Holiday Newsletter 2018
More than 28 years ago and at the suggestion of Carl Sagan, the NASA engineers piloting Voyager 1 turned its camera toward Earth for one last photo. The spacecraft was about 4 billion miles away and our planet showed up as a speck on the film, what Dr. Sagan called the Pale Blue Dot. This photo is representative of the vulnerable and special place we are lucky enough to call home. At SEP we are passionate about “disruptive sustainability,” a term that came recently from developing the discussion materials for our new investment fund. When asked what that term means, I thought for a while and said, “it means for life to thrive on the Pale Blue Dot.”
As I reflect on our work this year to build companies that are true to this mission, I believe these businesses can bring meaningful solutions to our planet while creating significant value for our investors. For example, the first CU Boulder company in our portfolio, ALD NanoSolutions, has developed nano‑scale coatings for cathode materials so that electric vehicle batteries last longer and these vehicles reach greater market acceptance. They are also tackling other material challenges that enhance energy-saving technologies such as LED lighting. In our alternative fuels portfolio, Redmark continues to make high‑quality gaseous fuel vehicles in partnership with Ford and support the fleets smart enough to buy them. And, AMP CNG is a national leader in turning agricultural waste into renewable natural gas for use in heavy trucks and buses with a carbon footprint not much different than electric vehicles.
Early in the year, our team was in Florida to advance its understanding of energy storage at the International Battery Seminar. The summer included a long trip to Asia to meet with over 30 companies engaged in advanced materials in Japan, China, and Korea. The fall was filled with touchpoints with groups and activities we cherish in our ecosystem including the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association awards celebration, CU Boulder Lab Venture Challenge, Mote Marine gala, Good Food Institute seminar we sponsored at the BioFrontiers Institute, and Japan America Society of Colorado winter event. With our new fund active sometime in 2019, we plan to further leverage this ecosystem to add more successful companies across the clean energy, advanced materials, and new mobility sectors. In addition, a new area we call biomaterials has been added to our advanced materials sector to develop companies that produce ingredients for clean meat, a food tech analog to clean energy.
All of this would not be possible without our excellent senior advisors, employees, CU Boulder interns, and investors. Many thanks to this great team for their hard work and to our friends and associates that constantly innovate and commercialize new technologies and business models. Happy holidays and best wishes for the New Year to all of you. Let’s continue to connect the dots on our Pale Blue Dot for a better planet.