0:02

I'm Emily Kirsch, founder and CEO

0:04

of powerhouse and managing partner of powerhouse

0:07

ventures. This is what it takes

0:09

a show about the entrepreneurs making our climate

0:11

positive future a reality. The

0:21

world's forests are essential to maintaining

0:23

life on earth. The Amazon rainforest

0:25

is home to millions of plants and animal

0:28

species found nowhere else. Forest

0:30

make up a third of all land on the planet

0:33

and they're one of our major defenses against a

0:35

warming world with forty five percent

0:37

of the carbon stored inland existing

0:40

in forests. Today, our forests

0:42

are struggling to adapt to human activity

0:44

and a rapidly changing climate. Deforestation

0:47

and fires continue to ravage habitats

0:49

like the Amazon. Here in the states

0:51

were inundated with headlines and photos of

0:53

destructive wildfires in the west each

0:55

year to protect these valuable ecosystems

0:57

and carbon sinks we'll need to radically

0:59

change the way we restore, conserve,

1:02

and expand these landscapes. And

1:04

that's exactly what this month's Wadad takes

1:06

guests vibrant planet CEO and cofounder,

1:09

Alison Wolf, is doing.

1:18

Our mission at Weber planet is

1:20

to accelerate forest

1:23

and wildland resilience and

1:26

community resilience in the

1:28

face of wildfire at first, but

1:30

we'll also be taking on flooding and

1:32

other climate driven risks. Allison

1:35

and the vibrant planet team are modernizing

1:37

forest conservation and restoration with

1:39

a product called land tender, a digital

1:42

platform that leverages data to help for

1:44

services, municipalities, and

1:46

tribal lands better manage their conservation

1:49

and restoration efforts. Centuries

1:53

of logging and poor land management have

1:55

led to the current mess we're in with forest

1:57

fires. The combination of clear cutting

2:00

old growth and policies designed to

2:02

prevent fires at all costs have

2:04

created denser forests filled with small

2:06

flammable

2:07

trees. That unnatural forest density

2:09

coupled with a hotter, drier climate

2:11

has turned much of the forest on the West

2:13

Coast into powder kegs ready to

2:15

ignite. There's about two hundred and forty million

2:18

acres across the western states

2:20

that have been identified by some of the US

2:22

Forest Service Labs high

2:25

severity or at risk of high severity

2:27

fire. In my lifetime alone,

2:29

California has lost about seven percent

2:31

of our tree cover. An average of seven

2:33

million acres have burned in the US

2:35

each year over the past decade and

2:38

all those acres mean more carbon in

2:40

the atmosphere and more drought as the water

2:42

cycle is

2:42

disrupted. The forest in in

2:45

the fire prone lands, some of them like

2:47

on the coast California store more than the

2:49

Amazon. There's a lot of reason

2:51

to keep them intact. And then

2:53

a lot of people don't realize, but seven percent

2:55

of water worldwide originates in forests.

2:58

So trees are playing this incredible role

3:00

in filtering water

3:03

evapotranspiration with

3:06

the loss of forests. When we have really

3:08

severe fire, the ground turns to powder,

3:10

and we have trillions of dollars every

3:12

year now. In dredging reservoirs

3:15

and trying to rapidly re vegetate

3:17

because landslides keep happening.

3:20

Clearing brush, cutting down smaller

3:22

trees, other interventions are essential.

3:25

But the work needed to do this has been

3:27

slow and very low tech with stakeholders

3:29

using pens and paper physical maps

3:31

and in person meetings to create forest

3:33

restoration plans that could take a decade

3:36

or more to come to fruition. That's where vibrant

3:38

planet's first product, land tender,

3:40

comes in. Using sophisticated lidar

3:42

technology, vibrant planets creates complex

3:45

three d models of the forest from floor

3:47

to Canopy. Alison describes

3:49

land tender as the operating system

3:51

for forest

3:52

restoration. The three-dimensional

3:54

view is very, very important to

3:57

understand forced function. There's a lot of habitat

3:59

underneath the canopy, for example, to

4:01

understand evapotranspiration and even

4:03

carbon sequestration, we have

4:05

to understand how a tree looks in

4:07

three d. So that that high

4:09

resolution three-dimensional view is

4:11

very, very important and we're mapping trees

4:13

where we have lidar at

4:15

one meter resolution, which is very, very

4:18

fine scale. Detailed maps of the landscape

4:20

can be turned into valuable digital assets

4:22

that can help stakeholders break down the economic

4:25

costs and benefits behind a big project.

4:27

Surrounding infrastructure, carbon sequestration,

4:30

water and biodiversity are broken down

4:32

by their value. Allison calls this

4:34

their restorative return on investment. And

4:37

so that's really

4:38

the foundation of the system is

4:41

mapping and normalizing and

4:43

also economically normalizing these

4:46

these data sets so that we can basically

4:49

scenario plan like crazy

4:51

and understand what the most impactful

4:54

what we call restorative return on investment

4:56

could be. By digitizing forest

4:58

conservation and restoration, land

5:00

tender makes it easy for municipal fire

5:03

districts conservation districts, nonprofits,

5:05

and NGOs to coordinate and plan

5:07

with each other. Different interventions like

5:09

removing vegetation and prescribed burns,

5:12

can be mapped out over time using

5:14

machine learning and AI to adjust treatments

5:16

accordingly, and then also just helping

5:18

people share so different stakeholders

5:20

can create plans, share them with each other,

5:23

compare and weigh trade offs of

5:25

different directions. And

5:27

then come to a decision in these

5:30

kinds of consensus driven processes. None of

5:32

that is possible today. So it's very

5:34

much transforming an old world industry.

5:36

To protect the world's

5:37

forest, we need a system that can outpace

5:39

the millions of acres lost in fires

5:41

each year. Fiberon planet is rolling

5:44

out in Kalala and Southern Oregon

5:46

with a large presence in California's Tahoe

5:48

Basin. They've already gathered an impressive

5:50

set of customers, including the California Tahoe

5:53

servancy and the US Forest

5:54

Service. They plan to expand to more

5:56

states, but Alison hopes their tech could help

5:58

efforts around the globe as the window for

6:01

action shrinks. I worry about

6:03

places like California that

6:05

within the next couple of decades, our

6:07

chief scientists and other scientists in

6:10

in the space are concerned that

6:13

Colorado won't have much force left

6:15

just in the next decade or two. So it's

6:17

happening exponentially. It's happening very

6:19

fast. And so without a system that

6:22

accelerates restoration,

6:24

we have a lot at stake. I spoke

6:27

with Alison about merging nature based climate

6:29

solutions with cutting edge technology, developing

6:32

their first product, land tender, and her

6:34

long career pushing big tech companies to

6:36

make positive choices for people and the planet.

