Emerging Forces in BC Cleantech

The very first talk in the entire Web Summit at the Climate Innovation Zone was a conversation lead by Tony Dhaliwal, Director of the Acceleration Programs division at Foresight. He was joined by Oscar Malpica, Barinder Rasode, and Donovan Woollard, three BC CEOs from three scaling startups tackling their own niche sectors in the cleantech space in their own way.

The biggest question that kicked off the discussion was one that I imagine many up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the space wanted answered: "What is the biggest challange you've faced as a startup in the cleantech space?". The answer, unsurprisingly, was funding, costs, and getting companies to take your product or service seriously. As innovators in the mining space in particular, Oscar and Barinder had to fight against to get the industry to see their product not as a liability, but as a tool that is aimed at reducing liability itself, and making their processes safer and cleaner.

This inevitably lead to the follow up question: "What advice can you give to attract investment?". Despite the difficulty that some startups may face when looking for capital and partnership to grow, it's not completely impossible. One piece of advice echoed by the three of them was to look for partners who don't seek 3x or 5x returns in the immediate future, but can instead look at the long horizon.

One particular piece of advice that I feel many entrepreneurs should pay close attention to is to becritical of your investors. The speakers agreed that in order to really succeed in progressive, disruptive changes in industry, you need to make ure that you surround yourself with people that share your vision and are also very pationate to innovate in the progressive sectors of the space. This can also do wonders for the culture at work, because any good cause with an ambitious goal will inevitably attract talented like-minded people. There's talent everywhere.

One subject that kept popping up, as discussions shifted towards tackling policy and regulatory challenges is the emphasis on figuring out safety first. By making sure that your processes and product are safe and comply with existing regulatory mandates, the industry you're innovating in will have the answers to any questions regarding liability. Sudden changes in policy at any level can catch you off guard, so it's important to be aware and ready to make changes at all times. However, in some cases it might be important that your are the one pushing the industry or policymakers for a raise in safety standards and incentivize progressive change.

The final point the speakers touched on was lessons for the future and to those seeking to grow their ideas into something big:

• Oscar's advice was to start small and work on bite-sized milestones you can work on and share so you can find like-minded people to join your cause or adopt your product/process. If you have an ambitious goal, you should follow it mindfully, keeping in mind the time and resources it will take to complete.
• Barinder commented on the importance of pivoting to achieve results, and to rely on the people around you. It's very important to ask for help, to ask questions, to rest when necessary, but to keep your progress steady.
• Donovan emphasized the need to be flexible and humble: To not lose sight of your goal but to be flexible in how to achieve it and look for alternative paths towards your milestones. No matter what comes your way don't let the lows get too low but also don't let your highs get too high either.

I'm not looking to create my very own startup anytime soon, but I believe there's a lot of solid advice here. Whether it's creating a small business, starting a new career, or working on a passion project, the key to success lies in staying humility, camaraderie and determination.