Entrepreneurs for Impact (EFI) Podcast: Transcripts
#103:
The Man of Many Hats — Taj Eldridge, Investor at Include Ventures & Director at Jobs for the Future
Chris Wedding:
All right, welcome Taj to the podcast. As we were starting to press record, it's just Taj, he's just like a Brazilian soccer player who only needs one name, is that right?
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely. Thank you for having me here, Chris, I appreciate it. Taj means crown in Arabic, and people who may see pictures of me or have met me in the past, they know I wear a lot of hats and that's because of that crown. Thank you for that.
Chris Wedding:
Well, let's stick with the hat theme and of course, you got a nice one on today. I think folks who know you know of your wide selection of hats, but as your LinkedIn profile talks about, I said, “Look, man, I wear a lot of hats, both literally and figuratively. I'm also a lover of words, economist, an active investor advisor in the climate space who works with impact driven startup firms and fund managers to achieve greatness in all fields of human endeavor. Music is cool too.” So, you're keeping it honest, whole person there, Taj, and lots of those hats we'll talk about on the podcast today.
04:55
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely. Anybody who's ever booked time with me via my schedule app knows that one of the most important questions that you'll be asked or answering is, who is your favorite artist? So, definitely music and venture go hand in hand. Definitely.
Chris Wedding:
As I was doing a little work on a Friday afternoon, East Coast here, I was sitting down at some work and wanted to put some music on and I thought, “Let’s get something different,” and I put on a blast from the past, Run-DMC. I thought, “Man, I was listening to this stuff in high school and if I really thought about the words they were saying, or if my parents or my teachers in Catholic school, be like, ‘What the hell are you listening to?’” But good music. Anyway.
Taj Eldridge:
Well, to me today, Chris, it's a Tears for Fears day for me here, so Everybody Wants to Rule the World is currently blasting when we finish this podcast.
Chris Wedding:
Nice. Well, let's start with your work at Include Ventures as General Partner and Co-founder. Tell us about, of course, what Include Ventures is focused on and why now is the right time to start Include Ventures.
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely. So, Include Ventures is two funds. It's a fund of funds and it's a direct investment vehicle to co-invest with those funds. Chris, I've been in venture for quite a long time since 1999 and I remember we had the same conversations back then that we're having now, which is lack of funding for people of color.
For me, what I just didn't understand is that times have changed, technologies have changed. We've gone from back then not having any phones or having the flip phones to having iPhones to back to having flip phones with Samsung, but we still haven't changed this idea of who has access to capital.
And so, for me and my two other GPs, Bahiyah Robinson and Keith Spears, what we feel like what needs to happen is the allocators needs to change, the LPs need to change to support it. And so, that's why we decided to come in and focus on building this investment fund that really thinks about place-based innovation.
What that means is that, we believe that capital should be closest to the innovation and innovation is being all over this country. So, you should have a fund in North Carolina. You should have a fund in Missouri. You should have a fund in Texas. You should have a fund in Florida that could really support a lot of the founders that are there because talent is universal. Opportunity is not and Include is about making sure that people have that opportunity.
Chris Wedding:
I like that. Let's talk more about some numbers here. I know there's a stat, something along the lines of 98 or 99% of all capital globally, all asset classes is managed by white males. You've focused on a certain niche within that. What numbers do you want listeners to know about the kind of drive at Include Ventures?
07:51
Taj Eldridge:
I think one of the things we've often talked about is that the numbers are dismal, definitely and has been that way for quite some time. Both African-Americans and Latinos combined is less than 2% of the capital that's been there. Even more put in perspective, Adam Neumann, who just released a company, who was the former CEO of WeWork, he raised more money in one fell swoop than the whole of all the Black founders in that quarter.
So, I think for us, what we try not to concentrate on is those dismal numbers. What we try to concentrate on is the hope and the experience of these founders. What we try to concentrate on us is how to have a great TVPI, total value paid-in for a fund, how to have a great MOIC. So, the numbers that we want to concentrate on and the numbers that I want to concentrate on, on my funds are the numbers of how they can excel and be the best. Because I think we all know what the dismal numbers are. What we need to know are the numbers of success for these funds and this opportunity.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, so just to reiterate there, less than 2% of capital in venture going to Black or Latino led companies, I think is what I heard there.
