125. Elevating Climate Venture Capital

Episode #125

Quinn:
Welcome to Important, Not Important. My name is Quinn Emmett, and this is science for people who give a shit. Folks there's a lot going on out there. Our world is changing and being changed every single day. And you can take part in that change. I talk to the smartest, most impactful people on the planet to provide you with the inspiration and tools you need to feel better and to fight for a better future for everyone.

Quinn:
Our guests are scientists and doctors, nurses and journalists, policy makers, farmers, engineers, educators, astronauts. If you want to be inspired to find out how to make radical change, hit the subscribe button right now to get even more conversations, stories, and tools coming soon. You can also scroll through the feed or go to podcasts.importantnotimportant.com to find 120 plus evergreen episodes covering everything from clean energy, to cancer, and artificial intelligence, to regenerative agriculture.

Quinn:
Some quick housekeeping, you can send questions, thoughts, and feedback to us on Twitter @importantnotimp, or you can email us at questions @importantnotimportant.com. You can also join tens of thousands of other leaders and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter at newsletter.importantnotimportant.com. Get the most vital science news plus exclusive analysis and action steps. And third, you can find new impactful work on the front lines of the future @importantjobs.com.

Quinn:
If you already work for a company or an organization doing that work, you can list your open roles there for very affordable rates and get them in front of our entire community. In this week's conversation, I am so excited to talk with Vida Asiegbu and Anthony Oni. Two incredible climate venture capitalists with fascinating backgrounds. And these two are working to not only slow the climate crisis as if that's not enough, but even more so to build a vastly more inclusive VC industry along the way. I learned so much from talking with these two humans, and I know you will too.

Quinn:
For avocado green brands sustainability comes first. They craft their GOTS-certified organic mattresses, pillows and bedding with natural materials sourced from their organic farms in India in their own clean energy powered facility in Los Angeles. Where their team shares a singular purpose, to raise the bar for what it means to be a sustainable business. Avocado is climate neutral certified for net zero emissions and donates 1% of all revenue to environmental nonprofits through its membership with 1% for the planet, find out what it means to sleep organic @avocadomattress.com.

Quinn:
My guests today are Vida Asiegbu and Anthony Oni. And together we are talking about building a radically more inclusive investment ecosystem, which it's a pretty low bar. And just in time, because things are blowing up in more way than one. Vida and Anthony. Welcome.

Vida Asiegbu:
Sure.

Anthony Oni:
Thank you for having us.

Quinn:
Absolutely, absolutely. I really appreciate you spending the time. Vida and Anthony take turns, whatever works. If you could tell the people real quick who you are and what it is that you do.

Anthony Oni:
Well, I'll kick it off. I'm Anthony Oni. I am now serving as a managing partner of what is called the Elevate Future Fund, which is a fund that is part of the energy impact partners. That's really focused on creating a clean energy transition, making the investments in the clean energy space. The fund that we manage, Elevate Future Fund is focused on, helping us move to a clean energy future, but ensuring that we also build a more diverse, inclusive and equitable future by making investments in the underrepresented groups in the US.

Quinn:
Rock and roll, no small task.

Vida Asiegbu:
And I'm a principal within the Elevate Future Fund. And I work on the investment side to ensure that we have all the right companies, that we want to have represented in our portfolio across our three different approaches. Within elevate, we are investing within the direct equity side of things. We're also providing credit capital, and we're also making investments in the ecosystem and ensuring that there is alignment with other funds, incubators and accelerators. And so we are investing in them as well.

Quinn:
Awesome. Covering your basis, no small task. But we are all appreciative of it, for sure. Thank you for sharing that. So, before we get really into this thing, I like to start with one important question. It's a little preposterous, but it sets a tone for this fiasco a little bit. So instead of asking you to repeat your entire life story, as fascinating as I'm sure that is, I like to ask Vida and Anthony, why are you Vital to the survival of the species?

Quinn:
I encourage you to be bold. You're here for a reason Anthony's already laughing at me, which is pretty typical for this question.

Anthony Oni:
No, it's a great question. I think as a collective, we in response to this, this answer, and then I'll say that I am that critical mean we're asking what that is, but I think the work that we're doing and what we represent, is very, very critical. So in a couple of ways, I'll try to address that. And I'm sure Vida also has some input on this as well. But why are we critical, I think when you look at just stepping back, you look at the challenges that we're facing as a society. Two of the greatest challenges that I see in front of us right now, it's around climate change and this transition to more sustainable future. And also some of the social unrest and social, issues that we see in our life.

Anthony Oni:
And these things are getting more pronounced. Unless there is action, the Westerners contradiction or less, we are more intentional about how we are solving those issues. So what we represent is that change, is that impact in the sense that we're looking to address some of these issues. And I think the world that we have, and especially the work that we're doing at Elevate Future Fund, it's really tapping two of the most challenging problems. A lot the of climate change or on social issues. And when I think the collective we, the other like-minded individuals the folks who are working in this space, that we also have a great fortune of working alongside recognize that if we don't do something now, we don't do something now to start to addressing these issues and start to rectify and fix some of these then our future doesn't look as bright as we think it will be from a climate perspective, but also from addressing some of the social inequities that we've seen.

Anthony Oni:
And quite often times, these are not issues that you see outside your door today, but they manifest over time. They manifest in the five, 10 pick a period of time. And by then it's more than likely too late to do something right then. So we have to start now and try to address those. So I think we're important in the sense that we are trying to solve these issues and we're trying to solve them with the best available talent, the best of all the resources that we have today. And really make sure that we're making an impact not only for our lifetime of, for the future generations ahead.

Quinn:
Yeah. That works. I mean, you could just do this whole thing. You don't even need me at this point. That's fantastic. Vida what about you? What, and again, it can be as part of a team, why do you feel like this has to be you?

Vida Asiegbu:
Absolutely. So the thing for me is that I know that I have the ability to consolidate the experiences, the knowledge from the experiences that I've had in order to provide solutions for others that are either going through a similar experience, the same experience or other ones. And so I have received this opportunity to do exactly what I want to do. Taking my finance experience from over the years and thinking through what the founder experience is and what that looks like given the experience that I've seen, watching my parents as entrepreneurs themselves, I am marrying all of the opportunities and all the learnings that I have been able to see observed and experience myself in order to help founders and company owners that require support from a person who knows.

