This is an excellent blog post by entrepreneur and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla about some of the "instigators" that are working to help solve our climate crisis and some of the areas in which we probably should be focusing on next. One of the things that's noteworthy about the post is that he distills it all down into 12 areas of focus that -- if solved and if scaled -- could have a material impact on carbon emissions. They are (verbatim):

1. Electric vehicles & automotive batteries

2. Food & agriculture, especially meat

3. Low carbon transportation: Air transportation (jet fuel), shipping (electrofuels, biofuels?)

4. Cement or substitute construction material

5. Low carbon dispatchable electricity generation (fusion, geothermal, nuclear)

6. Public transit

7. Grid storage (long duration battery storage)

8. HVAC

9. Industrial processes (hydrogen?)

10. Fertilizer (hydrogen)

11. Water

12. Steel

Looking at this list, it is clear that some of these things are already happening (and some aren't). I currently own an ICE vehicle, but I'm fairly certain it will be the last non-electric vehicle I ever own. It's also not clear whether I will want to continue owning a car. Dynamic mass transit and overall autonomy are things that we've talked a lot about on this blog.

But here's the other idea put forward in Khosla's post. If these are in fact the 12 most impactful and important categories, then we may only be 12 or so companies away from real solutions. We only be 12 or so entrepreneurs away from meaningful societal change. When you look at it this way, the climate crisis should hopefully feel a lot less daunting.

I would like to revisit the post that I wrote last week about the Brazil-based real estate startup, Loft. In it, I said that they are doing in Brazil what Opendoor, and others, are doing in the US. They are buying and flipping homes using algorithms. This has become known as "iBuying" and we've talked about it a lot here on the blog.

But we have also talked about how this is probably not the end game. These companies are seeding a marketplace, because in every new two-sided marketplace you are always faced with a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't attract supply if you don't have demand. And you can't attract demand if you don't have supply.

In reading the investment announcement by a16z, this larger vision is pretty clear:

They [Loft] are building a transactional marketplace for the biggest asset class in the world, starting in the biggest market in Latin America, on a time horizon that makes it hard to believe it’s been less than a year since the PowerPoint. They buy homes, fix them (often according to formulaic specifications provided by active buyers), and sell them — what is now known as “i-buying,” with the vision of turning this into a transactional marketplace.

If successful, these companies will transform from just "iBuyers" to fully fledged marketplaces for the buying and selling of homes. And when that happens (I believe it's a when), it is likely to mean dramatic changes to the commissions landscape. Today, over $100 billion in residential real estate commissions are paid out across the United States each year.

This is an excellent blog post by entrepreneur and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla about some of the "instigators" that are working to help solve our climate crisis and some of the areas in which we probably should be focusing on next. One of the things that's noteworthy about the post is that he distills it all down into 12 areas of focus that -- if solved and if scaled -- could have a material impact on carbon emissions. They are (verbatim):

1. Electric vehicles & automotive batteries

2. Food & agriculture, especially meat

3. Low carbon transportation: Air transportation (jet fuel), shipping (electrofuels, biofuels?)

4. Cement or substitute construction material

5. Low carbon dispatchable electricity generation (fusion, geothermal, nuclear)

6. Public transit

7. Grid storage (long duration battery storage)

8. HVAC

9. Industrial processes (hydrogen?)

10. Fertilizer (hydrogen)

11. Water

12. Steel

Looking at this list, it is clear that some of these things are already happening (and some aren't). I currently own an ICE vehicle, but I'm fairly certain it will be the last non-electric vehicle I ever own. It's also not clear whether I will want to continue owning a car. Dynamic mass transit and overall autonomy are things that we've talked a lot about on this blog.

But here's the other idea put forward in Khosla's post. If these are in fact the 12 most impactful and important categories, then we may only be 12 or so companies away from real solutions. We only be 12 or so entrepreneurs away from meaningful societal change. When you look at it this way, the climate crisis should hopefully feel a lot less daunting.

I would like to revisit the post that I wrote last week about the Brazil-based real estate startup, Loft. In it, I said that they are doing in Brazil what Opendoor, and others, are doing in the US. They are buying and flipping homes using algorithms. This has become known as "iBuying" and we've talked about it a lot here on the blog.

But we have also talked about how this is probably not the end game. These companies are seeding a marketplace, because in every new two-sided marketplace you are always faced with a chicken-and-egg problem. You can't attract supply if you don't have demand. And you can't attract demand if you don't have supply.

In reading the investment announcement by a16z, this larger vision is pretty clear:

They [Loft] are building a transactional marketplace for the biggest asset class in the world, starting in the biggest market in Latin America, on a time horizon that makes it hard to believe it’s been less than a year since the PowerPoint. They buy homes, fix them (often according to formulaic specifications provided by active buyers), and sell them — what is now known as “i-buying,” with the vision of turning this into a transactional marketplace.

If successful, these companies will transform from just "iBuyers" to fully fledged marketplaces for the buying and selling of homes. And when that happens (I believe it's a when), it is likely to mean dramatic changes to the commissions landscape. Today, over $100 billion in residential real estate commissions are paid out across the United States each year.