Taj Eldridge:
Yep.
Chris Wedding:
Then I think you referenced to Adam Neumann raising all that capital, that's because of his perfect track record, I guess, right?
Taj Eldridge:
I think perfect is relative, but hey, here's my thought. I think that as an investor, I'd never question another investor's motive or their desire to make an investment. I think that's the beauty of capitalism in this country is that you have the freedom to do so. People have a freedom to lose money. People have a freedom to make money.
What I'm concerned about is the funds I invest in and what I invest in and I think that that will make us a lot better. I mean, if Mr. Neumann creates an opportunity and that does really well, then we will benefit and it's great, but I think that there are other people here that they can do something similar that we want to support.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Can we go one level deeper with Include Ventures? Maybe tell us about example, GPs, general partners, fund managers that you're backing and then after that, we'll go to some of the companies that you all are backing as well?
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely and first, let me say that, we consider ourselves not a fund, but a seeding platform, an ecosystem, if you will. Include as a franchise, it's really three different organizations. It is VC Include, which is based in New York where it has a separate team. It's basically a training and education for emerging fund managers. We just had our first cohort last year. We're graduating our second cohort next week actually, with 12 new GP funds. So, that's one piece of that seeding platform.
The second piece is Include Global, which is a grant-making institution. We provided 10 grants to 10 climate-based funds, seven in the US and three in Europe back in April, to really focus on this idea of climate innovation and help those companies really move that needle there. Then lastly, we’d include ventures as an LP, we make investments. Some of our investments include a fund called Invictus Growth Partners, which is a growth stage fund led by a GP by the name of William Nettles, who's been in the industry for quite some time. I think that's a perfect example of the type of funds that we want to support and we want to see.
11:19
But I think between Include Global, between Include Ventures, between VC Include, we have impacted over 65 funds. And as an example, in VC Include those 10 funds that are originally graduated, they've raised over $250 million collectively. So, again, I think what we're trying to do is really change the ecosystem by continuing to provide different types of tools to move the needle forward.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, certainly it sounds really catalytic capital going to these fund managers, both in training in those raising maybe first-time funds. How about on the company side? I know that you mentioned some of these startups before pressing record, maybe just highlight a couple of those. What they're focused on and what made you say yes.
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah, absolutely. So, there's five sectors that we focus on, on our direct investment vehicle. One is clean tech, of course, given my background. The second is fintech. The third is digital health. The fourth is future work or workforce and the fifth is media. We picked those five things because those five things really impact how we work and how we live and how we thrive in both.
And so, some examples of some companies that we've invested in include Altro, which used to be called Perch Credit. What I love about them is they're a fintech play and if you ever were an immigrant who came to this country, I wonder if people ever thought about how they build credit or how people who are maybe poor build credit.
I love the fact that they're democratizing that by allowing people, if you have access to, or you subscribe to different types of subscription services, whether it's Hulu or Prime or all these other things, they allow that to be a part of your credit score and improve your credit score with the algorithm that they have. I love that because it thinks that it really focuses on it.
So, when we first talked about music, what I love about this is that the rapper, Jay-Z, also tweeted about this company early on. I love the fact that music and musicians are realizing that technology is vastly important.
The second company I'm really proud of that we invested in is SparkCharge. SparkCharge is a company based in Boston, Massachusetts, that was founded in Syracuse University, the same university as the current president in the United States. He was on stage, the president, a few weeks back to talk about the CHIPS Act. But what I love about SparkCharge is that there are a lot of people who have range anxiety with electric vehicles, my wife included. She said she would never get an electric vehicle because she's afraid of running out of electricity.
What I love about SparkCharge is that, they are reducing that fear. They're providing on-demand charging directly to you. If my wife was at the mall and she needed to charge her car while she's out shopping and spending hard earned money, somebody can come there from SparkCharge and charge her vehicle. While my wife is at school, my wife is a professor, while she's at school, somebody can come to her place of business and charge her vehicle.