Vida Asiegbu:
And I had a conversation earlier this week just about the value of conveying late stage company experience from my investment banking experience and being able to help a company that is in its early stages and in it's nascent stage, grow and develop to be that late stage company that will be able to have an impact in the market. And so I would say that the fact that I'm able to take the opportunities that or the experiences that I've had to this point and to convey that to others is something that is unique to my experience and unique for me as a person of color within the spaces. And sometimes the first and only person of color within the spaces that I've navigated.

Vida Asiegbu:
So I'm helping others that are coming into the same or pioneering in the same way that I have in the past to do that for the businesses that they have, that they're trying to grow in the market. And it's a privilege to be able to do this. Sometimes you wonder why you have the experiences that you have or why you go through certain things, but I know that everything, every new experience is a waste. And so I'm making sure that I'm recycling, reusing and repurposing the experiences that I've had for others that have required that support from me.

Quinn:
I love that. And thank you for sharing that perspective. I mean, I feel like that's something we all grow and of course ... Okay, I'm a very privileged straight white man in America in 2021 my challenges whether those done to me or self-induced are pale in comparison to so many folks. But I do feel like as we get older, we get a little bit more that perspective, like you were saying that nothing we go through, no challenge is actually a waste. There are ways to incorporate that into the way we live our lives everyday, but also the work that we do in the way we can try to directly and indirectly mentor people who are coming up behind us to say like, "I've been there. I can't get you through it, but I can help you think about it a little more differently with some perspective, hopefully."

Vida Asiegbu:
And I appreciate that Quinn because if you think about the individuals that we're supporting with the Elevate Future Fund, it is going to be a sleek of entrepreneurs that haven't had all the capital and the resources available to them. And so the fact that we do have the opportunity to provide that to these entrepreneurs that want to bring into the ecosystem is incredible. And the fact that we can use the experiences that we've developed and the knowledge that we've garnered thus far in order to help them is incredibly important. And we're so grateful to have that impact.

Quinn:
I love it. Look, I do some angel stuff I've been prodded to start some sort of rolling fund to address all the things we talk about, but I don't have the bandwidth to do this sort of thing, but also it's not difficult to look around. And this is when I first learned about you guys from Kim and Sophie, over at Climate Tech VC, who do just such a tremendous job covering your area. And I know you guys work with Kim, right? It's not difficult to look at a place like Silicon valley or where most of the venture capital stuff and go, "Oh, it's mostly white."

Quinn:
It's another thing to really look at the statistics and go, "Oh, only 15% or so of VC partners are women." and women founders get less than, I don't know, four or 5% of VC dollars. And people of color are barely on the register when it comes to LPs and GPs. It's more essential than ever full stop. Forget everything else that's going on. That that becomes much more equitable on both sides, much more cooperative and inclusive, but of course, we're also now in this era. It's not really a moment. The climate crisis is here. It's here for the rest of our lives and our children's lives.

Quinn:
And not to put you guys on the spot. But I, when I look at my age and the rest of my lifetime, I mean, decarbonization is the mission of our lifetime of our work span. And the work that we have to do, the transitions that all of our industries and systems will have to go through and the effects we're going to feel no matter what really only change more radically from here. And I've written a little about this, but with COVID, the choices that we've made up to this point are what got us here. And so it's very clear that we need a more cooperative and inclusive range of perspectives to start to address both through adaptation and mitigation, these enormous variety of often connected issues that we are facing.

Quinn:
So it seems like there's never been a better time than to have folks like yourselves involved in this sort of thing. And not just because of who you are, but also again, those experiences you've had and the places and industries you've worked in before. So I'm curious if you could each talk for a moment about your past careers that got you here and what might be transferable as you bring it to this newer endeavor. Because again, two my favorite angles lately are why do you have to do this? Why do you feel like you have to do this?

Quinn:
But also from an outside perspective why does it have to be you? And both of you are you didn't just join as LPs with a bunch of money when you were young and you've been raised in the VC fund system. You're bringing these fascinating perspectives to it. That could be so constructive to what you were trying to do with this fund. So if you could just take a little time and talk about that, so that people have a landscape for who you are and what you're bringing to the table.

Anthony Oni:
Thank you. This notion of experiences is so important and I think more and more now, we're starting to realize that in order to have better solve and more complete solve for the challenges, these experiences are things of value that we each uniquely bring to the table. And what we're talking about in a lot of cases, and making sure that we're being very thoughtful about inviting others. Whether through capital, through voice onto participate how these stands are solved. For me, it started early on before career. My father was born in Morristown, New Jersey. My father worked at Bell Labs at the time, and growing up with a father that is an engineer at heart, you end up building everything in life. Anything that gets broken in the house, we don't go to the store and just buy a new one.

Quinn:
No, no.

Anthony Oni:
We have to fix it. No you got to fix it. I spent my childhood just fixing, literally I was doing home improvement projects at the ages, like four years old in the house we had. It was really good experience for me because just, if you think about Bell Labs and what they've done, in which we still live with a lot of the innovation that came up of [crosstalk 00:17:10] that's not enough of being able to build some kind of skills has always fascinated me and I had chance to go to school at Albany university down south and that as a whole was just a phenomenal experience. A lot of life shaping experiences as part of that.

Anthony Oni:
Graduated and ended up working in the utility business. But I have to tell you, I never wanted to work in the utility business, it was the farthest thing from my mind. I didn't even know anything about utility business. I graduated right after the.com burst. And my goal at the time was to go work in Silicon valley, the work in the startup space and go build boats and stuff. And I ended up working for a Southern company, one of the largest utilities in the Southeast based in the Southeast. And worked in Birmingham, Alabama for a subsidiary company called Alabama Power.

Anthony Oni:
And during that time I had a whole post roles, but one of the things that I came to appreciate, someone that hasn't builder mindset is that the utility, in a lot of ways is a great construct for how we're trying to solve some of these problems in a sense that you have an obligation to serve really everyone in your service area no matter who you are. So you've got to build your system to serve all, not just a few, but you've also have to make sure that you understand those customer's needs and you spending time with those customers.

