Two weeks ago, I announced that I had become the co-founder and CEO of Third Derivative climatetech accelerator, a new joint venture between Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and New Energy Nexus. Now that we are fully live, I couldn’t be more excited to share what we’ve built.
It still feels a little surreal. Two weeks ago I described how the universe conspired to bring me here — how two world-class organizations happened to be envisioning exactly the thing I had been dreaming about, at exactly the moment I became available. We took Third Derivative from PowerPoint to soft launch in less than 90 days, in the middle of a global pandemic, with a team that has never been in the same room together. If that doesn’t capture the urgency we feel about the climate crisis, I don’t know what does.
Right now, Katie and I are mid-move to Boulder, Colorado, with boxes everywhere and a two-year-old who has opinions about all of it. And in the middle of all that beautiful chaos, we’re also standing up what I truly believe is the most important new climate organization in the world. The climate isn’t waiting, and neither are we.
Today, RMI published the official launch announcement on their website. My co-author is Elizabeth Hartman, one of the sharpest people I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside. Here is the original article on RMI.org, republished below in full:
RMI Launches New Climate Tech Accelerator
By Elizabeth Hartman and Bryan Guido Hassin | June 4, 2020
Faced with the rising urgency of the climate crisis, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and New Energy Nexus are proud to announce the launch of a new joint venture called Third Derivative (or D3, for short) — built to accelerate the rate of climate innovation. This program works with startups from around the world to connect them with the resources needed to commercialize and scale more rapidly than ever before.
Reflecting the systemic nature of climate change, D3 takes a systems approach to building the comprehensive ecosystem needed for climate technology innovation to succeed, connecting four essential elements: an accelerator, funding, global corporate partners, and unique market and policy expertise.
Accelerator
D3’s accelerator is designed to support the specific needs of climate entrepreneurs:
- Global: we are built on New Energy Nexus’s experience running and collaborating with 100+ climate innovation programs all over the world.
- Virtual: our global entrepreneurs spend their time and resources building their ventures, not relocating or traveling all over the world.
- Bespoke: we tailor the program experience to the unique needs of each startup; climate is such a broad category that one size could never fit all.
- Systems-oriented: by bringing 30-50 startups into each cohort, many occupying different parts of the same sector’s value chain, D3 supports system-level innovation.
- Outcome-focused: our startups are urgently seeking breakthrough deals and so are we; this program is less on curriculum and more on coaching and connecting.
Funding
Climate entrepreneurs often have large capital requirements and face long paths to market, which has historically made fundraising difficult. D3 reduces the time and effort entrepreneurs spend searching for funding by bringing climate-focused venture capital investors directly into the program. D3’s investor partners help select startups for participation in the program, which comes with an optional $100,000 seed investment, and then work closely with them to define milestones and targets to unlock follow-on funding. This gives D3’s investors unprecedented access to de-risked deal flow aligned with their investment theses.
As of D3’s soft launch on May 19, there were five committed investor partners spanning three continents and representing more than $300 million in capital. And as the wave of climate tech investment swells, more investors are joining all the time.
Corporate Partners
Commercializing climate innovation often requires navigating sales to, partnerships with, and investments from large, complex corporations. Such corporations are not organized to rapidly find, test, integrate, and scale the types of early-stage technologies that will be necessary to help them meet their bold climate commitments.
D3 brings these corporate partners directly into the program, assessing their early-stage technology needs and facilitating their interactions with leading edge innovators. When a startup is still too early-stage to close a commercial deal with a large corporate, D3’s investor partners — emboldened by that corporate’s interest — step in to fund the startup’s acceleration along the maturity curve.
D3’s corporate partners span the globe and represent sectors as diverse as technology, communications, finance, and energy. This diversity is necessary to address the diverse climate challenge and provides corporate partners with the additional benefit of learning from each other as they share ideas for increasing innovation internally and developing more ambitious corporate strategies.
Expertise
With nearly 40 years as a recognized expert in climate and energy, Rocky Mountain Institute provides unparalleled market and policy insights to all members of the D3 ecosystem. Entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate partners working on buildings, cities, electricity, industry, finance, mobility, and more climate-related sectors have access to RMI’s broad knowledge base and staff of 250 experts. Combined with our strong global network across business, finance, NGOs, and policy, RMI can deliver precisely what is needed for a particular climate technology innovation to excel.
Join Us
D3 is now accepting applications from startups, investors, and corporate partners to join our inaugural cohort. Join us as we accelerate the rate of climate innovation together!
That’s the official word. Now here’s my unofficial, personal addendum: I’ve spent over 20 years in this fight, founding and leading climate ventures, learning hard lessons, winning some, losing some. The one constant in all of those experiences was that the system was broken. Great climate technologies were dying not because the science was bad or the founders weren’t talented, but because the ecosystem wasn’t there to carry them across the four valleys of death that climatetech uniquely faces.
Third Derivative is our answer to that broken system — a fully loaded, integrated rocket ship. Startups, investors, corporates, and policy expertise, all pointing the same direction, rowing together. We’re not just running an accelerator; we’re rebuilding the infrastructure of climate innovation from the ground up.
It won’t be easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. But I have never felt more ready, more resourced, or more surrounded by the right people to take this on.
If you’re a startup, an investor, or a corporation serious about climate — come join us. The urgency is real, and so is the opportunity.
Have thoughts about what we’re building? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.