The Entrepreneurs for Impact Podcast: Transcripts
#148:
$100M from Insurance Giant for U.S. Climate Tech Startups — Tim Krysiek, Managing Partner at MassMutual Ventures
PODCAST INTRODUCTION
Chris Wedding:
My guest today is Tim Krysiek, Managing Partner at MassMutual Ventures. MassMutual is an insurance and financial services firm with $460 billion in AUM, and MassMutual Ventures is their venture arm. Their new US Climate Tech Fund represents $100 million and is focused on early-stage opportunities, think Series A or B in climate intelligence, sustainable cities, and clean power. Their initial check sizes are two to $5 million.
Tim was previously Managing Director at Equinor Ventures where he worked across the energy value chain, including renewables, fusion, mobility, and storage. He was also a consultant at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, now part of S&P Global. A researcher at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and a political risk consultant at Google.
01:51
Krysiek achieved all these great things because he got an MBA from Duke University, where I teach. (I, of course, I’m exaggerating. Tim's a great guy.) Anyway, when not investing in world-changing companies, I hear that he's an inspiring, aspiring Eastern European cook focused on the three P's, which maybe I can pronounce, pierogis, pelmeni, and potica. I'm sure someone will correct me if I mispronounce those.
In this episode, we talked about his team's work investing in five climate tech unicorns at Equinor. How his study of geopolitics across 12 countries shaped him into an investor. That is not the typical path to be an investor, but good training nonetheless. What their climate intelligence focus means as one of their three pillars in terms of cheaper data and falling processing costs. How the Net Zero Tracker of corporate climate goals influence their thesis around voluntary carbon markets.
Why he's excited about investing in proptech, that is property tech, given the durability of buildings and the potential value that MassMutual can create for companies in the space given its large real estate holdings. What he means by keeping one foot on certain ground and the other on uncertain ground when it comes to maybe career development/growth. How much water he drinks per day and its relationship to the number of steps he takes each day as part humor, or maybe poor attempts at humor. His three favorite climate books and three favorite business books, Think Parallel and others. Anyway, lots more.
Hope you enjoy it, and please, give Tim and MassMutual Ventures a shout out on LinkedIn, Slack, or Twitter by sharing this podcast with your people.
P.S. I promise this is actually Chris Wedding recording this despite sounding like a clothespin is attached to my nose. Another gift from attending Climate Week in New York was coming home with COVID. Hooray. I guess I got the booster the natural way, I suppose. The other P.S., I suppose, P.S.S., if you or a friend is building a growth stage climate tech company and looking to surround yourself with others going through the same process and preferring not to be alone in the process, looking for ways to hack that growth if you will, share your best practices and the like, I of course happen to run such a wonderful peer group program at Entrepreneurs for Impact.
05:08
35 of us right now across North America, wonderful human beings who happen to also be creating $10 billion or so of market value around for-profit climate solutions. If you want to chat, I'm sure there's some sort of button on our website, Entrepreneurs for Impact, or find me on LinkedIn, and we'll do an informational interview if it's a possible fit for you.
Hey, that's all. Enjoy the pod.
PODCAST INTERVIEW
Chris Wedding:
Tim Krysiek, Managing Partner at MassMutual Ventures, welcome to the podcast.
Tim Krysiek:
Thanks, Chris. Good to see you twice in two weeks.
Chris Wedding:
I tell you, how lucky am I? Yes, it's interesting that when we met last at Climate Week, we were a lot soggier, wetter than we are right now. That Monday, for those of you listening who were at Climate Week on the 18th, God bless you for trudging across the city to go to all these meetings in a mess. In that meeting, Tim, I mean, I guess I've known you for maybe three or four years here and I'd never heard the fun little sound bite you gave me at the, what was it? The Penn Club Library. Goodness gracious, what a setting for auspicious future here together, Tim.
Anyway, you mentioned that in your prior role as an investor at Equinor, at least five of those portfolio companies had reached unicorn status, dot, dot, dot, maybe more to come. Who knows? Goodness gracious, that's not normal, Tim.
Tim Krysiek:
No, it's not and it's not just about me. I was fortunate to have a tremendous team at Equinor Ventures, so a lot of the credit goes to my old crew. But yeah, extremely happy for the portfolio companies from that group that are breaking through and as you said, dot, dot, dot, more to come.
