Educating Tomorrow's Ecopreneurs with Kate Danaher, S2G Ventures

Welcome back to Planet & Purpose —a bi-weekly LinkedIn Newsletter featuring professional insights and personal experiences from ocean and climate ecopreneurs, investors, and advocates by Daniela V. Fernandez , Founder & CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA).?

According to Harvard Business Review , women are vastly under-represented among venture-backed entrepreneurs and VC investors. Companies founded solely by women receive less than 3% of all venture capital investments and women account for less than 15% of check-writers.

That’s why I’m pleased to have a trailblazing female investor— Kate Danaher , Managing Director at S2G Ventures —share a bit about her non-traditional education and career path and how it eventually led her to impact investing during Economic Education Month.?

Striving to make our industry more accessible and equitable, she highlights standout, higher education programs that offer hands-on industry experience for aspiring ecopreneurs and spotlights pioneering accelerators that help founders build an ocean network, degree or not. We also outline economic incentives that are currently propelling progress in ocean-tech innovation, and offer insight into how founders can overcome common fundraising challenges.??

Next edition, we will dive into the sustainable blue foods revolution.?

Stay tuned!

Daniela: Welcome to Planet & Purpose , Kate! I’m so excited to introduce you to our readers. For those who haven’t worked with you (yet), you serve as Managing Director at S2G Ventures , overseeing a $100M ocean fund that’s propelling the development of the sustainable blue economy.

Kate: Thank you for the opportunity, Daniela! Yes, that’s correct. I’ve been in the field for over a decade now, and we’ve developed an exciting ocean portfolio since launching the fund.?

While the sector has definitely grown, investing in the ocean remains relatively unfamiliar territory for many climate investors. There is still a level of education required to build investor confidence.

Daniela: Speaking of, it’s actually Economic Education Month! I’d love you to help guide our readers on different routes investees can take to become founders. As we both know, all 'ecopreneurs' (the industry term for an entrepreneur whose business models focus on creating a positive impact on the environment) have unique foundational experiences and paths.

Kate: Of course! Let’s start with leading university-sponsored programs specifically for social entrepreneurs. Inspiring standouts offer a fusion of coursework and real-world application. I’d note my alma mater Colorado State University ’s Impact MBA , 美国麻省理工学院 (MIT)’s Solve Program , and especially relevant, the Center for Ocean Solutions at 美国斯坦福大学 ’s new Doerr School of Sustainability. ?

What sets these apart?

Each takes an interdisciplinary approach, pulling together top-tier faculty from across the university. This gives students across majors and departments the opportunity to apply their academic training to their passions. More diverse educational backgrounds are very much needed in the ocean sector and these programs provide pathways for these students.

Daniela: I couldn’t agree more! I always say, we need every kind of person—from engineer to educator—to help restore our ocean.

Now, you mentioned your alma mater. Tell me a bit more about your own career trajectory, while we’re on the subject.

Kate: My career path has been non-linear. In my late twenties, I transitioned out of the comfort of “ski bum” life and went back to school for my MBA to become a social entrepreneur.

Personally, I found that being an entrepreneur is actually not something you learn, it is just who you are (or in my case, are NOT).

However, I was still obsessed with the potential of a for-profit business to drive positive environmental outcomes. So I found another way into the industry: impact investing. I was fortunate that my first job out of graduate school was on the lending team at RSF | Regenerative Social Finance .

Daniela: What expertise did you need to break into investing and what qualities are important to being successful in the ocean investment space??

Kate: Anyone interested in becoming a climate impact investor can learn the hard skills that you’d need (like business modeling, accounting, and finance). What really sets investors apart is their ability to connect with and support entrepreneurs and leadership teams. Intuition also plays a role.

If you can see and interpret patterns across industries, this might be the ideal career path for you.

Daniela: I agree hard skills can be learned and then there are soft skills better developed in training programs. Speaking of, where can aspiring founders who want to bypass higher education turn to get the training and support they need to launch an ocean venture?

Kate: We’re very lucky that a proliferation of accelerator programs is now seeding the next generation of investment-worthy, ocean-focused startups. Since S2G started its Oceans and Seafood Fund in 2019, we have seen well over a dozen such accelerator programs launch.