Anthony Oni:
And that's how our relationships was really on this course [bay 00:18:44]. One of the roles I had working at the utilities was bailey economic and community development organization. And that role I remember my boss at the time, he told me, he said, "Anthony, if you're in the office one or two days consecutively a week, you aren't doing your job." And so my job was to go out to the rural parts of our state, meet with mayors, county commissioners, folks working to improve their communities. And you had to build those relationships and these connectivity. And you had to do it in a way where you were really working to try to position these, these communities for economic growth. Work through leadership programming, work through strategic planning and working through asset mapping to figure out the best position these community can be in.

Anthony Oni:
And you're building something for a longterm. And when we talk about this transition in energy and climate change it does require us to have just a lot of aperture on how we are thinking about building that. And really how we use capital to build that. You mentioned earlier on just in the disparities that we're seeing one stat that continues to just blow my mind and it really just speaks to the challenge when we talking about how we solve this in a more complete way. This was a stat from the national academy of sciences from some research they did a while ago. When we look at the amount of global financial assets on the match. This is global it's about $69 million globally.

Anthony Oni:
This makes up mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity venture and whatnot. You have fewer than 1.3% that is managed by women and people of color. It's only when you appreciate that for a little bit. When you've got $69.1 trillion global assets under management, and only less than 1.3 of that is managed by a woman and people of color. In the US, it's less than 1% of founders have access to venture capital. You realize that you do have to make sure that that access to capitalism is important, because again, you will not have the complete picture. And as we're going through this transition of focusing on sustainability, you come to realize that this by far decarbonizing our world, our economy is by far the longest opportunity that we will see in our lifetime.

Anthony Oni:
It's bigger than what we've seen in the past. It's bigger than the whole dot com ended up doing as a whole. And its really important that as we think about how to solve these problems especially the role that capital plays, that we are being very thoughtful about how we're making sure that more people have access to this capital. And we're being thoughtful about how these solutions are being solved. In large part they're solved by increasing an aperture and making sure that people who have different lived experiences have a hand and have a path to helping solve these challenges.

Anthony Oni:
If we let it be solved by the same people who traditionally have solved some of these problems, or being involved in the innovation space, I feel we won't have a complete assault. And beyond just whatever the technical solids are. What we should to realize now is that ... And I think you see this pressure from large institutional investors where we're focused on ESG issues, is that what we do and what we solve is important, but how we solve it is equally important.

Anthony Oni:
If you go through a decade of the past where you've seen the real effects of the industrial growth that we've had in glass. A lot of great things came out of it, but also how we went about doing some of those things weren't probably the right way to do it. All right we've seen the same thing. I think even now we were starting to question some of the hyper growth we've seen in the tech space, the social space as a whole. And I think as we go through solving climate through a more sustainable future, we want to think about what we're doing, but how are we doing as well, making sure that we have brought a communities that have a chance to participate and have a chance to win on this.

Anthony Oni:
We know that underrepresented communities, black and brown communities across the US who unfortunately, bear the brunt of some of the main environmental justice issues that we see. And so by allowing more people who have different experiences, folks like Vida and I, and others who traditionally have not participated in the front end of some of these opportunities, important economies and markets participate in a way funded by capital, also supported by ecosystem. I do think we'll actually get a better solve. And We'll have, a more complete picture, in shaping that future.

Anthony Oni:
So I think those, those experiences are important. So for me the time that I spent working in between space really, [inaudible 00:23:52] on a me. So it was really important to ask us of how you serve and how you serve, not just the [inaudible 00:23:56] everyone. The other thing that was really important for me in the utility space was actually working on some of these issues around access. I was very fortunate, during your time to work in a lot of different social impact projects that really focused on education and collaborated with a lot of great companies like Apple or Alabama Power and Southern company working on some of these issues you're trying to solve some these. Once you realize is that these problems didn't get started yesterday. They're systemic issues.

Anthony Oni:
And they really kind of fall into, a lot of pipeline issues where we're not seeing as many people get involved in some of these things in the early stage. So making sure we have more people going into these fields and engineering, making sure we have more folks focused on environment. That's also pointed us all, and making sure that we have a more complete picture.

Quinn:
Well, I mean when you look at, it's not just what movies does Disney put out, or where does this pipeline go or whatever, or how do we fix this change? And again, I'm sure you've seen, as the parent of young soccer player and so on, and they constantly asking why, why, why? But it does get you to the root of the problem, which is not just like, how are we going to do this? Or what are we going to do? You got to go all the way back to like, wait, who is actually participating in the question asking? Who is actually in the room when we're trying to decide, how are we going to even think about doing this?

Quinn:
And if you're excluding the same people, we've always excluded. You're inherently after all this time going to get to very similar answers to what got us here. So it starts with that. It starts with that representation of folks in the room to ask questions like, "Should we be doing this? How should we be thinking about this? Who else can we cooperate with to do this? Vida, can you talk a little bit about what that's meant for your journey along the way to get to where you are?

Vida Asiegbu:
Now, I would say that it has been important for me to understand just what the problems are and the needs of the people that do seek, or that need to be included. And that's where the benefit of my experience has been so helpful. As a daughter of entrepreneurs, I have seen what the founder journey has looked like over the years, still part of the founder journey. My parents are still involved in their businesses, and I have been able to extrapolate that understanding to other areas for the founders that do come to me today, asking for help support advice with regard to what they're doing.

Vida Asiegbu:
And then also this is translated into providing support for other investors, as they're thinking through how to support founders from their vantage point. I would say that having a community of people who understand what you're going through as a father, as an investor, that is something that is incredibly important to have.

Vida Asiegbu:
And for these, I guess you could say these communities of diverse individuals who do not have the legacy of resources and sweat equity put forth in their direction, that it has been incredibly important to really use that community as a resource for that catch-up, that needs to happen. And so being in the midst of that and supporting with the experiences that I've had, and that I've been able to develop over the years, that has been important for me as contributor to this environment and this ecosystem and this universes of people that are working to enter into the market.

Vida Asiegbu:
I would say that having the opportunity to just connect with people is something that is important. And I hear it all the time that the community is more than just the transaction. It's about building the relationship and having that support, knowing that if it's truly, honestly, and truly that if there is a need that anyone could send a message or pick up the phone and call you in order to get advice or get a different perspective, I would say that being a part of that and being in the flow of that has been important for me in order to support, in order to support founders, either that I'm investing in or that I'm supporting through the advice that I'm giving.

