To reverse a decline in cleantech investing and deals, entrepreneurs need to cater to our desires for savings, convenience, performance, and being cool
...Wake up and smell the recovery, tree huggers. Stock markets are rebounding, growth is on the upswing, and saving the polar bears is so 2008. Nowhere is the impact being felt more clearly than in venture capital. The number of cleantech deals is down roughly 30% this year, and the amount invested is off 60%, according to recent figures from Dow Jones VentureSource. The biggest drubbing is in solar. This year, there have been just nine solar deals done. There were 24 solar deals done in the first half of 2008 alone.In the Fast Lane: Tesla, Better Place
Cleantech would do well to remember what made it finally resonate with the broader public. The cleantech companies that emerge in the best shape from the current trough will be those that learn to play not only to our collective conscience but to our self-serving instincts—specifically, our predilection for what's cool, convenient, money-saving, or superior in performance.
Some will get bonus points for appealing to more than one of those qualities, but aiming for all four at once is a fool's errand. Companies that do rarely do any one well....MORE
