The Entrepreneurs for Impact Podcast: Transcripts
#127:
From $0 to $125M and 450 Investors for Climate in 2 Years — Jacqueline van den Ende, CEO at Carbon Equity
PODCAST INTRODUCTION
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Carbon Equity is a climate venture capital and private equity fund investing platform that enables retail investors to invest in breakthrough climate solutions through the world's best professional climate investors. Typically, these funds are not accessible. You need at least 5 million euros. You need a ton of experience. So, what Carbon Equity does is we take away all those hurdles, enabling low minimum access to diversified climate venture capital and private equity fund investments, which helps you put your money to work with actual true impact.
PODCAST INTERVIEW
Chris Wedding:
Welcome to the Entrepreneurs for Impact podcast. My name is Chris Wedding. As a former environmental private equity investor, four-time founder, climate tech CEO, coach, and professor, I launched this podcast to share the entrepreneurial journey, practical tips, and hard-earned wisdom from CEOs and investors tackling climate change. And if you like what you hear, please, leave us a review on your favorite podcast player. This is the number one way that listeners can learn more about the climate CEOs and investors I interview. All right, let's get started.
My guest today is Jacqueline van den Ende, Co-founder and CEO at Carbon Equity, a fintech platform that seeks to power the world's most impactful climate technology solutions with retail capital. In under two years, since Jacqueline and I met through On Deck Climate Tech, they've mobilized over $120 million across 450 high-net-worth and mass affluent individuals to invest in professionally managed venture capital and private equity climate funds. As for background, Jacqueline lives in Amsterdam and has spent about half her career investing in companies and about half of her career building and leading companies.
02:05
In this episode, we talked about the relative risk of investing in fund of funds versus individual angel investments. What mass affluent means and how a larger portion of this group's $177 trillion in assets can be mobilized for climate. How to motivate new hires to your team by focusing on what you can offer them, think flexibility, instead of what you can't, such as high salaries in the early days. A new interpretation of The Golden Rule, and no, this is not a class in religion.
How to learn by doing through experiments, instead of relying on Excel and PowerPoint too long. What she means by saying, “Money as a means.” Their goal of moving a billion dollars into climate within five years. How to interpret the quote, “This, Too, Shall Pass” during great and hard times as a founder. Why she wakes up at 5:00 a.m.? Why the book ‘Sixth Extinction’ was, I guess in her words, maybe a, “Holy shit, this climate stuff's really important!” moment and lots more. Okay, maybe those are my words.
Hey, hope you enjoy it. And please, remember, this is the fine print, folks, the contents of this podcast do not constitute investment advice. Hang with me here instead. By listening to this conversation, you are doing so only for education and entertainment, wink, wink, I hope, purposes again, not investment advice. All right. Hey, look, finally, please give Jacqueline and Carbon Equity a shout-out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people. Thanks.
All right. Jacqueline van den Ende, Co-founder and CEO of Carbon Equity, welcome to the podcast.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Chris Wedding:
So, listeners can see that we're both smiling really big because I wasn't quite sure how well I said your last name. We practiced a few times, but anyway, maybe I didn't butcher it too badly.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
It was perfect.
04:19
Chris Wedding:
For listeners, this is a fun two-year circle of sorts where Jacqueline and I met, it was through On Deck, I believe. Right?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes. We met at On Deck.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. So, On Deck Climate Tech, maybe Core 2 or something. There weren't a ton of folks focused on either coming from or going to the finance side of climate tech. I think we got along partly for that reason, maybe partly for working in Asia, some too, as well. Anyway, it's nice to come back together in this format and to tell listeners that in that time, less than two years, Carbon Equity has gone from a good idea to $120 million mobilized across 450-plus high-net-worth or mass affluent, asterisk there to be defined, for climate tech. Getting people into VC funds, where before it was pretty hard to get the kind of access. Is that the right story?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah. No, that's exactly the right story. Yes, that's perfect.
Chris Wedding:
And folks will pick up a slight accent from you, so you're from and living in Amsterdam, yeah?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes, correct. Do you hear my Dutch accent?