Quinn:
I mean, that's what it comes down to. We can all read these news headlines about a jet stream slowing down and this and this, but I mean, climate change it's the air you breathe and the water you drink, it's inherently very personal and very local. And having those relationships and those touch points, if not having your own to those issues, whether you came up with unable to afford water or power, or it was dirty, or the infrastructure didn't support it, or working with those folks in that who are now trying to become founders. Because they knew those problems better than anyone. That's what's really going to get this done.

Quinn:
And again, the perspectives are there. I mean, we've had four economic revolutions in the past couple hundred years, you've got agriculture and it's 2021 and 99% of rural land is still owned by white Americans. And half of that's by people over 65 industrialization. And still in 2021, 60% of black Americans live near a coal plant, micro trips. Like what was it? The eighties and nineties. So those companies are going public while the war on drugs is going crazy. Online and mobile, we saw last year with COVID, I mean, how many kids of color have no online access at all, much less a device to put it on.

Quinn:
So black Americans for the most part were outright denied the opportunity to participate in these, if not being over-indexed dumping exposed and affected by them. And now you've got just this year, I mean, it's October and the billions of dollars pouring into climate tech versus even last year. Which was the most, and you've got all these things going on and we're still dealing with COVID and the red line city blocks are harder than they've ever been, but folks in those communities know those problems best.

Quinn:
So I guess what active steps are you actually taking to make sure you guys are getting the deal flow necessary to make sure that these things are actually coming to you to carve out not only the space for yourselves and your fund, but also the folks in those communities to say like, "I have to be part of this conversation. I need to be able to judge for myself if we should take part in this deal."

Vida Asiegbu:
Sure.

Anthony Oni:
Hey, I'm going to let Vida about the downfall piece of it, but I want to go back to just what you said around just what we've seen, and it really kind of, I guess, double click on this point around why the lived experiences are so important in solving some of these problems. So I want to brag on one of the investments we've made so far in a company called a ChargerHelp!. ChargerHelp! Is a company that is really focused on what's really critical infrastructure for this clean energy transition, which is electric charging stations.

Anthony Oni:
And what they've done is created a platform and a company that helps maintain that infrastructure. Maintain the groan infrastructure for you to be charged with patient across the US. Well uniquely what, Kameale Terry and Evette Ellis had done ... And these are the two co-founders of the company. And Kameale is the CEO of Charging Health because of their lived experiences, they've also built in a workforce training program that's part of the company. And this wasn't done as a bolt on afterwards or afterthought. This was done on the front end because their lived experiences allowed them to appreciate the fact that as they're working in probably what is going to be one of the fastest growing industries, just the charter stations and a bunch of cars on the roads that they thought it well enough to make sure that they are incorporating a workforce training programs so that people would fender communities, and the community's aware they're going to be servicing and working across the us.

Anthony Oni:
And that's a component of it. They are thinking long term about how more people can participate inside this new economy on the ground floor early on. And I think that's part of what you get with this focus on inclusion and focus on making sure that you have access of capital flow too. The represented founders in this case two African-American woman that typically, broadly speaking in the past would not have been on the radar of a lot of VCs. And this is the type of solid solutions that you get in market, where you actually have a company that does fantastically doing great work in a very important field to help us transition to a clean energy future, but is solving that in a way that I doubt would come from your typical traditional founders that you find in Silicon valley, finding this workforce component that's added to it. The fact that they are bringing others along certain, these are going to be really where you're paying jobs living at this time to what do they do.

Anthony Oni:
They pay better than average little wages, they're building skillsets and training folks to participate in this new economy. So I just want to say that that's a great example of what we're trying to do, from the types of investments that I think give you a better solve. And not only in one, but also how, how you do that as well. Vida was very instrumental in this investment. So Vida why don't talk them about it, then let's talk about the beautiful piece and how we source it.

Vida Asiegbu:
Absolutely. So as far as the opportunity with ChargerHelp, but I would say that this is the benefit of the relationships that are on the EIP platform. And we have the opportunity of conveying deal flow from a number of ways on the platform, through the platform and so on and so forth. The utilities that we have as the predominant LP base for all of our funds are the utilities. And they are the ones that are in all the markets that we would want to be in. They are not just on the coast, they're in each and every neighborhood across the country. So they have a unique opportunity sitting and servicing different communities. And so they have that access to companies, to incubators accelerators that are going to be thoughtful, mindful around the needs of the communities that they serve through the utilities that they provide them.

Vida Asiegbu:
And not only that, but we do have a pretty connected platform, and advisors and investors on the platform that are able to convey deal flow from different areas. And I think that it's an incredible network that we have had given that he has been in existence going on six years now. I think that that work in the market is something that cannot be denied and the market does value our input and our investment. And so there's a bit of deal flow that does come through to us as a result of that. And we are lucky to be the beneficiaries of that.

Vida Asiegbu:
But the other thing for us, and most especially given that we are going earlier in the company life cycle, and we are broadening the groups of entrepreneurs that are coming onto the scene within the energy ecosystem. It is important for us to share and grow that network with others that are doing what we are doing. And this is where the investment in the ecosystem has been incredibly important because it has given us an opportunity to work with others in order to grow the pie of entrepreneurs that are diverse and with an energy.

Vida Asiegbu:
And we are making sure that we are investing in them and with them through co-investment in the companies that we find to be interesting, exciting, and that will move the needle when it comes to the needs that we have within the energy transition. And there are amazing programs that have been focused on ensuring that what we are covering with diversity, with workforce development, with all the things that are important to ensure that the energy transition is inclusive, we have really good partners in that.

Vida Asiegbu:
The Los Angeles Cleantech incubator where ChargerHelp!, our first investment came out of is a program that has been mindful about, address transition within energy. And so they have worked with companies like ChargerHelp! to ensure that the work that they want to do to give back to the communities that they're coming from, that those factors are to being taken into account as they're building the foundation of their organizations and taking that and scaling off of that.

Vida Asiegbu:
So that's why ChargerHelp! is as a company that is so unique that it has an incredibly impactful leading edge solution that is marrying the reality of the fact that we do need to make sure that the transition is just, and that everyone is a part of that transition. And that workforce development is in order to move over the workforce that will be in these obsolete or what will become obsolete jobs are moving forward along with everyone else, within the energy transition.

