So you want to work in climate VC?

At ZCC we get a lot of messages from people wanting to shift their careers to work in climate VC. We get it, we love our jobs and we feel lucky to work with smart, mission-driven founders in such a wide variety of sectors at the start of their entrepreneurial journey. We thought we would share some of the advice that nascent climate VCs have found the most useful. 

Think about your strengths and be a sniper 

We’re all busy. The probability of a blanket email / cold LinkedIn approach being successful is vanishingly small, and you are more likely to disqualify yourself by adding to the noise. Your best bet is to really do your homework and be realistic about the company and position that is likely to be the best fit for you. Firstly, what are your strengths? If you have a technical/scientific background, earlier-stage funds are more likely to be interested in you because the due diligence at this stage focuses more on the future potential of the tech side. If you’re coming from a financial background, later-stage investors are more likely to appreciate your experience. Ideally, of course, you would have both (see ‘Getting up to speed’ below). 

Then, do the work to understand the potential options. Do you feel more attracted to VC, CVC, family offices, philanthropic organisations/foundations? Which investors are active in your geography? If they are not based there, might they consider hiring there (do they already have a remote team?). Understand their history - who are the founding partners, what is driving them, what is the mission of the company. Where are they in their fund deployment cycle - they are most likely to hire after closing the fund. Look at their portfolio - when did they invest, why did they invest, do you feel excited by the thought of being part of this process? Understand how they work now - what does the team look like, which roles do you feel most interested in? Do they separate out ‘the science bit’ or ‘the impact bit’ from the core deal decision-making, or is it more integrated?

When you have a target list, find a way to speak to these investors. They are more likely to be receptive when they are already in an environment designed for networking, rather than interrupting their workflow. Follow their LinkedIn to find out what events their team will be at, and go there - listen to their thoughts on a panel, talk to them afterwards during the networking part. They may not be hiring right now, but you can ask about their process (do they use recruiters, where do they post their jobs first), find out likely timelines for hiring, and ask about any possible options for getting more exposure with them - maybe it’s internship, or a visit to their offices, or just knowing the next event that one of them might be at. If you have particular skills or connections which could be useful to them or their portfolio companies, offer up some of your time to chat about this. If they aren’t hiring now or soon, ask them if they know any investors who may be - they are likely to hear about opportunities before they are public. 

Then, be ready to apply when you know there is an opportunity. Most VCs will share open positions on Linked In even if they use a recruiter. Show your understanding of and interest in the firm, their team and their portfolio. Tailor your application to the job specification and the company, and follow up - show you are organised and keen. And, leverage your network - find someone who knows the decision maker, ask for intros or get intel. 

Getting up to speed

If you don’t have a scientific/technical background, it’s not too late. Some of our favourite co-investors don’t, but they have surely put the work in to understand what they need to know to make good decisions. There is a lot of information out there on the important considerations in the current key areas of interest for climate VCs. You may not be able to do deep technical due diligence on an area, but you can certainly learn enough to understand what are the key figures of merit for solutions in a space, what are the trade-offs, what are the benchmark companies building here, who are the incumbent corporates or legacy solutions. The most valuable resource here is the Catalyst podcast by Canary Media, which we cannot recommend highly enough - go back and listen to all the previous episodes right now. Hosted by Shayle Kahn, a Partner at EIP’s Frontier Fund, it’s a wide-ranging set of interviews on a different hot topic each week with some of the most knowledgeable practitioners in the space. Nothing will get you closer to hearing how a leading climate VC thinks about new technologies and companies than this.    Additionally, many VCs publish their ‘deep dives’ on subjects they are currently interested in (which also give you an insight into how they work and think), some of our favourite examples are: ZCC of course (example: Grid Modernisation), TDK Ventures (example: Geothermal value chain), Béla Hanratty of Keeling Capital (example: Nuclear fission), Extantia (example: Data centres), Counteract (example: Soil carbon) and Breakthrough’s sectoral analyses. Many also publish in-depth explanations about why they invested in particular companies which give an insight into due diligence priorities, for example ZCC (example: Porpoise Power), TDK Ventures (example: Spiritus and CDR), and Extantia (example: Asset Cool).

If you don’t have a VC background, similarly don’t despair. There are many ways to learn more about the core principles of investment and the foundations of finding and executing a deal. If you have some budget, consider a formal programme which will also give you a community of like-minded people and connections to alumni and VCs who do visiting lectures. More affordable options we have tried and would recommend include the Newton Venture Program, which has several courses for different levels of experience including a free course for newcomers curious about the space, and bursaries for underrepresented groups. We also rate the online Venture Capital University run by the North American Venture Capital Association and Berkeley Law Executive Education, which includes hours of video interviews with top US VCs giving great insights into different ways of thinking about fund construction, investment theses and deal execution. There are also many podcasts with climate VCs for more background, for example VCO2 by Hugo Rauch and Climate Pioneers by Cherry Swayne. 

If your budget is smaller, or to complement the above, there are many excellent books about the foundations of VC. Our favourites are ‘Venture Deals’ by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, ‘The Secrets of Sand Hill Road’ by Scott Kupor and ‘The Power Law’ by Sebastian Mallaby.  

Whatever your background, it’s worth developing an industry-level perspective on how the climate space has evolved in thinking about the problem and potential solutions, and what the current state of play is. There are some excellent foundational books here including Bill Gate’s ‘How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’, John Doerr’s ‘Speed and Scale’, and the OG ‘Drawdown’ from Paul Hawken. There are also some brilliant annual analyses of the state of the industry - our favourites are Nat Bullard’s annual presentations and CTVC/Sightline’s insights. Good resources for authoritative data and research include the IEA, Our World in Data and the IPCC reports.    

Then, find a way to put it into practice. Perhaps you have access to a university VC club where you carry out due diligence together and make virtual investments. Perhaps you could form such a club with some fellow climate converts to discuss interesting companies and factors for and against investment. Go to pitch events, listen to the questions investors are asking, and form your own. Look at lists of hot new companies (for example, the CleantechGroup’s 50ToWatch and Cleantech100, or the PWC Net Zero Future50) and think about which ones you would have made an investment in and why. Look for workshadowing or internship opportunities (for example, progammes like FutureWorld VC, or directly to larger VCs with a programme here like World Fund)  

Build your network and community

The climate investing ecosystem is pretty collaborative and open. Start going to open-invite events in your geography and meeting people. Find out what are the hot topics right now, and how is the dialogue changing around them. Keep going! Bring questions you are struggling with, and find like-minded climate folk. Here are some great meet-ups and groups to start with:

• Climate Connection - host a London-based monthly meet-up ‘Climate Tech Time’ with open registration, and many additional events. They also publish a calendar of all London events they can find.

• Climate Mosaic - meet-ups in several European cities for underrepresented groups in the climate ecosystem.

• Voyagers Climate-tech - a large decentralised community of climate folk, with meet-ups in several cities, community events, and a newsletter with asks. 

Right now, it’s a buyer’s market, or to put it another way there are more people wanting to work in climate VC than there are jobs. While there are many climate funds out there now, and many more trying to get established, the fundraising environment is very tough and this impacts funds as well as companies. Many funds are delaying hires or reducing their teams while fundraising takes longer than anticipated. This means, now more than ever, you need to be realistic about opportunities, do everything you can to improve your skills and experience, be willing to put in the effort to build a network and be very persistent. 

Good luck!

Note: this is intended to be our selection of favourite resources and tips, not a comprehensive list. Hopefully they will help you start your own exploration of the space.