6:38

We started with her childhood in Boulder, Colorado

6:41

where she found saw us in nature at a young

6:43

age. Going

6:49

back to the beginning, which is where we always start

6:52

on what it takes. You grew

6:54

up in Boulder, Colorado, and we're raised

6:56

by a single mom who worked at a bank and then

6:58

a tech startup. Dad was a builder

7:00

who moved to the Virgin Islands after your parents

7:02

divorced when you were six. Tell me about

7:04

your parents and how they shaped you.

7:07

Yeah. So

7:09

I was mostly with my mom in Boulder,

7:11

like you said. And I

7:14

think from her, I learned a

7:16

lot about love

7:18

and compassion and working

7:21

hard My mom worked so

7:23

hard to support us. And

7:27

from my dad, I learned

7:31

a lot about just living

7:33

with passion and, you

7:36

know, joys in life

7:39

and sort of a Bohemian lifestyle living

7:41

on a sailboat, catching her dinner, bathing

7:44

in the whatever next rain squal

7:46

came. Was a really

7:48

cool experience in sailing

7:50

and, you know, learning to race a

7:52

sailboat scuba dive all

7:55

of those kinds of things was was really incredible.

7:58

And Colorado also had major

8:00

outdoor life. My my family's always

8:02

been kind of into camping and My

8:04

mom would throw my brother and I in the car

8:07

on weekends and we'd drive up in

8:09

the mountains and cook breakfast out on a

8:10

campfire. Sometimes. If we didn't have time

8:12

to go camping for the weekend, we would just go at least

8:15

have breakfast up there. So

8:18

yeah. And I know you

8:20

self identified as a shy but adventurous

8:23

kid and have said that you found a lot of

8:25

solace in

8:25

nature. Is there a specific place

8:28

that you remember where you found that solace?

8:30

Yeah. For

8:33

those of you who know Boulder, there's an area

8:35

called Boulder Canyon. Canyon

8:38

Drive. And especially once

8:40

I could drive a car, I would go

8:42

up that canyon and just pull

8:44

over on the side of the road back when when I

8:46

was a kid. There weren't so many people there. And

8:49

I would often just go sit on a rock in

8:51

the middle of the river. And I

8:54

think I was meditating before really knowing

8:56

what meditation was back then,

8:58

but I've got a thing for rivers. I've

9:01

always just found that that actives

9:03

sitting in a river with the water rushing around

9:05

me sort of cleansed

9:07

out anxiety and stress and

9:10

troubles. And so I always

9:12

kinda found solace in that. And then and then

9:14

recreating, I've

9:15

always, you know, done every outdoor

9:18

sport you can think of. And that keeps

9:20

me sane and healthy, and it's

9:22

definitely my passion. In

9:24

nineteen eighty eight, you went to University of

9:26

Southern California or US and double

9:28

majored in sociology and business

9:31

because you were trying to balance your desire

9:33

to do good in the world, but also

9:35

just the necessity of making money. Why

9:37

USC and what was your experience like

9:39

there? Yeah. So USC

9:42

was kind of funny. I it

9:44

was either going to see you bolder or

9:46

USC. And I got

9:48

a academic scholarship to USC that

9:50

made it cheaper. And I growing

9:53

up with my single mom. We did not have money.

9:56

And so I knew college was

9:58

on me and I had to do it

10:00

in four years. And I needed

10:03

to go the cheapest route possible. There

10:05

was a little bit of me that was ready for an adventure

10:07

to get out of Boulder. Boulder at the time was

10:10

a small town and I was kinda ready to, you

10:12

know, spread my wings a bit. So, yeah,

10:15

so went out to USC and the

10:19

sociology major was was

10:21

fascinating. I

10:23

was at USC during the Rodney King

10:25

riots, and as

10:28

a sociology major, we had

10:30

to work in the school system. So I volunteered

10:33

at the schools. I think it was two or three days

10:35

a week. In the elementary school

10:37

near USC and saw

10:40

firsthand what inequity

10:42

looks like. With,

10:44

you know, fifty, sixty kids to a class.

10:46

Half of them spoke Spanish, dilapidated,

10:49

moldy buildings, kids

10:51

didn't have paper and pencils if someone didn't

10:53

donate the supplies.

10:56

And I knew fifteen minutes away the kids in

10:58

Beverly Hills had computers even back

11:00

then. So I really saw what

11:02

an equity looked like and

11:04

that very much drove me for it

11:06

still drives me through the rest of

11:08

my career. And then after graduating from

11:11

USC in ninety two, you spent the next

11:13

three decades working with big tech

11:15

companies starting at Netflix as an early

11:17

marketing manager. And then later

11:19

with eBay, Google, Facebook helping drive

11:21

their sustainability efforts. But

11:23

before all of that, you kicked off your career at a

11:25

woman's sportswear brand

11:28

called Reika. Tell me about

11:29

Reika. Yep. Yeah. So

11:31

this is gonna be dating me, but when

11:34

I was at USC, I I worked

11:36

full time. And one of my jobs, I had

11:38

several jobs. One of my jobs

11:40

was teaching Robix. And

11:43

I I was really taken

11:45

with Reika. Reika and Patagonia

11:47

were the only companies in the world at the

11:49

time that gave

11:51

a portion of profits to charity.

11:54

Patagonia, of course, started one percent for the planet,

11:57

and I loved that. And Ryka,

12:00

started a program where they were giving one percent

12:02

to women's shelters for

12:04

battered women and children. And

12:07

I think coming from single mom

12:09

context. We didn't have abuse

12:11

in our family, but something resonated

12:13

me and that caught with me and that cause. And

12:16

so I wrote to Sherry Poe, the CEO,

12:18

and said, hey, will you sponsor our

12:21

Robic instructors? This is when

12:23

it was like us and Reebok. Where the two

12:25

companies competing for that space. And

12:27

so she she said yes, and so we got

12:30

a sponsorship. And then I just kind of followed the company

12:32

when got out of college. I wrote

12:34

Sherry a letter again and said, hey,

12:36

I'm graduating later

12:38

this year, and I would really like to work

12:40

for your company. And she

12:43

a couple months later, let me know that

12:45

there was a marketing manager position open.

12:47

And so I went for that position

12:49

and and got it and moved across the country

12:51

to Boston and and

12:54

led marketing right out

12:57

of school only

12:59

for a couple of months and then ended

13:01

up running international sales and

13:03

marketing a couple of months later as

13:05

green as green can

13:06

be, but pulled it off

13:08

and learned a ton. And

13:12

then what brought you from

13:14

Reika to Netflix?

13:18

So, later, I I

13:21

stayed in the international sales and distribution

13:24

world for a couple of more years at

13:26

a company called Mossimo and

13:28

then was later at a little design

13:30

firm called Band Aid's Dog in San Francisco,

13:33

went back back west. And

13:35

one of my clients there basically

13:39

said, you know, we're late to the Goldrush.

