Oli Barrett on leading a group of British entrepreneurs on a cleantech trade mission to California and discovering “the creative value of knocking ideas together” in the process.
Cast your mind back to your very first school trip. Perhaps you went to the zoo, or to a local museum. Maybe you came away with a giant pencil, or a dinosaur ruler. Now, imagine repeating that trip, as a grown-up, only with the most energetic, outspoken and mischievous pupils in the class. You now have just the tiniest flavour of what it is like to lead a trade mission of nineteen British entrepreneurs to California.
Of course, before departure, I’d heard of ‘cleantech’. Like you, I’d also heard of Greentech, Nanotech and Logitech. I just wasn’t sure which of them was supposed to be the next big thing and which of them made webcams and speakers. Now, after a week in Silicon Valley, I’m somewhat the wiser, and my money is on cleantech.
Welcome to the Clean and Cool Mission. We are on the West Coast of America to see how many opportunities we can drum up for our bus full of company founders, whittled down from over 140 applicants. Some meetings will be formal, as they pitch to investors or visit anyone from HP Labs and Arup to City Hall.
Others visits will be more social, with Sunday brunch hosted by a local connector, Susan MacTavish Best, inviting journalists to hear pitches over pitchers of Bloody Mary. Michael and Xochi Birch, founders of Bebo, will welcome us into Birch Castle, the traditional pub, located on the first floor of their stunning family home. If all goes well, we will return with offers of investment, partnership deals and plans to expand into the US. I will lose my voice. We will eventually find our feet. One thing seems certain; there will be little rest.
Opportunity cost
According to the Cleantech Group, whose annual conference we are visiting, cleantech is any technology which “provides superior performance at lower costs, while greatly reducing or eliminating negative ecological impact, at the same time as improving the productive and responsible use of natural resources”. Snappy, huh? For us, this means a terrific range of companies, each with its own personal mission. The majority are raising money, some are out to raise their profile and a handful are looking to open their first US office.
Even Bill Westwater’s name is on the money. Bill Westwater. How could he be anything other than a man out to change the way we wash? His Xeros washing machines reduce the need for huge quantities of water and detergent, by adding a hailstorm of tiny polymer beads to each wash. They don’t stick in the pockets either. By targeting the industrial laundry market, he will save companies time, energy and money. This rollover bonus is what seems to excite people about clean technology. Yes, the inventions are out to save the planet, yet in the process they can save millions. For the founders of those inventions, that could mean making millions.
Did you hear about the chap who started a wind-farm in his back bedroom? No, you didn’t. Because most cleantech costs megabucks. On previous trips to the US with web companies, participants have delighted in explaining how they have just launched a version of their product in a matter of weeks, and for less than the price of a stamp. For Martin McAdam and his wave-powered Oyster machines, life is not quite so simple. Just as you are become woozy with the level of funding required, you cast your mind back to the size of the opportunity. We meet with fifteen Venture Capital firms, and by the end of the week, they are the ones chasing us.
Better Place wants to change the world. The Israeli firm knows that electric cars are the future, and is out to own the infrastructure which powers them. The company has raised over $600m in venture capital. Excellent, then, to be allowed to visit their headquarters and to hear more about their plans. Imagine my surprise when, invited to ask questions, one of our entrepreneurs raises his hand, scratches his head and cries, “I just can’t see how this is going to work”. Two years of careful relationship building from UK Trade and Investment, a sponsor of the mission, teeters on the brink. Views are exchanged. Tough questions are answered.
I breathe a sigh of relief as we move to the second question. “I have some pretty major issues with this”. Brilliant. The back row of the bus springs to life, all at once. Another lesson; entrepreneurs are passionate, curious, opinionated people. Grovelling afterwards, I am relieved and reassured. Our hosts have hugely enjoyed the debate and our missionaries leave impressed by their openness to engage in a robust discussion.
The British are coming
I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco, but I may as well have left my body-clock. Each working day begins at eight and ends at midnight, and once you factor in keeping in touch with the UK on a seven hour time difference, sleeping becomes optional. On Monday morning, we check in for a boot camp on doing business in the US, hosted by law firm Orrick. The riot act is read. On the one hand, we Brits need to loosen up; our ties and general ‘buttoned up’ appearance may arouse suspicion. On the other, we need to sharpen up. Our lengthy emails are too rambling. Five hours, it turns out, is not an acceptable time-frame in which to come back to someone. We have a lot to learn.
Good news then, that we also have something to teach. In the words of the British Consul, Jaclyn Mason; “There’s a tendency to think that the Valley is leading on all of the technology. What surprises most people, and a lot of VCs have commented on it, is that we’ve got some fabulous technology in the cleantech space. We’ve got UK companies on this trip that are game changers and could really revolutionise the industry”. Suited and booted or not, the British are coming.
It was bound to happen. Put that many founders together and before long they will begin plotting. Richard Miller from the Technology Strategy Board calls it “the creative value of knocking ideas together”. “We have people from architecture, chemistry, materials, design, electronics, engineering, software, and half a dozen other disciplines. All of them with a wealth of specific expertise and rich and diverse career experience”. It is this wealth which has already resulted in some joint ventures emerging. PassivSystems, the energy management firm, has teamed up with ModCell and its renewable, carbon capturing materials, which lower heating costs by up to 85%. Together they are working on the government’s Building Schools for the Future programme, with the first school scheduled for completion in September this year.
Most of what you read about the low carbon economy falls in two areas. At one extreme, governments meet to agree limits and restrictions. At the other, you and I are encouraged to turn our thermostat down by a notch or two or rinse out our tin cans. Presidents and public are important, and yet there is one group which matters more, and without whom we really are in trouble. Without companies such as Breathing Buildings reinventing smarter working spaces which don’t need air-conditioning, or Evince exploring the potential for man-made diamonds to be used as semi-conductors, we’re stuck. Without Diverse Energy, pioneering new fuel cells, powering mobile phone masts, hundreds of miles from the nearest grid. Or without AMEE to enable companies to measure the carbon footprint of practically anything. In short, without entrepreneurs to step up to the global challenges, frameworks and consumer behaviour are irrelevant. If there was ever a time for entrepreneurs to save the world, this is it.