Is climate tech a viable venture investment category?

Chris Sacca · Oct 11, 2021

Climate investing has a fundamentally different risk profile from software: with apps you can build for two years and nobody cares on launch day, whereas in climate the science already works by the time you invest and the challenge is racing to scale and land customers

By the time Lowercarbon meets a climate company the science is tangible, so the binary product risk of consumer software is absent

48:07 Climate deals carry proven science and execution risk not softwares binary product market risk

Chris Sacca · Oct 11, 2021

Guilt and shame will not change behavior at scale; the only way to solve climate is to offer products that are better, cheaper, faster, cooler and easier to use

Only 100-200 million people on the planet currently factor climate into purchase decisions, and billions living check to check will never pay a premium out of conscience — so the climate benefit has to be incidental to a self-interested purchase

49:20 Solving climate requires better cheaper cooler products not guilt or shame driven behavior change

Tony Fadell · Mar 15, 2021

Climate and infrastructure innovation is a twenty to thirty year game, and investors must be cautiously optimistic and invest in the right things rather than take a negative view

If you always take a negative view you'll never fix the broken systems; the only way to stay healthy on this planet is to invest long-term in the right things

34:57 Climate infrastructure is a multi decade game requiring cautious long term optimism

Max Altman · Nov 21, 2025

Climate tech was and will continue to be a disaster as a venture category, even though climate change itself is real and should be addressed by government

They wandered into climate out of curiosity rather than focus and had little success there

24:55 Climate is a venture disaster even though the problem is real

Harry Stebbings · Nov 21, 2025

Climate is not a category in itself for investing purposes

25:14 Climate is not a category at all

Max Altman · Nov 21, 2025

Climate businesses are completely dependent on the price of carbon, so when the economy weakens large companies will cut carbon spend rather than lay off employees

Carbon credit spending and payroll come from the same pot of money, and no company will tell employees they lost their jobs so the company could buy carbon credits

25:20 Carbon price dependence makes climate revenue discretionary