Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) Podcast: Transcripts
#102:
10 Years of For-Profit & For-Good VC Investing — Sophie Bakalar & Tomás Álvarez Belón from Collaborative Fund
Chris Wedding:
Sophie Bakalar and Tomás Álvarez Belón of Collaborative Fund, welcome to the podcast.
Sophie Bakalar:
Thanks for having us, Chris. Great to be here.
Chris Wedding:
I think most listeners know about Collaborative Fund and you-all's 10 plus year history at the nexus of for-profit and for-good, a big focus of that being climate, but some others may be interested to hear the latest stats. I'll drop two of those before we get into things. One is $200 million in the latest fund to invest in Series A and B companies and another, this shared future initiative where you all are investing in a hundred startups, really that come through well-known accelerators like Y Combinator and Activate investing 100 grand in 100 companies within 10 days of application, which is quite the sound bite, quite the headline, which I really love. Breaking the mold for how seed stage investing is done. Maybe let's just start right there if we can around why Shared Future as an add-on to what you-all have been doing for 10 plus years.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Yeah, Shared Future really is motivated by the urgency of the climate crisis and a funding gap that we saw between ideas that academics and scientists and entrepreneurs have in getting that first tranche of capital. The truth is that, even though there's a lot of funding in the climate space, we think that we have to move faster. We need more shots on goal. We need entrepreneurs to take risks and so Shared Future really is meant to provide 100K for entrepreneurs to hire that first engineer, hire the first business person that's going to take them to the next level to buy a piece of equipment that's going to let them get the proof point they need to raise a seed round or a Series A.
05:00
So, we decided to provide 100 companies with money to really unlock and catalyze their climate impact as soon as possible. It's been an awesome journey, Chris, and we're so excited. We've funded over 50 companies already after launching this past March. We're on track to fund 100 companies by the end of the year and it's just super exciting to see the progress that folks are making. Folks that have raised entire seed rounds based on this first check. Folks that have really accelerated their timeline by a year because they hired the right engineer. And so, we're really, really excited about that initiative and also about how that feeds into the Collab's climate efforts.
Chris Wedding:
That's a great start, Tomás, and just so listeners know, I want to clarify, that was the voice of Tomás, not of Sophie. Ha-ha-ha. Sorry Sophie.
Sophie Bakalar:
It’s hard to distinguish.
Chris Wedding:
Exactly.
Sophie Bakalar:
Yeah, I think that was really well said, both in terms of Tomás's summary of Shared Future and also your summary of Collaborative Fund, Chris. I do think it's worth mentioning, Shared Future is a really exciting new initiative and we see it as a compliment to this longstanding history we've had investing in climate. It's been a real cornerstone of our investment strategy since almost the beginning of Collaborative Fund over a decade ago, and we've really doubled down in the space.
It's become an even bigger part of our investment plan. It's become an even bigger part of our strategy and Shared Future is a part of that, but there's a really big story here around this new fund that we've launched, which we call Collab SOS, which is a $200 million fund investing in climate tech broadly, but focusing on really reimagining supply chains from the ground up.
We have multi-trillion-dollar global supply chains that need to be completely rethought away from fossil fuels. So, all the materials that we use in our everyday lives from the clothing we wear to the food we eat, the energy we consume, everything needs to be reimagined. And so, we see that as both an incredible opportunity in terms of impact and also in terms of economic returns, we see just massive potential.
This new fund that we've launched called Collab SOS is really an opportunity for us to, again, double down in climate and really invest heavily in this space. And Shared Future is a great compliment to that being much earlier and innovative in its programmatic strategy. But I think the real core of the fund is still investing in seed and up to Series A and B and beyond.
07:54
Chris Wedding:
Perfect. One way of thinking about it for listeners is that you all are not hopping on the bandwagon that is, of thankfully the latest trend in investing in climate tech, you are the bandwagon. How about that? New slogan, you heard it here first.
Sophie Bakalar:
I love that. Print it, put it on a t-shirt.
Chris Wedding:
Hear, hear.
Sophie Bakalar:
That sounds great.
Chris Wedding:
All right, so investing seed through Series B. Tomás, describing this Shared Future initiative, you talked about a funding gap you're seeking to help fill. I think for listeners, whether you're an investor looking to craft a new investment thesis, or whether you're a founder looking to find your product market fit, look for the gaps. Oh, boy, how many times have probably we on this Zoom call [inaudible – 00:08:49] listeners seen opportunity, but we're late to the party? And so, it's too crowded already.
