Rockstar panel this morning at Battelle's Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference, featuring Tailwind's co-founder Katie MacDonald, ISeeChange's founder and CEO Julia Kumari Drapkin, Streetlife Ventures's co-founder Sonam Velani and Kettle's new head of partnership Alex Laplaza.
Key takeaways 🤓
👉🏻 We need more hard tech innovation in adaptation and resilience: There are some physical solutions that are starting to be deployed, like BurnBot, Inc. wildfire management robots, but we need more of them.
👉🏻 Last mile delivery is critical! Researchers, scientists and innovators need to develop their product with the end customers in mind, and work with frontline communities for most impact.
👉🏻 Pick you source of financing carefully: Venture Capital is the most expensive type of financing, compared to grants and other non-dilutive awards. There are many federal programs to support climate-related R&D right now, lean on those as much as possible.
👉🏻 Other ways government can help: make procurement easier and more accessible, give access to testbed for new technologies in real-life settings, point researchers towards the greatest needs for innovation.
👉🏻 Don't let the better be the enemy of the good: data may not be perfect, but it can already help save life. Share findings early and often, start deploying measures that can help protect residents from extreme heat, floods and other climate hazards.
Much remains to be done, but it was exciting to hear from thought-leaders in the field about their work! 🚀