Chris Wedding:
I think I do. It's a compliment to be clear, not of anything else. Let's just start with, how did you grow from a good idea to 120 million plus in less than two years? A lot of folks are asking themselves that question right now.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Well, the first thing was to get started. As a budding entrepreneur, the first big challenge is to start and to get out of the idea phase and into the execution phase. So, we really started with experiments. Often, when entrepreneurs start, the question is, how do I validate that there is an interest for what I do? And we decided to do that with a pilot project, just basically launch a single fund and sell it. That's the number one thing you need to do to prove your point, that your business is viable, sell it.
And so, we started off securing commitment in the 2150 Urban Tech Sustainability Fund. It's a really cool European fund, which is focused on climate solutions in the built environment. So, we wiggled ourselves in, got to invest, I think 5 million at the time, and then we just started calling on our network. So, seeing who wanted to invest in this fund and to their surprise, I actually managed to fill the fund allocation, I think in less than three weeks. It was way faster than we expected.
07:11
And step two, that was to start building the team. Something that we did very well in Carbon Equity, which is a lesson I learned early on in my career building companies, is we hired the very best people we could find - super experienced people with a strong network. Basically, the type of hires that we couldn't afford yet, but convinced people to come on board, so that was a very important step.
And then three, we raised a bit of seed funding, even if we had little more than a PowerPoint deck at the point, which was super helpful in being able to hire the right people, being able to do things professionally off the bat. So, I think all of those things helped a lot in getting off the ground.
Chris Wedding:
How did you convince 2150 to give you this $5 million allocation to fill?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah, I'm trying to remember that. It was actually quite extraordinary because it was in their final close, so they were basically already over-committed and somehow, we still managed to get in. I think we leveraged our personal network, so we brought in a couple of angel investors way from the start, again, from the moment that we had a PowerPoint deck. When we were looking for angel investors to join our cap table, we really looked for a strategic value, people who could make valuable introductions, which is super important. Because I think, also often, a lot of starting entrepreneurs are just looking for money, but the quality of money, the quality of angel investors differs vastly from one to another.
So, we made the right choice of hiring great angels who then got us into contact with the managing partner of the 2150 VC fund. Then surprisingly, they actually liked our story. So, we were a little bit hesitant in the beginning that funds would be okay with our democratized venture capital or private equity fund investing platform, because we're basically bringing in a bunch of, not retail investors, but as you mentioned, mass affluent and high-net-worth investors, which is not the typical type of profile of people investing in their funds. But it really resonated with our vision of unlocking retail capital at scale to power climate solutions and creating more equitable ownership. And so, the founding idea of Carbon Equity is that when people get to invest, they become invested in.
09:47
That's a message that very much resonated with the fund managers in wanting to work with us and giving us a chance to go out and raise this capital for them.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Roger that. Love it. The third point there was, you hired the best, even though you couldn't afford them. What were some tactics to convince them slash reward them for joining?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah. Good point. So, the first super crucial hire was a guy called Wiebe and he had worked with Alpinvest. And Alpinvest is the indirect investment arm of the Carlyle Group, and it's one of the world's largest fund of funds investors. It's basically the Champions League of fund investing. He spent over 11 years with Alpinvest and five years with JP Morgan, so he was really a dream guy. He was a friend of our lawyer and our lawyer introduced him to us, which initially, I think he ignored our invitations. Like, it took us a while to actually get a meeting with him, but once we had that meeting, it didn't take long for him to jump on board.
We really took him along, in the vision of what we were looking to build, and I guess that’s one of the skills I have, is getting people somewhat enthusiastic about the visions for the company. Then, we started lightweights. So, we brought him on board for two or three days a week, initially on an advisory contract, with a heavily discounted fee from his regular rates. He was willing to do that because, well, he believed in the vision. He himself left Alpinvest because he was tired of just making money, and just not the pure and single line of profit focus of Alpinvest, so he was looking for purpose. I think you can hire a lot of people who are looking for purpose, and at non-markets, at terms in that sense. We really made him feel like a co-founder, and we actually even offered him to become a co-founder, which at the time he didn’t opt to do.