13:41

This is in, you

13:43

know, the the the first

13:46

dot com boom. And And,

13:49

you know, they basically said that

13:51

there's a there's a company called Netflix. It's

13:54

a DVD rental company. It's a little

13:57

weird, but it's really interesting. I think he

13:59

should jump in with me as my director

14:01

of marketing, and he was going

14:03

in as the VP of marketing. And

14:06

so I said yes, and

14:08

jumped in. And then

14:10

Omar, who was the person that brought me

14:12

in, went to the next dot com at

14:14

that time. People were kinda jumping around and

14:17

Netflix wasn't for him and he decided to go

14:19

to another dot com, try to take me with him again

14:21

five months later, and I said, you know, I really love

14:23

films and I really like Read Hastings.

14:25

Read had just stepped in as CEO. And

14:29

I decided to stay and and

14:31

with that ended up running marketing at Netflix

14:34

and really got the opportunity

14:36

to to create the brand. So oversaw

14:38

the development of the logo, the Red Envelope

14:41

spent many hours in the post office trying to make

14:43

the Red Envelope go faster through

14:45

the postal system back when we had one DVD,

14:48

you know, shipping center. And,

14:51

yeah, and then basically helped craft

14:55

the narrative around streaming. And

14:57

how would that happen? How would millions

15:00

of people eventually be watching

15:02

fast forwarding, rewinding movies

15:04

back when we didn't have fiber optic cable

15:06

yet. So it was sort of my first experience selling

15:09

air. What felt like air is selling a

15:11

dream? Even though Reed knew exactly when

15:13

it was gonna happen having come from the fiber

15:15

optic cable space. So,

15:18

yeah, it was a it was a wild ride and

15:20

a really great experience. And and

15:22

again, I learned a ton especially from Reed's

15:24

leadership that I I still try to emulate

15:26

today. So you got us through the pandemic

15:28

is what I'm hearing. Exactly.

15:31

Yeah.

15:33

I suppose didn't didn't know I was doing that then,

15:35

but yes. Yeah. And then Lee later

15:37

basically went into the consulting

15:39

were rolled. The first four

15:41

years at an entity called s y

15:43

partner is incredible firm. That

15:45

works on vision, strategy,

15:48

and culture change. So how do you help, you

15:50

know, two hundred thousand people worldwide in a

15:52

large company see their role in

15:54

where a company is headed. Yeah.

15:56

So so worked for SY Partners, which

15:58

is a firm that that

16:00

helps CEOs and leadership teams. Establish

16:03

a new vision. So times of change, a new CEO

16:06

comes in, a company is failing and needs to turn

16:08

around whatever the circumstances. And

16:11

and then helps people sort of like the

16:13

the man on the moon, you know, how do you help every

16:15

employee in company no matter what position

16:17

they're in, see their role in a new

16:19

direction and be jazzed about

16:21

it. So really

16:23

learned the art of, you

16:26

know, setting vision, collaboratively, setting

16:29

strategy collaboratively then moving

16:31

people through sometimes art,

16:34

rebranding, narrative, analyst

16:36

briefings, presentations,

16:39

brand I mean, everything, how

16:41

how customers experience a brand. And,

16:45

basically, over the course

16:47

of being there, got very, very passionate

16:49

about climate change, and got

16:52

to the point where I couldn't not

16:54

work on it. And was having a hard

16:56

time working with companies that weren't taking it seriously.

16:59

It and sustainability, got very passionate

17:01

about closed loop, manufacturing cradle

17:03

to cradle ideas from working. We

17:05

did some pro bono work with Bill McDonough, for example.

17:08

And I just got to the point

17:10

where I could not work on those

17:12

things. And so left,

17:15

SY partners very much with the partner's

17:17

blessing and started

17:20

my own my own entity which was

17:22

also called vibrant planet actually in two

17:24

thousand four. And it's just

17:26

my own little LLC, and I had a sort of

17:28

stable of contractors, writers, and designers,

17:31

and and web developers, and and

17:33

things like that, and basically did the same

17:35

thing, but working with CEOs and leadership

17:37

teams on the kind of legacy

17:39

they wanted to leave in the world. And

17:42

how they could eventually sort of became

17:44

specialist in helping some of the big Silicon

17:46

Valley platforms that you named eBay, Google,

17:48

and Facebook. How do we put our

17:50

thumb on the scale towards good? How

17:52

do we ensure that these platforms

17:55

are forces for for good in the world?

17:57

And just started experimenting. It was very

17:59

early in sort of the corporate social responsibility,

18:02

global citizenship days, and

18:05

just sort of evolved in that space

18:07

for for many, many years, about twenty years

18:09

and helped all three companies with their foundational

18:12

sustainability strategies, those

18:14

narratives, coalition

18:16

building for, you know, efficient

18:19

data center design and renewable

18:21

energy purchasing going into coal based states

18:23

and saying we'll bring these many jobs,

18:25

this much philanthropy, but

18:28

we're gonna green your grid as

18:30

we come into Tennessee or

18:32

Kentucky, have the huge

18:35

opportunity to work with Bill Weil, who was

18:37

who was legendary in Silicon Valley, having

18:39

been green energies art, Google, and then head

18:41

of sustainability at Facebook. And

18:44

learned a ton from him and was so

18:46

delighted to support him in

18:49

in really just trying to figure out how do we

18:51

how do we make these companies, the

18:54

exemplary companies on

18:57

how to do sustainability inside

18:59

and out and and then the coalition building

19:01

was really powerful. Also helped with data

19:03

for good launches, putting

19:05

some of that to work now actually for ourselves

19:07

especially with the Facebook data for good launch,

19:10

and a lot of experimentation with movement

19:12

building around the Paris climate

19:14

talks while I was at Facebook, women's

19:17

empowerment. We did some I did

19:19

a health product strategy with

19:22

the leadership team, and we launched data

19:24

for good around a pandemic during Zika

19:27

in preparation for what we've been dealing with the

19:29

last few years. How do you get reliable trustworthy

19:32

information to people about

19:34

a pandemic. So it

19:36

was a very interesting time

19:38

and exciting to

19:40

to have worked on on all of those

19:42

big platforms, had some big wins and some big losses,

19:45

and hopefully move

19:47

the ball forward a little bit I am sure

19:49

you have.

19:50

And then tell me about finding

19:53

project drawdown and

19:55

and being a initiating force for that.

19:58

Yeah. So I was I'd known

20:00

Paul Hawkins a little bit. We had

20:02

overlapping circles Paul Hawkins

20:05

for those that don't know. In my mind

20:07

is one of the most profound sustainability

20:10

and climate solutions

20:12

brains we have on the planet. He's a prolific

20:14

writer. He's written gosh, I think,

20:17

eight or nine New York Times bestsellers

20:19

at this point in his life. So

20:22

I got reconnected with him around

20:26

his desire to launch both

20:28

a book and an organization called drawdown.

