Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) Podcast: Transcripts
#85:
$375M in Growth Equity for the New Energy Industry — Mark Lewis, Managing Director of Lime Rock New Energy
Chris Wedding:
Mark Lewis, Co-founder and Managing Director of Lime Rock New Energy, and I'm happy to say member of our Climate Mastermind peer group at Entrepreneurs for Impact, glad to have you on the podcast and share our normal conversations with a bigger audience.
Mark Lewis:
Great. Glad to be here, Chris, and looking forward to it.
Chris Wedding:
I think one portion or one perspective that the audience will enjoy knowing before they hear your comments is that, you’ve not always been, quote unquote, just a growth capital or just a venture investor in the climate or impact space, but also an operator. An operator at a well-funded startup or two or more, as well as a Fortune, I'm not sure, 100 probably, company. So, lots of perspectives as an operator before coming into the role again, as an allocator of capital, lots of capital this time. For those listening, stay tuned.
That's my hook, if you will, to keep folks listening. Let's start, Mark, with what's the elevator pitch on Lime Rock New Energy?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, great. Well, Lime Rock New Energy is a growth equity provider. We're a private equity fund based in Westport, Connecticut and what we're looking to do is provide great businesses, great entrepreneurs with growth capital to help accelerate the growth of their businesses. And for us, in the stage where we invest means we're looking for businesses that have a commercial product or service that are in the marketplace. Their customers are paying an economic price for that product or service, but the entrepreneur needs capital to take it from an earlier stage, maybe doing $10 or $15 or $20 million of revenue and really expanding on that potential for that business to grow into a very significant enterprise over time because they're helping their customers achieve their end goals.
Use energy more efficiently, put more renewable energy onto the grid or drive energy efficiency through the electrification and transportation. That talks to the three big verticals we invest around, which are products and services for renewable energy. Grid modernization is a big part of that and we'll talk more about our portfolio companies that are helping to address grid modernization. We invest around energy efficiency for industry in the built environment and we invest in the electrification and transportation and mobility more broadly.
I mean, we really look to work with those great companies, those great entrepreneurs that are addressing all of those big challenges. And our fundamental approach is, we look at every potential investment with a couple of key questions, which are, does this company help abate greenhouse gas emissions and CO2 principally, and can we measure it? Because if we can't measure it, if we can't quantify it, it makes it a harder proposition for us because we want our portfolio companies to be able to abate carbon, but also be able to share that with the various stakeholders with whom we work, including our own limited partners with the portfolio companies themselves and see what the real impact is of the dollars that we're putting to work with those entrepreneurs.
05:00
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, right on. We're going to get into this, obviously, in a few questions around what makes you all unique, but just so the listeners understand, I think it's fair to say you all are a minority in terms of the kind of capital and the amount of capital you place in this space. Lots of focus on venture capital given the stage of climate tech, but to be putting, if I recall correctly, 30 to $90 million in a company, and you just referenced, a company already having 10 to $15 million of revenue. This is a spot with plenty of room for you-all's next funds or other funds as climate tech matures. Does that sound right?
Mark Lewis:
No, that's absolutely right, Chris. You're spot on. Our target investment size is 30 to $90 million. We can do less, but it has to be a very specific situation where we generally can see a pathway to putting more capital to work. And we can do more as we have a number of limited partners who are keen to co-invest with us as well. So, we really try to find that sweet spot in that 30 to $90 million check.
Certainly, what we've seen, and I've been investing in cleantech now going back to cleantech 1.0 is a real evolution. A real explosion in the last, I would say three to four years where there's an increasing number of venture capital players in the marketplace, which we're not trying to compete against and we think that's fantastic. That's what the cleantech ecosystem needs. It needs earlier stage capital, it needs seed funders, it needs venture capital to help grow those businesses to get to the point where Lime Rock New Energy can actually take over and start to fund them to that next stage of growth.
