
YC Office Hours for Startups Tackling Climate Issues - katm
https://blog.ycombinator.com/office-hours-for-startups-tackling-climate-issues/
======
itcrowd
I know a few startups that may be interested and that I'd like to show this
to, but I'm not sure if they qualify as "tackling climate". I would describe
their "category" as energy-transition related, but definitely driven by the
consequences of climate change.

For example, one startup is focused at the intersection of energy suppliers
and consumers, trying to create win-win situations that match supply (complex
due to wind/solar/etc variations) and demand. This is intentionally vague,
sorry.

Could someone at YC give a slightly longer explanation of the startups they
encourage to apply for this coaching session?

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gobengo
I don't know if we're solving climate issues, but at conserve.org[1] we're
trying to make it easier for everyone to pitch in and conserve land so plants
can do their part via carbon exchange (and save habitats for fluffy animals).

Conserve land, one acre at a time.

All revenue right now goes right to our Land Trust partner. This is a
nonprofit.

[1] [https://conserve.org](https://conserve.org)

~~~
skosch
This looks great, and I wish you all the success in the world. The domain is
your key asset, IMHO.

1) When did you start, and how long does it take you to sell an acre?

2) How do you plan on "releasing" more regions? Is the next region going to be
(drumroll) the adjacent 160-acre square? Do they want you to complete one
square before opening up the next? Does anyone actually keep track of which
acre belongs to whom? How difficult is it to get more land trusts on board?

3) I'm looking to offset my emissions, so my key metric is $/t – how much does
it cost to sequester a ton of CO₂ that otherwise would have stayed in the air?
Any rough estimates?

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iandanforth
I'd really like to listen to the session that makes the best use of those 15
minutes. How do you prepare for and make the most out of such a short time?

1 minute pitch

4 minutes descriptions of problems

10 minutes of back and forth?

Interesting constraints!

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Presidio001
shouldn't this be titled "Climate Crisis"?

~~~
pygy_
Cataclysm?

~~~
pygy_
BTW, this wasn't meant as a provocation.

The faster we move the Overton window to match reality, the better out chances
of survival.

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tuukkah
The climate issues referred to in the title are possibly related to this
Request for Startups, Carbon Removal Technologies:
[http://carbon.ycombinator.com/](http://carbon.ycombinator.com/)

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rficcaglia
IMO, looking for a high tech solution to a low tech problem is a dead end
(possibly in the literal sense!)

This is a human behavior problem. Consume less; ie growth at all costs is not
a long term strategy for the planet. Don't define your happiness with things.

I was reviewing the US tariff lists and was thinking, what if all these items
were just completely unavailable forever? I couldn't find any examples in the
list of products I absolutely must have to thrive. Think of all the carbon
saved (and landfill, and ocean plastic, etc) in producing all this stuff.

Maybe algae in the Sahara will be a silver bullet, but I'm not holding my
breath.

I would instead spend resources educating and supporting farmers on
sustainable agro, support a transition from a consumer-driven economy to one
that is sustainable (also probably education). Promote/support sustainable,
local plant-based diets. Etc. I'm happy to invest in scalable solutions in
these areas!

~~~
Vomzor
>The size of the “global middle class” will increase from 1.8 billion in 2009
to 3.2 billion by 2020 and 4.9 billion by 2030. The bulk of this growth will
come from Asia: by 2030 Asia will represent 66% of the global middle-class
population and 59% of middle-class consumption, compared to 28% and 23%,
respectively in 2009, according to the figure below

[http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3681/An_emerg...](http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3681/An_emerging_middle_class.html)

How realistic do you think it is that people that have just escaped poverty
will give up their new lifestyle? Technology is the only solution. It really
baffles me that HN is a place where people think technology is the answer to
all problems... except for climate change.

~~~
rficcaglia
I don't think it matters what anyone thinks. The reality will hit the poor
hardest. Those of us who ignore the root causes, continue the same behaviors
and expect different results, and look for some magical solution are culpable.

I sincerely hope you are right and there is some wonderful tech solution to
this. Meanwhile I am not buying land 90m from current sea levels.

~~~
ThomPete
It will hit the poor even harder if they dont have cheap reliable energy to
grow more wealthy and secure themselves against the climate. Its always been a
problem.

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rory096
Smack in the middle of SPI (Solar Power International/Energy Storage
International) seems like an odd choice of time.

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bszupnick
Applied!

We don't deal with climate change, but we have a product to enable non-profits
and political campaigns to run GIANT volunteer networks. I'm not sure if that
fits their criteria, but if they want to create a mass movement that movement
needs tools, right?

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moflome
Carpool management on Slack

[https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21](https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21)

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luckydata
this is a fool's errand. You ain't gonna fix anything with startups in this
field, you fix it with policy and frankly a collective, long, stern look in
the mirror and almost inevitably war and a lot of dead people.

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aestetix
Isn't the YC business model 1. get lots of users 2. sell user data when you
start running out of money and realize your business model doesn't work? Not
sure how this would apply to actual issues like climate change...

~~~
DennisP
They did invest in a fusion reactor startup:

[https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-
fund...](https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-funding-for-
possible-breakeven-fusion-device-this-year.html)

------
sandworm101
"Office Hours for Startups Tackling Climate Issues" is an awkward title. Lots
of companies are "tackling climate issues" without that being their sole
focus. My first read of the title was that this was about companies _shifting_
their office hours to reduce heat/ac loads, or to facilitate commuting
schedules.

~~~
dang
I don't see what you mean, but if someone wants to suggest a better—i.e. more
accurate and neutral—title, we can change it.

~~~
reificator
I read it the same way. Perhaps simply changing it to `YCombinator Office
Hours...` would be enough to guide the reader to the right meaning? Or `YC
Open Office Hours...`?

~~~
dang
Ok we've consed YC on there.

~~~
jedberg
> "consed YC on there."

How to find a lisp programmer in the wild. They use cons in casual
conversation. :)

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crispinb
FFS. The apotheosis of disaster capitalism. Fiddling while Rome burns while
demanding a hefty appearance fee.

~~~
omosubi
I agree that we're all kind of watching ourselves die a slow death, but at
least they're putting their money where their mouth is. What do you think a
reasonable thing for them to do is? Even if yc divested from every company
they have a stake in and donated it to climate efforts, would that make a
dent?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Fund lobbying and political campaigns for candidates who support climate
change mitigation efforts. YC will have no impact unless they get governments
(with resources orders of magnitude greater than that of YC) set in the right
direction.

No startup is going to solve climate change. The scale of the problem is
simply too large. You need public policy to internalize the externalities of
carbon emissions.

~~~
__s
Successful ventures in this field make for more convincing lobbying

~~~
toomuchtodo
Then get out there and support Tesla and your local wind turbine/PV solar
installer/commercial developer. Those are who are driving out fossil fuel and
petroleum use at scale (BYD is arguably doing quite a bit of that with
electric busses, but as a Chinese company, that’ll be a harder hill to climb
in the current political climate). You must destroy demand for CO2 producing
activities, and renewables and EVs do just that.

There is no need for a startup to deploy EV chargers at homes, condos,
apartments, and public facilities. This requires community involvement
instead, as there is little if any profit to be realized from the activity.
But this is crucial for EV uptake. Someone has to do the legwork (I am working
on automation for this, but alas, there are only so many hours in a day).

The tech is already proven. It’s all up to public policy now to nudge people
in the right direction (renewables, EVs, carbon offsets for anything else
where you absolutely cannot avoid CO2 emissions).