14:30
Further, what I love about SparkCharge is that, I've traveled a lot myself. I try to stay in electric vehicles when I do travel and when I go to hotels, the valet, it's only limited types of charging infrastructures that are there. And so, instead of them having to continue to move the cars around, which they totally don't do, now they can just have this SparkCharge product and go and charge the vehicles as needed that they valeted. And so, I think it's a game changer for that.
Last one I would say, and I want to really highlight is one that you and I talked about before the start of the podcast. One that I know intimately because I remember when she started, we were together at a pitch competition and I'm so proud of the transition that she's done, Kameale Terry, who founded ChargerHelp!. What I love about ChargerHelp! is that the intersection of climate and workforce, because essentially what they're doing is that, we talked about these charging stations, if these charging stations go down, no one has any idea of who to call to fix them.
When you go to a gas station and the pump is not working, you simply go in and walk to the attendant and you tell him or tell her, “The pump is not working,” but there's not something like that right now for charging stations. And so, what she's building is an army of repair people to come in and repair these charging stations. I think what's really interesting about it is that, what she's doing too from a workforce standpoint, she's getting people from diverse backgrounds, formerly incarcerated. She had an all-women's cohort that she just recently had, people who have just community college degrees.
So, I think what's happening and what I love is that all these companies perching also included, they're doing what I call building this idea of green wealth, the future of the economy for our country, and slowly building wealth for many communities that have been locked out.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I think another interesting thing about Kameale and ChargerHelp! is they're really punching above their weight in helping to move federal and state policy as I understand it. Kameale is a member of these climate CEO peer groups, we run at Entrepreneurs for Impact. The role in communicating, hey, look, we've got a real problem with EV charger uptime. It seems like a given that you show up at an EV charger and it's going to work, but the percentages are pretty scary. That is how often they're offline. And the ability for a small, but laser focused firm to get these conditions where it's like, look, if you, owner of charging infrastructure are going to receive federal or state dollars from certain states, you've got to hit certain uptime percentages, which are hard and not business as usual, but sweet. ChargerHelp! can help fix that problem.
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah, absolutely. What I have to say from a climate standpoint, I think that the beauty of this is that the climate infrastructure industry is going to change and it's going to continue to be changing. It's organic because we're having people come into the industry who are thinking about things new and things differently. We're also going to think about different ways of powering ourselves. I think there's some controversy behind electric vehicles and the lithium that's included, which gave rise to so many different companies like Regal here in Southern California, that's focused on battery refurbishment. You see companies like Toyota that are thinking about hydrogen vehicles more so than electric vehicles or battery electric vehicles. And so, I'm excited about it because I think that that just means greater opportunity for investors.
17:59
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. You know, your SparkCharge example, I think it's also a good reminder that, yeah, solve a problem for sure, but just convenience. The more convenient we make things, remove the friction to do the right thing that there's a big business there, but the more likely we mainstream this stuff.
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely.
Chris Wedding:
Let's move on to some of these other hats that you wear. I know one of these is Jobs for the Future, JFF. Tell us about that.
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah. So, as I was making investments as an investor, both from a fund and a startup standpoint, and we do A round, A is our sweet spot, we do B, I started getting concerned about, do we have enough people and the skill set and the desire that's going to help these companies scale and hire?
I think anybody who knows or anybody who's an economist, they'll know that the labor market is getting very tight these days and it’s becoming increasingly harder to hire for traditional companies. So, for startups, it's even worse because you have this whole issue of people who have never worked in a startup before.
And so, what I loved is that the private equity fund, Ares, they threw their foundation, Ares Charitable Foundation, they provided $25 million to Job for the Future, an organization called World Resources Institute to focus on two things, creating climate resilient jobs and making people aware of these climate resilient jobs.
What I love about it is that I've always said that you can't solve the climate crisis in a silo. You can't just solve it in California and think you're done. You can't just solve it in the United States and think you're done. You have to solve it from a global standpoint and they're beginning this by having this project working in the United States and then also in India. WRI is managing the India portion. My team and I are managing the US portion.
The whole idea for me is to focus on creating 25,000 new jobs here within the next five years in the climate resilient space and number two, making sure that 100,000 new people know about these jobs.