In my experience, a few pioneers provide tremendous mentorship capacity and networking reach. These include Creative Destruction Lab and Katapult Ocean . For the record, I would put Sustainable Ocean Alliance ’s Ecopreneur Network in that camp as well, but I assume your readers already know about the great work you do to support emerging ecopreneurs and their early-stage startups!?

Daniela: Thank you, Kate, for the bird's eye view of the industry’s leading accelerators, and for the shoutout to SOA’s program dedicated to supporting ocean-based startups and their founders.

For anyone who may have missed the news back in July, SOA recently reimagined our former Ocean Solutions Accelerator model with the launch of the Ecopreneur Network to offer lifetime support for ecopreneurs and their ocean-positive ventures.?

From speaking with our accelerator alumni, this evolved concept is truly a game changer, especially for those who would otherwise participate in multiple costly, time-bound programs.

Kate: Congratulations on the launch of the new program! Managing costs is truly so important as aspiring founders are entering an increasingly challenging funding environment. Being scrappy and making your money last will make all the difference when it comes to successfully scaling.?

My advice as an investor? Get your minimum viable product (early basic version) out there quickly. It’s important in pre-seed to demonstrate early product market fit (prove your ideal clients are buying, using, and telling others about the product or service) before fundraising.

Daniela: I’m hearing this a lot from our founders in seed rounds and beyond. Can you give a bit more insight into why the funding environment is so challenging at the moment?

Kate: Ocean tech companies usually sell into large, consolidated, entrenched industries.?

Take the energy sector, for illustrative purposes. It employs 5% of U.S. citizens (large), utilities control the market (consolidated), and the nation is reliant on the electrical grid (entrenched). Solar took more than half a century to reach mainstream adoption, from its initial commercial introduction in 1954 by Bell Labs . Wind, waves, and other renewables still have a long way to go.

My point? Novel tech takes time to catch on. This long adoption and sales cycle makes fundraising for ocean start-ups challenging. Investors have to believe that ocean start-ups have the same disruptive power that the renewable energy sector has demonstrated.

Daniela: Preparing for the realities of a long adoption and sales cycle is key. And financial support can help overcome this extended challenge aspiring founders face. What economic incentives are you seeing to catalyze ocean and climate innovation?

Kate: Economic incentives traditionally come in the form of both 'carrots' (economic benefits) and 'sticks' (economic penalties)—and both exist in the ocean and climate innovation space.

One major ‘carrot’ this summer was the Department of Commerce and NOAA: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration 's announcement launching a $60 million ocean-based climate resilience accelerator program.?

The program will award grants to support the development of more climate accelerators, leading to additional programming and opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs to help them pursue innovative marine-based climate resilience projects.

Daniela: How about ‘sticks’? What penalties are driving industry disruption and progress?

Kate: A ‘stick’ we are keeping our eye on is evolving greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets in the shipping industry. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) decarbonization regulations went into effect just in the last year. These regulations represent a strong first step toward monitoring (and eventually enforcing) the reduction of GHG emissions from maritime vessels. By penalizing those who don’t comply, it will spur innovation around the design and operations of more sustainable ships.?

Daniela: Thank you, Kate, for your investor’s perspective on how aspiring ecopreneurs can break into the sustainable blue economy.?

From higher education to accelerator programs, there are many different routes to launching and scaling a profitable, disruptive venture to benefit the planet.?

Kate: Thank you for having me, Daniela!

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OPPORTUNITIES TO INVEST IN MEMBERS OF SOA’S ECOPRENEUR NETWORK

Finless Foods , Flywire , and Novoloop are all developing new, emerging technologies within the ocean-tech industry—from AI monitoring and software development to plastic materials innovation and plant and cell-cultured seafood alternatives. If you are a mission-driven investor interested in connecting with and supporting Sustainable Ocean Alliance startups, email [email protected] .

Have questions on ecopreneurship, ocean and climate innovation, impact investing, or more? Ask Daniela!?

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About Planet & Purpose:

Planet & Purpose is a LinkedIn Newsletter featuring professional insights and personal experiences from ocean and climate ecopreneurs, investors, and advocates brought to you by Daniela V. Fernandez , Founder & CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA).