azoff, co-founder of the recently launched climate venture fund SNØCAP, reviewed the components that decades ago started shaping the Northern California valley into the tech powerhouse that it is today: academic excellence, led by Stanford University; effective policy, which included defense spending that buoyed its economy and federal support for small businesses; and risk capital for investing that came from local entrepreneurs that made it big in semiconductors.
The Seattle area, he said, can match that.
- Academic excellence: The city is home to the UW, an institution that landed $1.5 billion in federal research funds last year. The broader region includes Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington State University and other institutions.
- Effective policy: The Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and other federal policy passed during the Biden administration have accelerated climate tech innovation and deployment. Washington state leaders have approved nation-leading climate measures including the Climate Commitment Act, Clean Energy Transformation Act and more.
- Risk capital: The region is home to Amazon and Microsoft — companies worth well over a trillion dollars each. The Seattle-area has billionaires and loads of households that qualify as the ultra-rich.
And Washington’s climate tech ecosystem is blossoming.
- The region is bonkers for batteries, led by Group14, which is valued at more than $3 billion, and others setting up manufacturing sites.
- Helion Energy and Zap Energy, based north of Seattle in Everett, Wash., are reaching for fusion’s star power.
- The area is a federally appointed hydrogen energy hub.
- The original home of Boeing is now the land of numerous green aviation ventures including ZeroAvia and efforts to produce sustainable aviation fuel.
So why hasn’t the region snatched the climate crown?
Azoff points to a few challenges. The region hasn’t seen a lot of major exits for companies in climate tech as well as general tech, and for better or worse, many see that as a key indicator of success.
And investors seem to struggle to make big bets, Azoff said. There are committed angel investors, but they move slowly and many seem to almost take pleasure in scuttling visionary ideas, he said.
Azoff described early stage investing as a “reality distortion field.”
“You are convincing the next group of investors that something that seems implausible is indeed plausible,” he said. “And if there’s too many detractors, you can’t create that distortion, and the only way ideas go from something plausible to something actual is if you get enough people believing it over time.”
Many ideas from Silicon Valley that originally seemed like a stretch, Azoff said, have gone on to great success.
But there are countless companies across the Pacific Northwest that don’t get a chance to be tested and have an opportunity to land more funding and see their idea through.
Those challenges can be overcome, he said, and pointed to what he sees as the Seattle area’s greatest strength: community building.
Local organizations helping bring people together in the sector include the Clean Energy Testbeds, investor groups such as E8, VertueLab and CleanTech Alliance, and PNW Climate Week events. Azoff also highlighted a new effort, a Seattle climate co-working space that is opening soon.
“Communities are how ideas start,” Azoff said. “It’s how people decide to transition from one career to another. And so I find it incredibly important to focus on that.”
RELATED: Coming soon to Seattle: a co-working space for tackling climate change
https://ift.tt/3vp7JqO August 23, 2024 at 12:47AM GeekWire
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