The other thing which is really interesting about the Shared Future initiative is you're able to move super quickly, which is what we need to solve climate change. And you're able to do that you tell me, largely, partly, one of those two words, because the vetting is already done. The vetting is done largely or entirely perhaps by YC and by Activate.
It relates to something else that I've helped put out in the market recently, a new anti-GHG 501(3)(c) called Terraset, where we're saying, “Let's direct philanthropic dollars to CDR, high-permanence carbon removal, but we don't need to reinvent criteria.” If Frontier's criteria works, if Stripe's criteria works, if Breakthrough Energy's criteria works, great, done, that's enough. Can you just say more about how you all chose that approach in order to achieve that speed perhaps?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Yeah, for sure. I guess I'd start by saying that our speed is really enabled by our LPs, the folks that invested in Shared Future. It's really their vision and ambition to get capital to entrepreneurs as quickly as possible that enables us and gives us that freedom. Most investors are committed to doing really intensive deep diligence and are required to do that.
We have a little bit more freedom because our approach is to take a lot of shots on goal to enable folks to get to that next level and to move quickly. We know that a lot of these ideas may not pan out in the short-term, but we're really going for that power law, one major breakthrough that helps us solve one of the critical greenhouse gas levers that we need to pull. So, that's one piece.
The second is, our vision is to open up Shared Future to all entrepreneurs that are working on climate so that they can apply, get funding as quickly as possible. It's just really tricky to do that without setting up infrastructure to do diligence and figure out which CDR company you should invest in or which mobility company you should invest in. And so, the first step that we took in order to move really quickly was to partner with folks that have been investing for a while, that have built knowledge in climate and can help us improve these startups.
11:15
We've actually worked with three organizations to date, Activate Fellows we've been working with really, really closely and have backed their 21 and 22 cohorts, which has been really exciting. Y Combinator, we backed their summer 22 and winter 22 cohorts, as well as the latest batch of folks that have gone through AirMiners. And so, that gets us up to a really high percentage of the hundred companies we want to fund and now we're thinking about, how do we open that more to other founders?
We don't actually have the answer just yet about what that will look like. It may mean partnering with more accelerators. It may mean having a percentage of these slots that we allocate to folks that apply directly through the website. We don't have an answer yet, and we're building in the open and sharing that with the community, but we're excited that we had a huge amount of folks reach out to us, whether they were founders or innovation hubs or investors to say, “We want to participate in this community, we want to participate and grow this effort.” And so, there's a lot of building happening in the background.
Chris Wedding:
Perfect. I didn't realize that you all were also backing cohorts from AirMiners. I'm glad you mentioned that and side benefit, you reminded me that I owe Tito a phone call, so thank you.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
I'm sure Tito will be glad [crosstalk – 00:12:33].
Chris Wedding:
Extra note on the side. Perfect. Maybe, Sophie, if we can go back to you, so you've been at this for a little while and clearly, interacted with lots of founders, CEOs of startups at various stages. If there were a few pieces of advice you might pass along so that those founders have a better chance of being ready to take on you-all’s capital, what comes to mind? A little group coaching here.
Sophie Bakalar:
Yeah, very important. I feel like my first instinct there is to not focus so much on having to be 100% ready before you get the ball rolling. I think a lot of really amazing founders maybe get in their own way and need everything to be perfect before they start talking to venture funds and start looking for capital, particularly at the very early stages. Some founders just don't have a lot of confidence in their fundraising ability.
One of the things that surprised me in the last seven, eight years that I've been investing is that there have been a ton of founders who've come in really nervous or really unprepared to be pitching, who I absolutely adored in the end. Who I thought were incredibly phenomenal, brilliant founders, and were working on really hard, impressive problems.
Being a really, really great CEO or being a really great founder is not always completely correlated with being a great fundraiser. I can't even count the number of pitches that I've heard where the founder was stuttering or couldn't really get through it or was sweating and nervous. That didn't ultimately impact my decision. And so, I guess the advice would be, if you're scared, just do it anyway and maybe lean into it even. I think there's a mythology of a nerdy, nervous founder that you can capitalize on to some extent.