Chris Wedding:
Well, like a good leader should, deflected, pointed to your team. It takes a great team, no doubt. Anyway, I think listeners will appreciate that is super abnormal. Clearly a guarantee of what you will do in the future.
Tim Krysiek:
One can only hope.
Chris Wedding:
Isn't that what all the fine print on investment prospectuses say is past results guarantee? Oh wait, it's not. Anyway, it's a hell of a track record in this space. I mean, certainly pretty early in the space and a unique position to be at Equinor, a strategic investing in this space.
So, before we get to your current role, pretty exciting in a different way, what made investing as a corporate strategic better or harder, I suppose, than a peer financial investor, Tim?
Tim Krysiek:
I think what made it more challenging was that, as a strategic, especially with an LP with the breadth and the ambition that Equinor has to become a net zero energy company, the scope was pretty wide. The scope was wide and the toolbox was pretty expansive as well, so we invested across the climate tech spectrum and we had a variety of tools. We could do seed investments; we could go late stage.
Now that I'm in a financial fund, it's much more focused by theme and by stage. Now it's very clear we're looking for Series A, Series B, climate tech companies in three specific priority investment areas, willing to do hardware and software. But the strike zone is tighter now than it was before and that has its advantages, certainly.
Chris Wedding:
Well, Tim, if venture capital doesn't work out for you, I think politics is the next step here. Beautiful way of redirecting the question to, not the past, but the future baby, the present at MassMutual. So, let's go there in a very intentional way. You're in a spot where MassMutual has been investing in venture for a while. Not so much necessarily explicitly in climate tech so it's great. It's great that it's both blank slate for you and your partner to craft, build a team, but there's full belief in the thesis financially. Of course, MassMutual does not just allocate capital to venture. Maybe say more about its various pockets if you will, and why that makes MassMutual different/more interesting to companies.
04:46
Tim Krysiek:
I've been learning MassMutual for the past five months since I made the jump, so I can share what I've discovered. I mean, it's a fantastic place. It's got a great culture and I've been really interested to learn about all the other asset classes and fund managers.
So, to give you a big picture, a big overview of the fund and the firm, MassMutual has $460 billion of assets under management. So, within the investment management division of MassMutual, you'll find alternatives, practice. You'll find fixed income, you'll find ventures, of course and then there's a firm called Bearings, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of MassMutual. They have over $300 billion of assets under management, and they have growth funds and infrastructure funds.
So, I believe that part of our value proposition to founders is that we could be a gateway. We can help introduce a company that's perhaps growing out of the venture phase to later stage sources of capital as they develop. That's one of the things that we bring to the table.
You asked me to compare and contrast with Equinor, one of the fun parts about Equinor is we were able to take new climate technologies. I mean, we made the first ever investments within Equinor into areas like Fusion and green hydrogen and all solid-state batteries and direct ocean capture. My former team, we were able to introduce those concepts into an industrial setting and get people thinking, how could the company participate in those growth themes? What kinds of partnerships and collaborations could be made out of those venture investments? And now in a financial setting, it's a similar take.
06:48
If we can start to show progress at the venture level, well, what might that mean for a growth fund manager or for an infrastructure fund manager? Could we socialize technology that might be future investment themes, broader investment themes in their own right? So, that's an exciting challenge. It all starts of course with success at the venture stage.
Chris Wedding:
You mentioned Bearings. Now, is that AUM you mentioned 300, I think billion dollars or so part of the 460 or separate from the 460?
Tim Krysiek:
Some of the funds that MassMutual has, it invests itself and some it invests with Bearings and then Bearings can accept third party capital as well.
Chris Wedding:
Okay, and just really quick, maybe the thesis of Bearings, if you will, as a compliment to what you all do?
Tim Krysiek:
Well, the part where we intersect with Bearings, which is really interesting, we've got three priority areas in terms of venture investment, climate intelligence, sustainable cities and clean power. I can circle back and double click on any of those, but Bearings has a major exposure to the real estate sector and Bearings also has a proptech team within Bearings that helps asset managers to think about ways to add technology to their businesses and to decarbonize their assets.
And so, Karl Beinkampen, my partner, and I sit on the proptech committee within Bearings, which is a great way to test ideas and concepts with real asset managers, get their feedback, understand their challenges, and then compare what they think are opportunities or pain points with what we're seeing in the market.