Quinn:
Yeah. I feel like we just don't spend enough time in policy and in general in society talking about having the real conversation about what this transition is going to look like for so many of these industries. I mean there was some news this week about how France has basically identified, they did some of the work and 25% of their automobile supply chain industry is just going to be gone and that's enormous. And they don't drive nearly as much as we do. We have to get ahead of this as much as we can. And again, not just for the people we're in it, but I mean, especially those folks, but there's going to be a number of industries like that. And we have to make them as thoughtful and as inclusive as we can.

Quinn:
I wonder, just because I feel like I skipped a beat. And you both mentioned this, and I just again, I want to help folks understand that picture a little bit. Many of your LPs are some of the country's biggest utilities, which is so fascinating. Can you just briefly talk for a moment about the benefits of having those institutions behind you? Because, in a moment, they are being challenged to adapt and mitigate, like everyone else if not more? So it's exciting to see them saying like, "We're going to actively take part in trying to draw up the next generation of these investors and these companies and infrastructure." So what is that like? What is the wind behind you from having those folks in your corner?

Anthony Oni:
I spent 20 years working in the utility space, and really come to appreciate really the role that they've played and the communities that they serve. Again, it's this obligation to serve. To provide a safe, reliable power to everyone. But for us, one of the unique opportunities that our investors have not investors, it's mostly all utilities, but we have others by Cox or Microsoft and others in cyberspace, but utilities, and by and large for giving us, I think, a really unique vantage point, a unique way to deploy capital. So one of the things to note is that most utilities in the US that think certainly for the ones that are part of our fund are 100 plus years old. So these are entities that have been in communities for over a century. And within the role they've played, and I mentioned relationships earlier, these utilities, certainly, what I came from have just tons of relationships within multiple communities, in areas.

Anthony Oni:
And so what we're able to do is leverage those relationships within those communities. And really overlay this venture capital construct on top of that, to make sure that within these communities that they serve, that is not traditionally in West, the east or west coast, areas that we are leveraging those relationships, leveraging the good work that [inaudible 00:42:16] Digital's have done to make sure that capital has flowed to these communities. Especially in the accelerators and incubators that these communities and utilities have already invested in.

Anthony Oni:
So the great example is there's a energy accelerator of all places in Birmingham, Alabama, is run by a good friend of mine named [inaudible 00:42:39] management was part of Textiles program. But the utility, the Alabama was instrumental to getting this incubator set up. And this one is really focused on energy and where they focused on the energy future. And so we're able to partner with that program, and really all the other utilities and their different programs that incubator accelerators in these communities to ensure that we are going to find it, we're looking for those companies that have a role in shaping that energy future, using that as a pipeline to look at underrepresented founders that are doing some amazing things. In places like Birmingham, Alabama, or other parts of where we're focused on and the rest of the Americas.

Anthony Oni:
As you've heard before, we're also using these utilities in a way that's really unique for our diligence process. So we'll come back and talk about VIP and ERP platform. But one of the things that is really key for us is that because of that utility and relationship engagement, we have access to just a enormous amount of resources and expertise within these companies. So if we're wondering, looking at electric transportation or EB charging stations, we have just a tremendous amount of resources to draw on from those utility partners who have people who it's been in decades working on this stuff.

Anthony Oni:
If we want pivot to electrification or carbon, carbon capture, one of the main-

Quinn:
Transmission.

Anthony Oni:
Transmission, I mean, with all the building blocks are the key building blocks for that clean energy transition, we have access to that domain equities, those resources are to our utility partners. So it really gives us an unmatched ability to not only due diligence, but also to help the startups. So give them the exposure to experts in the field, to make sure that they are refining their product, refining their services and making sure that they have access to the same type of resources that other folks have in building these companies up.

Anthony Oni:
The IP platform that I think is just fantastic in that regard. It was started in 2015 by Our founder and general partner Hans Kobler, who spend a lot of his time at GE Capital, working on corporate venture capital. And he did a lot of work in that space and brought it to this brought into the utility space now, where we have what I think is a very unique collaborative model where we are helping utilities here around the corner, looking at new business models, new innovations in the space.

Anthony Oni:
And then they in turn, help us with the diligence, but also, in the type of resources that we can bring to bed. One of them is really important for all of us, as we make these investments is what I call the post Investment Support, making sure that beyond just that initial outlay of capital, that we actually have the expertise necessary, and the support necessary. And so we've got really great research, innovation and commercialization team as part of Energy Impact partners, that helps us take companies like ChargerHelp! And others that will look when making investments in. And really by sheer force of will make them market leaders in their domain by that access to resources, expertise that you otherwise wouldn't get.

Anthony Oni:
So I think utilities, in a lot of ways not only just again, helping us embed in that community, helping us get access to those key communities and those key relationships, and making sure venture flows. The other aspect that's becoming increasingly important is that pipeline is ensuring that we are working in those educational spaces and between the focus from my ears around HBCUs, that we are making sure that we are building the next generation of folks who can work in this field. We know that as we've seen the path, these transitions as a whole and more disruptive to people of color.

Anthony Oni:
And so to the extent that we can get students ready prepared, we're talking now to a whole host of HBCU, college universities, we've really great conversations with folks here in Atlanta and AMC, and really working to prepare the next generation of students to participate in this really growing economy.

Quinn:
So I want to get specific about that. Because our goal we always try to work towards because, as constructive as it can be hearing people talk about climate change for an hour sometimes can be a little sad, or COVID, or whatever it might be. So we'd like to empower our community through specific things to one if it just helps them feel better, great. But two things that drive systemic change, and how they can get involved, because we have so many people, our community who have either left to do more impactful work in climate, or public health, or whatever it might be, or they're young people who are trying to get involved in this sort of thing.

Quinn:
And that goes down to that college level, or even on the community college level, which obviously, we do such a poor job of supporting in this country. But it's such a huge, huge class of folks who can contribute. So you are hoping and working towards a future that is not only more equitable and inclusive among the general population, but specifically in this industry. And like you said, you're already talking to HBCUs. And there's this huge amount of young folks who are probably just soaking this conversation up. You didn't start here, though, as we have discussed, how would you counsel those young folks specifically in some of those conversations you're having, and now to get started to be a wedge that can start to make a difference to carve some space for themselves and having some practical change?