The way we're going to get there is really threefold, or really fourfold, I should say. The first is thought leadership, things like this, having conversations about what we're trying to do. The second piece of that is research and really coming up with the definitions of, what exactly does climate resiliency mean? What exactly does it take, the type of skills that it takes to get these types of jobs? Then thirdly rather, is really focusing on finding those companies that are similar to ChargerHelp!, that are at the intersection of workforce and climate, that may be able to train, skill, and reskill these individuals to get into these jobs. The fourth and final piece is partnering with stakeholders in the region, such as universities, community colleges, cities, nonprofits, religious institutions, all who train individuals and skilled individuals for this next generation of jobs.
20:54
And so, I'm pretty excited about it because I think that it's something that's needed. As more capital goes into the climate space, we need to make sure we have the talent and the workforce that's available and it's ready.
Chris Wedding:
Now look, super impressive and much needed. So, for Jobs for the Future, what does climate resiliency mean here?
Taj Eldridge:
If you just take the word resilience by its core, what it means is, how do we react to a change that's come upon us? In the past, people would think that climate resilient means that just disaster, that change is a disaster, whether it's a hurricane or anything else like that. But what I'm posing is climate change itself is the change.
It's changed a lot of things that we've done. It changed how we live. It changed the weather around us as well. So, idea of a climate resilient is a job that's really going to focus on how climate and how the environment is impacting us and how to prepare and how to also make sure that we are managing beforehand, before it even comes, before it even impacts us and the technologies around it.
Chris Wedding:
So, the folks that you-all are seeking to find and to, I guess, educate and train, what are the major barriers, do you think, to switching from not being in the climate sector to earning a climate resilient focused job?
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah, good question. I think first and foremost, for me, what I told the team when I began to lead this project, I said that we're going to have to have these conversations in places where people don't really want to have these conversations and because the need may be there.
I think that one of the areas that I've been talking about is that we've been talking about climate differently in the wrong way. If we talk about climate in the standpoint of a public health issue, if we talk about climate in a standpoint from an economic issue in building green wealth, and if we talk about climate from a standpoint of a social issue, for not just race and gender for communities of color, but poor white communities as well, it has changed the trajectory and the conversation around climate.
And so, I think that what my team and I have been talking about is, we're going to talk about climate very differently. We're going to talk about climate in a way to where it's going to be relative to those people. If I'm in a state like, again, my home state of Texas, where climate, it is not top of mind for a lot of people, but what is top of mind for a lot of people is economics, is job opportunities, is making money. And so, we need to talk about climate from that standpoint in order to build this big tent strategy.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I think what you're saying sounds a lot like what we heard from Dan Ariely, Duke professor and author and such, that studies really how irrational we all are. We had Dan come join a session of our climate CEO peer group and part of what he talked about is, you're not going to easily, or maybe you're not going to convince, period, or certainly not going to easily convince certain folks, that maybe they're climate deniers, let's say, or doubters, perhaps. But finding ways to appeal to things they do care about and you don't need to use the word climate at all. But it just so happens if you align on things like you just said, then what do you know? The tent does get bigger and you get more allies rolling in the same direction.
24:19
Taj Eldridge:
That's why we've been using these terms like green wealth to really define what we feel like climate change is going to elicit for people. It's going to give an opportunity for people to build wealth differently. One of the things I often say is that, being from Texas, as I mentioned before, the federal holiday now, Juneteenth, I often say that we don't want to have an economic Juneteenth for people who are left behind as the whole world transitions to alternative energy.
Chris Wedding:
Speaking of you being from Texas, and as we talked about, I'm from Kentucky, when I went back home, it's been a number of years, maybe five years or so, I went home and I recall seeing plenty of bumper stickers or license plates that say, “Save coal.” They're pro-coal areas of the state. Lots of jobs there, so that's understandable, but I recall talking to an uncle, pretty conservative, I don't think ever uses the word climate change in conversation.
I said, “Look, have any solar project developers come knocking on your door, asking about renting your land, leasing your land?” And he said, no, but he's heard of those stories, but didn't really have any interest. I said, “Well, what if I told you that in those deals, the lease per acre is higher than what you get to lease your land out to other farmers? It’s also a 15, 20, 25-year contract with guaranteed essentially lease escalators built in.” He said, “Huh, tell me more nephew, Chris.” Anyway, yes, speaking the right language matters a lot.