11:54
But he was so pivotal in shaping the company, and bringing all of his expertise, but also bringing credibility, because now we had somebody who had a huge track record as a fund investor, some literal gray hairs that we could show when we’re looking to funds. So, he just elevated the level of what we’re doing, too. In one go, he brought us the playbook of Alpinvest. So, we had an institutional approach, right from the start. We had a lot of credibility with both customers and the funds that we’re investing in. And for him, it was a great way to have purpose, to still get paid at a reduced rate, with tons of flexibility.
So, you also look for what matters to them. For him, he wanted to spend more time with his family. He had worked his ass off 11 years, and now it was time for his wife to take the front seat in her career. And so, he wanted more flexibility, where we could offer that. So, when looking for super talents, look at what you can offer, rather than what you can’t offer.
Chris Wedding:
If I were a Twitter person, that would be a good tweet right there, but I’m not. Yeah, look for what you can offer, versus what you can’t offer. I like that. Okay. So, we’ve teased listeners. Let’s go back 30,000 feet. What in the world is Carbon Equity?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah, that’s a good question. Carbon Equity is a climate venture capital, and private equity funding investing platform, that enables retail investors, mass affluent, and high-net-worth type investors, to invest in breakthrough climate solutions. Anything from zero carbon cement, to electrified steel, through the world’s best, or alongside the world’s best professional climate investors.
Now for some subtext, if that wasn’t clear yet, basically, we enable retail access to top climate venture caps, and private equity funds. So typically, these funds, as you mentioned, are not accessible. You need at least 5 million euros. You need a ton of experience, to select the right funds that are best in class, in terms of climate impact, and in terms of financial returns. And even if you have all those things, then you would still need a network, to actually worm yourself into such a fund.
14:18
So, what Carbon Equity does is, we take away all those hurdles, enabling low minimum access to diversified climate venture capital, and private equity fund investments, which helps you put your money to work with actual true impact, rather than trading ESG stocks on the stock market, which has little to no actual climate impact.
Chris Wedding:
Got it. How did you arrive at this problem that you’re now solving?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
So, the way that we got here, a little bit of background. I spent half my life as an investor, half as an entrepreneur. In 2019, I really woke up to the climate crisis. I read the book, The Sixth Extinction, which for me was my light bulb moment on, “Holy shit, if we don’t solve climate change, nothing else matters.” Then, I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life helping solve climate change. I chose as my weapon of choice, the weapon of finance, because I believe that money makes the world go round. Money ultimately decides whether we like it or not. We live in a capitalist, and by and large, capitalist society, so money has power. I have a background both as a private equity investor, as a VC investor, and as a fintech CEO. So, the weapon of finance is uniquely suited to my background.
The question I started off with was, how does capital really move the needle? How do you really move the needle on climate change with capital? Because what we observed was that at the time, 2020, 2021, trillions of dollars were invested into ESG stocks. I’m not saying that ESG stock investing is bad. It makes a lot of sense to protect yourself from all kinds of fossil fuel risks by investing in non-fossil fuel type companies, for example. But trading shares of Tesla is going to have very little impact in the real economy because, ultimately, you’re buying shares from somebody else, so no money is going into the company and the additionality that you have as an investor is super limited.
So, our observation was, if you want to move the needle on climate change with capital, you have way more impact investing into the private market, specifically into venture capital where you’re funding breakthrough new innovations, or in growth equity where you’re scaling these innovations. That was observation number one. If you want to have impact, investing in private markets is way more impact than in public markets.
17:05
Observation number two was if you look at the capital stack in the world, then there’s way more capital sitting with what we call mass affluence and high-net-worth investors than with the ultra-high-net-worth investors. So, if you look globally, people have a net worth between $100,000 and $10 million. There’s $177 trillion in net worth, which is three times the size of the total institutional asset management market, so that’s a huge amount. And on average, less than 1% of that capital is invested in private equity. Why? Because people simply don’t have access.
So, our thesis is if we can lower the barrier and then we can move maybe 10% of that, maybe 15% of that over time to fund actual climate solutions, whilst helping people build their personal wealth. Those were the original insights.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. So, just in case someone is driving, or hiking, and missed those very important numbers, let’s revisit the definition of mass affluent. Define again the net worth bounds.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
$100,000 up to 10 million.
Chris Wedding:
Got it. Okay, and collectively that's $177 trillion.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Right.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. That sounds like funny money. Where does all this money come from? Anyway, so a lot of capital to place and what percentage of that goes towards BCPE today?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Less than 1%.
