March 14, 2014

There is a how and way to gaining momentum to your clean and green tech innovation. The big secret is money! The ability to have the capital to propel your idea until its gains interest, adoption and a captive market. The luxury or one may say, the complexity of clean-green is a niche and specialization that comes from this market.   The expansion of this market will come out of education from the 7 lessons for successful cleantech investing that may spur investment and change how we value innovation.

The advice on cleantech investing from a partner at Generation, a London-based firm founded by Al Gore and David Blood. The “Blood and Gore” fund (because it was founded by Al Gore and David Blood), also known as Generation Investment Management, has been on a roll lately. The firm, founded in 2004 with $10 billion under management, funds both startups and public companies in sustainability. and has seen big exits from some of its startup bets in recent years, including smart thermostat maker Nest (sold to Google for $3.2 billion), and solar installer SolarCity (went public in late 2012), reports GigaOm .

The opportunity to rethink cleantech development and leverage for the developer and investor cam from the Cleantech Group’s forum in San Francisco on Thursday, Generation Partner Colin le Duc laid out seven guidelines that Generation has adhered to when it comes to backing cleantech startups, but also public companies.

Seven Guidelines:

1. Have faith: Have faith in our thesis and courage of conviction,
2. Take appropriate risk: As fund managers and investors, le Duc  said to cleantech investors: “Take the risks that you were meant to take.”
3. Use an investing thesis that fits the opportunity: Generation invests in both public companies as well as private equity in growth companies and startups.
4. Investing a lot of capital can be the right thing to do: Amazon was once a hated company in the Valley because it was a capital intensive play,“Building long term businesses need a lot of capital.”
5. Intensely study sustainability: Sustainable solutions are growth markets.
6. Understand incumbents and respect them: Incumbents, like utilities and oil companies, “matter a lot,”
7. Business model innovation is key to disrupting markets: Instead of focusing on tech innovation.