Chris Wedding:
That's a great example. This is one way that you're both doing a little bit of field work, but that field work could lead to contracts for your portfolio companies. Maybe say more about how you're building out the team at MassMutual. I guess, is it built out? You probably don't need more resumes in your list, but what is the process like to build out a new team in climate tech at a place like MassMutual?
Tim Krysiek:
Right now, it's just a team of two, it's just me and Karl, and we've been developing the investment thesis and the fund strategy together over the summer. We closed the fund a few weeks back, so we're ready to go in terms of funding investments. We'd like to add a couple of people to the team over time, and we’re meaning to add additional skill sets. We also want to add different perspectives.
The investment strategy that we have at the moment is really a function of two things. It reflects areas in which Karl and I feel calibrated and connected, and we can be dangerous. Then it also reflects some of the things that MassMutual and Bearings are doing in the world that we think are special, that we can lean into and get value from. And so, that's how we came up with the investment themes, but of course, as any team grows and you add skill sets and capabilities, our worldview may shift over time. So, we're looking for a couple of special people to come and join us and be part of the founding team.
Chris Wedding:
Brief aside here, I think I get maybe 4,000 requests per year, slight exaggeration, around, how do I get a job in Climate Tech VC? So, Tim, with those 4,000 folks listening just in my little world, any advice for folks who want to work for a team like yours at some point in their life?
Tim Krysiek:
Well, I would say wherever you are, there's hope. I mean, I've had a pretty long and winding road to venture capital, which I'm happy to get into, but I tend to think about it in the following way. I mean, you need to be able to pick up the strategic narrative and make it actionable. So, you need to take these big trends and break them down into investment themes and sub-themes. You have to be able to frame things and communicate effectively. So that's the communication and the strategy piece of ventures. You have to be comfortable with the numbers. You have to be able to do the modeling and to make some reasonable assumptions to ground that strategic analysis in some financial analysis.
11:44
On top of that, those basic skills, if you can add subject matter expertise, if you've worked at a startup, if you've worked in government, certainly, and you have knowledge of the policy space, or if you have an engineering degree, those sorts of competencies just add to that foundation of thinking critically about the world around us. Distilling it into actionable insights and then running the numbers, stress testing the business concept to say, is this reasonable? Is this plausible? And if it scales, do I have a return profile that fits with the risk I'm about to take?
Chris Wedding:
I like how you started your answer by saying, wherever you are, there is hope. There is hope, folks. Well, I'm going to ask you to go a bit deeper on your path, but before we do that, I'm going to share just a quick anecdote.
I was meeting with someone at Climate Week and they're like, “Well, how did you get into private equity?” I said, “I just fell into it.” She said, “No, you don't just fall into private equity.” I said, “No, it's true.” I did not get into private equity because I followed a traditional path and was an expert in financial modeling.
I got into it, PE, because I've got a ponytail and a PhD in green building. In fact, the CEO said, “If you ever cut your ponytail, you're fired.” I mean, this was vicariously through the CFO, it was a joke, but it was also like, “This is who you are/your expertise. Don't try to be what you're not.” Say more about, Tim, your path to VC, then we're going to go back to dig into MassMutual strategy.
Tim Krysiek:
I mean, there's really three chapters to my path. Well, the listeners can judge, but I think I came from a pretty unlikely place. So, the first chapter, my undergrad and graduate work was all in international affairs. I've always been fascinated by the big forces that are shaping our world, the geopolitics that shape the world that we live in.
I did my graduate work in the UK and one of the benefits of the British system is that you have extraordinarily long breaks. So, you have six weeks of break and then eight to 10 weeks of term time and then another six weeks of break, so you can read really long books. I picked up this book by Dan Yergin called The Prize, which he described it in many ways, but my take is that it's an alternative history of the 21st century and it stresses the importance of energy markets in defining the political landscape.
So, I finished that book and I thought, “In order to really understand international relations, I have to understand energy markets more fundamentally.” And so, that sent me into a decade of working in the energy industry as a consultant and then in corporate life, and that got me exposed to very sophisticated capital allocation, mega projects on a global scale. I got to work on different types of projects, whether it was oil and gas, solar, offshore wind and I got a very global and international experience. I think in the 10 years that I would say I was really in the core of the industry, I lived, worked, and studied in over a dozen countries.
