Atelier WeekNotes w/c 25 Sep 2023
What next for Atelier of What's Next. Pitches Undaunted. Edmund Hillary FEllowship community. New Innovation for Sustainability episode.
I am writing newsletter of #weeknotes of starting the Atelier of What’s Next (What’s needed, What’s ready? What can we do? What next?). For my rationale for starting the Atelier see here.
This week covers
What next for Atelier of What's Next
Reflections
Questions to explore in Q4 2023
Pitches Undaunted
Well done, Acer Farms!
Other themes: There's lots that can be done now; Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation; Munroe Motivational Sequence; Worthwhile and limited.
Edmund Hillary Fellows community.
New Innovation for Sustainability episode.
What next for Atelier of What's Next
The concept of the Atelier came to me in December 2022. I played with that in private for a while, and had the first SubStack in March, going consistently weekly from May, which is also when I started to introduce myself as 'Founder, Atelier of What's Next'. Now that big moment of the Net Zero Heat Lab is delivered, I spent part of this week on my intentions for the Atelier for the rest of the year.
Reflections
1.It is going OK so far.
As in, the Atelier framing is helping me articulate the work I want to do. In the past I've unsuccessfully tried to get focus by choosing one thing (eg climate). But I'm too much a generalist and connector, too much interested in lots of different things. I wasn't able to keep any discipline, and I wasn't excited.
Having a focus on a moment -- when something is trying to be born -- is working out better for me. And, people do seem better and better (perhaps also a function that I have more confidence in it, and am more practised now). I had various moments this week when people reacted with positive curiosity to 'Atelier'. (I still think that the fact it is an unusual word is useful; those who get intrigued are exactly the people more likely to be asking 'what's needed, what's ready, what can we do, what next?'.)
It is only 'OK' because I still have questions about whether this is the right thing to do, especially whether it can be viable in the medium-term, especially as the larger version, which is more than just me.
2.From solving my problem to solving other people's problems.
That first post in March starts with how my exploring of career directions needs a wrapper. Like lots of founders, the Atelier idea came out of wanting to solve my own problem. Which is fine, but that doesn't go very far.
Good news: I can explain the focus of my work better than before. Bad news: that doesn't matter if the Atelier doesn't solve anyone else's problems, in ways they are willing to pay for.
On one level, this is a standard challenge for a start-up of product-market fit, or 'being in a good market with a product that can satisfy the market' (Marc Andreesen).
However, as Rowan Conway of Transformation by Design keeps telling me (and said in public here): "problems are not markets".
Put another way, the kinds of things I want to be involved with fail the first part of Andreesen's definition. They are not in 'good markets'.
So, the challenge for the Atelier is more like a trilemma of offering-problem-resourcing fit. Unpacking that:
Offering: the Atelier isn't going to a have a product, but a service. Using 'offering' as covering both.
Problem: the challenge being faced. Previously I've put this should have:
Relevance: need being experienced now or soon .
Readiness: there is a sense that stuff can be done.
Results: the potential impact is a non-trivial contribution.
Resourcing: there could be the various sorts of resources needed. Most obviously financial funding (grant, revenue, investment) but also services-in-kind plus, probably the most important for long-term change, crowding-in the activities of others.
So, a clunky re-writing of the Andreesen phrase, a offering-problem-resourcing fit is:
"Addressing a 'good' problem (good=relevant; ready; potential for non-trivial results; and, having resourcing potential), with an offering that can progress the problem."
(As I write this, I'm aware someone else somewhere has probably already articulated this better. Any suggestions, let me know.)
3.If the larger version, then need to start now.
From the beginning, I was thinking there were a small version of the Atelier (just me) and a larger version, where others are either part of the workshop, and/or bringing their own stuff to work on.
The easy path is the small version. That involves doing almost nothing differently, at an operational level. Just continuing with my independent, sole trader habits. And then, a few years will have passed, and the Atelier will still be me and me only.
If the larger version is going to be a possibility, then I do need to start now, before the shape of the Atelier is too set.
Questions to explore in Q4 2023
By the end of the week, I don't have an action plan. But I do have two questions to pursue, starting now, and hopefully get some insights before the end of the year.
1.What pain points do possible funders (and other resource providers) have that Atelier of What's Next could address?
This is a specific investigation within 'offering-problem-resourcing fit' (the 'for-change' version of the 'for-profit' product-market fit, see above). I have an OK income pipeline for the rest of the tax year. But now is the time to be stirring it up. Hence, the focus on possible funders.
2.How could the Atelier be organised for abundance?
Here I have been inspired by Graham Leicester of the International Futures Forum (IFF), when he talks about that organisation trying to be structured for abundance. (I also took the phrase 'powerful times' from the IFF mission, and used that for the title of one of my podcasts, 'What can we do in these Powerful Times?'.)
As to how I'm going to investigate these questions, of course I'm going to test out the process backbone I derived from the Double Diamond (again, via Rowan Conway's work). I suspect that the same action could be used to explore both the questions at the same time.