Equally, we've seen a number of the larger, you call it bulge bracket private equity firms raise growth equity funds, but in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, multi-billions of dollars. That's, again, a different part of the market where for those funds, they need to write a 200 or $300 million check for it to be meaningful for their fund. We just don't see a lot of people that are looking to write that, call it 50 or $60 million check, which is really our sweet spot for those growth companies that aren't big enough to go to a TPG rise or one of the bigger funds. But would require them to go to a syndicate of six or eight venture capital firms to be able to raise the amount of capital we need.
So, we feel that was a very clear part of our strategy when we set up Lime Rock New Energy was, we wanted to be in that spot because we saw a real positive capital. Nothing is without competition, but we feel like we're in a really good spot in terms of the size of the checks that we're writing and the types of companies that we're investing in.
Most importantly, from my perspective, the fact that we're seeing this incredible growth of capital allocated to clean energy, all the way from seed through these large multi-billion-dollar funds is great. It's fantastic because that's what it needs. The one thing that clean energy does not have an overabundance of, even though some days it might feel like it is capital. We have a multi-trillion-dollar problem to solve over the next 20 to 30 years and we're just starting, just starting to scratch the surface really.
08:22
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I was listening to a podcast this morning, Catalyst with Shayle, and it was the episode talking about, what does the downturn in capital markets mean for climate tech? I think the reference was, depending on the source, we need $49 trillion per year to be invested in low carbon solutions and we're not close.
Mark Lewis:
We’re well underway.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, lots of space there. Let's back up a little bit. So, you have been a CEO with outside capital funding. You have advised others as a capital allocator and beyond. I think we have lots of entrepreneurs listening to this. What is a common mistake that you see among entrepreneurs realizing that we all make them that can uncover a blind spot perhaps for all of us?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, a couple of thoughts on that. Part of it is just hard lessons learned over time. The first I would say is, this is very fresh in my mind because I've been talking to a particular company and this is falls into this category is, trying to raise as little capital as they can with the expectation that the next round will be an up round and there'll be perpetual up rounds. Unfortunately, the world doesn't always work that there are perpetual up rounds. Sometimes they go the other way.
My advice is always because I've seen it and have been on the other end of it as well when you got to make sure you've got enough capital to continue to grow your business is, don't take excessive dilution. But if you have the ability to take a bit more capital, even if it does result in a little bit more dilution than you like, give yourself the headroom. Give yourself the runway, manage your capital prudently, but give yourself the runway.
Obviously, the flip side of that, some of the fundings that we've seen, until recently of really early-stage businesses raising hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars where it tends to not be used efficiently. So, it's a tough spot to find yourself in, what's the right amount of capital to get me to the next stage, to make sure I continue to grow without over diluting the business?
But generally, I tend to encourage entrepreneurs to err on the side of raising a little bit more capital than they would otherwise, just because first of all, plans never go exactly to plan. I've yet to see that in my entire career. There's always a detour along the way, so you got to give yourself some room.
The other thing which I've learned as an operator as well and another lesson that for me was hard learned because it's just not in my nature, but it's important, which is, I had a colleague when I was at GE tell me this. It's a little bit of an old chestnut, but you'll make a lot of bad hires over your career, you'll never make a bad fire. It really just goes to the point that, if you've got somebody on your team who's just not working and you recognize that, you're probably already too late and you need to make a change. Not only for your business and to ensure that it survives over the long haul, but also for that person. Because if it's not a good fit, it's not really fair to them to keep them in a role for which they're not well suited.
That has always stuck with me, which is you got to help your team, help your employees grow, coach them, point them in the right direction, but sometimes it's just not going to work. It's just not a good fit and making that decision sooner than later inevitably results in a better outcome for everyone.
12:09
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, on the second point, I like how you painted it from the perspective, not just of the company and the entrepreneur, but also from the perspective of that team member. Because often if it isn't the right fit, it doesn't necessarily imply that team member is inherently flawed in every situation, but they could excel in another culture, role, skill set, et cetera.
On the first point around raising maybe a little more capital, even though it means more dilution, I can imagine scenarios like right this very second, where companies need to raise some capital. We’re recording this just so folks know on June 28th that they're likely seeing lower valuations, pre-money valuations than they were whatever, a week, a day ago, or certainly, six months ago. So, that's some sticker shock in the wrong direction.