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So, I came out of that 2016, 2017, and I thought, “To really understand energy markets going forward, I've got to understand technology and climate at a deeper level.” And so, I spent the last seven years working at this nexus of sustainability, energy transition strategy and venture investing. Then once I joined Equinor Ventures, it was clear that ventures was really the perfect fit for me because I could think strategically, but act tactically and practically by making these investments. I also think it's the most human part of finance in that so much of it is evaluating and betting on and working with new teams that are forming. And so, I thought it was a great fit.
In the corporate life you're often working on a project or a function and what I liked about venture so much is that I'm working with the totality of the business at an earlier stage, of course, but I found that very fulfilling and a great way to use everything I learned to date, including the whole business school curriculum I find I use on a daily basis in ventures.
I'll say the irony for me is that now my reflection sitting in 2023, it's like, wow, how important are geopolitics to Climate Tech Ventures because you think of all the diplomacy that goes on around the cops and the impact of that. You think of Chinese, US and European industrial policy with respect to the energy transition, and you think of the war in Eastern Europe and how much Russia's invasion of Ukraine has influenced energy markets and the transition, especially in Europe. So, it's almost like I've come full circle, Chris, and almost 20 years later, I'm now appreciating what I started with early in the journey.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. I mean, hindsight, 2020 and all that jazz. Tim, what I want to lead listeners with from everything you just said, the key, listen to the title of our podcast here. I'm joking. The key to getting into climate tech VC is to take six-week long vacations, travel the world and read long books. Is that right?
Tim Krysiek:
It worked for me.
Chris Wedding:
Perfect. Yes, atypical path, many paths to get there. Okay, let's go back to MassMutual. You mentioned there are these three buckets, let's say. Let’s pick climate intelligence, for example. What does it mean? What are some sub-sectors within climate intelligence that you're looking at? What are some of the key questions you're wrestling with to decide to invest in some of these sub-sectors in climate intelligence, maybe?
Tim Krysiek:
Climate intelligence is a good one to start with. I mean, we think about this in the following way. We think about a group of companies that are leveraging data and analysis on natural systems and human systems. Big data analysis applied to climate-related decisions and solutions.
So, if you think about the amount of data that's available, it's expanding rapidly, geospatial data, financial data, there's more and more data all the time. The processing costs are going down. The acquisition costs are generally going down. So, you think of a value chain of data acquisition, insight generation, and then creating applications for end users. And as you heard in my setup, two of the personas that we have access to within the MassMutual and Bearings ecosystem are financial asset managers and renewable developers. And so, we're particularly interested in this nexus of climate and big data when it creates solutions for those two personas because then we can have useful conversations internally and really think critically about investment opportunities.
So, sub-sectors might include mapping services for renewable developers, helping them to locate projects more effectively, closer to transmission in the right place on the map. It would include enabling technology for voluntary carbon markets. You've got a forest-based credit or a mangroves-based carbon credit and you want to digitally monitor or verify what's going on at ground level, that would be an example. It could be climate insurance related companies, not because our single LP is an insurance company, but because it's an investment category that fits the climate intelligence theme. So, those are some details within that space.
Chris Wedding:
Super helpful breakdown. The call before we pressed record, I've got 24 or so early-stage founders that, coaching is the wrong word, we're learning together about funding in the space. And one of them says, “Yeah, we just got approval to develop 14,000 hectares in the Philippines for mangrove restoration and preservation to sell these carbon credits.”
21:09
I can imagine someone like that, or the investor in that project who ultimately cares about what the buyers of those offsets thinks. He's like, “Well, rest assured corporate buyer who wants to avoid some negative headline, here's this digital tool to make sure that the project is on track to deliver said benefits versus the opposite.”
Tim Krysiek:
That's exactly right and we talked about this at Climate Week. I spent the day after we met up at a conference just devoted to the future of voluntary carbon markets and trust is the key word. The market's really driven by corporate buyers who are trying to find credits, use them as offsets within the context of their net zero strategies and that's what they're demanding because there's been enough negative attention on credits that were underperforming.
People want to make sure that the product that they bought is doing what it said it would do. So, that's an exciting space and an important space, I think, because we want to price these externalities with respect to climate. Until we have a broader system, a more inclusive system mandated by governments then the voluntary market is what we have to work with.
