Schrep on the $10T Climate Tech Opportunity and Why the Best Leaders are Like Orchestra Conductors with Harry Stebbings

On The Twenty Minute VC Podcast, Mike Dives Into Operating Lessons from Meta, Climate Tech Trends, and the Future of Energy

• Being Told No as a Founder: Schrep recounts raising money for his startup, CenterRun, during the 2000 dot com crash, facing rejections, and even having someone fall asleep during a pitch. “I was trying to convince people there were going to be a lot more servers in the world. Everyone said no, that’s dumb. I had first hand experience and knew this problem needed to get solved.”
• Being a Good Board Member: Drawing from his experiences with investors like Mike Moritz and his experience as a board member, Schrep stresses the importance of asking critical questions, providing valuable insights, and actively supporting entrepreneurs. “I try to say fewer things, but more impactful, generally speaking, and remember it’s not my company.”
• Running a Team: Schrep compares good leaders to conductors of an orchestra, emphasizing the importance of coordination and optimization in team management. He highlights the challenges of overcoming organizational inertia and the critical nature of people-related issues in scaling companies. 
• Climate Tech: Schrep sees a $10 trillion problem that requires market-driven solutions. He emphasizes the importance of creating products that are economically attractive first, with environmental benefits as a bonus, in order to achieve impactful scale quickly. “We can have clear air, clear water, and power to make people prosperous all around the world. That’s the future we can get. It’s within our grasp.”
• Ins and Outs of Hardware:  Drawing from his experience shipping consumer hardware at Meta, Schrep emphasizes the importance of experience and planning in hardware development and the unique opportunity to create defensible market positions. “The good news is once you start building a moat, it’s really deep. If I’m shipping a product at a 5 million unit scale and you’re at a 500,000 unit scale, I’m fundamentally cheaper than you are.”
• AI and Energy Market Disruption: Schrep discusses the interplay between AI advancements and energy requirements, highlighting the critical role of cheap, clean energy in enabling technological progress. “I think the availability of cheap clean energy is the biggest rate limiter to human progress right now.”

My job is to elevate an executive and get them focused on the most critical bits. When they need to hire or get a customer introduction, I pull out the Rolodex and get to work. I’m here to work for these entrepreneurs and help them build.”

Mike Schroepfer on The Twenty Minute VC with Harry Stebbings