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely. Well, one thing I would say that I used to do as a CEO, we used to say this phrase, features tell, benefits sell. You just told him the benefits. He didn't care about the features, he cared about the benefits. I think that's just one of the things that we have to do as we're talking about the energy transition, talk about the benefits.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I can hardly think of my next question because I'm writing down this great little poem you just read, features tell and benefits sell, I like that, I like that a lot. Let's see, how about, I'm just going down your list of hats here, your work with the Schmidt Family Foundation and the climate investments they're focused on? What does it look like for, whether it's the Schmidt Family Foundations or other families that you may work with?
Clearly idiosyncratic in how they think about their role in investing in or tackling climate change, what does their perspective look like, if you can share that? Or if not, maybe your experience with other family offices, let's say, and the role they want to play or the opportunity perhaps they see being a unique kind of investor.
Taj Eldridge:
So, as you mentioned, I serve on the board of a few organizations. The Schmidt Family Foundation is one of them on the advisory panel for energy. I also serve on the board of Homeboy Industries, which is an organization here in Southern California focusing on people who are former gang members. I also serve on the board of an organization called Clean Energy Culture that's focused on getting people in entertainment, such as 2 Chainz and Drake and Pusha T and getting them into climate. All of those things for me are interrelated because they go back to what I say about a different way of talking about climate.
27:54
With the Schmidt Family Foundation, what I really appreciate about that organization is that they're really being proactive in thinking about ways to deploy their capital. They're trying to figure out, what is the most obvious way and not so obvious way to really help in the energy transition with their capital?
A board that I served on prior to the Schmidt Family Foundation are also digging into this and it's called the Community Investment Guarantee Pool. We're coming out with a report later on this year that talks more about that, about how to really have a differentiated capital stack for foundations to come in.
So, I'm loving these opportunities like this because what it does is, it's showing me that a lot of these family foundations, all of these investors, they're being very creative about how they want to tackle this issue.
You may have seen just recently that people like Steve Ballmer, who I know just recently devoted $400 million towards racial equity in reform of investing in companies and funds. I think that's important because again, going back to this idea of place-based innovation, Steve is from Detroit. So, I'm pretty sure, even though he's here in Los Angeles, he will be well-received to see Michigan and Detroit have a more robust ecosystem when it comes to entrepreneurship.
Chris Wedding:
This ties back to where we started the conversation around Include Ventures and you-all’s focus. Look, I mean, clearly it is the right or maybe obvious thing to be allocating more capital to Black & Brown Founders or really asset managers. But the other angle there is, I think alpha generation opportunity where if you're from a different community, you've got a different background, speak different languages, you just see different opportunities. Can you talk about the alpha opportunity here beyond just, duh, we should be investing in the broad array of gender, age, race, et cetera, diversity in our CEOs and asset managers?
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah. Well, remember I first began and said the diversity for me is more than just race and gender. It's geographic diversity. I think that helps generate alpha. I used to use this type of marketing when I was in Riverside, California, at the University of California, I led their accelerator. I would go up to San Francisco and I was saying, “You just raised a seed round. How much you planning on plan engineer?” And they gave me this wild exorbitant price. I would say, “If you came down to Riverside County, you would be able to get four engineers for that price and they will be much more hardworking and talented because the opportunities are not as abound.” And I talked about ways to extend your one way.
So that same mentality, I think, is happening all over this country to where the pandemic has exacerbated it. The pandemic has allowed founders to think about moving in another place and having the tools like Zoom and WebEx and others to still communicate and still do business. And so, I think that that's one of the ways that alpha is going to be generated because you're coming from a lower cost structure.
31:00
I can guarantee you, a lot of the companies that are in these areas outside of the Bay, you probably won't hear about them having down rounds because number one, it's just managing capital a little bit differently. I think also because of that, whether it's female entrepreneurs, whether it's entrepreneurs of color, whether it's poor white male entrepreneurs, I think because capital has not been that abundant, they're going to be more selective and they're going to be more cautious about the way that they do from a capital standpoint, but also bullish on the way that they want to deploy and make sure that they have growth. So, I think that that's one of the ways that you're going to start seeing alpha in relationship to diversity.