Chris Wedding:
Got it. Yep. Okay.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Whereas, versus ultra-high-net-worths invest on average, I believe 17 to 20% of their net worth in private equity, and it just makes a lot of sense. Like, below 100k, most likely you’re still funding your core life expenses. Your house, your children, education, et cetera. I’ve seen US those core expenses might be higher for a lot of people, but globally speaking, less than 100k you’re still in what I need near term. But above 100k, this is really where diversification starts to matter, where you start thinking about, it just makes sense with 10, 15% of your net worth to start investing in higher risk, but also higher return and much more patient type investments. This is where you can start to afford to put aside, let’s say 10% of your net worth and invest it in long-term climate solutions that are higher risk, but also yield the possibility of generating higher returns.
19:47
Chris Wedding:
Now, I’m going to go on a bit of a limb here. You could help me out. Decide whether I fall or whether I’m stable on this limb. Increasing the percentage allocation to private capital, at the extreme, it starts to sound like the endowment model. The endowment as an LP, their allocations tend to be uber-focused on private equity. That is BC hedge fund, private equity, et cetera. Is this true?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Well, we think that up to—
Chris Wedding:
The limit is breaking right now.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
So, I would never recommend anybody to invest 100% in private equity.
Chris Wedding:
No, neither am I. No.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Some people do. Actually, I think our managing director has 100% of his net worth invested in private equity, but on average, it makes sense to do that with the money that you can safely set aside. That should be the money that you don’t need to touch for the next 10 years, is money that you can afford to invest. Typically, the more diversification you have, the less risky an investment is. So, the chances of losing your money when you invest in a fund of funds, so Garmin TSE fund of funds where with a single investment, you’re investing in 150 to 200 companies, the risk of losing your capital there is not very high. But you should invest only with the capital that, one, you can afford to set aside for a long time, and two, can be at risk. I would say with the level of risk diversification upon the funds, is a pretty safe bet. So, we do actually have people investing for the pension or their children’s savings plans, et cetera, but you need to be able to afford a level of risk with that capital.
21:32
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, so just to back up before going onto the limb here, the point I was making is we go from the mass affluent rate, less than 1% in various forms of private equity to the high-net-worth, 20-ish percent. Then the other extreme is, at least in my experience, the many university endowments could be like 70-plus percent in private equity structures. So, it runs the gamut and those could all be considered good strategies.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes, right.
Chris Wedding:
I think the point you’re making is a great one, which is, hey, look, when you invest in private equity, which includes venture, of course, we’re talking about your money is locked out for, I don’t know, 10, 12 years. You got to go in eyes wide open, but most investing should be long-term anyway, decades, not any form of day trading.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Exactly, totally agree.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, you mentioned another important structure just now, fund of funds. Maybe compare contrast fund of funds risk-return versus what do you think most folks think about when they think, “Oh, well, should I be angel investing? Well, how do I find the deals and how do I know how much to invest? Now I’m this many thousands in one freaking company?” I’m always like, “Please do not do that unless you’re a super sophisticated investor.” You need like big, large sample size to approximate the mean here. Fund of funds, what is it? Pros, cons.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
I’m super glad you’re asking this question because this is super critical to understand the difference between angel investing and fund of funds. So, maybe to start with, what on earth is a fund of funds? A fund of funds, basically, baskets a portfolio of funds. For example, the Carbon Equity climate tech funds, portfolio funds invest in seven to 10 underlying funds. Every fund invests in 20 to 30 different companies. So, investing through such a fund of funds will get you invested into 150 to 200-plus climate technology companies. What that means is diversification, and what you lack when you’re doing angel investing is diversification.
23:50
Angel investing, you basically put all your eggs in one basket versus investing in a fund of funds, you put your eggs in 150 to 200 baskets. So, the risk profile of investing in a fund of funds is a fraction of the risk of angel investing. Statistically, if you invest in a basket of seven funds, then the risk of getting less than your capital invested back is 1.5%. So, the risk of capital loss is 1.5%. I would say that with angel investing, I don’t know the exact statistics, but the risk of capital loss would probably be well over 90%.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t angel invest. I like to think of a portfolio approach, which means that you can do some angel investing with let’s say up to 5% of your liquid net worth. And then typically when you angel invest, invest in things that you personally understand, one, and things that you can add value to as an angel investor. Then by all means, do your angel investments.