I think to your point, if this is going to be, I'm not forecasting, but channeling my inner Bill Gates, which was, we're in for, I forget what you said, a couple or a few years of something along the lines of dark times. Boy, if you have to raise more capital now for more dilution, but you're still alive after two or three years of darkness, that's better than zero and a failure on your belt. Right?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, 100%. That is exactly the crux of how I think about that problem, which is, I would rather have a business that gets out the other side of an economic downturn, but with a little bit less of it, than own a lot of a zero. And part of this is also informed having been an investor in cleantech 1.0 and saw many companies fall into that trap and many that are now pets.com, just memories.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Okay, let's do the other side of the table, if you will. So, you're observing how mistakes that you've seen more than once by CEOs, maybe as yourself also as a prior CEO, how about as an investor? I know investors are perfect, but let's just imagine that investors are fallible.
Mark Lewis:
That's true, Chris.
Chris Wedding:
Can you tell us a story of an investment mistake that you made and how that influences your strategy now at Lime Rock?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, I was thinking about this. This is again, related to people and in so much of what I've learned over the course of my career, some good advice from others, experienced mentors and leaders that I've worked with, and some just hard lessons that I had to learn on my own, it all comes down to people.
One of the early investments I made in my career when I was with a firm called MissionPoint Capital Partners, we really, really liked the business. We were fully behind the thesis and so forth, but did not have a great leader. I would characterize it as a fairly mediocre CEO and I knew that. I knew that going in, but I had also just come from General Electric, GE Power, where I led global business development. One of the great things about being part of an organization like that is if there's a leader who's not working out, there's six other people in the organization you can immediately grab and backfill with.
15:45
So, I still had, frankly, my GE hat on at the time. Well, I know this guy's not great, but we'll work through it and we'll give him some time and we'll figure it out. The reality is, is we had to let him go three months into the investment because it was just so clear that he was not going to get us to where we needed to be.
Costs were out of control. He didn't want to accept reality that things were going to have to change. That sales weren't ramping as quickly as he had told us they were going to. Manufacturing wasn't -- You just go down the list of challenges we had and one of the lessons that I took away from that and continue to apply today is brushing aside shortcomings in management teams is a bad idea.
Because fundamentally, yes, we're allocating capital to businesses, but we're allocating capital to people. We're allocating capital to leaders who we rely on to use that capital efficiently and smartly and ultimately create value for everybody. Not just for us, but for themselves and for their customers and their employees and everyone else.
So, I'm very cognizant of that. I think about that in every single situation that we look to invest in. When I look at it on the converse, when we have made investments, it's been with teams and with leaders with whom we just have phenomenally good relationships, and it's because we go into it as partners. We're not investors, we're not an ATM, but we're partners in the business with them and that has served me very, very well.
Chris Wedding:
So, that is a quote I have not heard before from an investor. “We are not an ATM.”
Mark Lewis:
Well, I did have an investment where the founder very much thought of us that way and it eventually resulted in having to make a change. It was painful because we didn't want to, but it was painful because there was just a view that there would always be more capital and sometimes there's not always more capital.
Chris Wedding:
So, part of what I hear there is, there's like two scenarios. One scenario is, you're an investor investing in a leader or a leadership team to grow a company that's already got product market fit, already has revenue and that's where you got to have total confidence in that leadership, that team to continue to execute and grow. As contrasted with sometimes we have employees, team members, or make new hires, recognizing that there is room to grow and improve in order to fill the shoes, to fill those boots.
I just think it's interesting to compare contrast those two where in the former, yes, you expect the leader to evolve some, but they have to either have shown that already in flying colors in order to make that investment. You can't just hope they're going to evolve into the leader operator you want them to become, right?
Mark Lewis:
No, that's right and certainly I have personally gotten much better at that over my career. You just pick it up in conversations and so much of, I think what is critical to my job as an investor is really understanding the psychology. You look at different businesses over time and is it a founder led business, because that has its pros and cons because founders are founders and they're great. They are building tremendous businesses and they have the vision to do this and they want to do it, but a lot of times, and using that ATM quote that I mentioned, a founder who didn't have the runway to be able to grow into a bigger leader. And as that organization grew beyond 50 or 60 people, when he stopped recognizing the name of every employee, it wasn't a good fit for him.