Chris Wedding:
Hey, let's transition from the various business hats you wear to the personal side, like who is Taj? Tell us about maybe advice you give your younger self on how to be, pick your great adjective, more effective, happier, et cetera, Taj.
Taj Eldridge:
It took me a long time to become the person I am today and the reason I said it is because we hear often about people bringing your full selves to work and I didn't when I was younger. When I was younger, I thought I had to be a certain way. I thought I had to dress a certain way. Hell, I thought I even had to have a certain name. I didn't go by Taj, I went by a total other name because I felt like maybe Taj isn't too air quotes, American enough. If I can go back, I would tell my younger self that Taj is uniquely American. He is uniquely American and you deserve to be here.
And so, I think that that's one of the things that I try to tell other people who I see myself in them is that, bring your full selves to work, that being who you are, as you're finding out who you are, you're younger, might be beneficial for you.
Chris Wedding:
In my head I'm thinking, “Wait, what did Taj go by?” Was it like Bobby or something?
Taj Eldridge:
No, it was Tad and I tell you, because, three letters, Taj is three letters, Tad is three letters, but also I have to say, my mother used to watch the soap operas and there was a character named Tad. I'm like, “I'll take that name.” All my children, shout out.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I can relate on one side. I didn't use a different name. However, I recall working in finance early on and a freak show in not being trained in finance coming out of the environmental sciences. Yeah, it's like similar feeling like I needed to put on more ties to balance out the ponytail or whatnot and almost never talked about the meditation and hanging out in monasteries and such.
And boy, to put that not quite front and center, but clearly part of what I hope to bring to business, not just personal, it matters, I think a lot in the work I get to do now with these climate CEO peer groups. Yeah, anyway, bringing your whole self there, it isn't just like getting to neutral. It actually can be, what's the expression? A feature, not a bug, right, [crosstalk – 00:34:17] part of ourselves?
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah. Absolutely. If somebody ever asks me today, what is my superpower, I would say my superpower is being from the South, it’s having Southern hospitality. It's sometimes an anomaly in a business where people don't treat each other very well. You're from the South, we have a way of doing things that is cordial, that is respectful and that is just caring for the next person. It should be normalized actually, but it's not and it becomes a value add for me. And again, that's why you need to bring your whole self in.
34:53
Chris Wedding:
Hear, hear. Let’s go to the next one here. Tell us some habits or routines that keep you focused, healthy and sane, Taj.
Taj Eldridge:
A habit that I have is I'm a voracious reader. I read a lot. I tell people often is that if you're a founder, you need to have a virtual PhD in the industry that you're in, meaning that you need to study so much about it. When I say that, a lot of people who may not have graduate degrees or PhD degrees, what they don't realize is that, when you have a PhD degree, there's a circle of knowledge just around, but when you have a PhD, your knowledge is of a small sliver of that circle, but it's very deep. But sometimes you may have blinders on these other things.
There's a philosopher by the name of Antonio Gramsci and what Antonio Gramsci talks about is being the organic intellectual, taking in the world community around you. And so, I think that that's one of the traits that I try to do often is try to make sure that I'm always reading, I'm always being inquisitive, always asking questions. I think lastly, as an investor, unfortunately, I remember when I was a founder, my investors talked a lot. But for me, I listen, I listen more, because I think that sometimes the answers come in different ways and it's a way to really connect with my founders and my funds by being their sounding board.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, it's like you're reading my mind. In my newsletter, I think this week, one of the pieces was, there's a reason we have two ears and one mouth, as they say, right?
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely.
Chris Wedding:
It’s like the whole John Maxwell School of Leadership and Development, it's like, look, great leaders are active listeners. Talk less and listen more. It's probably going to work out better for you.
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely.
Chris Wedding:
You mentioned being a voracious reader. Let's go to recommendations on maybe books or podcasts or quotes or tools that you think the audience might benefit from, Taj.