Anthony Oni:
I'll go back to how I got into the technology space beyond just the exposure I had from my father. But I remember being in the gym, I think was my junior senior in high school. And a career counselor came in and said, "Hey, I want to talk to you guys about what you want to do in the future. And I don't think I had a great sense of exactly what that was going to be for me until they started talking about you know, technology and the opportunities that were in this new virgin online world. And it wasn't until they started talking about just the financial opportunities, like how much money could you make, being in these fields? It really caught my attention.

Anthony Oni:
And I think today what I would tell folks is, is what I do talk to folks about is not only do I think that these core skills that will allow you to not only financially take care of yourself, but others in your family, but I think you know, these are what I call noble cause roles. And noble cause fields where you are doing something that is for the betterment of society for the betterment of our planet. And that is something that when you think about how you want to spend your time, you want to make sure that that's the alignment around something that you really want to do. That's a driver. And there are just so much more proportionality in the types of work and worlds that you have now, in the future.

Anthony Oni:
And so, I do think that for students listening in this is again, the largest economy that we will see in our lifetime. And it's also one that, again, requires a software, your lived experiences, you might be thinking that, "Hey, I don't know anything about clean energy, I don't know anything about the environment." But man, I'll tell you that you do know about your community, you do know about how you were raised and where you're from. And those are the folks that we need to participate because solving a problem that's in rural Alabama, it's going to be pretty different than solving that same climate change problem that's lets say San Francisco or wherever it may be elsewhere.

Anthony Oni:
So there's value in that experience that you have. We're also working to make sure that the fundamentals around these concepts are being taught. And so as we spend time went HBCU leaders and administrators and teachers that we're making sure that how we do those key learnings are important. For the past couple of years, I've been really involved in the education space and worked on a project I'm pretty excited about it's called the Propel Center. It's an effort that has got us Apple and Tim Cook and that bunch involved and also our senior leadership at Southern Company involved as well, to build something that is transformative for HBCUs across the US.

Anthony Oni:
And for call center summits and augmentation to the incredible work that HBCUs are doing, you have to recognize that HBCUs and play just an important role in the fabric of the African American community and experience. Think about just the number of people who graduate in engineering films, by and large, you have more of those folks coming to HBCUs anywhere else. And as we're looking to the future, what Propel Center is aiming to do is really three main things. One, it's a focus on augmented curriculum, where we are a Koebner curriculum with people like Apple and people like Southern Company and the other sponsors that we're looking to bring on, and making sure that we're augmenting that with the curriculum that's taught at HBCUs.

Anthony Oni:
So you can start to learn about machine learning and AI, and the role that they can play in the future. And it's not one of those things where you studied in school, then you get out and you have to relearn it because the corporation, the company you're working for you're maybe several books behind, a series behind, you're learning in real time. So there's no real time curriculum, that for the future is part of what the Propel Center is going to do, to support HBCUs across the country. The other is what we've talked about a little bit. Its around just economic opportunities, and economic opportunities for people of color for graduates at HBCUs.

Anthony Oni:
So whether you're a freshman, or you're senior, or you work in HBCUs space, part of the curriculum that's going to be taught is how you start a company? The things that you learn going through an accelerator that I learned, going to accelerator, are hopefully taught early on, so that students early on have that kind of exposure, all the way up to providing accelerator incubators, support and funding long term, so that you have these ready made pathways for you. So when you have an idea that you want to change the world, you know where to go. You know what the next step is. I think that's incredibly important, especially when you start thinking about what could come out of that and generational wealth that folks want to have exposure to.

Anthony Oni:
If we do that in a very intentional way. And then lastly, is around leadership making sure that we are being very deliberate about building the leaders for the future, ensuring that we are training the next generation of folks to participate locally, in state and federally around something against systemic issues that we face in our communities. And I think part of that also, it's around exposure to things like clean energy, exposure to the impacts of climate change and social justice and whatnot.

Anthony Oni:
So we've been incredibly excited to have great partners like Apple and seven others that we're bringing on board to participate in is also the college universities in the HBCU space that have indicated interest. So we're building this right here in Atlanta. I'm a founder of this but we've got an incredible team. That is working on this one. We just brought in a fantastic gentleman by the name of Jean Wade, who comes from Oakland, who has spent all his life really working in the social impact space in the educational space. So excited about what that cause.

Anthony Oni:
But I think these are the types of partnerships that we're going to see and need coupled with venture capitalists and make sure that we're taking a very holistic picture of what's needed, but also holistic way of how we solve these issues going forward.

Quinn:
I love that, I mean, might as well put this just incredibly huge corporate power to use to really elevate that next generation, like you said, it's not just identifying deal flow from somebody with an incredible pitch deck that actually passes muster with all your utilities who say, like, yes, that information checks out for this market, it's going further back and looking at these kids and saying like, "This is how you start a company and you might not know anything about clean energy, or transmission, or battery storage, or whatever. But you know about your sense of place and your lived experience. And we can teach you clean energy man, like we can teach you batteries. That shit is not hard."

Quinn:
It's that other stuff, that's irreplaceable, that some nerd can come in and like just not understand how to do the work on the ground and work with the community to make it work for everyone. And I think we've seen examples of that failing over and over again. So I love that you guys are going further. And we'll definitely put the Propel Program in the in the show notes and try to highlight that that's awesome.

Anthony Oni:
Yeah, no, this notion of what you do, but also how you do it, it's so important. No, the other piece that's also fascinated me, and I've been very fortunate to be a founder too. So I think Vida talked about her experiences and how it shapes her engagement with some of these startups that we're looking at. I for one never thought in a million years that I would be in the venture capital space. But it was because of exposure. And I certainly didn't believe that I could be a founder and entrepreneur in this space. But again, it's due to the exposure to the extent that we can give that exposure early on, I think some really transformative things could happen.

Quinn:
Awesome. Vida anything specific that you would say to the young folks out there who are coming up, because I mean, again, if you take the ... Not to dial it down to the surface level, but black women are just not a part of the venture capital system in any significant way. And every step you take in success you have can help elevate more folks behind you. So, obviously, you've got enough on your plate, just doing the deal flow on a day to day basis. But give me some examples of specific things that young black women can do to become a part of this. And again, it can come from any different direction, whatever your lived experiences may be, but what are some transferable things you feel like could apply to those folks that they try to come in and follow in your footsteps a little bit?