20:31

And drawdown was basically

20:34

an attempt to reset the goal

20:36

on climate solutions. So

20:38

moving it away from sort of an esoteric how

20:41

many degrees do we want to get to

20:43

or what level, you know, the one

20:45

point five getting

20:47

away from something esoteric and

20:49

less meaningful and directive

20:52

to a goal that is

20:54

driving action. So

20:57

drawdown as a concept is the

20:59

point at which carbon emissions

21:02

peak and begin to go down.

21:05

Because of our actions. And so what the

21:07

drawdown team did is for three years, they

21:09

had several several

21:12

scientists and other analysts go

21:14

out in the world and basically map

21:17

and collect data on the top one hundred

21:19

climate solutions. That could contribute

21:21

to drawdown. And they

21:23

both they were both emissions related,

21:25

but also from

21:28

a from an energy perspective, but

21:30

also, you know, carbon removal perspectives.

21:33

And so then they rank ordered them. And

21:36

what was powerful for me in learning about

21:38

drawdowns. I I was basically brought in to help

21:40

launch the books. I helped with the PR

21:42

and social media around book launch and

21:45

it went really well. I think the public was very ready

21:47

for the for the books. We just needed to get

21:49

the word out, but we hit number

21:53

six in the New York Times bestseller

21:55

list within nine days. It was very

21:57

fast. And I think the book

21:59

has been published in thirty five languages worldwide

22:02

and widely, widely distributed at

22:04

this point and then a whole organization was launched

22:06

around it to bring communities together, to

22:08

innovate on the one hundred solutions

22:11

and help each other accelerate

22:13

them. So

22:15

in learning about drawdown and

22:18

also just having this affinity for

22:20

nature, the

22:22

sixteen nature based solutions in

22:25

drawdown, in combination, blow

22:27

away anything we can do with energy. Energy

22:30

use. Now, of course, at this point, we have to do everything,

22:33

but it really hit me how powerful

22:35

nature based solutions are And so

22:37

I had become really passionate about that and

22:39

really decided I wanted to spend

22:41

the next iteration of my career in

22:43

the Nature based solutions space. So I

22:45

was starting to do a little bit of regenerative ag

22:47

exploration and

22:49

then working with Paul. And

22:52

then I was hired by Silicon

22:55

Valley X pad, a tech tech founder who

22:57

wanted to build sort of an innovation

23:00

center in the Lake Tahoe area. We don't have

23:02

a Rocky Mountain Institute or or

23:04

a Aspen Institute type center

23:07

up in up in like Tahoe. So that was

23:09

the idea. And so I went out on a listening

23:11

tour to start talking to people

23:13

about what mattered in the

23:15

community, what people were concerned about,

23:19

and what could have global

23:21

impact. And very

23:23

much climate focused and sustainability

23:26

focused. And during

23:28

that time, all

23:30

anyone we talk about was fire. And

23:33

so here I was learning from Paul

23:35

and drawdown about nature based solutions

23:38

and what I was hearing from this

23:40

community. And as I talked to more and more scientists

23:42

worldwide about the problem, realized

23:44

that we're gonna we're gonna lose

23:46

opportunity for nature based solutions and they're

23:48

the most ready now. They

23:51

are it it it really is

23:53

just the way we've managed Aglands and

23:55

forests that has caused the

23:57

problem. So if it's a problem we've

23:59

caused, we can we can restore

24:02

the system's ability to to

24:04

do what they've done for thousands of

24:06

years. So I started to see that opportunity then

24:08

in in working with Paul and drawdown. And

24:11

then how did that inclination become

24:13

the seat of the idea that became vibrant

24:15

planet?

24:16

Yeah. So it became

24:19

one of those moments where I couldn't not

24:21

start something focused on fire. So

24:25

so as I was working with Paul and drawdown,

24:27

and then as I'm also working with this tech

24:29

founder, to figure

24:31

out what we might do in Tahoe and

24:34

hearing how ecosystems are

24:37

literally exploding. And

24:39

what happens, what's

24:41

at stake, and how catastrophic that

24:44

is. I even realized even

24:46

regenerative ag is

24:49

going to fail if we lose forests

24:52

up the hill from those regenerative ecosystems

24:56

because of water impacts. And smoke impacts

24:58

up for workers. And, you

25:01

know, the and then the carbon sequestration

25:04

that that we rely on for for

25:06

us to have stable ecosystems for

25:08

growing food, it the writing was

25:10

very clear on the wall for me. And

25:13

so it became something again

25:15

that I could not do. As

25:18

I learned, as I dug deeper into

25:21

what do we do about this, started to

25:23

learn about this slow planning process that I talked

25:25

about at the beginning. And

25:28

just how broken the collaborative

25:30

planning process is, the lack of

25:32

high resolution data, the

25:35

lack of consistency in data. It's

25:37

very much in silos, sometimes on hard drives and

25:39

shoe boxes at universities. And

25:42

the the lack of compute, there's

25:44

no ability to run scenarios and

25:47

project them into the future. With

25:49

fire probabilities and climate probabilities. There

25:52

there just was not that skill set

25:54

being applied in the space. So

25:57

I had many people in my listening

25:59

journey say, you need to go get

26:01

the best Silicon Valley talent you

26:03

can get your hands on. Because

26:05

that's what we need to solve this problem.

26:07

To actually engineer the high resolution

26:09

data and leverage compute and

26:11

AI and machine learning in a way that is

26:14

useful. Get them to stop selling

26:16

ads on these platforms and

26:18

get them to focus on that problem. So

26:20

that's that's essentially that sort of became a

26:22

a sort

26:24

of rallying cry for me and

26:26

decided to set out and go do that. But of

26:28

course, that technology expertise

26:31

has to be grounded in

26:34

the customer and in the problem so

26:36

that you can't just invent something

26:38

that's looking for a customer. Right? You

26:40

have to ground the technology

26:43

and the design of the technology in what customers

26:45

need and want. And in the Woodgrain of

26:47

how they work, so

26:50

our team, you know, was born from that

26:52

idea that and it really is a combination

26:54

of some of the best scientists in the world

26:56

on fire prone forests. Forest

26:59

managers, land managers that came out of

27:01

forest service BLM and the private

27:03

land owner sector, remote

27:06

sensing experts, analysts on

27:08

hydrology and

27:09

biodiversity, and then rockstar

27:12

engineers and and machine learning

27:14

AI type folks and product managers

27:18

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27:21

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27:23

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28:23

So you took that advice and did exactly

28:25

that and found four co

28:26

founders. So there's five of you including yourself

28:29

who are the other four and how did

28:31

you meet them? Yeah. So

28:33

the first co founder was Scott

28:35

Conway. He was one of the people I

28:38

met on my listening tour. He was

28:40

at the US Forest Service

28:42

Remote Sensing Lab in Region five, which is California

28:45

and Pacific Islands. Which is really one

28:47

of the most innovative centers on remote sensing

28:49

in the forest service. And

28:51

he was hacking at this

28:54

data problem trying to turn lidar

28:56

into three-dimensional data and packaging

28:58

it in decision support systems that people

29:01

could use on tablets in field as

29:03

they're discussing different types

29:05

and intensities of treatments. But

29:09

he was, you know, hamstrung by,

29:11

again, lack of compute It

29:13

was just him trying to solve

29:15

this massive problem. The forest

29:18

service at the time was not allowed to use the

29:20

cloud and they had servers

29:22

that they were in the process of moving to

29:24

Salt Lake City. So there was, like, a delay.

