I read a great book the last year that changed my life forever: “Rich Father, Poor Father”, by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Letchter, two of my personal heroes today, because they knew how to explain me how to open my mind and to wake up my financial genius, to try to think always in new ideas, and if we have the resources, put them to work.
And precisely right now, I’m putting my mind to work sharing new ideas and discussions with you, dear reader; and my first idea that I want to share with you is: Why don’t you use your money before buying a new car or a great home ( Right now it’s not the perfect time to buy a home, but that’s another story), to invest in companies and ideas that are focused on a better future for everyone of us? Hybrid cars, new sources of energy: solar, wing-powered, new products with clean components; there are a great group of technologies that I strongly believe, so I want to share them with you.
But, even better, Why don’t build a Venture Capital firm looking for investments on Green technologies? You should be saying: “This young guy is crazy”. Jejeje, I know, it’s a crazy idea, but look these sentences that I learned from Robert and Sharon:
- Is not crazy too to spend all your savings in fancy cars, a larger home, expensive journeys?
- Is not crazy to work every day to 8 AM to 5 PM , and to work “for the money”, instead having money working for you?
So, think a moment about this, and keep reading.
A VC firm? Really?
Yes, in short: to create a Venture Capital firm focused on Green technologies investments, helping to build a better future world for every person in the planet. But, first, Do you know the steps to create a Venture Capital firm? If you don’t know, you can see these great links for that:
- How to set up a Venture Capital Fund from Answers.com
- Venture Capital firm from Wikipedia.com
- AngelBlog: another great resource from Basil Peters about VCs, Startups, Angel Investment, Entrepreneurs, Early Exits
There are many great VC firms around the world, from U.S to Europe, from Asian to the Middle East, anyway, in all the world. A great list is on Wikipedia too here. This is an incompleted list, but there is a representation from every region in the world. If you let me to write to you my favorite VC firms, this is my list:
- Andreessen Horowitz, the well known VC firm created by Mark Andreessen and Ben Horowitz
- GreyLock Partners, one of the most successful VC firms in U.S, with big names like Reid Hoffman (the most connected man, founder of Linkedin and a former PayPal’s Mafia member), John Lilly (former Mozilla’s CEO), Adam Nash (one of the former great executives of Linkedin, and current partner at GreyLock)
- FoundersFund, the VC firm with Peter Thiel (another former PayPal’s Mafia member) and Sean Parker (Did you remember the Napster’s story) behind its desks
- Sequoia Capital, with Don Valentine, Michael Moritz, Kui Zhou and Neil Shen like their main names
- Y Combinator, created and managed by Paul Graham (one of the most respectful names in San Francisco and around the world)
So, if you think that you have a remarkable idea in your hands, send it to any of these firms, and they will evaluate it. Don’t waist more time, and just do it.
Why Green technologies?
OK. You should be ask to yourself: Why I should listen to this young man and look for investments on the green technology field? Please, don’t listen to me, listen to Al Gore, on his exceptional documental: “A Inconvenient Truth”. He described in a remarkable way how we are killing the Earth slowly, destroying our future, with pollution and more pollution.
Believe me, if you have not seen this film, don’t wait more and dedicate 1 hour, 36 minutes and 38 seconds of your valuable time to hear what Mr. Gore has to say you. After that, you will change the way how do you see the world, and you will remember how beautiful is to see a butterfly moves its wings, how paceful is to rest under a big tree, how rich is feel the water in a precious river, these tiny things that we will not have in the future if we don’t act right now. So, you don’t have to listen to me, but look:
- You don’t have to pay me for anything. I’m doing this because I do believe that Green technologies will change forever the world for good.
- If you invest in this field, you will be remembered like one of those heroes that will shape the world for good reasons
So, if I could not convice you, I encourage you to do a little research about this field. Sources? There are many, but I recommend you three:
- Green Tech Media: a great site for Green technologies and Renewable Energy, with an amazing set of events related to these topics
- Popular Sience Magazine, in its Environment section has incredible information about green tech, clean fuels, etc
- The Daily Green: another great resource with daily reports and news about Green tech
- Fast CoExist: one of my obligated links about green cities, electric cars, clean technologies, etc
Companies to watch in 2012 for investments
There are many good examples how a great idea can become on a successful business and at the same time, protect our environment. There are a good group of big companies that are trying to build their products thinking in the environment first, so I think that every organization should learn from them, and follow the “green wave”:
- Apple (with its amazing manufacturing process with clean components for its devices)
- VMWare (was the first corporation in Palo Alto to sign up for GreenWaste’s compost collection service, and the first Palo Alto business to divert 90 percent or more of its waste from landfill )
- Samsung (who has a strong experience in this field with this new line of Smart TVs for example)
- HTC (has received a lot of prizes for its clean devices)
- Ford (who built the best engine in 2012: the 10 liters Ecoboost engine)
- Toyota (one of the most respecful companies on green technologies)
- BMW (one of my favorites for its research on hybrid engines and its i-series: BMW i3 and BMW i8)
But I think that you, potencial investor, you are not interested on the big names; you are interested on the early stage companies focused on Green technologies. Every day, there are more companies that are focused on Green technologies, so I will let you a short but promising list of companies that you should follow very closely:
- Nest Labs: the company created by Tony Fadell, the guy which designed the iPod at Apple, which are behind an interesting product: a learning thermostat
- Tesla Motors: the company founded by another former PayPal’s Mafia: Elon Musk, who has a single objective in mind: to create the best electric car of the world, and I think that he and his amazing team are doing a great job: look its models: Model S, the Tesla Roadster and the last Model X
- Cylon Controls’s Active Energy Division: a Dublin-based company who built a great energy management and monitoring system, which you can use how your building is using the electric energy, and it can guide you to a better energy stragery for the future
- NanoSolar: the company that is helping to build a world of solar panels to take advantage of the energy of the sun
- Coulomb Technologies: operates as an online global charging network that connects electric vehicle drivers to charging stations worldwide. It provides cloud-based service plans as annual subscriptions for providing tools, data, payment processing, and driver support.
- Brammo: is the company behind four amazing electric motocycles models: Enertia, Enertia Plus, Engage and my favorite Empulse.
- SolarCity: is an all in one service provider of solar installations for residential, commercial and government organizations. It offers a wide array of services from design, financing, installation and monitoring services from a single source.
- Fisker Automotive: is an American car company that produce highly efficient electric vehicles with extended range (EVerTM). In this link you can see the 2012 Fisker Karma Brochure
Name of the VC firm: Green Ventures
This name is perfect, because is precisely what I have discussed with you in the post: a VC firm focused on investments on Green technologies, so this combination of words can draw in mind the vision, mission and objectives of the VC firm.
I want to go beyond: I asked to a friend of mine, who is a awesome designer, and he told me that this name is great for several reasons, and he was offered to create a great logo for the name, so, I could sell you this idea with logo and all information for free; yeah, for free. Stay tuned and wait for the logo. Discuss these ideas with you colleagues, with your friends, and any comment, thought that you had, put it here to enrich the blog post.
Happy Investment !!!Marcos Luis Ortíz Valmasedaabout.me/marcosortiz@marcosluis2186