Chris Wedding:
Right. Let's go one little deeper here. So, you've seen the headlines as I have, lots of listeners, at least 20%, probably a larger percentage of the world's biggest companies have made public commitments to be net zero by often 2050, sometimes a little earlier. I think it's probably true most of them don't know how they're going to get there and the people who will be in power then are not the same ones who are in power right now dot, dot, dot, very important sidebar.
But how do you think about the methods they use to reach those goals and how much of that progress is accomplished outside of their boundaries, if you will, through more trusted carbon offsets versus something else? I mean, I'm sure that math exists somewhere, but how do you think about that as the pool of buyers who care about whatever company you invest in in this space?
Tim Krysiek:
Something that stuck with me on the way to New York, I read a report called the Net Zero Tracker, and they had looked at the level of commitments toward net zero. The headlines were pretty inspiring, Chris. I mean, it was something like over 90% of GDP now covered by a net zero goal 88% of the population, 80 plus percent of emissions. So, at a high level, the net zero coverage is there, but then if you dug into the report, I think the statistic was only three to 4% of net zero goals, be they corporate, national or sub-national goals, met the quality control check of the UN race to zero.
24:31
So, with that sort of backdrop, we have ambition. As you say, the number of companies is growing. I think the number of corporates that have committed to net zero has increased from something like 400 to 900 just in the past two years. So, at a headline level, the ambition is there, the targets are there, they've been announced, but I'd be the first one to say that the most important thing is to reduce your own emissions and energy usage. The credit should only be used for those emissions that you can't squeeze out of the system because the technology just isn't there yet. Now, even that is a really big number that would support growth in the voluntary carbon market.
We’re going to go into a space where companies are going to look more and more deeply at their own emissions and I think that’s exciting for people who are supporting onsite CNI renewable development. That’s exciting for companies, whether they’re hardware or software companies that are helping to reduce say emissions in buildings. Buildings are about to have their day as everybody’s going to recognize them as an important source of power consumption and emissions. So, companies are going to start to look internally and perhaps add more nuance to their own reduction efforts. And as you said, they’re going to look more and more carefully at the voluntary carbon markets as a source to finish off and top up those goals.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. You make a great point. I'm glad you stressed this that buying however high quality these offsets are or carbon removals, it is not the first step, it is the last step after taking direct action of what you control scope one, two, three. Okay. Awesome.
Let's go to one of the other three buckets, sustainable cities, I believe I wrote down. Having read your wonderfully non-corporate bio on the MassMutual's venture page, it was fun, really, did you all pick sustainable cities? Because in your deepest of hearts, you want to be an urban planner, Tim.
Tim Krysiek:
No, good catch and credit to our director of marketing, Meredith, for a great website and very personal bios. Not just from me, but you can read about everyone else at MMV as well. No, we didn't arrive at it that way. We backed into it in the following way. We thought between Bearings and MassMutual, we're fortunate to know a lot of people who think deeply about buildings and real estate. Then if you combine that with what you see in the climate space and the importance of buildings as a source of power consumption and as a source of emissions, ultimately, that really can't be ignored. If you build a building, most likely it's with you for 100 plus years, so there's a big job to be done in terms of retrofitting and making existing buildings better. It’s also important that we build new buildings in a better, more sustainable way.
If you look at the population trends, I think roughly four or five out of 10 people on earth live in an urban center and it's going to increase, I think, to seven out of 10 by 2050 or by 2100. So, there's just greater and greater concentration and greater and greater need. We're never going to get to net zero as a planet unless we have more sustainable cities. So, that's how we came to it, but it is a nice round trip for me and it does tap on some of my longstanding personal interests.
28:34
Chris Wedding:
It is pretty amazing to be in New York City and think about all that went into creating the layers, the complexity of the infrastructure. I recall I was standing in Central Park before my last meeting on Wednesday looking at the contrast between Central Park and these amazingly high-tech new trash papers. Having just spent three 15-hour days at Climate Week, it's like, “This feels like hope that humans are capable of this coordination, engineering, et cetera.” We need to shift direction a little bit, but the innovation, the complexity that is New York City was a sign of hope, I believe, as well.
Tim Krysiek:
No, it's amazing what we can do. It’s going to be really hard and I don't mean to minimize it at all, but we've come to a point now where we understand we need to green the grid and we need to electrify everything. So, that process is in motion and it's going to take a huge effort. We've come to the point now where we understand that the virtues of electric mobility and what it can mean in terms of emissions reduction and it's going to be really hard. We've got a lot of problems to solve, infrastructure, vehicle availability, but we're on a path.