29:26

I mean, it was it was really impossible.

29:29

So he was one of the

29:31

very key influencers for

29:34

me seeing the problem and also seeing

29:36

the solution to the problem. Once

29:39

he and I started to team up and conceive

29:42

of of the company and

29:44

the and the first product, I reached

29:46

out immediately to Neil Hunt, who

29:49

I knew from Netflix. We had stayed in touch

29:51

off and on all these years. We're both kind of outdoor

29:53

people. And I

29:55

knew he was a forest owner in

29:58

the Sierra Nevada and in a

30:00

in a very high high

30:03

fire danger area. And so I immediately

30:05

reached out to Neil, kind of

30:07

schooled him on the problem.

30:09

A planning problem and where

30:11

it's broken and

30:13

asked if he would fund us to

30:16

try to create something. So

30:18

he said yes. And and Neil Neil

30:20

and his wife basically

30:23

underwrote the development of our minimum viable

30:25

product and he also joined

30:27

the board. So he set up a public benefit corp

30:29

at that point, and he joined the

30:31

board along with Ty Kim, who

30:34

came out of. He was the CFO for our mid our mid

30:36

air network. So he was

30:38

really knowledgeable in finance. We

30:40

were setting up a hybrid structure. And

30:43

Omidian was one of the first funders that set

30:45

up a hybrid structure with a

30:47

non profit arm and a four profit arm. And then they also

30:49

had a C4 for lobbying. Still

30:52

have. And so we

30:54

were we were spinning the public

30:56

benefit corp out of a nonprofit. That

30:59

I had set up two years prior to

31:01

do a lot of this listening kind of

31:03

tour work and identifying the gaps in

31:05

the space that needed to be filled. And

31:07

so we decided to keep the nonprofit in place

31:10

as a data commons where the

31:13

the valuable data that we would later

31:15

build in the public benefit corp could be

31:17

housed and made available to

31:19

the scientific community. And

31:21

also just gathering data and making it more accessible

31:24

for the science world, generally.

31:27

And then also public education experiences.

31:29

So how do you turn data into information

31:31

to educate policymakers in the public because

31:33

there's a lot to do in public creating

31:35

public will and and political change

31:38

around this topic. So the nonprofit

31:41

ended up taking that on, and we've got

31:43

an amazing new leader named Brent Davies who

31:45

came in from EcoTrust Forest Management to

31:48

run that. And then I

31:50

resigned from the nonprofit. We set up the public

31:52

benefit corp. Neil and Ty

31:55

Kim joined the board. Scott

31:57

and I became employees, and then

32:00

Maria Tran, who

32:02

I'd worked with at Facebook, also

32:06

joined. She had been sort of advising

32:08

some of the listening tour work that I was doing

32:11

and starting to conceive of a product strategy

32:13

with me as as just an adviser. Maria

32:16

is an absolute force. She's a

32:18

product manager, very focused

32:20

on data analytics products. And

32:23

she built the internal chatter analysis

32:25

engine at Facebook to really understand the zeitgeist

32:28

of the world. And I met her as we were

32:30

doing movement building during the Paris climate

32:32

talks around climate change. She

32:35

and I set up a structure. Basically,

32:38

a a nomenclature structure in,

32:41

I think fifteen languages worldwide

32:44

to basically analyze. What is the conversation

32:47

happening in key countries

32:49

across the world on climate change.

32:51

So really and then really understanding from a

32:53

segmentation perspective

32:55

where we could maybe move folks

32:57

that are denying climate change to

33:00

to act

33:01

or at least to not fight action.

33:03

So so, Maria, agreed

33:06

to help us with the initial product strategy

33:08

for what became land tender,

33:12

our first flagship product. So

33:14

she was she became a cofounder, and then

33:17

she reached out to me and said,

33:19

hey, I just talked to my friend, Guy Bays,

33:22

who was the engineer that developed

33:24

the internal chatter analysis engine at

33:27

Facebook. And his

33:29

house had just about burned down up in

33:31

Tallinn, Oregon right outside of Ashland and the

33:33

big fires in twenty twenty.

33:36

And he was digging his head

33:38

in and and called Marie and said, what

33:40

the hell with this fire problem? Like, what

33:42

do we do about this? This is ridiculous. Who's

33:45

doing something? And where you said you need to talk

33:47

to my friend Alison. And

33:49

so, guy and I met and

33:51

totally hit it off. He's amazing. And

33:54

he said, I wanna I wanna join your company, and

33:56

I'm gonna be your CTO. And

33:59

guy had built a lot of the lift engineering

34:01

team and and core course

34:04

structure for Lyft after he left

34:06

Facebook

34:07

and had done some stuff also in science

34:09

at Lawrence Livermore Labs. So

34:12

That's how the team came together. It's

34:15

an amazing founding team. And so once you

34:17

did come together, what did you

34:19

do first? You mentioned tender,

34:21

the the

34:22

MVP. But, yeah, what did you do first

34:24

once the five of you said, alright,

34:26

we're doing this. Let's do this. Yes. And

34:28

I forgot to mention Neil, dropped

34:30

in also as the chief product officer

34:33

over time, couldn't hold himself. So

34:36

he came into lead product So

34:40

yeah. So we we had a

34:42

very clear vision. So the work that I

34:44

had done in the nonprofit to map the space,

34:46

identify issues, Part

34:48

of the work that I did was sitting

34:51

side saddle with forest

34:54

management planning teams. So

34:56

folks that were coming together in this collaborative

34:59

planning process that was paper based and very

35:01

difficult to understand the workflows

35:03

that they're in. And

35:06

try to design a system,

35:09

like, just asking the question along the

35:11

along the way. Where

35:13

can we insert improve data and

35:16

technology to make the conflict

35:18

easier or remove it

35:20

altogether? And and accelerate

35:22

the consensus driven process. In

35:25

the nonprofit, I had been sitting side saddle,

35:28

really thinking as a product

35:30

manager with Maria at

35:33

my side as as a really

35:35

advanced product manager with,

35:37

you know, with data driven platforms and

35:41

a user experience designer, one of

35:43

the best in the business. Kevin

35:45

Farnham, And and

35:47

so we sat site satellite in these in these workflows

35:49

just listening and understanding

35:52

how decisions were being made, how data

35:54

was being gathered. And how it was being

35:56

packaged into a scenario. Asking

35:59

the question along the way, how can we insert

36:02

improved data, improved technology to

36:04

improve the process and speed it

36:06

up. And it got

36:08

very clear. So we we basically launched

36:10

the public benefit corp with a very

36:12

clear product plan

36:15

and even initial designs. And

36:18

the next step was just building it. So

36:20

building out the MVP. So

36:22

we brought in an incredible group called Presence,

36:24

which is a product development firm. They're

36:27

consulting firm that does product development

36:30

in Silicon Valley. And brought

36:32

them in to build the MVP for us

36:34

under Guy's leadership and Maria's.