14:39
I also think a lot of founders spend way too much time worrying about the deck being perfect. A lot of us really do not spend a lot of time looking at the deck. It ends up being much more of a conversation. I often joke that I tend to learn more about a company from their website than I do their investment deck, and certainly much more from the first conversation I have with them than they do with the deck. So, just don't get in your own way and feel like everything has to be exactly perfect before you start taking meetings because it's a muscle you build and you just have to start doing it.
Chris Wedding:
I think I can hear a collective sigh of relief right now from listeners across the world, they're like, “Wow, I can own my geeky, sweaty, nervous self when talking to an investor for the first time 10 or 20 times.”
Sophie Bakalar:
Embrace it.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, that's right. I think ditto on the deck. Those are clearly skills, pitching and crafting a good story on a deck. Those are great skills to have and they increase your odds, but as you said, they aren't the only reasons that one makes a decision. In fact, maybe less is more. Don't try to do too much with the deck. Get in the door and have a conversation like a real human being. Pretty powerful. How about we go to some stories of companies that you have invested in?
Clearly, as I tell every investor guest on the podcast, I know that every CEO receiving you-all’s capital is your favorite, no doubt. But if you had to just randomly pick two or three portfolio companies, maybe describe what they do and a reason or two on why you said, “Yes, we have to invest in this company.”
Sophie Bakalar:
Yes, you are 100% right. It's very difficult to choose which one to talk about, so I'm going to focus on a company called Hoxton Farms, which is about to announce their most recent round of funding. It is a UK-based company. They're making cell cultured animal fats. This is a space we've been really excited about, this alternative protein space, a space we've been very active in and excited about for pretty a long time.
We've been investing in new methods of meat production for several years now. We invested early in companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat and Ripple Foods. And so, we really do feel that alternative protein is going to be a big part of the future of food over the coming decades and a big part of the climate story.
We've been very impressed by the success of those companies that I mentioned, but we do still feel like there is a massive breakthrough needed in fat in particular to really replicate the taste and texture and for lack of a better word, the sizzle of conventional meat.
Chris Wedding:
Nice. I see what you did there.
Sophie Bakalar:
Thank you. There are actually a ton of good fat related puns that we could lean on here, which is another reason why I get so excited about this company. But yeah, we really do believe Hoxton Farms is the company that's going to be able to do that, to deliver on the promise of alternative fat that can create an alternative meat product that really competes with conventional meat. And that's super exciting to us from a climate standpoint, from an impact standpoint, and also from a return standpoint.
18:10
Long-term, we do see the economic advantages of alternative meats and the ability to create a product that is an amalgamation potentially of plant-based protein and cell cultured fat and maybe precision fermented flavoring and something that really, really replicates the taste and texture of conventional meat. The long tail end of this story is going to be both great for the environment, great for climate, great for people's health and economically viable. That's what I'm very excited about. The team is amazing. Ed and Max, we're huge, huge, huge fans and really big things coming from them soon.
Chris Wedding:
Well, it sounds like one more thing to add to that serial list, which is great for the pallet perhaps, right?
Sophie Bakalar:
Yes, exactly.
Chris Wedding:
To make it extra tasty.
Sophie Bakalar:
Which is critical.
Chris Wedding:
It is critical. Can you spell for listeners, I mean, in parentheses for me as well, can you spell the name of that company?
Sophie Bakalar:
Yes, Hoxton Farms, H-O-X-T-O-N, Farms, F-A-R-M-S. For any of our UK, London-based listeners, Hoxton will be a very familiar neighborhood, it's named after the neighborhood that they're based in, Hoxton.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, nice. What is so interesting about this space is that, I think I and many listeners, when they hear about the product or solution companies are working on, they’re words that we may have heard before, but never together. I mean, you just referenced cell cultured animal fats, and everyone would have thought that would be the foundation of a company. Then precision fermented flavoring, is that right?
Sophie Bakalar:
Yeah.
Chris Wedding:
I mean, delicious in so many ways of the word, all right. Okay, I bought you time, I think, which of your other favorite children do you want to pick, Sophie?
