Failing better: helping founders do hard things

On the plane to ClimateWeek in NYC, ‘What if We Get it Right’ by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, slapped me with a reminder of the past. When I knew Beta Hatch might fail, I put a note at the base of my monitor, a reminder: I CAN DO HARD THINGS.? I saw this note for the 8 months of sleepless nights before the shut down, and a further 9 months of heartache and wrap up. Closing down a company I birthed (after a decade of innumerable sacrifices) was the hardest thing I’ve done. Startup failure is hard, but failure in the climate crisis is unacceptable.

We need to learn - faster - from our failures.

While I’m incredibly grateful for the support of so many - thank you James Joslin Hans Kelstrup Matt Stupfel Jacob Ellis Aimee Rudolph, MBA Phillip Kassel, President/Executive Leader, Board Member Karen Say-Valadez Dean Didato Chuck Warta Son Vo John C. Kuenzi Justin Kern Louis J. Kang Chris Wedding Grey Frandsen Jeff Woodward and so many many more - I am still shocked at how little support exists in the ecosystem for the end of our entrepreneurial journeys. There are over 2,000 accelerators helping birth new startups everyday, but not a single decelerator. [And it's probably not deceleration we need, but rather a slingshot, a trampoline, a way to bounce back from failure faster.]

This is why Jared Silvia and I are starting Gliding Ant Ventures, and making a new type of investment in cleantech. We are investing when founders need it most - at the end of their journey. This is a grand experiment I will test at ClimateWeek, talking to as many people as possible about our unique value proposition: we want to help climate founders fail better.

What if failure was less of a crash landing and more of a glide? Deeptech startups, operating in fields requiring huge investments of R&D, are especially unsupported. We want to open source the innovations of those startups so we can build on their learnings and avoid their mistakes. With open science, we can elevate the baseline for climate solutions. There's no time to waste - that's why we want to help land the rocket ship, and get experienced entrepreneurs blasting off again as soon as possible.

It’s easy to walk away when things get hard - all I had to do is let our software licenses expire, and the 4 TB of data representing the $30M invested and collective efforts of our team [42,785 days worked, or 117 years] would have disappeared. So if you or someone you know is failing [or flailing] and needs support [from finding last-ditch capital to just needing a big hearty hug], send them our way: https://www.glidingant.com

We cannot afford to let the hard-fought lessons of failed climate tech startups fester on a hard drive.

If you’d like to meet up at Climate Week, please comment, DM me, or email virginia@glidingant.com

Failing better and more openly: what do you think? Please comment and share - we want to hear from you!

P.S. Gliding Ant Ventures is named for the behavior of arboreal ants who fall out of their nest - they will glide in a J-shaped curve back to their host tree -? and then get right back to work.