36:37

And we were able to very

36:40

quickly demonstrate rate what

36:42

this system could do in the planning

36:45

process. And so that helped us start to

36:47

generate a customer base. So

36:49

within a year, we

36:52

had our first customer and

36:55

and launched the platform around

36:58

the Tahoe Basin announcement

37:01

with the California Tahoe conservancy, the

37:04

Tahoe RCD, and a

37:06

bunch of the fire districts in the Lake Tahoe

37:08

Basin. And so we did that

37:10

announcement. And then that landscape

37:12

has now snowballed from three hundred thousand

37:15

acres to one point five million acres.

37:18

That's now also wrapping the

37:20

whole plaster county area, the entire

37:23

Tahoe National Forest, which is a separate forest

37:25

from the Tahoe Basin Forest. And

37:28

then we've got PG and E working

37:30

with us in that landscape and hopefully

37:32

many more landscapes. As a partner,

37:34

they extended the

37:37

kind of ownership boundaries to include their

37:39

land and their infrastructure. And

37:42

and then Turkey Fire District

37:44

and and several other groups that

37:46

have come together now to plan across

37:49

three

37:49

watersheds, three forests, two

37:51

utilities, all working

37:54

together and fire districts. And

37:56

they're all using the the main

37:58

product or the core product land tender,

38:00

which you called the operating system

38:02

for forest

38:03

restoration. Is that right? Exactly.

38:05

Yeah. Yep. We're about to deploy

38:08

the system in Trinity County, which is about

38:10

two point five million acres. And

38:12

then Southern Oregon, after that

38:15

in the Ashland area. So that's kind of a homecoming

38:17

for Guy

38:17

Bayes, our CTO, where his house almost burned

38:20

down, where we're deploying next. And then

38:22

tons of interest across the Western US.

38:25

Last year in twenty twenty two, you

38:27

announced what sounded like a massive

38:29

seed round. It was a seventeen million dollar

38:32

now announcement led by ecosystem

38:34

integrity fund, but that was actually

38:36

the culmination of a couple of

38:38

capital that came in along the way. Tell

38:40

me about the seat around and who participated

38:43

beyond ecosystem integrity fund? And what

38:45

was it like fundraising?

38:46

Yeah. So we had sort of a rolling

38:49

set of funding. We started with

38:51

around that the grant them foundation

38:54

funded first. So we did a

38:56

five million dollar round that they

38:58

led they have a for profit

39:00

investing arm of the

39:02

foundation. Granite foundation is one of the

39:04

biggest climate solutions funders in the

39:06

world, incredible org. And

39:10

and then Earthshot came in and data

39:14

tech fund and several

39:17

other really cool small investors, Chris

39:19

Cox, who is the chief

39:21

product officer at meta, also

39:23

came in. I done some work with Chris, and

39:26

he's funding climate solutions and

39:28

and got behind us. So we

39:30

did sort of AAAA

39:33

set of convertible notes early

39:35

on to continue to underwrite the

39:38

development of the minimum viable product and then

39:40

evolve it into a real, you know,

39:42

beta version of the system

39:44

that that would operate in the world.

39:46

And then we did

39:49

a seed round where we converted

39:51

all the debt just this last

39:53

May. That's around the ecosystem

39:55

integrity fund led. And some of

39:57

our other investors like Earthshot and

39:59

Datatech fund, and others came back into

40:01

that round. Along with new investors

40:04

like Bailey Ventures. So

40:06

our company is really challenging Trey's

40:09

funding around I have to

40:11

talk to fifty investors to

40:13

find one that gets it. So

40:16

a lot of our sales is government

40:18

sales that scares the crap out of funders.

40:22

At the local level, we sell to conservation

40:25

districts. We sell to municipal

40:27

fire districts. We sell to local forests

40:31

through nonprofit partners and

40:34

NGOs. And and then

40:36

we're we've been working on some of

40:38

the federal contracting capabilities

40:41

as well. So what's

40:43

been interesting is finding

40:45

funders that see once you actually

40:47

land government business, how

40:49

big and how sticky that business can be.

40:52

And it's also from a theory

40:54

of change perspective, if

40:56

we can work nationally with the US Forest

40:58

Service, for example, or Department of Interior, we

41:02

can basically become that

41:04

data platform that really

41:06

understands how our landscape

41:09

trending? Are they trending towards resilience or

41:11

away from resilience? Because if

41:13

we are actively helping to manage

41:15

or supporting resource

41:17

managers in managing land effectively

41:20

and monitoring those decisions and

41:22

monitoring current conditions, we

41:24

become the dominant data

41:27

platform to understand what's happening

41:29

on landscapes at any given time.

41:32

So the funders that see

41:34

that and the the federal especially

41:36

path to that end

41:39

get very, very excited. So EIF

41:41

was very special in that

41:43

Jamie Everett, one of the partners as a

41:45

forester. And so when

41:47

he saw the Anthony said I've been looking for this

41:49

for fifteen years. And

41:51

he really, really sees it. We

41:54

have had success with climate tech lenders like

41:56

Earthshot has been an incredible partner to us

41:58

and and Chris Cox and and

42:01

others' Veolia ventures. But

42:03

it's it's been challenging to

42:05

to find the handful that really see it.

42:08

So I think once we

42:10

find them, it's a very close

42:12

knit family and we feel incredibly

42:14

supported and we get lot of a lot of

42:16

help with introductions and product strategy

42:18

thinking and those kinds of things. Excellent.

42:20

It's a good really good group of investors.

42:24

A topic that's been in the news recently and

42:27

has had some criticism over

42:29

the years are carbon offsets and

42:31

credits. How is vibrant planet

42:35

thinking about that scrutiny

42:37

as an upcoming part of your business

42:39

is providing data

42:41

around those credits. Yeah.