My hope is that cities and buildings are the next topic to go mainstream in that way. That people will start to realize in the more general mainstream conversation, just how important they are in terms of energy and carbon. That once that comes into focus, and you're already seeing some of this, the pressure for disclosure will grow. The pressure to have a net zero plan for all major real estate players will grow. I think that’s right around the corner, which makes it a good spot to make some venture bets at this stage.
Chris Wedding:
Well, it is warming to my heart, Tim, that having started my PhD in green building and how to mainstream it in 2003, in 2023 we’re ready to do it, man. Let's join hands.
Tim Krysiek:
And you still have the ponytail, Chris, which is the essential factor.
Chris Wedding:
Clearly the key to mainstreaming green building is the ponytail. Hey, let's go back to Climate Week for a second. I wonder if you could just react more broadly outside of MassMutual, what are the takeaways, not every takeaway, but what are two, three, four reactions, insights that you have from Climate Week that might be worth sharing?
Tim Krysiek:
It was interesting. This is the first year I've gone and I'm really glad that I did, but it was a weird process. So, over the summer, I started to call friends and say, “Hey, what's going on at Climate Week?” And they said, “Tim, it's what you make of it. There’s a lot of serendipity involved. You have to swing from one event to another, tap your network and none of it's governed. None of the things that we're naturally interested in climate tech venture is naturally covered by the mainline conference agenda. So, I thought, “Okay, this is a fun challenge. What can I string together?” So, I started calling people and put together a really exciting three-day agenda and then I noticed everybody was in scramble mode over summer holidays trying to put together their own agendas.
32:25
Then I think the first week of September when everybody was back from vacation, I just got a blitz of invitations to really exciting high-quality events with great speakers. And so, my lesson learned is, next year, I'm just going to book the whole week and even if all the events aren't in place by August, that's just fine. If you build it, they will come. Just go and they'll be good stuff. People who have been to Climate Week many times told me that they had never seen this much venture and startup specific programming in the week. So, I thought that was encouraging.
Then the other thing I picked up is that other cities are starting Climate Week now. So, apparently there's a Chicago Climate Week coming up soon and I think that's an encouraging trend as well. It just seems like a ton of enthusiasm and concentrated in a single city is pretty fantastic. As you said, Monday was rough with the weather, but the rest of the week was pretty good and I thought it was a great chance to meet a lot of people, especially still a bit in the COVID overhang, meet a lot of people that I had only known through Zoom and phone calls prior that week.
Chris Wedding:
If you're lucky, you'll come back with COVID like I did.
Tim Krysiek:
Yeah, sorry about that. I hope it wasn't from our meeting at the Penn Club.
Chris Wedding:
No. Maybe listeners hear what sounds like a clothespin on my nose today, I promise it's the same person. Yeah, I agree. I was there last year for the first time and the energy and audience around climate tech startups and investors, I can't measure it, but 20X what it was last year. Could have easily been double booked every hour the whole week. Yeah.
All right, Tim, let's switch from MassMutual Tim to Tim, Tim to the topic of your path. So, imagine you're chatting with the younger Tim, who's hanging out in maybe one of these 12 countries where you worked. What is some advice you might give that person around being more effective, dare I say happier on this path?
Tim Krysiek:
Well, I think if I look back 10 or 15 years, I'd give the following advice and say, picture your first day at your dream job. You're excited, you're enthusiastic, the sky is the limit, you’re fundamentally friendly, you want to be collaborative with everybody. On the downside, you're a bit naïve, you're unknown, you're unproven, you're untested. So, think of that as one extreme. Then think about your 10th anniversary at a job. You've been at the same job for a decade, same company. At this point, you're very practical, you're realistic, you're measured, you understand how to be effective, how to get things done. On the downside, maybe you're a bit worn out, you're perhaps no longer as inspired by the mission. Maybe you're on the wrong side of things politically within the organization, who knows?
35:49
But if you think of those two extremes, I always thought, ideally, it'd be amazing if you could blend the spirit of the young person starting their career with some of the savvy and the lessons learned of the experienced veteran and of course, that's the ideal solution. The only way to overcome that as a younger person is to go out of your way to read, to network, to find coaches and mentors, to listen really, really hard and try to observe as much as you can.