Then maybe you want to do some direct fund investments if you have enough net worth to be able to do that. And then you probably want to be investing in funds that, again, you have domain expertise and you have network to be able to get into such a fund. For everything else that you don’t have expertise, or time, and resources to do the actual investing direct or fund investing yourself, do it through a fund of funds. For the vast majority of mass affluent and high-net-worth investors, it just makes a whole lot of sense.
Chris Wedding:
So, you made me think of a very important thing I need to say right now, which I’ll say at the beginning before the podcast starts. In my to-be-recorded intro, this is not investment advice folks. Well, Jacqueline and I both love this space and we both work in finance, but we are not recommending any solution to anyone listening because you-all situations are radically unique. Okay.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes. Agreed.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. Double underline exclamation point. That stat you just mentioned is, what a great contrast and the risk of not getting your money back is 1.5% if you’re investing in a fund of funds versus picking a single angel investment likely over 90%, likely over 95%. Which sometimes I have friends who are great entrepreneurs say, “I came across this great company. I put in five or six figures of investment into this one company.” I’m just thinking in my heart like, “You should have called me first. Invest in them and like 20 others somehow at the same time,” because no one is very good at picking winners consistently at these early stages.
26:48
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes. One disclaimer to make there, it is of course possible to hit it really big. It is possible that you invest in the next Tesla or whatever, and you’re going to make a thousand X return. In a fund of funds that will not happen. That you’re going to get two to three times your money back over the lifetime of the fund. So, what I noticed is angel investing, it has sex appeal and a fund of funds does not have sex appeal, but I would say, for myself, invest a small share of your net assets in stuff that has sex appeal and then invest the majority of your net assets in stuff that has sense, sense over sex appeal.
Chris Wedding:
Yes. All right. Let’s talk about perhaps some of the examples of either funds or companies that you’re able to get these 450-plus investors into. What does it look like on the ground?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
So, Carbon Equity investments cover the whole range of the whole climate tech stack. There are six broad themes that we invest in through these funds. One is agro-food. How do we produce food, and store food, and ship food without carbon footprints? There is mobility, which is beyond electric cars. So, think about hydrogen trucks, think about electric aviation, think about cargo ships with wind, for example. There is the build environment. How do we not only build sustainable buildings, but also how do we lessen our energy use? Heating and cooling, super big themes. There is energy and energy storage. There’s industry, so cement, steel, and chemicals, and then there’s carbon capture storage. So those are the six big themes.
Then within those themes, there is a huge breadth of different technologies, all the way from nuclear fusion to plant-based foods. So, any kind of solution we need to help solve climate change, any sort of technology solution, it’s only technology, is probably at one of the Carbon Equity funds.
29:07
Chris Wedding:
And how about the timing here, so the climate’s burning, if you will. It’s happening right now. I love the startup space clearly for anyone who listens. I love the finance side. I love the entrepreneurship side, but sometimes I think, “Well, how long does it take to go from cool early-stage C, A, B, C, whatever through considerable market adoption of the solution, all that relative to the timeline we have to get global warming under control? How do you think about that mismatch there?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
It’s a super good question. So, if I look at the Carbon Equity bonds, we cover the whole spectrum for really early-stage deep tech innovation that maybe has a timeline to go to market by, I don’t know, 2040, 2050. Up to growth equity going on buyout funds that invest and fund things that we need right now. An example, one of the funds that we invested in is Energy Impact Partners, but their managing partner is ShellCon, who is really cool and has a very cool podcast as well, The Interchange or Catalyst actually, it’s called now.
Chris Wedding:
New podcast. Yeah.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
They fund really early-stage and high-risk stuff. So, Boston Metal, they electrify steel production. Or in Nutricity, they make carbon-free fertilizers, which is super cool. Or Zap Energy, which is an actual nuclear fusion. Then on the other side of the spectrum, we have something like Ara Partners, which is an industrial biotech fund, and they specialize in funding large-scale industrial infrastructure. So, first plant risk, for example, for really scaling up innovations that come out of the lab and that need scale. So, we cover the whole spectrum. I think that’s exactly important because we need to primarily invest in stuff that we can do right now.