Sophie Bakalar:
I'm going to pass it to Tomás for this one to talk about actually our most recent investment. So, I think that's another fair selection criteria.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Yeah, one of the recent investments that we're extremely excited about is a company called WeaveGrid. WeaveGrid really is solving the challenge that comes with electrifying our vehicles. The massive wave of EVs that is happening, not just here in San Francisco where I'm based, where you see more Teslas than any other car, but all across the country and the world. The challenge with electrifying our vehicles is that, essentially when you plug it in at home, you are doubling or tripling the load that you as a household are putting on the grid. That becomes really, really challenging from an infrastructure perspective. We have distribution lines that blow up. It's really expensive. You need to upgrade it. And so, while on the one hand, EVs are this enormous opportunity for OEMs, the auto manufacturers, for the utilities that provide electricity and for customers, it's also a really, really big challenge.
21:16
And so, what Apoorv, who's the CEO of WeaveGrid and his team have been able to do is create software that integrates at a really deep level with your vehicle, with your EV, and with the utility. Then distributes charging in real-time such that my car charges, let's say at midnight, and then Sophie's car charges at 1:00 a.m. and your car charges at 3:00 a.m. and we distribute the load. What that avoids is everyone turning on the charging at the same time, which would create a spike in electricity and then basically really strain the grid. And so, this is distributed, orchestrated charging.
It's an incredibly elegant solution. It's software only, which for investors is always exciting and the team has just been crushing it. They have partnerships with major auto manufacturers with some of the biggest utilities in the country and we think it's a massive opportunity. So, we're really excited to support them and they're going to be hopefully in all our phones and households pretty soon.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I hope so too. Yeah, that company has some connection back here to North Carolina. I think they went through the CLT Joules incubator back in the day, so good to hear of their progression. That's great. Let's look backwards versus forwards. Thinking about companies either that you-all have invested in over 10 years, or maybe those your peers at other firms have invested in, is there maybe a couple of lessons you might share for those founders listening who have raised capital, they're on their way, but there are some potholes they should avoid, and you-all have seen them more than once? What might some of those be?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Sophie, you want to take this one to start?
Sophie Bakalar:
Yeah, definitely. I'm just trying to decide which of the many, many mistakes to focus on. I'll give an anecdote about my very first investment, the very first company that I invested in. They burned through almost all of their cash within basically three months. It was very, very quick. I think that's representative of just letting burn get away from you way, way too fast, investing in projects that you're not certain are going to yield returns, bringing on a really senior staff.
Of course, I was devastated. I felt very embarrassed. I felt like I had failed them. I didn't give good advice. I didn't stay on top of them. I didn't provide good governance, which is a very critical part of being on this side of the table. And so, that was definitely my first mistake.
The second mistake there, at least on my part, was just writing them off too quickly because they actually came back from that. They are still alive now seven, eight years later, and are actually doing better than ever. So, the lesson from my perspective was firstly, you shouldn't do that. Don't burn through your cash that quickly. You should be very careful with the money that you're given. But the lesson on my end is, don't assume it's over before it's over because they're doing great and successful and I'm not really part of that because I was too embarrassed and too prideful to keep that relationship strong. So, a couple lessons there, but keeping burn manageable is definitely a big one.
24:43
I think, again, hiring really senior talent too early is something that I've seen happen way too frequently because that just increases your burn and it's hard to come back from it. Because people are one of the hardest things to adjust in real-time if you need to be making quick cash adjustments.
Then the other thing I've seen over and over is just not distinguishing responsibilities between or among founders early enough. I think that's a problem that really compounds over time. You want to have real clarity. Even if it feels like you are always on the think page and you're so close and you're such good friends with your co-founders, you should distinguish who does what as early as you can so that there's no friction later on because again, that's a problem that really builds over time and only gets worse.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I think the listeners appreciate that when you started answering that question, you actually fell on the sword before pointing to the mistakes the CEOs make. So, write it down, we heard it here first, an investor admitted failure, I'm just kidding. That was a good start. Yeah, I think the last point, it's really interesting. I see this as well, even among growth stage CEOs or founding teams really, they're so used to just doing whatever needs to be done, that as they grow, they don't change that quickly enough. Where clearly sometimes some members are better at other things than others and just because they have or could do something, doesn't mean they should. Cool. Great start.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Chris, at the early stage, we see that a lot with fundraising, where you jump on a call with founders for an intro meeting, you have two or three founders. I think typically what I like to tell folks is that, that intro meeting is just to make sure that the investor, the team is on the same page. You need one founder, the other two should be working on the product, on sales, making progress and later on in the process, of course, everyone will want to get to know each other. That's an important part as well, but making sure that you're efficient with fundraising and not stopping progress is one piece that I think is really important.