So, my advice would be, always try to keep that enthusiasm, that optimism from the first day. That's magic. You never want to lose that, but you've got to focus it on a handful of specific measurable milestones that you can really take with you and build on. Another piece of advice that I've learned over time is, as enthusiastic as you are, try to always have one foot in something that you know and that you're strong in and have that second foot leaning into something that is new. It's got some momentum, it's a bit uncertain, maybe it's a bit uncomfortable. But if you do that and then you keep stepping from stone to stone, always matching a source of strength with some bit of momentum and a bit of a stretch for you, then you're balancing the idealistic and the practical, and you're actually taking steps forward, but it's hard. I'm the kind of guy that I'm extremely enthusiastic on day one, I want to jump into everything and you've got to keep that, but also balance it over time.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. I like the analogy, your visual there, one foot in what's known, one foot in what is more unknown, which I guess relates -- I was going to ask you, how do you think you've been able to keep or refine that eagerness for work whereas it can be easier to get in ruts, let's say, or just block and tackle in the day job?
Tim Krysiek:
I was very fortunate, both my time in consulting and my time in corporate life, that they were both cultures in which there were options. It wasn't predefined. Like when you came in, they didn't tattoo your function or your subject matter expertise on you. Both of those cultures, both at Cambridge Energy Research Associates and at Equinor allow people to grow if they're curious and proactive around their own futures.
So, I was very fortunate in that respect, but it really is up to you. I mean, in any of the places I've worked, nobody hands you a crystal-clear job progression or career description. You've got to hustle and make it on your own. Perhaps I was fortunate to land in the right spots, but I think a lot can be said for taking it in your own hands and try to make it actionable.
Again, you mentioned the rut, don't play into the rut. Try to bring things from the external environment that you think are disruptive, exciting, but also relevant to your day-to-day and ask people for a chance to incorporate those and make something actionable out of them.
39:30
Chris Wedding:
I like that. Yeah, the part about being curious and taking initiative and such, totally agree. It also reminds me of a 360 feedback I got from a managing director at the private equity firm and they said, “You're kind of a self-starter to a fault.” And I was like, “Wait, am I being reprimanded or complimented here? I don't know which one. I'm going to go with the latter.” Anyway, Tim, tell us some habits or routines that keep you healthy, sane and focused in what you do.
Tim Krysiek:
So, I've given this as a gift to multiple people in my life, I'm a huge advocate of the Casper Glow Light. If you don't know what this is, it's a little orb that sits on your nightstand or your dresser and it gradually wakes you up in the morning, gradually increases the light in the room, almost mimicking a sunrise. And to me, it's just a much more pleasant way to wake up than your iPhone going off with those predictable ring tones. To me, that's just a great way to start the day, to ease into it. I try to stick to five or six rules every day that I think increases the chances of it feeling like a good day--
Chris Wedding:
I feel this coming on.
Tim Krysiek:
…at the end of the day. So, everybody's different, whether it's a set of workout routines, whether it's diet, whether it's dedicated time with friends and family. Think about the five or six things every day that could have the biggest impact on you having a quote unquote, good day at the end of it and get those done early. Put those in place, maximize your chance.
The other thing I've learned as I go on through life is, I try to match the task with my energy level during the day. Again, everybody's different, but for me, I really try to front load the conceptual work in the morning, deep analysis, strategy, writing. I try to resist the urge to wake up and spend two hours digging out of my inbox every morning because to me, that's the most valuable time for thinking and reflection.
In the middle of the day, I try to do listening tasks. So, most of my pitch meetings I'll take in the middle of the day, most of the team meetings in the middle of the day, because I'm in that balance zone. I've gotten some energy from the tasks at the beginning of the day, but in a bit more listening and processing mode. Then I save all of the scheduling, the heavy lifting on email, the logistics, I try to save that for the last hour or two of the day when my energy is at its lowest, but I can still make progress on email and calendar.
Chris Wedding:
That's super actionable, but I got to go back. I think you've teased the audience. You're like, “Well, I just follow these five rules,” and you just moved on, Tim. What are some of these rules here?
Tim Krysiek:
Yeah, so the easy ones are 10,000 steps or whatever you think you need in terms of mobility. I try to spend some quality time with each of my kids separately because they're five and four and I find when you separate them, you get very different interactions. So, I try to spend quality time with Nick and Katie, and of course, with my wife, Allison, so I try to make sure there's always time set aside for that. There are really nerdy things like how many ounces of water I drink in a day.
