I volunteered at and attended the California Clean Tech Open (CTO) this week and was quite inspired and impressed with the event and the showing of thoughtful clean tech innovations.
I won’t bother to recap the event or relay details about the finalist start-ups – you can read all about that and more on the event’s press page. But I did want to bring up a few things that struck me leaving the event:
- The first thing that hit me was the demographic. With over 800 guests, 40+ clean tech start-ups, and a whole bunch of sponsoring organizations present I was expecting a certain demographic, and was surprised. When I think of a clean-tech entrepreneur, I think of someone like myself, but typically male with an advanced degree – more specifically I think of someone in their mid-twenties who can afford to take a risk with their career. But the crowd at the CTO was roughly 65% middle-aged white men, 15% other male, and 20% female. Amongst the speakers and the award recipients who were honored for their inventiveness, I would estimate a breakdown of 80% middle-aged white men. I guess it makes sense – these entrepreneurs have earned a bit of money in their career, generally bring considerable skills to the table, and are ready to spice things up and take a risk.
- Second of all, a friend of mine pointed out that the California Bay Area/Silicon Valley has something special going on. Local governments go out of their way to catalyze innovation and support small businesses. And more than that, trying your hand at entrepreneurship and failing is encouraged, admired even. Failure as a badge of honor. I haven’t seen this many other places, have you?
- The last thing on my mind leaving the CTO is just how nascent this field is. Most of the clean-tech start-ups represented at the CTO and anywhere are bound to fail. The market cannot handle so many solutions. But I do think we need many inventions to find the right one. And I think certain portions of the clean-tech arena are ready for consolitation – solar for example.
Clean-tech entrepreneurship is an exciting, intriguing field of development with high potential for saving the environment and allowing us to continue living the lifestyles we’ve grown accustomed to. And I’m ready to see some of these start-ups scale up.
Comments on the California Clean Tech Open 2008
I volunteered at and attended the California Clean Tech Open (CTO) this week and was quite inspired and impressed with the event and the showing of thoughtful clean tech innovations.
I won’t bother to recap the event or relay details about the finalist start-ups – you can read all about that and more on the event’s press page. But I did want to bring up a few things that struck me leaving the event:
Clean-tech entrepreneurship is an exciting, intriguing field of development with high potential for saving the environment and allowing us to continue living the lifestyles we’ve grown accustomed to. And I’m ready to see some of these start-ups scale up.