Taj Eldridge:
Oh, that's a trick question, Chris, because I don't know if the audience knows, even though my graduate degrees are in economics, I'm a VC, my undergrad degree is in poetry and literature. So, some of my favorite books—
Chris Wedding:
That was a setup, man. That was a setup.
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah. So, some of my favorite books could be a little bit different. I'll start with my favorite poets. Jack Kerouac, he's one of my favorites. I can go on and on about why. A guy by the name of Etheridge Knight, he was married to Sonia Sanchez. He spent his career as a poet in prison, writing in prison. I think the reason why I love him is that resiliency that we talked about, about climate resiliency, there's a human resiliency as well. I think with Jack Kerouac, what he taught me was risk-taking. He taught me adventure and I love that.
37:48
There are some books, of course, from a business standpoint, you should read. Like I would give an example of Words That Work by Frank Luntz. I really appreciate that book because it talks about how language is hugely important and I think that's one of the things that a lot of founders miss out on. A lot of technical founders, I feel like they miss because they don't really hang out with a lot of social science founders.
Hopefully we normalize the fact that, engineer, you can go over to the Social Sciences Building and get an English major, bring them to your company, they will benefit you. They will be able to explain your technology because I think the problem that I see a lot with founders is they don't follow the eight and 80 rule. The eight and 80 rule for me is, you need to build a product and explain to where an eight-year-old can understand it or an 80-year-old can understand it. I think regardless of what it is, that will benefit you from, not only investors, but also potential customers.
Chris Wedding:
Hey, just really quick on Jack Kerouac, how about Dharma Bums, are you in or out?
Taj Eldridge:
I am in.
Chris Wedding:
Man, I remember listening to Dharma Bums or reading it rather in college and I did it again on Audible recently. Oh man, what a read, what a time, anyway.
Taj Eldridge:
Oh yeah.
Chris Wedding:
That's a great separate conversation.
Taj Eldridge:
Absolutely. That whole generation, they inspire me. [Crosstalk – 00:39:09], Allen Ginsberg, definitely.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Hey, Taj, let's go to the last one here, which is a final call to action. Maybe that's the kind of folks you want to hear from to come seek you out relative to one of these hats you wear potentially, or maybe it's a broader call to action. What kind of final message do you want to leave our listeners with?
Taj Eldridge:
Yeah, great question, Chris. Thank you. I think what I want to leave the audience with is this idea of hope. I was just on a panel earlier where we were talking about the IRA, the act that was just passed for our energy transition and people were complaining about, it's not going far enough. And I said, “Of course, the whole point is that we are trying to build a more perfect union. We're not perfect, but we're trying to get there.” I think the same for humans as well is we're not perfect. I'm not perfect. We all make mistakes, but the key for us is to get up and keep going.
40:08
There’s a visual and I hope people can find it, I forgot this artist's name. There's this artist and it has been floating around on social media, LinkedIn and IG and everything else. He's going up these stairs and every fourth step or so he falls to this trampoline and comes right back up and gets to the same space and keeps going. I think for me that defines my life. It defines a lot of our lives is that, we're going to fall. It's not something that won't happen, but the key to it is getting back up no matter where you start or where you begin and keep going.
I'll lastly leave you with this, Chris. There's a quote from a really interesting book that says, no weapon formed against me will prosper. And I've said that so many times, and I never realized what I missed, which is, it didn't say a weapon is not coming. It said it won't prosper. And so, what that means is there's going to be difficulty as a founder, as an investor, as our country, but we have to have the resiliency to move forward and base that in hope. I hope people can understand and see that.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Again, it's like you're reading my mind. I was like, “I hope or I bet he talks about hope because that's the kind of guy Taj is,” and boom, you dropped it.
Taj Eldridge:
I am the DJ Khaled of climate, Chris. I mean, that is my moniker.
Chris Wedding:
I love it. Well, hey, listen, Taj, we're all rooting for you-all’s success at all these different places from Include Ventures to Jobs for the Future and many more. Hey, man, have a great weekend.
Taj Eldridge:
Chris, thank you so much. It was a pleasure and thank you to your audience. Have a great weekend.
Chris Wedding:
Hear, hear.
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