19:59
Conversely, is the leader, not the founder, but a higher leader for the business? Do they have the tool set and the mentality to work well with investors as partners and not just as a source of capital who I have to put up with at each point and report out on?
Chris Wedding:
Well, I was going to ask you how you might define a good relationship between investor and founder or CEO, but I think you just added some healthy bullets there.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah. Look, for us, it's very easy just to jump to one of our portfolio companies. Just to give you an example, I invested in a company called Electric Power Engineers at the end of last year, which is a consulting engineering business based in Austin, Texas. The leader there, Hala Ballouz is the ideal kind of partner.
When we sat down and worked something out together, it's because Hala and I came to a meeting of the minds that we are going to be partners in this business. She wasn't the founder, but she was the de facto founder of what is the business today. It was very, very important for her and I think it was just incredibly insightful of her to understand that what mattered was, if she was going to bring a financial party into the cap table in her business, then it had to be somebody that she could work with, that she trusted, she had built a rapport with.
I think she and I were able to build a great rapport because our whole approach to working with our portfolio companies is as a partner, literally helping them with customer introductions, helping them on the policy side, helping them with supply chain, any way we can, we're not there to micromanage the business. If we're micromanaging a business, then we've got the wrong leader in the business. We're there to be essentially an extension of what they're doing.
So, how do we leverage the tremendous relationships that we have across Lime Rock New Energy and the great experience that this whole team has? Our amazing advisory board who are very active and help them grow their business even more quickly and become even more successful than they would otherwise? I think the relationship we have with EP and with Hala is a great example of that.
Chris Wedding:
Perfect. Well, I'm glad you started talking about one of your portfolio companies. Let's continue that to give listeners an idea of the kinds of companies you have invested in and why. Can you pick maybe another one or two companies in your portfolio?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, so in addition to EP, I mentioned earlier, grid modernization is a big area of focus for us. It really comes down to, as we look at in our renewable products and services vertical, there's a lot of talk about how much renewable energy is getting built and a lot of hand wringing over the solar tariffs quite rightly, which now thankfully the Biden administration has backed off a bit on to give the industry some room. But the reality is that we still have, according to the latest study that I saw from Lawrence Berkeley, something like 1.4 terawatts of generation capacity, including storage sitting in the interconnection queues in this country. It's more than the entire generating capacity of the US today. That's a massive problem.
23:25
You can build all the wind and solar and batteries you want, but if you can't get those electrons to market through the grid, it doesn't matter. That's really the core of our fundamental approach around grid monetization. EPE was very much to address that problem because Hala's built a business that’s focused entirely around grid monetization, around renewable interconnection, both wind and solar, moving increasingly into newer areas like hydrogen, energy storage and grid cybersecurity. So, that's more on the services side.
On the hardware side, our first investment in the fund, which is the $375 million fund was a company called Smart Wires. What Smart Wires has developed is a very innovative power electronics-based approach to power flow control. For the listeners who aren't familiar with power flow control, it just basically means routing power to where it needs to be on the grid. The way we've traditionally done that is with devices such as phase shifting transformers or series capacitors.
There's a number of devices that historically the utility industry has used to route power. They all have that various number of shortcomings, very expensive, very large capital items which are physically large, have two-to-three-year supply chain bottlenecks. Once you put them down, they sit in place, they tend to only move power in one direction. They move power by changing something called the reactance in the line.
Smart Wire has developed an approach using power electronics which allows the utility to essentially push or pull power around the system. And why that matters is because grids today globally, only about 40% of the total nameplate capacity of a grid is used at any one time. But you may have, because of the physics of power, it's always going to take the shortest path to where it's going.
You can have sections of line that are overloaded where you might have another part of your system which could terminate in a similar spot that's at 20 or 30% capacity. So, you want to be able to take some of that loading off that overloaded line, push it onto an underloaded part of the system.
