I help climate investors drive innovation on significant challenges or in under-examined areas.
If you’re a founder or researcher, I’m happy to see how I/friends can help.
Intro
👋🏼 Kia ora. My name is Will. ⛷️ I enjoy skiing, waterskiing, Arsenal FC, climate science, rum, traveling, puppies, and making coffee for friends. 🌲 I love the freedom most of us have to travel the world, the beauty we find in forests, lakes, and river ecosystems, and I love the fact human ingenuity can redesign our world so this beauty lasts for generations.
To keep that, I want to help you create a thriving economic system which operates within planetary boundaries, and supports civilization’s resilience.
👨🏻🏭 I can serve as a climate science advisor to your fund or project — or join your project to work on operations & new programs if you’re scaling technology for our planet.
Background
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- Sian Simpson — you and Kiwi Landing Pad sponsored a Kiwi’s dream to go abroad
- David Booth for going out of his way to give unending advice to a Kiwi leaving home — and supporting me during my move to London
- Derek Handley for leading the way for New Zealanders going abroad; Nick Winstone for mentoring me throughout my years of supporting Aera’s investing
- Elizabeth Brown, Jack McQuire, Ben Reynolds, and Matt Stenton for believing in a Kiwi kid in high school enough to give your time and care into helping me flourish abroad
- Janine and Craig Manning for bringing a young boy who naively thought he was a grown man into your community
- Felix Danczak for both helping me improve my analytical abilities, and mostly, reminding the boy he had a lot of growing up to do
- Jake Miller for so genuinely supporting young Kiwis off the bat. Rest in peace, brother.
- Bill McKibben and Dawn Lippert for leading the way for climate innovators
- Ashan Clark, Will Hewitt, and Rees Vinsen — you’re my inspirations back home
- My American parents, Michael & Jodi Wood, in San Antonio for housing a Kiwi lost during COVID-19
- Kieran and Rory O’Reilly for quickly adopting a Kiwi in San Francisco ⇒ many worldwide adventures still continuing
- My parents for, begrudgingly, letting me leave the country and then supporting my passions along the way — even if I’m not great at calling home
- Henry Elkus for so immediately believing that I can grow & achieve anything — while grilling me on my fundamental beliefs
- Josh Thompson for the pure role model that he is from his enthusiasm and belief in others
- hundreds more founders and humans who’ve given me their time and advice as I travelled the world learning
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- critically thinking about ways to drive impact (on climate/planetary boundaries) or avoid greenwashing
- setting up investment processes
- identifying and setting up deal flow sources is my strength, but I have supported three funds’ processes and sit on the investment committee of a new fund
- accelerating projects as a catalyst focused on go to market and operations
- leading teams while focusing on people’s varying skillsets
- selling pants to a horse (whether that's an achievement because I am good at soft sales, or it's simply because it’s easy to place horse-sized pants on a horse...)
- recommendations on a variety of investors or partners for your stage
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At 17, in high school I saw our future rapidly changing with growing risks. That future appeared shaped by technology I read about in Silicon Valley and overseas. So, after finding support and funding from New Zealand entrepreneurs, I travelled to learn from founders and investors in San Francisco, London, and China.
Since then, I have
- crafted operations for internal communication, operations and sales challenges at six companies in London and China
- studied sustainable fiber, ocean alkalinity, and polymers at Duke University (how can innovation reshape our material world).
- learned from the investors at Aera VC, worked at Helena.org’s growth stage think tank & climate fund, and assisted the climate arm of Ashton Kutcher's fund (SOUNDWaves) during my summers at Duke
- met ~400 climate startups, a variety of accelerators, and many investors looking to shape our world with capital
- founded and sold a nonprofit, YouChangeEarth.org, that had a team of eight researchers, a Green Party Minister as a contractor, and rotating volunteer engineers.
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- why time speeds up as we grow older
- feasible pathways to transition economics to a renewable/ecologically sound view
- digitizing chemical & material interactions to make science faster, cheaper, and more accessible
- how to answer The Repugnant Conclusion paradox (~maximizing population but not minimizing individual pleasure)
- living indefinitely through biotech advancements
- creating a nutritionally-complete goop which you can program to taste like any food you want
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If you have technology which can transform the world, or you want to work together, let me know at my_first_name@wreynolds.nz
Writing
Find a job in climate tech
Is self-reflection dangerous?
Content I’ve loved
- A crypto-industry newsletter for climate investors
- How to email: respecting others and avoiding overload