42:44

It is definitely on the product roadmap

42:47

and next in line. So

42:49

we our our philosophy

42:51

is we

42:54

really have to focus on this restoration problem

42:57

or protection. And it depends

42:59

on context on what the right action is

43:01

for land. So in the Amazon, we just need to leave

43:03

a loan. If we leave the Amazon

43:05

alone, it flourishes and it

43:07

stores, tons of tons of carbon provides this

43:09

water service that becomes worldwide weather, etcetera.

43:13

And and so the action there is keep farmers

43:16

from cutting down the forest, pay

43:18

them to do that. So trying to figure that out is

43:20

very, very difficult, very political. In

43:23

Western forests and in other mediterranean

43:25

climate types in Australia and Europe. The

43:29

history is that we we played

43:31

out the Lorax. We cut everything.

43:34

In the United States and the West, for example,

43:36

there's only about four percent old growth,

43:39

somewhere between four and seven, some say seven

43:41

percent But regardless,

43:43

we we cut everything to build towns and railroads

43:45

and mines. And, I

43:48

mean, really, the American economy was

43:50

built on the back of trees. And

43:53

in doing so, we completely disrupted

43:56

a natural forest structure. And

43:59

after we cut everything, we

44:01

really didn't manage it. It grew back.

44:04

We we did do some protective actions,

44:06

some protective legislation, like the National Environmental

44:08

Protection Act, which was very,

44:11

very important. But it

44:13

created a lack of management. So

44:15

these forest grew back in an unnatural

44:18

structure too close together with

44:20

advantageous species like fur

44:22

taking over in places that where we

44:24

might have had indigenous pine like where I live.

44:27

And and so we really screwed

44:29

up these ecosystems. And

44:32

we then got very, very good at suppressing fire.

44:34

So a lot of people including funders

44:36

come into the fire problem and we just wanna

44:38

get better at putting fires out. That's

44:41

actually exacerbating the problem, of course,

44:43

because these ecosystems that are fire

44:45

adapted need fire, like I

44:47

said, to regenerate, to call themselves

44:50

down so that you have the right number of trees per

44:52

acre. And, you know, they're different

44:54

ages, different species. So it

44:56

creates a heterogeneous structure

44:59

that is spread out and clean basically.

45:02

And in suppressing fire, we've

45:04

created a mess. So we've got, you know,

45:06

in Lake Tahoe where I live, we've got about

45:09

twice as many trees as we should have.

45:11

It's hard to imagine that. And

45:15

those trees are sucking up a lot of water.

45:17

There's too many straws in the cup, so they are

45:19

becoming unresilient. They have not had

45:21

fire for a very long time, so they've

45:24

lost that ability to cycle nutrients in

45:26

carbon and and

45:28

regenerate. And so they're very sick

45:30

and they're dying of tree mortality and

45:33

we've got way too many fir trees

45:35

and So when a fire strikes,

45:38

because there's so much hazardous

45:41

fuel, it ladders

45:43

up to the canopy now instead of staying on

45:45

the ground and becoming a regenerative force,

45:47

and the forest explodes. And

45:49

then we have more extreme winds from climate change,

45:52

dryer temperatures. So these these forests are

45:54

also tender dry, and they're fighting for resources.

45:57

And so we we have this

45:59

this high severity fire all over

46:01

the west now. So

46:04

we are very focused from a carbon perspective

46:06

on active management and

46:08

accelerating land management. And

46:11

monitoring and reporting on that land management

46:14

so that we can actually

46:17

secure that carbon. And with that

46:19

carbon, the overall forced function, we

46:21

don't care just about carbon. We want water,

46:24

you know, we want evotranspiration happening

46:26

naturally. We want biodiversity. We

46:29

want those recreation places as places.

46:31

So we want

46:33

we we we are focused on overall

46:35

force function.

46:38

And managing it to fruition. We

46:42

will launch a set of tools for

46:44

carbon management. So forest

46:47

carbon project development. And

46:49

we're doing some pilots this year with a bunch of

46:51

nonprofit partners to to bring

46:54

those to fruition. What's different about

46:56

vibrant planet's perspective

46:59

on carbon is this active support

47:01

for management to secure carbon,

47:04

water, biodiversity, and recreation. All

47:06

of the benefits that come out of a

47:09

functioning forest. So the differences

47:11

are the multi benefit perspective and the

47:13

restoration of ecosystems that exist.

47:16

A lot of other carbon companies

47:18

are are really focused on commercial

47:21

tree farms and extending rotations and

47:24

other strategies, some

47:26

of which are great, some of which I think the market

47:28

is questioning, and I think there's been a sort

47:30

of natural market adjustment around some

47:32

of the strategies. And what quality

47:35

means in carbon offsets. And

47:37

in some places in the tropics where

47:40

we have companies working in stable

47:42

government, stable forests, that

47:44

that is great and and protective strategies

47:46

are fantastic. We're just

47:48

focused on the fire prone systems

47:50

that need active management.

47:53

Makes makes sense. And if you

47:55

could go back in time two years ago to when you were

47:57

starting the company, what would you tell yourself?

48:00

Good question. I would

48:02

probably tell myself to find

48:05

an easier problem to start

48:07

with. Yeah.

48:11

So In terms of the MVP or the

48:14

the whole company, like the premise of the company,

48:16

the MVP. We could have

48:18

started with a product, I

48:21

believe, that used lower

48:24

resolution data to

48:27

monitor and report on forests

48:30

and help with prioritization of budgets.

48:34

Without the very hefty

48:36

expensive science and engineering, it took

48:38

to develop that three-dimensional one

48:40

meter view of forests. That

48:43

is absolutely crucial to

48:45

helping with management and the local decision

48:48

where you're deciding what treat a cut, where

48:50

you can safely do prescribed burns, that

48:52

type of resolution is crucial to

48:54

solve the problem. But we could have started,

48:56

I think, with a slightly easier

49:00

problem that is also needed, which

49:02

we're tackling now. Can

49:05

you speak to your experience as

49:07

a white woman leading a climate tech company in

49:09

an industry that is majority white and majority

49:11

male?

49:12

Yes. It's very interesting to be at the intersection

49:14

of forest management and

49:17

technology as a female leader.

49:20

One of the biggest frustrations

49:22

I have is

49:25

the lack of diversity

49:27

in the space from a racial perspective.

49:30

So the forest service has

49:32

actually done an incredible job. In

49:35

developing a diverse team. In

49:37

fact, the Chief of the Force Service is an African

49:40

American man. The head of the

49:42

USDA is African American

49:44

man. And there

49:46

are a lot of amazing women in the forest service.

49:48

So they're actually an exemplary organization

49:51

in terms of fostering diversity. But

49:55

more broadly in the space, it is a very

49:57

white male space. And I

50:01

do feel as a woman bringing

50:05

more of a nurturing kind

50:08

of love versus fear perspective

50:11

to a very scary big

50:13

catastrophic problem has been

50:16

sort of a competitive edge for us

50:19

from both a recruiting perspective and

50:21

even talking to customers disarming

50:25

sort of a a very male

50:27

driven space. I

50:30

think has been a really positive thing.

