The Start of A New Era
Climate change is very real. If we don't do something now, we are f***. Sometimes, I would find it strange that even though I am 100% convinced of that fact, my actions were not proportional to the magnitude of the problem.
As an expert in computer science and machine learning, I am sure that I can contribute to finding and deploying solutions at scale, and yet, I kept finding excuses about why I still needed to do X or Y before I could commit 100% of my working time to the problem.
For some reason (maybe the insane amount of books I have been consuming on the topic recently), at some point this year, I decided that I was ready to take the plunge and find myself a climate job.
A lot has been written regarding how every job is a climate job, and I think there is truth in that phrase to a certain extent. Maybe because I had been postponing it for so long, I realized that that would not be sufficient for me. I needed to find something that would scream "SOLVING CLIMATE CHANGE" every time I opened my computer to work.
As if destiny had a plan for me (not a true destiny believer here, but the analogy works well), I stumbled into Carbon13's venture builder program, and it struck me; this is what I have been waiting for.
Joining the program allows me to address some key issues that I had when thinking about starting a company on my own:
- Even though I had been reading quite a bit on climate change and I have a couple of interesting startup ideas, I knew from my experience working as a consultant that having domain knowledge is critical (especially for ML projects), and I would be an outsider in most of the verticals I had considered.
- From my previous experience starting Yending, I knew I needed a solid co-funding team with complementary skills to my own.
- If everything goes well, there are still things related to starting a business that I don't have experience with. Having guidance in that process would be ideal.
Carbon13 promises to address all the above issues and more!
Starting 19th of September, I will join Cohort 4, getting to know all the other potential founders and hopefully starting a company of my own in the climate space 🤞🏼. Stay tuned.
Finally, I would like to thank the great team at Yale. During the last months, I had the opportunity to work side by side with incredible people, both in academia and industry. I will remember my time fondly at Yale and the amazing people I met there.
Regardless of where my calling for climate action takes me, I will still be rooting for the Bulldogs ;)