Benefits to that are multiple. You can avoid building new transmission and we know how hard that is to do in pretty much anywhere in the world, but particularly in this country. You can get more renewables onto the system because you're freeing up capacity for those interconnections. And you can reduce curtailment of renewables once they are on the grid because you're able to move that renewable energy. Because there's nothing worse than building great renewable projects and then having to curtail those projects and never get those green electrons to market.
So, that's the key problem that Smart Wire addresses and really, I’ve seen great commercial traction with that business. We did a major deployment with National Grid in the UK last year to help them bring more renewable energy from Scotland and the North Sea down to the load centers in the South of England. This recently worked on a project for Transgrid in Australia called the Victoria New South Wales Interconnect to help bring more renewable energy into the Sydney area. They're deploying projects in South America, particularly in Colombia, which is also helping to improve power flows on the Colombian grid, but also helping to address energy poverty in that nation as well. So, there's a real social justice benefit to getting this technology into the marketplace as well. So, a company we're very, very excited about.
27:06
Chris Wedding:
I had no idea that the solutions from that company were so global in scope. Is that because it's just easier to get some of this stuff on the grid than it is in the US, or no?
Mark Lewis:
Yes. In short, the answer is yes. We have a regulatory system in this country and I think FERC is doing some great things to start to address this, including some of their recent no person notice of proposed rulemaking around making it easier for utilities to implement. The technology like Smart Wires, Smart Wires is not the only one. There are other technologies called grid enhancing technologies or non-wires alternatives is another term for it.
So, FERC certainly recognizes that, but we have a regulatory system in the US which incentivizes utilities to maximize the amount of capital we spend. The more capital you can spend and put into your rate base, you get paid on it. That's the business model that has evolved in this country. Other countries like the UK, like Australia, have a different approach to regulation. They still have a regulated rate base, but they also have in the UK something called RIIO-2, and it operates on a principle called least worst regrets.
The idea is basically, we have a problem to solve, here are the two or three solutions. This is the least cost solution. The next lowest cost solution we could go with, I'm greatly simplifying this, but the regulator basically allows you to implement the lowest cost solution, even though that's going to minimize the amount of capital that goes into the rate base, and will pay the utility half of the savings versus the next lowest cost solution. So, the utility actually benefits from implementing the lower cost alternative, and the other half of the savings go to the rate payer because they're not paying for that additional capital.
The idea is that you're able to incentivize utilities to invest in cost saving technologies and go with lower cost solutions to solving problems rather than just building more lines, for example, but also benefit the rate payer. It's a very smart system and like I said, Australia and the UK both use that general approach to new technologies on the grid.
Chris Wedding:
So maybe, as a lesson, I think some listeners might hear, if they have some grid power-based solution, it might be easier to get to market overseas. Although, saying that out loud, it's also really hard because where are your relationships and trust and all the rest? Also, did you just say that the UK program was called the least worst regrets? Is that what you said?
Mark Lewis:
Least worst regrets, yes.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. I just got to chuckle a little bit. I can almost picture like a little lemon in my mouth, a sour feeling just saying it out loud. Anyway.
Mark Lewis:
I don't know. I can't say as I know the origin of that particular term, but that's how it's described. Yeah.
30:24
Chris Wedding:
Okay. Very imaginative for a utility. Let’s switch. As listeners know, we switch from the business to the person since we are people who are running these businesses. All right, on the personal side, Mark, if you were talking to your younger self, one or two pieces of advice to be faster, more effective, happier, dare we say.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, all of those things. So, thinking about that particular point, like a lot of, if I dare describe myself as type A, people that are very driven and try to advance the ball, I think if I look back to my younger years, one thing I would definitely advise myself is to enjoy the journey more, rather than focus on what's next.