Vida Asiegbu:
One of the things that has been incredibly important is reaching out to different people that are in the seats already. And just having that connectivity, learning from everyone, because given the reality that you just mentioned, there are not enough of us, to go around to help coach up and teach all the other women who could be interested in the venture ecosystem. And so I would say that to the extent that whoever you are, that you're able to find someone or a group of people who you trust, who you can speak with, and who you can talk to you about your ideas and who you can learn from that is absolutely important.

Vida Asiegbu:
And I have been able to over the years develop different people from white men to black men, Latina women, who have been helpful for me in terms of providing advice, providing their perspective, and these are the things that I've aggregated over the years in order to shape my understanding of my profile, and investment style. And so, I would say that all the information that you can get your hands on is absolutely important. Reading and just staying abreast of what's going on in the market. That is absolutely something that whether or not you're talking to me about investment banking or otherwise or investing, understanding what is going on in the market, and just honing in the craft by staying abreast and having an opinion About what is transpiring, that is also something that is very important, incredibly valuable to the market.

Vida Asiegbu:
Information is power, we're entering into this age where that transfer of information is the currency that we're working with. And so developing your knowledge base is important in this industry and will take you very far. As far as being successful here, making the right investments, making the right judgment call on deals, or even saying thanks but no thanks to any opportunity that may not be a great fit. And even providing that knowledge or that feedback to the entrepreneurs that you're speaking with, that do need time, or that you need some knowledge in order to go back in and refine what it is that they're doing. All of that is helpful within the ecosystem.

Quinn:
I love that. Thank you. I have kept you guys for quite a while here, I'm going to ask you last couple of quick questions that we ask everyone and then we'll let you go back to saving the world here. For both of you again, just briefly, when was the first time in your life, when you realized whether yourself are part of a group or a team or class, whatever it might be, that you had the power of change or the power to do something meaningful?

Anthony Oni:
Man, you got some great questions Quinn. The two parts are for me. One is that I hope I never forget. That comes to mind. It's happened when I was very young, I was on my way to school. And my father was driving me because I missed the bus, I think. And as we were heading to school, we came across the car goes directly in front of us that it caught fire in the driver at the time was out of the car, but the fire started to engulf the car. And there was a police officer that actually did have a fire extinguisher at hand when we came upon the car that was trying to put out the fire. And this police officer was quite tenderly trying to put up its fire. So he sprayed hood, go back to home and go back. But he didn't really look like it was really trying to put this fire out.

Anthony Oni:
And I remember my father just getting out the car, grabbing the fire extinguisher from the police officer, and quite aggressively put it out the fire. And over the years, I've just remarked on being a by stander and being active and solving something or fixing something. And he didn't need license, he didn't need permission. He acted to take care of something. And so I think early on that that gave me the sense that, "Hey, look it may not be an issue that you've been granted authority to solve or you've invited to solve or but you are empowered to solve it." You have your very presence witness to something is enough.

Anthony Oni:
And I think, for me, it's manifested in a whole lot of different ways. One of which was while I was working at Southern Company, I started to work a lot in renewable energy space. And after work in this space for a while I came to the couple of insights that, "Hey, I think there's a market to help connect more customers to renewable energy infrastructure, a carbon credit infrastructure." And I took it to our leadership. And at the time I was just a director in the company. And I took it to our CEO at Alabama Power. And he thought he was it was a decent idea. And it's kind of like you play the video games of bosses get the level one and get level two, level three. I finally made it to the CEO of Southern Company and essentially, we discussed with him. I think we should start a company instead of seven company. And this is a pretty big multi billion dollar company that's like I wanted to start up.

Anthony Oni:
And he listened. He didn't kick me out of his office, but he listened to it and paid me to fund at the summit. So I started a company called Cloverly, which is a sustainability to service platform that helps brands get access to carbon credit infrastructure through an API. So API for carbon offsets. And so while I was at Southern I had to roll that was vice president ultimately for multi state region external communications and also I'm a CEO of a startup. But it was a co CEO of a startup, the clean tech startup that I felt empowered by myself to take the actions necessary and how to discuss as necessarily to go to build, create. And I think as I spent two and a half years working on a startup that has since now spun out of Southern Company, and we've raised money from Softbank, and others, and its growing fantastically. We've got a new leadership team in place that's doing just just an incredible job. I'm not transitioned as a founder and on the board.

Anthony Oni:
It's again, a reminder that you go metrical last question that what you advise folks is that you are empowered to solve these problems in your way. I didn't have that a full resume of a clean energy background or working in the SAS space or whatnot, you saw something that you thought could be better. And you leaned in to take that action. So I would say for me, it's just knowing that you can be empowered, especially stop thinking about some of these really big issues like climate change and social injustice that we see in our society. Everyone is empowered. I'm hoping everyone who's listening feels empowered to take some sort of action big or small, and try to figure out how to solve that.

Quinn:
I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Vida, what about you? What was that moment for you?

Vida Asiegbu:
A few years out of undergrad, I had the opportunity to go back to my first company as a revenue generator. And I became a corporate beverage buyer for a convenient searching that is based in the southeast. And I would say that that opportunity that I had to lead a team and to drive the strategy around the relationships with your Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper Snapple group as it was known then, and managing those relationships, but really setting a plan and a strategy for how we were going to engage and then market to the customers. And at least order our placement in the different regions that we operated in, including the Dallas Fort Worth area. In Florida, in the Atlanta area, that was a great opportunity for me.

Vida Asiegbu:
That was a great opportunity for me, and as the only person or female of color doing that level of work. It was incredible. Being able to have a woman of color on my team look up to me, she was older too, but she looked up to me as a person who had been able to conquer the barrier of getting to this position, and having this level of authority within the work that we're doing together. And so that was amazing for me, and it gave me the opportunity the set the terms of my team get my BI team, the raises that they had deserved for years before I started. And it was a place where I started to play around with my management skills and opportunity and really leaning into making sure that the team that I was working with was taken care of under my care, or under my under my watch while I was a buyer. So that was that's where it started for me.

Quinn:
That sounds like quite the revelation.

Vida Asiegbu:
Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Quinn:
So, work is hard. Vida is skipping Halloween man's gotta attend a soccer game that could go one way or the other. What otherwise when we're not working, what is your self care? What is your off time? How what is your trashy TV? Whatever it might be walks in nature, everybody's got something. How are you dealing right now?