For instance, some low-key events which ask people to explore 'What's needed? What's ready, What can we do? What next?'. Those could be trying out one of the ways of being organised for abundance (collaborations with other people) and also testing out an offering (near-term, purpose-driven horizon-scanning).
If you're reading this and have ideas of what I should do, either in collaboration with you or not, then do get in touch.
WHAT NEXT
Follow the modified Double Diamond process on the two questions.
Pitches Undaunted
Tuesday was Demo Day for the cohort of climate and sustainability-related start ups from The Greenhouse, an incumbator in Undaunted (a partnership between The Royal Institution and Imperial College London). I was able to stay for about 8.
Well done, Acer Farms!
I thought my mentee, Leo Roubicek of Acer Farms for his excellent pitch. He did a great job, especailly of addressing the scepticism about vertical farms, as well as what makes his approach different. In one line: he wants to bring Toyota Lean Manufacturing nous so his vertical farms have mass-market productivity. He's looking for patient capital and long-term supply chain partners, if you want to be put in touch.
Other themes
There's lots that can be done now. While 'problems are not always and necessarily markets' (see above), there are some problems which are just about expressed within markets. So there are lots of opportunities which bite off a 'mega-niche' of the climate challenge.
For instance, plaster boards. The revolution will not be delivered by plater boards. But a non-trivial amount of the UK's emissions come from plaster boards. So, biomanufacturing it instead, as Cresco Biotech intends, would make a non-trivial difference.
Or dyes in clothes. Fashion has a high impact in manufacturing and then in waste. What if you could take the dyes out of old clothes, adn then reuse the dyes and the material? Then you could shave non-trivial percentages off of energy and material throughput in a large global industry. As DyeRecycle intends.
Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilisation: starting now without distracting? I am incredibly sceptical about most Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). It strikes me as a way for incumbent fossil fuel-dependent companies and countries to keep gauging their profits without actually transitioning to a Net Zero world at anything like the pace we need.
And yet, gong through 1.5C warming in the coming years is almost certain. If we are to avoid more than 2C by the end of the century, we will need to find some way of pulling greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. There is a lot to contest on the mechanism (industrial or nature-based processes such as regenerative agriculture), the sequencing (start developing now to be ready, or force more mitigation to happen first), whether that is a good us of the marginal unit of stored energy (fix carbon or avoid fossil fuel use during renewable intermittency) and more.
One pitch cut through some of that. The Cool Corporation can turn carbon emissions into carbon nanotubes, an extremely stable material which is used as an additive in other industries, helping electronics, batteries and others to perform better. So, there is the tantalising prospect of having two bites at mitigating emissions: capturing from a point source, and then in the use of the resulting material. Maybe.
Munroe Motivational Sequence. Very good to see this being used (as advocated last week) in pitches: attention, need, satisfaction, visualisation, action.
Worthwhile and limited. As I wrote about a different investor showcase a few weeks, all this feels worthwhile and also limited. We need industrial revolutions on a deadline. Having cohorts of climate-tech start ups is a necessary pre-condition. But more is needed, especially from government industrial strategy. (I won't write about the current UK government's approach until I've calmed down a bit.)
Apply now! The Greenhouse will be running more cohorts into the future. Follow this link to find out more.
WHAT NEXT
Leo has asked me to keep mentoring him, which is a great.
Make myself available as mentor for future cohorts.
Engage with Undaunted as part of organising for abundance.
Edmund Hillary Fellows community
Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF) is a "a community of 500+ innovators, entrepreneurs and investors committed to New Zealand as a basecamp for global impact". I had been accepted in 2018 with the intention of having an adventure abroad as a family. But then COVID and cancer got in the way. But I'm still trying to be active member of the community.
To which, this I had two EHF things:
Climate and Nature Action Group. Organised by Matthew Shirbman of Aim-Hi Earth (which provides online sustainability training). We spoke about whether we are being radical enough (general answer: no) and the barriers to that (general answer: funding).
EHF in London. Turned out two EHF Fellows* were in London, so I hosted an impromtu gathering. Turned out one of those Fellows is fundraising, so I connected them to a possible VC backer. Which is how communities work, right?
*Yes, I know the 'F' in EHF stands for Fellow, so "EHF Fellow" is over-egging the pudding. But it sounds better than EH Fellow, and "two Fellows" sounds either like Shakespeare or an Oxford college.
WHAT NEXT
Push ahead as the EHF Fellow who connects London back to Aotearoa New Zealand.
New Innovation for Sustainability episode
A new Innovation for Sustainability episode went up, of serial investor and start-up chair Adam Parr. Links to how to listen here.
I started the series to help with students at UCL (I co-lead a masters Module on business, innovation and sustainability -- more background here). But the listenership goes much wider. Each episode gets over 200 downloads. According to Feedspot, it is the 50th best UK sustainability podcast (a ranking I take with a huge pinch of salt).
WHAT NEXT
More episodes of Innovation for Sustainability.
Get ready for teaching the next module, in the Spring term.