If you look at the whole tech stack of climate solutions, there are climate solutions that they don’t have technology risk anymore. So, think about solar, wind, for example, those are technologies that have no technology risk, and we need to scale them. Second category is technologies where there is much less technology risk. The technology is proven, but they’re still what Bill Gates calls a green premium, so it’s more expensive than the current alternative. And there, you need more funding to get to scale, to lower the economics, to make sure that you get to price parity.
31:52
Then the third category of technologies are things that don’t exist yet, or are not yet mature. And this is where you really need early-stage venture capital to fund it through their learning curve, and to make sure that it gets to market at some point, but it’s going to be too late for 2030 objectives.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. That’s a good breakdown of those options. And maybe Ara Partners is one example, but how often do you think you-all’s capital funds project versus corporate investment?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Great point. Are you asking how much money comes from corporates for this type of project?
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, slightly different and maybe the answer is more obvious if there’s a focus on VC, let’s say, but there’s corporate, either early-stage venture or growth venture, and then eventually some of those things become project finance, become infrastructure. My guess is that most of you-all’s capital is towards the former, not towards the infrastructure, the project finance. I mean, Ara seems across the chasm. Is that right or wrong?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes, that’s correct. So, Carbon Equity at the moment primarily focuses on technology funds, funds that are really investing in venture capital and private equity. Some funds are a crossover. So, what we’re also starting to see is more blended finance-type funds where they have both project finance and growth equity, and Carbon Equity at some point might add infrastructure-type funds. We can also do more project-types of finance because we need, I think, 9 trillion in total per year of climate finance. I’m not sure exactly what their latest numbers are by McKinsey, but the vast majority of that is project finance and infrastructure funding to really fund the rollout of everything we need, renewable energy infrastructure, EV infrastructure, plants for green steel, et cetera. So, we definitely need a ton of funding there too.
Chris Wedding:
Okay. So, let’s flash forward, I don’t know, five years, Jacqueline, you just hinted at this just now that you all could have separate funds for infrastructure. Five years from now, what does Carbon Equity look like?
34:10
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Well, hopefully, we hit the one billion mark, that’s definitely our target. Hopefully, we are the global go-to impact venture capital and private equity fund investing platform. I’m saying impact because, ultimately, I think we will go beyond pure climate and add potentially other impact investment teams, such as biodiversity, water, circularity, and maybe down the line, even financial inclusion, ethical AI.
So, the vision I have in my head is that, and sometimes, down the line, people get onto the platform, and can say, “What are the themes that I care about? How much risk-return and impacts am I willing to take on?”
And that people can create a portfolio of different impact themes, to help solve the global challenges they care about.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, I mean, once you get the attention of the high-net-worth and mass affluent, for doing more with their money, you have their mind share and their wallet share, but in a good way, and the technology to do it, and the relationships to do it, why not go horizontal, right?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Exactly, and one of the underlying reasons is that I personally, also am starting to understand climate change, increasingly as a systemic issue and not purely any climate technology issue.
We’re not going to solve this problem purely with technology, so, it’s also a social problem.
Then, all of the problems that come from climate change, such as migration, food scarcity, inequality, all of these things, are also things that we can help tackle.
So, that’s why, I think it makes sense to ultimately broaden our mandate.
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37:18
I want to move us from Carbon Equity, over to Jacqueline.
Tell us one or two things, Jacqueline, that you strongly believe in, and those can be in business, but ideally, they’re broader than business. What comes to mind?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
I think that’s interesting because I think, looking at the generation of my parents, people really grew up with money as a goal in itself, and money was status, and money was power.
I think as a result of that, a lot of people became disenchanted with money, especially women have totally disassociated with money.
They don’t care about investing.
They’re not interested by it, but when we start to recognize the power that money has, the ability to affect change, the ability to vote with your dollars, it really changes the way that we think about money.
For me, that builds a much more emotional connection with capital.
