Month Nine Build-In-Public updates: Fundraising, Forestry & Fire

From a prescribed burn event in Tahoe I learned fires typically return every few years before they were suppressed over the last century in the US. The result of suppression is thick forest that isn’t natural even though we assume it is since we’re used to it.

Summary

• Deepening work on forestry/megafire prevention: I’m now in talks with a startup founder working fire prediction and am also currently working with a 40-acre landowner who had part of his land burn and we’re seeking to turn the burned wood into mass timber and buildings. I met this really great group called the Forest Futures that has brought together lots of experts and helped my education in this space.

• Exploring a small VC fund: Looked into scaling my angel investing by raising a small VC fund. Getting some soft commits into it and continuing to be excited about building a long term team around investing in private companies whether it is a fund, new angel group, or something else.

• Performed in a community choir. I joined one after my mom passed to recruit people for a small a capella group I want to build to sing for people in hospice. We just performed over the weekend and it was really fun getting to work with this amazing conductor and learn a ton about choral singing.

• Tougher month emotionally: I’ve been feeling more doubt as I go deeper into forestry and sometimes wonder what I bring to the table amongst experts in topics I know very little about like construction, logging, prescribed burns.

Things built

• This may be the first update I’ve given in my journey where I don’t have some new prototype of an app. I certainly would like one for helping to support companies I’ve invested in, sometimes I remember a good connection for them when they ask it but other times I don’t. I’ve thought about playing with my downloaded LinkedIn data but haven’t done it.

• Continuing work for Truckee Climate Hub & Climate Transformation alliance: Organizing a Climate Company showcase in Truckee, continuing to help fundraise for the Climate Transformation alliance in town.

We had a company come near our workspace and showcase its machines for forestry management to many fire chiefs in the area.

• Continued Building Truckee Threshold Choir chapter: Many are now through volunteer training, we’ve begun practicing and sounded really good so far!

Lessons learned

• Patience: Doing something in climate has already taken me a few years. It may take a few more before I’m getting paid.

• Fundraising for investing: I had hoped results would speak for themselves. They don’t for 10+ years in the VC world. I learned so far I’ll be successful or not based mostly on my personal network and that this is a tough market to be fundraising in.

• Mass timber: In the forestry space there’s a topic called mass timber to allow you to use smaller logs. Europe is very far along in it, in the US we’re not but it is a trendy topic in construction and could help us turn more wood into value in our forests that are overgrown.

• Prescribed burns: I’d heard about these, but after an event I realize the biggest barriers are legal (which drives up costs of doing them) and NIMBYism (people aren’t used to smaller scale smoke when that was more common and is pretty important to avoid megafires). There’s recently been progress on allowing native tribes to do cultural burns again more easily, and I think we could probably benefit from some cultural shifts in the rest of our community too.

• Play: While I value feeling playful, I found in the last month it wasn’t easy to directly focus on. One friend suggested just bringing that attitude into anything I’m doing. I’ll keep thinking about it but it was an experiment from last month I don’t plan to prioritize as highly again.

Progress (or a feeling of progress):

• Stablecoin yield business paid about half my prior salary this last month.

• Continued to feel less clear progress again after last month. Practicing patients (sometimes).

Questions:

• How can I best immerse myself in the forestry industry?

• What’s the best next step for me to take from my successes angel investing?

Asks

• Tips on forestry immersion projects I could do this summer

• Tools to help you offer your network to companies you’ve invested in

• Connections to people building interesting investing groups

Offers

• Talk your ear off about mass timber & prescribed burns

• Fundraising? Send me your pitch. I’m an angel investor for incredible founders and/or in industries I know well. I also have a network of other investors I can share your story with.