8 ms·

YC Office Hours for Startups Tackling Climate Issues

121 points by katm 7y ago

sandworm101 7y ago
"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.
- gwbas1c 7y ago
  Title makes perfect sense to me!
- dfsegoat 7y ago
  FWIW my interpretation was the same.
- dang 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    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 7y ago
      Ok we've consed YC on there.
      - jedberg 7y ago
        > "consed YC on there." How to find a lisp programmer in the wild. They use cons in casual conversation. :)
- reificator 7y ago
  > 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. Came here to say exactly this. In fact if there are any articles about that, I'd appreciate if someone would post them here.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
itcrowd 7y ago
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?
Presidio001 7y ago
shouldn't this be titled "Climate Crisis"?
- supercall 7y ago
  absolutely
- pygy_ 7y ago
  Cataclysm?
  - pygy_ 7y ago
    BTW, this wasn't meant as a provocation. The faster we move the Overton window to match reality, the better out chances of survival.
crispinb 7y ago
FFS. The apotheosis of disaster capitalism. Fiddling while Rome burns while demanding a hefty appearance fee.
- omosubi 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    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 7y ago
      Successful ventures in this field make for more convincing lobbying
      - toomuchtodo 7y ago
        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).
gobengo 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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?
williesleg 7y ago
Please fix China and India first. Then we can talk.
rficcaglia 7y ago
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!
- mlthoughts2018 7y ago
  It reminds me of optimal philanthropy. For example one of the most effective ways to donate money towards mitigating climate change is to give to The Humane League for sheer outreach & promotional materials on becoming a vegetarian (even if animal welfare itself is not important to you). Super boring low-tech thing like sending out flyers & sharing videos of animal welfare in industrial farming turns out to be hugely efficient in terms of CO2 reduction per dollar. https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-review/the-humane-league/ https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-review/the-human... https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/top-animal-charities-and-climate-change/ https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/top-animal-charitie...
- Vomzor 7y ago
  >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_emerging_middle_class.html http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3681/An_emerg... 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.
iandanforth 7y ago
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!
rory096 7y ago
Smack in the middle of SPI (Solar Power International/Energy Storage International) seems like an odd choice of time.
luckydata 7y ago
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.
bszupnick 7y ago
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?
moflome 7y ago
Carpool management on Slack https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21 https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21
aestetix 7y ago
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 7y ago
  They did invest in a fusion reactor startup: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-funding-for-possible-breakeven-fusion-device-this-year.html https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-fund...
tuukkah 7y ago
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/
Proven 7y ago
What are those "climate issues" that you are referring to? The only issue - but it has nothing to do with climate - is how to position your company so that it financially benefits from state-organized plunder (whether it's through direct fiscal spending, or though indirect theft such as subsidies). Can someone provide an example of a startup actually impacting Earth's climate, or showing any indication whatsoever that it could, without employing direct or indirect use of force? Let me guess: you can't. So pretend that it's about entrepreneurship? At least several commenters (such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20883900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20883900) say it makes no sense to try and instead argue in favor of the use of force (ie the government directly telling you want to do) which is indeed true - it's a use case in which "climate entrepreneur" is just an overhead. If you want to solve a problem with more government, you might as well get these unnecessary startups out of the picture - less overhead, more resources for the problem solvers in the government.

121 points by katm 7y ago

"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.

gwbas1c 7y ago
Title makes perfect sense to me!
dfsegoat 7y ago
FWIW my interpretation was the same.
dang 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    Ok we've consed YC on there.
    - jedberg 7y ago
      > "consed YC on there." How to find a lisp programmer in the wild. They use cons in casual conversation. :)
reificator 7y ago
> 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. Came here to say exactly this. In fact if there are any articles about that, I'd appreciate if someone would post them here.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

itcrowd 7y ago

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?

Presidio001 7y ago

shouldn't this be titled "Climate Crisis"?

supercall 7y ago
absolutely
pygy_ 7y ago
Cataclysm?
- pygy_ 7y ago
  BTW, this wasn't meant as a provocation. The faster we move the Overton window to match reality, the better out chances of survival.

crispinb 7y ago

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

omosubi 7y ago
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 7y ago
  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 7y ago
    Successful ventures in this field make for more convincing lobbying
    - toomuchtodo 7y ago
      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).

gobengo 7y ago

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 7y ago
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?

williesleg 7y ago

Please fix China and India first. Then we can talk.

rficcaglia 7y ago

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!

mlthoughts2018 7y ago
It reminds me of optimal philanthropy. For example one of the most effective ways to donate money towards mitigating climate change is to give to The Humane League for sheer outreach & promotional materials on becoming a vegetarian (even if animal welfare itself is not important to you). Super boring low-tech thing like sending out flyers & sharing videos of animal welfare in industrial farming turns out to be hugely efficient in terms of CO2 reduction per dollar. https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-review/the-humane-league/ https://animalcharityevaluators.org/charity-review/the-human... https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/top-animal-charities-and-climate-change/ https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/top-animal-charitie...
Vomzor 7y ago
>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_emerging_middle_class.html http://oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php/aid/3681/An_emerg... 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.

iandanforth 7y ago

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!

rory096 7y ago

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

luckydata 7y ago

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.

bszupnick 7y ago

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?

moflome 7y ago

Carpool management on Slack https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21 https://twitter.com/moflome/status/1165689379420946432?s=21

aestetix 7y ago

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 7y ago
They did invest in a fusion reactor startup: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-funding-for-possible-breakeven-fusion-device-this-year.html https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/helion-energy-got-fund...

tuukkah 7y ago

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/

Proven 7y ago

What are those "climate issues" that you are referring to? The only issue - but it has nothing to do with climate - is how to position your company so that it financially benefits from state-organized plunder (whether it's through direct fiscal spending, or though indirect theft such as subsidies). Can someone provide an example of a startup actually impacting Earth's climate, or showing any indication whatsoever that it could, without employing direct or indirect use of force? Let me guess: you can't. So pretend that it's about entrepreneurship? At least several commenters (such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20883900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20883900) say it makes no sense to try and instead argue in favor of the use of force (ie the government directly telling you want to do) which is indeed true - it's a use case in which "climate entrepreneur" is just an overhead. If you want to solve a problem with more government, you might as well get these unnecessary startups out of the picture - less overhead, more resources for the problem solvers in the government.