Chris Wedding:
Tell us, how many ounces, Tim?
43:16
Tim Krysiek:
It should be over 100 ounces of water. You're really pulling it out of me.
Chris Wedding:
But partly Tim, you get your steps in by walking back and forth to the restroom, I guess, right?
Tim Krysiek:
Yeah, that's right. That definitely helps add to the total. Then, the sugar intake, there's a threshold for that, 36 grams of sugar. I don't always stick to that. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I don't always stick to that one. So, those are a handful of rules. I won't give away all of them, Chris, because I want there to be a second podcast. But if you're looking for a great book to find these sorts of things, I recommend Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris. It's 200 pages loaded with these sorts of tips and tricks.
Chris Wedding:
Well, just say Tim Ferris on this podcast and you get lots of folks really excited.
Tim Krysiek:
Oh good. We'll put his name in the show description.
Chris Wedding:
Yeah. I've got four or five of his books back here. He got me hooked on entrepreneurship years ago. I'd also direct folks to a website called Routines.club, which is in beta, but it tracks the ridiculous details of five or six influencer optimizer types like Tim. Anyway, it goes through their day with supplements and this nutrition, that smoothie, this meditation. It’s super nerdy. I think you'll love it. But anyway, I clearly love it as well. All right, last one, Tim. Tell us a few books, podcasts, et cetera, you think listeners may find value in.
Tim Krysiek:
Okay. This is also a dangerous place because I'm always filled with book recommendations. I've got two categories for you. I've got climate books and venture books.
Chris Wedding:
Thank you.
Tim Krysiek:
Hopefully it covers your audience mostly. On the climate books, I mean, the two that are very useful I find time and time again, are Speed and Scale and the Bill Gates book, but the hidden gem, I think, is a book by Tom Rand called The Case for Climate Capitalism. I read it during the early days of the pandemic and it always stuck with me as something that was very practical and it was useful in multiple contexts. Whether it was thinking about business school curriculum or thinking about venture investing or thinking about project developer capital allocation. I really can't say enough good things about Tom Rand's book.
Then on the venture book side, I mean, two that I just love, one is highly analytical, it's the Power Law by Sebastian Mallaby, which came out last year, I think. I read it twice at least and I still go back to it occasionally. To balance it out with something that's extremely funny, I think, is Disrupted by Dan Lyons and I have to go out of my way to recommend the Audible version of this, read by the author with a fantastic Boston accent. He gets into some of the craziness and absurdity of life in our industry in just a really memorable way that always stuck with me. Also, a deep pandemic read.
Then the surprise book in the venture category, and I'm ashamed to say this because somebody handed this to me as a gift, my first boss at Statoil handed it to me as a gift in 2010, I finally read it in 2021, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez. It just gives you a macro view of waves of innovation, how technology can become over invested, but then pretty broadly installed. Then you see the productivity gains and you see the value creation later in the cycle. That was always just a very useful guide to me, helping me to think, where are we in the cycle? What's happening? What's a likely path forward? I thought that was a good resource over time.
Chris Wedding:
Well, I love how organized, Tim, your recommendations are and clearly folks need to take advantage of a new six-week holiday to read your six books. Thanks for that homework. All right, final, final. Tim, final words, call to action, who do you want to hear from this pod?
47:47
Tim Krysiek:
I would be delighted to hear from startups, investors, incubators, and accelerators that are focused on our priority investment themes for MassMutual Climate Tech and those are, as we discussed, climate intelligence and sustainable cities, but also clean power. If we haven't connected and you're in those zones, Series A, Series B, love to get to know you and hear more about what you're doing because we're passionate about what we're doing and we'd love to join forces and see what we can do together.
Chris Wedding:
Perfect, Tim. Hey, look, excited for the recent move over to MassMutual, what a cool platform for helping these climate tech companies grow.
Tim Krysiek:
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate the opportunity.
Chris Wedding:
Talk soon.
ABOUT OUR PODCAST
We talk about #ClimateTech #Startups #VentureCapital #Productivity and #Leadership.
And we’ve become one of the top 3% most popular podcasts in the world.
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Learn about our guests’ career paths, founder stories, business strategies, investment criteria, growth challenges, hard-earned wisdom, productivity habits, life hacks, favorite books, and lots more.
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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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