I did spend admittedly, a lot of my earlier part of my career, what's next? What's the next goal? What's the next thing I'm doing? I think that actually was distracting from enjoying a lot of the really great things that I was fortunate to be a part of. So, that's definitely something I would tell my younger self, enjoy the journey. It's not just about we're at the end point.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I feel like we need a glass of wine in hand to discuss this further, but there's a quote, I think it might be a John Lennon, I don't know. I heard it in a Ben Harper or Jack Johnson song the other day. It's something like, life is what happens while we're busy making other plans, which at one point in undergrad, I had that quote in large 8.5 by 11 sheets of paper on our wall in our living room. My roommate who I can picture him saying this, he said, “Well, or life is what happens while we're making stupid signs in the living room of our apartment.” Thank you, Mike.
The other part on type A as you hesitatingly admitted being type A, I think about some of the conversations my wife has with friends just getting to know her slash us. They're like, “Oh, your husband is just so chill.” And she's like, “No, he is a type A personality who is disguised as a meditating long haired hippie, but don't be deceived, he is super rigid.” All right, how about tell us some habits or routines, maybe daily, weekly that keep you healthy, sane and focused.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, well, the most important thing for me on that front is exercise. I was not an athletic child, but as I grew into adulthood, I actually became increasingly active. To me, it's like brushing my teeth now. If I don't exercise, it doesn't feel right. So, I'm a very avid cyclist, I try to put in at least 80 miles a week on my bike, which most weeks I manage to, not every week, but most weeks I do. I just find it a great way to relax, to unwind, to get the blood moving, to just cleanse my mind particularly because, where I live, I can get out on country roads and be out for an hour and a half ride.
No music, just de-stressing from the week, from challenges we may have been dealing with or I may have been dealing with. Just try and give you a chance to put things in perspective and just enjoy the outdoors and see some beautiful countryside. I really, really find that relaxing and something that I have to do and enjoy to do, really, really enjoy.
The other thing that I try to do poorly is meditate. You and I have talked about this before, but I do it intermittently because trying to keep my mind focused for 10 or 15 minutes can be challenging. But when I am disciplined about it, I actually do find it a good way to just, again, take some time out from everything else that's pulling at you in 50 different directions.
34:40
Chris Wedding:
Well, if only intermittent meditation worked like intermittent fasting, just tons of benefits all around.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, unfortunately, it doesn't work like that.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Well, that's why they call it a meditation practice, not perfection, for sure.
Mark Lewis:
Exactly.
Chris Wedding:
When we first started getting to know each other better and talking about business and personal goals and such, I think you talked about riding or aiming to ride 4,000 miles per year. That sounds a lot different than 80 miles per week, but I'm pretty sure the math works. So, anyway, little numbers, well, would you call 80 little? It's not quite little. Moderate numbers done consistently lead to a very large number that turns out.
Mark Lewis:
That's right.
Chris Wedding:
How about books or podcasts? Tell us, what are some that we should pick up or turn on, if you will?
Mark Lewis:
Well, on the book side, there's a couple that I'm very fond of and I mentioned the other day, one that I'm rereading, which ties in nicely to what we were just talking about, about my cycling is Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, which is in principle a time management book. But really what it is, is a way to think about putting life into perspective.
It’s sort of the inverse of what you just described around cycling, Chris, which is, we think that your lifespan is 85 years or whatever. It seems like a very long time, but when you say it's 4,000 weeks, it doesn't seem quite as long at all, especially when you think about how quickly every week seems to go by. I thought it was just a really interesting read in putting things in the perspective and recognizing that you're never going to get everything done that you ever wanted to.
But the things that you can get done and want to get done that are really truly important to you, whether that's professionally or with your family, so forth, being grateful and understanding the importance of those things rather than being able to experience everything under the sun is really important. So, I found that book really an interesting reading. I'm actually rereading it right now.
The other book more on the professional side, which I just found absolutely fascinating is a book called Energy by Richard Rhodes, a survey of how energy has helped humanity and civilization evolve over time. Going back to the use of plow animals in the earliest days through wood and then coal and the Industrial Revolution right up to nuclear power and renewables.
37:17
It's a great survey of the entire span of human civilization and thinking about how energy has been absolutely fundamental to the creatures that we are today and really, really interesting read. So, I definitely recommend that book to your listeners. On the podcast side, in addition to this great podcast--
Chris Wedding:
Clearly, yeah.