50:32

And we have lot of women on our

50:35

team. We're about half women. What's

50:39

frustrating is finding more

50:41

racial diversity in the in the space.

50:43

And we really hope as a company that

50:46

we can play a role in bringing up a new generation

50:49

of scientists and technologists and

50:51

marketing people working on this topic.

50:53

One of our big initiatives is

50:55

bringing tribal perspectives, so traditional ecological

50:58

knowledge. Into the technology and

51:01

also how the company approaches

51:03

go to market strategies and how it serves

51:05

customers and how we make

51:07

a really big difference with frontline communities

51:10

and in supporting tribes try we have a

51:12

lot to learn from tribes on how to

51:14

manage man manage

51:15

land. Removing tribes

51:18

from their ancestral lands

51:20

is one of the big mistakes we made

51:22

a

51:22

hundred years ago. And so bringing

51:25

some of the traditional ecological back

51:27

into how we're managing land is

51:30

absolutely crucial for vibrant planet. So trying

51:32

to find that path and bring up a new generation

51:34

of even just tribal leaders is

51:37

one of our big goals this year. Very

51:39

well said. I know you are a

51:42

single mom raising a teenage daughter.

51:44

What is it like being a parent, CEO,

51:46

co founder, all at the same time?

51:48

Very intense. How

51:51

about Yeah. It's a it

51:53

is a constant juggle, and

51:56

I feel lucky having worked for

51:58

people like Keith Yamashida, the consulting

52:00

firm I mentioned he

52:03

and others in my life we're able to

52:05

grow my capacity and

52:08

efficiency in a really interesting

52:10

way. And so I'm very grateful to them for

52:12

that. And a

52:14

lot of it is, you know, we have a value

52:16

at government planet to hire people better than ourselves.

52:19

So bringing in a

52:21

really amazing team of bad asses

52:25

that can take on lot

52:27

of the weight is extremely helpful. But

52:29

but it is intense and

52:31

there are moments when my teenage daughter

52:34

needs me and I need to drop

52:36

everything for her. And the

52:40

the the one thing I've got going for me is an incredible

52:42

team that can pick up pick up the

52:44

ball

52:45

when when that happens. So It

52:48

is not easy though. We're gonna close

52:50

with our high voltage round. These are quick questions

52:52

with quick answers, quick meaning like two or three

52:54

word answers. If you were an

52:56

animal, what animal would you be and why?

52:59

An

53:00

eagle. I've always

53:02

wanted to fly especially on

53:04

a windy day when I watch them kind of

53:06

vault up on winds and that

53:08

birds eye view of just being able to see

53:11

everything as far as You can possibly

53:13

see. Sounds amazing. Mhmm.

53:16

If you had to start a new career tomorrow, what

53:18

would it be? I think I would be

53:20

a farmer rancher. And

53:23

mushroom grower.

53:26

Sounds wonderful. Other

53:28

than yourself to whom do you attribute your success?

53:32

My daughter.

53:34

She is compassion and very

53:36

much my drive. Her name is Emerson, named

53:39

after Ralph Aldo. Oh, wow.

53:41

You're welcome. And yeah. She's

53:44

she's inspirational. She's it's

53:47

where she's a thousand years old and fourteen

53:49

year old body. Very, very wise

53:51

and grounded and very

53:53

much my inspiration for what I'm doing. Mhmm.

53:57

What lesson has taken the longest to learn?

53:59

Letting go and delegation. It's

54:03

a good one. Parent had taught

54:05

me that too. When are you

54:07

your best self? I am my

54:09

best self when I am out recreating,

54:14

skinning up a skill

54:16

with my dog, skiing with

54:18

my daughter, hiking or biking

54:21

with my daughter. I think

54:23

my best when I'm out

54:25

recreating, I always have huge

54:27

aha's, and I'm always happiest

54:30

and most full. What

54:33

is your worst trait? I'm a bit

54:35

of a control freak. Most

54:39

CEOs are self included.

54:42

If there was just one person who was gonna hear

54:44

this podcast, who would you want it to be? Probably

54:47

my daughter again. And

54:49

if she was standing in front of you right

54:51

now, what would you say to her? Everything

54:53

I'm doing and

54:55

even sacrificing time with you is

54:59

for you and your generation and

55:01

all the children of all the other

55:03

animals on earth and plants.

55:06

Really, really beautiful. Finish

55:09

these sentences for me. Companies fail because

55:13

lack of focus or lack of

55:15

funding. If

55:17

you really knew me, you would know that

55:20

I am not a morning person. I'm

55:24

a night of

55:26

success is affecting

55:31

a massive difference in the problem

55:33

we're trying to solve. Where

55:35

enough land

55:37

is restored that we have

55:40

successfully secured

55:43

sort of a sustainable carbon carrying capacity,

55:46

healthy watersheds, and

55:49

we've enriched biodiversity

55:51

I'm most proud of. My

55:54

daughter. She does

55:56

listen to this. She's

55:59

one of the most amazing people I've ever

56:01

met. Last

56:03

question to build a successful startup, what

56:05

it takes is I think

56:08

leading with vision and love

56:11

I think that at this point in

56:13

time, so much

56:15

is fear driven.

56:18

We we often lead from fear, and I think

56:20

at this point in time,

56:23

and I think it's why we kind of hear about

56:25

the feminine rising and so

56:27

many women leaders sort

56:29

of coming up. I think

56:31

that we sort of inherently lead

56:33

with more empathy and more compassion and

56:35

and more

56:36

love, and we have to make more decisions from

56:38

that place. Such a beautiful

56:41

way to close and I couldn't agree

56:43

more. And it's one of the many reasons.

56:45

I'm so grateful that you are who you are and

56:47

doing what you're doing in the world at vibrant planet

56:49

and just really grateful for more people to hear

56:51

your story. Thank you so much. It's

56:53

been such a pleasure talking to you. Allison

57:01

Wolff is the CEO and cofounder of

57:03

vibrant planet. Join

57:09

us for new stories each month of founders who

57:11

are building our climate positive future.

57:13

Their upbringings, their risks, their failures,

57:16

and their breakthroughs that are transforming our

57:18

world. I'd also like to thank what it takes

57:20

listener, Kyle Cherich. Hi Kyle,

57:22

who said powerhouse and powerhouse ventures

57:24

are accelerating the future of Climate

57:26

Tech, and this pod highlights some of the best

57:28

stories of entrepreneurs, investors, and change

57:31

makers in the space. What it takes

57:33

is produced by powerhouse and powerhouse ventures

57:35

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57:38

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57:40

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57:42

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57:44

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57:47

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57:49

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57:51

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57:53

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58:17

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58:20

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58:22

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58:24

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58:29

This is what it takes.