Anthony Oni:
For me, its fun just the time spent ... I've got two boys. And so the time I spent with them, it's just my relief because the world through their eyes is fascinating. It's hilarious. It's funny. And it's just completely different. And so I've got one that is a soccer player now that is really in the call. We spend a lot of time on the field. And the other is just an avid reader. Everything you put in front of him is funny. We had a parent teacher conference the other day and I tell my wife the feedback we get from our teachers is that our kid doesn't want to put down his book to read before class starts? And I don't know if I should do anything about that or not but-

Quinn:
It's a tough one, right?

Anthony Oni:
It's a tough one. But for me, it's really spending time with the family spending time with the boys is just such a relief. And I think one through COVID I think we've all learned is that just anytime we have a family is just so precious, so you got to soak it up while you can.

Quinn:
100%. Vida, what about you?

Vida Asiegbu:
So I guess a little secret here, one of my primary love languages is quality time. And so having the opportunity to spend quality time with family and friends and catching up and just having the time to learn about what everyone else is doing, it really does break up the monotony of spending all the time that I have to myself working and such. So I do try to take as much time as I can, whether it be seeing someone in person or phone call with Grandma, I try to do all of it during the time that I have open and available. And that really does help recharge me it helps to ground me trend. And it helps keep things very interesting.

Quinn:
I love that. Yeah, I feel like this has taught if not all of us then most of us how vital those one on one moments can be that quality time you got to fight for them. But there's truly nothing better. Last one, what's a book you each have read this year, that has either opened your mind to a topic or an idea you hadn't considered before? Or has actually changed your thinking in some way. And we had a whole list up on bookshop, and we'll throw those up on it.

Anthony Oni:
No, I did something I've never done this year or rather my whole life. I went on a thought week after I changed my roles. And for those who don't know, I think Bill Gates made it popular. Yeah. Go to one of his fancy houses and spends been weeks at a time.

Quinn:
Right. People describe it as a cabin, I think I'm fairly sure it's not like a cabin.

Anthony Oni:
Well, I don't have any of those. But I did go air b&b. It actually didn't cabin in the woods for a few days. And I read a bunch of books. And one of the books that I actually had on my shelf that I hadn't read was given to me by Clay Christensen before he passed. It's a book, I think the last book he wrote, which was called How will you measure your life. And it was a great moment for me as I was transitioning roles and working 20 years at the utility and then transitioned from the startup that I helped create, into this VC space that this mission as a whole was just really important to me, and one of the values for me getting there.

Anthony Oni:
And so one of the things that was talked about in this book was your own human life mission statement, and how you operate and how you measure your life by the end of the day. And I think Clay had a really great perspective on it based on just a number of things that he had gone through in his life and the number of students that he touched while at Harvard. And so it's one that I would definitely would recommend. And it's one of those books where I actually wish I read it earlier in life. Because it would give me probably a better compass for the things that are important. And really hence a lot of the why of what you do. And for me it was I'm a builder and I like to build things at scale.

Anthony Oni:
I want to build things at scale to help the people of this world and the communities that I'm in. So this really honed some of that, for me, it really helped put I think the right focus going into this role as a managing partner of Elevated Future Fund and helped me understand the type of impact that I want to make but this really important for me but also the communities that I [inaudible 01:14:11].

Quinn:
I love that I too have tried to spend some real time thinking about that in the past few years. I think kids do that to you a little bit pandemics do that too a little bit. But it's helpful to have somebody who actually can so eloquently like he did think through those things on the page. So that applies to more folks. Vida, what about you? What's on your bookshelf?

Vida Asiegbu:
So a few books but one that I was able to get to more recently is Resisting Happiness by Matthew Kelly. And so its a book that does provide practical advice around that this self sabotage that happens when you are trying to live a good life. But there are different things that put the, I guess you could say, like put the chink in the happiness armor. And so this book is essentially like a reflection on how it is that we can dive into those rabbit holes and lose our way and lose sight of the journey that we're on and therefore our happiness. So that's a really great read and a great reminder to make sure to not be your worst enemy when you are on your life journey.

Quinn:
Sure, I think that's very helpful. The easy thing everybody always says is as you beat yourself up like, "Oh, would you say this to your best friend or your kid or whatever? And you're like, No, of course not. But I'm probably going to continue saying it to myself, but we really should not do that. It's just not helpful in any way." Well, I appreciate you guys sharing those. We'll put those on the list. Y'all working our listeners follow you online and how the fund is going and everything for you get you out of here.

Anthony Oni:
Yeah, I think the best way to do it now is going to EnergyImpactpartners.com. We will make some updates on how we're progressing on our website.

Quinn:
Rock and roll,

Vida Asiegbu:
And you can find us on LinkedIn as well.

Quinn:
Awesome. Are either of you on Twitter at all? I mean, for better or worse, clearly, like it depends on the day.

Vida Asiegbu:
Absolutely. I'm on Twitter.

Anthony Oni:
I'm not on twitter in any visible way, but I might have to get on there.

Quinn:
No, no, you're doing fine. You're doing fine. It's dangerous. Well, thank you guys so much for sharing your time for everything you're doing. The path you're carving the effect you're having, as we truly try to build something new here that just includes more folks and considers more folks. So thank you, and thank you for coming on the show.

Anthony Oni:
Thanks Quinn.

Vida Asiegbu:
Thanks Quinn.

Anthony Oni:
Awesome. Thanks to our incredible guest today. And thanks to all of you for tuning in. We hope this episode has made your commute or awesome workout or dishwashing or fucking dog walking late at night. That much more pleasant. As a reminder, please subscribe to our free email newsletter @importantnotimportant.com It is all the news most vital to our survival as a species.

Brian:
And you can follow us all over the internet. You can find us on Twitter @importantnotimp so weird. Also on Facebook and Instagram at Important Not Important. Pinterest and Tumblr the same thing. So check us out. Follow us, share us, like us, you know the deal. And please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to things like this. And if you're really fucking awesome, rate us on Apple podcast. Keep the lights on. Thanks.

Quinn:
Please.

Brian:
And you can find the show notes from today right in your little podcast player and at our website importantnotimportant.com

Quinn:
Thanks to the very awesome Tim Blane for our jam and music to all of you for listening. And finally, most importantly, to our moms for making us. Have a great day.

Brian:
Thanks guys.