I don’t care about money. I really don’t. For myself, I have a dream, to be super rich or live in a massive mansion. I simply don’t care. But, if I can affect the level of change whilst being comfortable, good enough for me, and if more people start and think like that, I think there could be a big shift. There could be a groundswell of momentum for that kind of thinking amongst millennial-type of restoration who, I think that’s a much broader felt needs to have purpose with your capital. So, that’s something I perhaps uniquely believe in.
Chris Wedding:
Well, it’s true that we’re in the process, at least by kind of US definitions of certain generations, this process of the biggest wealth transfer in history, of some, I forget the number, I think it’s like $60 trillion dollars, passing from baby boomers to their kids. And you mentioned women’s interest or lack therein in investing, but I believe that data shows that more women than men will inherit, I’m digging deep in the past year, but $60 trillion of wealth being transferred. So, you’re right. Greater alignment with the kind of investing we’re discussing on this phone call certainly bodes well for money as a means, money as a tool because when you were talking about the power of capital earlier on, the phrase, the golden rule came to mind.
40:04
And not the golden rule from religion, but the golden rule that she with the gold rules.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes. I love that.
Chris Wedding:
As this wealth transfer occurs and more folks who care about, yes, earning for their retirement, et cetera, but also doing well with that capital, the future can look a little more hopeful. Jacqueline, if you could chat with your younger self, what’s some advice you would give her to be more effective, happier, et cetera, on this pursuit?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
I would like to have second-guessed myself less. It took a very long time to become the entrepreneur that I always thought I wanted to be. So, I’ve been swerving around it. I’ve always had this drive and this dream to become an entrepreneur and I did many things in that direction as a student. I founded the largest nonprofit student-run strategy consulting firm of the Netherlands, which is big, but it’s a nonprofit type company. So, for me, it didn’t fully count as entrepreneurship.
Chris Wedding:
It counted a lot.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah, and then I worked with Rapid Incident, which was one of the largest European venture builders, and I founded their only real estate platform in Southeast Asia, but I wasn’t taking the entrepreneurial risk there myself. Then, I led a large fintech company and after all those years, after like 12 years of experience, I still was not sure that I could be an entrepreneur. People in my environment, actually, also doubted me.
A family member said, “Well, you shouldn’t think that just because you’re a CEO in the Philippines, you could be a CEO in the Netherlands.” A partner at a fund said, “I’m not sure that you could be an entrepreneur because I’m not so sure that you could, basically, get through the product market fit phase. I’m not sure if you have the patience.”
41:58
Now, when I look back on all the things that I’ve been building since a young age, I think, “Oh, yes, I can. Why have I been second-guessing myself?” And maybe it’s just something that’s very innately female, that we doubt whether we can do things that obviously we can do no less well than anybody else would. So, I would have liked to trust my capabilities and my instinct a little bit more growing up, so that I would have sooner acted on this dream of truly becoming an entrepreneur.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I love you sharing that. I don’t like the feedback you got along the way. You mentioned the link between that feedback and you as a woman. I mean, maybe part of it too is the prevalence of women entrepreneurs, women CEOs, so seeing yourself in those other people probably didn’t boost your confidence.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
No.
Chris Wedding:
It’s funny that one person said you lack the patience to find product market fit. I mean, entrepreneurs are notoriously impatient.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes.
Chris Wedding:
I mean, if someone calls you impatient, it's like, “Oh, thank you.” Right?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes, that's totally true.
Chris Wedding:
I’ve joked once on the podcast before, but one of my early reviews in private equity with my managing director was like, “Yeah, you’re kind of a self-starter to a fault.” And I was like, “Wait, am I being criticized or complimented right now? I’m going to take the latter.”
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah, that's such a good point. Totally true, Chris.
43:40
Chris Wedding:
If you had to pick some books or podcasts, tools, or quotes that listeners would find value in, on their own entrepreneurial journey, what comes to mind?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Quotes. “This, too, shall pass.” If I were to tattoo something on my body, which I don’t have yet, but I like the quote, “This, too, shall pass,” because it reminds us of when things are good, enjoy them because this too shall pass and when things are bad, don’t worry about it. You’ll get through, as long as you keep on walking, you’ll make it out. So, for me, it’s a good reminder that there are ups and downs, but you will get to the other side, but also enjoy what is worth enjoying whilst it lasts.