Mark Lewis:
…one that I really like is Local Energy Rules. For the listeners who haven't heard it, it's really about how renewable energy can make a difference at the local level. I was just listening to an episode recently where the CEO of Holy Cross co-op in Colorado talked about their drive towards a growing amount of renewable energy in that community in the Western slope of Colorado.
It's a really good lesson in terms of hearing people there at the forefront of community energy development and renewable energy development. Making the difference at the local level as opposed to necessarily mega developers, et cetera. So, I'd recommend that one.
Then on a more personal note, one that I listen to absolutely religiously is Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. I'm a massive Conan fan and love that podcast because it invariably makes me laugh very hard. So, a good way to start your week on Monday morning when that podcast is available and have a good laugh.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. Well, I have a lot of driving around national parks out west in July, so I think that'll be a new addition. Can I play it out loud in the car with three kids between ages 11 and 16? Is that allowed with Conan or not?
Mark Lewis:
There are occasional profanities, but not often.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. As long as he’s dropping the F-bomb, then the kids have heard it all in the household, so we're good.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, you might get that once or twice, but it's definitely the exception.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, and the podcast, Local Energy Rules, is there like an exclamation point on the end of that Local Energy Rules? It sounds like a play on words, I believe.
Mark Lewis:
There's literally not an exclamation point, but yeah, you've understood the name correctly.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. On the Four Thousand Weeks, we've discussed this, but I've read it and I've reread my notes on it as well. The reason I was exposed to it was listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast, where he had the author read the chapter on, I think, the cosmic insignificance practice or theory or something, which sounds like just what it is to remind us that we are, well, tiny specks of dust on a planet among billions of, I don't know the numbers, planets in infinite time, et cetera, which can make daily problems seem a little less dramatic. Not always. We are human, but sometimes.
40:23
Mark Lewis:
Indeed.
Chris Wedding:
Let's wrap up with final words perhaps, or maybe it's a call to action or the kinds of companies that you want to hear from, et cetera. What do you want to leave listeners with, Mark?
Mark Lewis:
From my perspective, we are super interested in talking to great entrepreneurs who are building climate forward businesses that are solving real problems in the world today. Just happy to have that conversation with any entrepreneur and equally, even businesses that might be too early for us, I'm more than happy to have that conversation because those businesses grow over time.
I’ve had the great fortune of starting my career in the clean energy world close to 20 years ago. I've seen a lot of businesses over that time and the one thing that gives me great hope and gets me out of bed every morning is working with these fantastic entrepreneurs who are building businesses that are making a difference in the world. So, if you've got a business like that, don't hesitate to reach out. Happy to have the conversation and I do this all the time. Even if our capital isn't the right fit, I know a lot of people who might be able to help.
I was just talking to an entrepreneur earlier today who's got a really interesting hydrogen technology, much too early for us, but I was able to refer him to two seed stage slash venture funds who I think will be interested in. Part of this is all just helping to drive the broader ecosystem. As I said earlier, it's all about bringing more capital to solve climate problems, so to the extent that me or any of my partners here at Lime Rock New Energy can help with that, we're more than happy to do it.
Chris Wedding:
Well, it's a generous offer. Would you suggest folks come knock on your door on
LinkedIn or what's the best way for them to find you?
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, LinkedIn is always a good way to track me down.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. Well, that sounds great. What I'll say too is clearly, clearly riding 4,000 miles on a bike per year works because if they read your bio, they're going to imagine that you got a head full of gray hair. We're on Zoom. I don't see too many.
Mark Lewis:
Oh, they're in there, Chris, don't worry.
Chris Wedding:
Pick up those tights and hop on that bike. Anyway. Hey, Mark, we're excited for all the capital you're deploying in this fund and maybe future funds to the space. Clearly, an important niche to fill between lots of venture and public markets and/or more mega multi-billion-dollar fund, so nice to have a niche.
Mark Lewis:
Yeah, we're excited about it and thanks again, Chris. Great to talk to you.
Chris Wedding:
You got it. Cheers.
43:08
Mark Lewis:
Cheers.
Chris Wedding:
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