The second thing, and this is particularly true in climate tech, for folks that are working on hardware or hardware related businesses is understanding that you're going to have to raise a lot of capital. And if you raise it only with equity financing from venture funds, it's going to be really expensive. It's really going to dilute you and sometimes even if you have an incredible outcome, you might not benefit that much from it because as a founder, you've been diluted.
And so, looking to alternative sources of capital early is really important and by the way, only compounds the value for a startup and for an investor. So, if we look at a startup that is, let's say at the seed stage, trying to raise $5 million and they have five to $10 million in grants, that's so exciting for everyone on the table. It's going to increase their valuation, it's going to increase their runway and by the way, it says something about how that startup can navigate the grant landscape, the debt landscape, et cetera.
28:00
So, there are different capital assets that are useful at different stages of the business, but today more than ever, there's a ton of funding from the government coming into climate. There’s a ton of philanthropic capital that folks should look to. There aren't a ton of great resources about how to navigate that and so I think keeping an eye out and really doubling down there is important. Because you don't want to get to a Series B where you've already been diluted, you still need to build the first facility, you're years away from progress, and you just get stuck with investors that say, “Well, what are we investing in?” So, I think for me, those are two really important points.
Chris Wedding:
I'm going to ask one more question about collaborative fund and then we're going to switch to questions about you two as human beings, so you've been forewarned. Collaborative Fund, 10 years in the making, doubling, tripling down on climate through both Collab SOS, the $200 million fund and the Shared Future initiative, flash forward for us five years, 10 years. How do you think about Collaborative Fund’s role in building the climate tech ecosystem?
Sophie Bakalar:
I hope and think that we will be a source of capital for climate entrepreneurs at all stages. We want to keep building these funds and these sources of capital and really backing entrepreneurs who are working on the biggest, most challenging parts of the climate crisis. I think we are really committed to getting our hands dirty and getting into the parts of this crisis that are difficult to solve. Those are the types of founders that we like to back, the ones who aren't afraid of a challenge because we aren't.
We plan on continuing to grow the sources of capital that we provide and extending that all the way from the pre-seed, the super early stages that Tomás mentioned, the Shared Future, all the way up to Series B, C and beyond. We want to be lifetime partners for the entrepreneurs that we're backing and to provide a steady, consistent flow of capital through all stages of the company.
Chris Wedding:
Cool. Tomás, is that an exclamation point? Anything to add there?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Yeah, I mean, what I would add is I think Collaborative is doing an awesome job of building the climate tech ecosystem in New York and being a presence there, and that's something that we want to foster all across the East Coast. We have now days of the month where folks can come and work from the office and hang out and meet other founders through the Shared Future network. We're building a community of 100 founders a year that then gets added to Collaborative’s climate community. And as I mentioned at the beginning, we have companies and other investors and folks that want to be mentors coming to the table and saying, “How can we help?”
And so, I think what we're going to see is Collaborative do what it's done best over the last decade, which is to build a community of folks that are focused on impact and helping one another. It's really going to be a bottoms-up movement where capital is going to be one of the main lovers that we pull, but certainly not the only one and not what Collaborative is going to be remembered for. I think it's really going to be the story that we build, the community that we build, and as a result will remain at the forefront of the climate ecosystem.
31:37
Chris Wedding:
Cool. Okay, I told a white lie, I have one more question. Have you thought at all about turning the Shared Future initiative into like an AngelList Rolling Fund for folks to invest in? I'm asking for a friend.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Well, we should chat with your friend, Chris. I think the answer is we're having conversations with a lot of folks about what Shared Future can look like and we're open to feedback and so we'd love to talk to you more about that. We're always looking for folks that want to invest some capital, contribute to the community. The challenge that I would raise to anyone thinking about that is the same challenge that we raised ourselves into the partners that we work with like Activate Fellows, which is, how do we make this a two-way street? How do we participate in something that's going to benefit both of us?
I think an idea that excites us is having Shared Future become a network of networks within the climate innovation ecosystem, where we can have transfers of capital, but also knowledge and talent and really enable that catalyst action to take place. And so, we're really excited about where we're going to be in 2023, 2024. There's a lot more to build and so yeah, let's keep the conversation going.