Chris Wedding:
I think, what I like is that you started by interpreting that in the direction no one thought. Like, usually we hear this too shall pass, it’s like, “Oh, well, shit sucks right now. Oh, it’s okay, this too shall pass,” but it’s also the reverse. When things are awesome, like hang on Boy Scout, Girl Scout, this is also temporary, right?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yes, very much. And in entrepreneurship, that’s very important because some days are great. Some days everything is going perfect, or some months things are perfect, but I already know that hard times will for sure come around. I mean, you cannot build a business without having any setbacks, so enjoying the momentum and enjoying the self-confidence, that feeling of traction whilst it’s there, knowing it will disappear at some point and there will be challenges. So, yes, very much.
Chris Wedding:
All right. So, I stopped you from maybe going to a book perhaps.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah, for me, Dare to Lead by Brene Brown, extremely valuable book being a CEO. I think the core lesson there is about vulnerability. What I learned from Brene Brown is that you can truly connect with people by being more personally vulnerable.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah, well, I think when we revved up for the podcast, I asked you like I ask all my guests like, “What would make this a success?” And part of your answer was, “Let’s have a real conversation,” right?
46:05
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah.
Chris Wedding:
I was like, “Well, we can do that. Yeah. Sign me up. That sounds great.” Tell us some habits or routines that keep you healthy, sane, and focused.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
For me, the past year I’ve been waking up at 5:00 a.m., which is really helpful. So, initially, it was a bit painful to wake up at 5:00 a.m., especially in the Dutch winter, which is really cold and dark, but it gives me focus time. So, when I wake up at 5:00 a.m., I spend like 15 minutes doing some fitness, and then I work until 7:00 a.m. when I have coffee with my wife. It’s like a one and a half hours of focus time every single day where I do the most important thing, the thing that’s going to move the needle most. I don’t know if that’s recognizable for other CEOs, but my days are just jam-packed. I spend 9:00 to 6:00 or 9:00 to 7:00 or 9:00 to 8:00 just full time in meetings and maybe if I have a 30-minute break in between, I’m lucky.
There’s no way you can get anything done and then when I’m done, I have a hundred thousand fifty emails per day. So, I’m just drowning and just trying to keep afloat, but this 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. make sure that I have some time and actually can feel good about myself and what I achieve and every day move the needle by a little.
Chris Wedding:
Well, again, keeping it real, Jacqueline like, “Oh, CEO, hooray,” also, it's a damn hard job. I think what you're describing fits in the bucket of deep work, right?
Jacqueline van den Ende:
That's deep work. Totally.
Chris Wedding:
Longer periods of time, not 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. An hour and a half or longer chunks of no distractions.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Exactly.
Chris Wedding:
Well, hey, look, we’re at time. I’m sure, you’re back-to-back here. What’s a final message or ask from listeners here, Jacqueline?
48:00
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Yeah. Well, given that I have the opportunity to address your listeners, if you are interested in what we’re building with Carbon Equity, we’re always looking for talents, advisors, people to join us on our journey. So, I’d love to get in touch. Just, touch base with me through LinkedIn.
Know that, I am a horrible responder. My LinkedIn inbox is overflowing, but I will try to get to it. And do feel free to follow up, if you don’t hear from me. Be persistent, because I’m not intentionally ignoring you, but I’d love to hear from you and see if there are ways to collaborate down the line in building Carbon Equity as the global go-to impact venture capital and private equity funding investing platform.
Chris Wedding:
There it is, folks. Jacqueline, we are rooting for you-all’s success. Cool to see what’s happened in less than two years, can’t imagine the trajectory for the next five. Talk soon.
Jacqueline van den Ende:
Thank you.
Chris Wedding:
Thanks for listening and if you want more intel on climate tech, better habits, and deep work, then join the thousands of others who have subscribed to our Substack newsletter at entrepreneursforimpact.com or drop me a note on LinkedIn. Alright, that’s all y’all. Take care.
ABOUT OUR PODCAST
We talk about #ClimateTech #Startups #VentureCapital #Productivity and #Leadership.
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Dr. Chris Wedding is a 4x founder, 4x Board member, climate CEO peer group leader and coach, Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, podcast host, newsletter author, occasional monk, Japanophile, ax throwing champ, father of three, and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio). 😃
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