Why some VCs won't invest in first-time founders + $369B carve-out for climate/energy | E1528
This Week in Startups
Jason Calacanis
4.2 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2022
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
First up on VC Sunday School, J+M cover the stigma around investing in first-time founders: Is it a myth? What are the pros and cons? What really matters when evaluating a founder? (3:01) Then, Molly interviews Jay Koh of The Lightsmith Group to break down the Inflation Reduction Act's $369B climate/energy allocation. (29:08)
(0:00) Jason and Molly tee up today's segments!
(3:01) why is there a bias against investing in first-time founders?
(15:04) OpenPhone - Get an extra 20% off any plan for your first 6 months at https://openphone.com/twist
(16:21) Most important factors to startup success
(21:42 Jason and Molly tee up Molly's climate interview which is focused on the Inflation Reduction Act's $369B climate/energy carve-out
(27:53) MasterClass - Get 15% off an annual membership at https://masterclass.com/startups
(29:08) Jay Koh of The Lightsmith Group joins to break down the $369B earmarked for climate/energy in the Inflation Reduction Act
(36:39) Odoo - Get your first app free and a $1000 credit at https://odoo.com/twist
(37:58) What will the $369B do for the climate VC industry?
(48:48) What will this investment do for America's standing as a global climate tech leader?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All right, everybody. Welcome to the Sunday edition of This Weekend Startups, the show that never |
| 0:05.0 | leaves you hanging over the weekend. And Molly has a great question for me for VC Sunday school. |
| 0:11.5 | She had a friend who wouldn't invest in first-time founders. They'd like to have seasoned founders. |
| 0:16.4 | And she asked me this very important question about, hey, is that a thing? Should you only invest in |
| 0:21.8 | second, third-time founders? Or first-time founders, it led to a wonderful discussion that's very |
| 0:26.7 | candid and that most VCs will not have publicly? That's exactly the beauty of this show. And then, |
| 0:34.0 | because in the news right now, is this inflation reduction bill that nobody saw come? And Joe |
| 0:39.6 | Manchin surprised the world by signing on to a bill that includes $369 billion for climate. |
| 0:47.0 | I called my good friend, Jacob, of the Lightsmith Group to say, hey, that seems like it's going to |
| 0:53.0 | be good for us. Climate tech investor is right. Yeah, nice. New Z conversation about that. |
| 0:58.6 | This is exactly the discussion I've been waiting to hear because I've been trying to take a part |
| 1:03.8 | this bill and congratulations to President Manchin on getting this through getting this to the |
| 1:08.9 | finish line or apparently close to the line. We hope. We hope. We hope it feels like it's going to |
| 1:12.7 | happen. Hopefully Vice President Cinema won't screw it up for all of us, but yeah. Well, she might |
| 1:17.4 | also save us on very interesting stuff. She probably will. We talk about that too. We talk about the |
| 1:21.6 | built-in sacrifice that I like it. I like it. It's no sacrifice for me. Listen to you, Molly. |
| 1:26.3 | We're winning for me. It's a win-win for you. Molly, you're winning so much. I mean, right. |
| 1:31.8 | Great year. But we break down the important work in this bill to give credits for EVs and how |
| 1:40.0 | that works and how that simulates the adoption of these great technologies. And Molly and I obviously |
| 1:45.8 | have strong feelings about this. It's going to be a great show. Stick with us. |
| 1:50.2 | This week in startups is brought to you by OpenPhone. As a startup founder, a lot of mistakes |
| 1:57.2 | are easy to roll back. But using your personal cell phone number as your company number isn't one |
... |
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