Chris Wedding:
Let's switch over to the people here on the line. So, Sophie, we'll start with you with this question. Of course, Tomás, you're next. What advice might you give to your younger self to be more effective, happier? Fill in the blank, positive adjective.
Sophie Bakalar:
I think broadly I would champion simplicity as a life tenet. I definitely spent way too much in my earlier years just trying to hack my life. I think actually removing a lot of the processes and rules and tools and just stuff that clutters your life supposedly in the quote unquote, “name of efficiency” that removing those things actually makes you more efficient sometimes. That's definitely something I've learned for myself.
I often joke, although it's not really a joke that my goal is to get rid of my laptop and eventually do all of my work on my cell phone and just use Gmail and calendar. The point at which I get there will be one marker of success because I find all of the clutter and overly stringent processes just to be an inhibitor to efficiency and happiness.
Chris Wedding:
That's awesome. I would direct folks to a book called Essentialism.
Sophie Bakalar:
Essentialism, an excellent, excellent book that I also highly recommend.
Chris Wedding:
For sure.
Sophie Bakalar:
I think it really sums that philosophy up well.
Chris Wedding:
The timing of your comment is perfect because we're recording this on October 19th and then next week, I have my annual fall solo retreat in a tiny home in the mountains for three days.
Sophie Bakalar:
Lovely.
34:59
Chris Wedding:
Can't wait. I'll come back levitating, I think, anyway.
Sophie Bakalar:
That sounds great.
Chris Wedding:
Tomás, what you got?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
That's awesome. I imagine I'm talking to Marie Kondo fans as well about all this clutter. For me, it's pretty simple, working on climate, but really regardless of the career you want to have, I would say, I wish I had studied a STEM subject, math, science, engineering back in college. I had that realization fairly late. I focused on policy, and junior and senior year I started to catch up and take statistics and all those courses.
I think it's just an immensely powerful way of looking at the world, looking at problems. Certainly, when we're talking to founders, we're trying to dig into their techno-economic analysis and having those fundamentals, I think, sets folks up for success. That's not to ignore the importance of qualitative majors and perspectives.
I loved taking existentialism and philosophy in college as well, but I think a lot of folks, maybe too many of us are initially scared of the numbers and of the science and really that's where part of the answers lie. We need to be able to navigate both those worlds. So, that's a piece of advice for Tomás freshman year in college.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I would say, not the opposite, but maybe the inverse of that. So, I was an environmental science major, biology, chemistry minor and then I'm teaching folks at Duke that are like, “Oh, well I'm an econ major and an environmental science minor.” I'm like, that's what I should have done young Chris Wedding is become multilingual from a skillset perspective, right?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Yeah.
Chris Wedding:
Anyway, it takes lots of hats to wear. Let's go Tomás this time. What are some habits or routines, whether they're daily, weekly, monthly, et cetera, that keep you healthy, sane and focused?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
I love to run and to be outdoors, so being in San Francisco is an absolute joy for that. I like to try and train for something, so currently training for the half marathon in Malibu in November. If anyone is going to run that and podcast out in that timeframe, hit me up and we can meet up. But for me, running is a form of meditation and of disconnecting with the world. So, that's one.
The second is always trying to read even if it's five minutes before bed, just a way to relax the mind, let electronics go, immerse yourself in either a story or a piece of knowledge that is unrelated to what you did during the day. And so, I find both of those essential for me to keep functioning.
The final piece, Chris, is and it's fortunate that this is now part of my job, is just to be a part of a community. There are a lot of folks who talk about how we increasingly as a society have become more individualistic, a lot of the structures that we used to have have fallen apart and folks feel alone. For me, the climate community has been one of the most inspiring groups of people that I get to hang out with. And so, it brings me a lot of joy that on a weekly basis, I get to participate in that in a small way.
38:09
Chris Wedding:
I support that and since you're reading before bed every night, then you're ready for my question after this question. Hey, Sophie, how about you, what are some habits or routines that keep you healthy, sane, and focused?
Sophie Bakalar:
I have a really long morning, which I think is actually an incredibly obnoxious thing to say. It's definitely the kind of thing that if I'd heard somebody say that back in my 20s, I would have effectively vomited. I really hated hearing that because I was not a morning person. I had to wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning because I was a traitor and I really disliked waking up.
