It’s been a few minutes since the last Myers Minutes, so here we go!  

😷 Omicron.  Not complaining because many people suffered when Omicron spread, but I can say it brought CTC its own set of challenges.  We delayed most happy hours from January and February to March and April, making for an awesome yet intense couple of months.  

💥 February + March: Record Setting Months.  One word: humbled.  We brought together 1,500+  people within 3 weeks at UC Berkeley & SXSW, including 40+ startups exhibiting and pitching. The energy has been palpable. Podcast downloads quadrupled MoM in February and increased another 50% MoM in March.  The pod has also been downloaded in 65 countries now, including Ukraine last week.   

🇺🇦 Ukraine.  The war in Ukraine really started to escalate when we were in TX for SXSW.  Being Texan born and raised and 20% Ukrainian, I felt I needed to say something.  Let's be honest. Truth of the matter is we’ve aided and abetted the Putin regime via our addiction to fossil fuels and lack of political backbone to fully embrace a cleantech revolution over the past decades.  Yes, while we should all do our part in supporting Ukraine with donations, the long term solution is each of us going all in on climate tech.  Start a climate tech company, work for one, invest in them, use their products and services.  

🤷🏻‍♂️ U.S. Government: Super Disappointing. Congress hasn’t passed meaningful legislation because one guy is owned by the coal industry and most Republicans are either owned by the fossil fuel industry, are spineless or are just straight up brainwashed. Yeah, I said it, but it’s true. At least Biden invoked the Defense Production Act for EV battery materials. That’s a start! Maybe we need to resort to Biden EOing our way forward?

🤦‍♂️ And it isn’t just the U.S… Keep an eye out for the latest IPCC report. I didn’t realize governments need to agree on the executive summary. i.e. the summary, what 99.5% of people read, can water down or even conflict with the scientific findings in the report. While scientists want to call for the elimination of fossil fuels surprise, surprise…India, Saudi Arabia, China and Ecuador don’t like that so much…Governments are acting like this isn’t an existential crisis, which is why we can only rely on them so much.

✊🏼 Staying True.  As solo founders know and I’m quickly learning, it can be easy to veer off course when constantly managing and striving for growth.  Personally, I believe the best thing one can do is stay true to the mission and let the chips fall where they may.  I’d rather fail working towards large scale impact over the long term vs giving into the temptation of short term profit.  

🎢  Months Ahead.  Here’s what’s cookin’!

• Upcoming podcast episodes are 🔥 : Kevin Martin (unspun), Jennifer Holmgren (LanzaTech), and Etosha Cave (Twelve), to name a few!  

• We’ve got our first Members Only happy hour of the year next Thursday, April 7th at unspun’s HQ and our first LA happy hour on April 21st at Inspire Energy’s HQ in Santa Monica.  

• We also can’t wait to launch our new AMA format.  We’ve had this on the back burner for a while now and we’re stoked to bring it to the forefront in Q2!

• We’ve made exciting progress on the rolling fund both on the LP and the advisor fronts.  We’re on track to launch the fund in Q3 and we can’t wait to share what’s in store!

Until next time! Keep crushing it with a cool beverage in hand.

Warmly,

Matt