So, it's pretty wild to me now that I've come full circle, but taking a really long morning before work, it’s definitely changed my life. I am happier, I get way more done, I get more sunlight. It's really done wonders. I take at least three hours before I go into the office and I get a ton done in that time. I work out, I spend time with my puppy, I water my garden, I make food for later in the day, I read, I do the crossword puzzle. There's a lot that I can get done before I officially quote unquote, “start my day.”
I have a lot of tips about how to wake up earlier and earlier and actually enjoy it, but one of the major one is that I don’t use an alarm clock. I’ve learned to wake up with the sun and even earlier at the time of year when there is no sun, and not having an alarm clock is also really a game changer. I find that that shrill horrible noise being the first thing that greets you in the day is a horrible experience no matter how much you enjoy your life and waking up, it's just a terrible way to start the day. Anyway, there are plenty of resources for how to cut alarm clocks out of your life. I don't need to tell you about them, but I do strongly recommend it.
Chris Wedding:
Well, if we had more than three minutes left, I would ask you to explain how to cut alarm clocks out of our lives, but I'll just let folks google that. On the whole get up early, I've tried to find all sorts of non-jarring like buzzes, vibrations, et cetera, so that when I get up early, my wife is not also jarred out of bed. Nothing works, they're all jarring.
I learned this morning that our cortisol levels, our stress hormone levels are the highest in the morning already, so like we're adding to that, really? Okay, the power of long mornings, I like it. All right, let's go rapid fire here. We'll stick with you, Sophie. Recommendations on books, tools, et cetera, what you got?
Sophie Bakalar:
My favorite books are generally science fiction books. So, if you're a sci-fi fan, I have tons of recommendations for you. I will first recommend The Three-Body Problem, of course. If you're a science fiction fan, you’ve probably already read it and then anything by Blake Crouch. I think his books are phenomenal and always a fun read. My favorite podcasts are The Knowledge Project, Slate Culture and Catalyst by Shayle Kann, which Tomás turned me onto and is an absolute favorite of mine for climate content.
Chris Wedding:
I love it. Tomás, how about you?
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Tomás Álvarez Belón:
I would say on the book side, The Overstory by Richard Powers, for me has been one of the most moving reads, certainly galvanized my climate journey and is a must read for anyone interested in the space or our planet. Richard Powers is an incredible author. In terms of podcasts, I was going to suggest Catalysts, I think that is incredibly interesting, but also detailed and just useful for anyone in climate, whether you're a founder or an investor or working on the policy side. Then I think another one that I enjoy is This American Life. I love the stories they tell, the people that you discover, and is also part of my routine. Not as early in the mornings as Sophie, but certainly early enough for me.
Chris Wedding:
Sweet. All right, final 30 seconds, what message are we leaving for listeners here? Call to action, et cetera, what you got?
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
For me, it's super simple. It's, if you're working on climate, if you're building something, we want to hear from you. We don't care whether you're at the pre-seed stage or about to raise a Series B. Collaborative has a bunch of dry powder that we're looking to invest and we're actively investing in the best founders in this space. And so, you can find our LinkedIn, our email and shoot us a message and we'd love to find some time to talk to you.
Chris Wedding:
The day Tomás's email blew up. Okay, Sophie.
Sophie Bakalar:
Yeah, I'd put an exclamation point on that. We are very actively investing in climate. We are not sitting on the sidelines. We have a lot of capital to put to work and we want to hear from you. So, if you're working on hard problems in climate, reach out. I'll also give a quick plug for our monthly co-working day that Tomás mentioned. So, if you're in New York City and you work in climate and you want a place to hang out with other climate founders and share ideas and get some free food, look out for more information on that because we'd love to have you in the office and continue to build the community in New York City, which we think is so valuable.
Chris Wedding:
A line out the door. Hey, awesome stuff. We're rooting for the success of Collaborative Fund and you-all’s portfolio companies.
Tomás Álvarez Belón:
Thank you, Chris. It's been awesome.
Sophie Bakalar:
Thanks so much, Chris. This was fun.
Chris Wedding:
Thank you so much for listening. Seriously, the world needs you, and I know your time is super valuable. If you want more content like this, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter at entrepreneursforimpact.com. If you liked this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I read every single one, I promise. These reviews are the number one way to draw more attention to the world-changing climate CEOs and investors that I am lucky enough to be interviewing on the show. And each month I pick one listener review for a one-on-one brainstorming call with me. Who knows what can come of those?
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