Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech
Most people think new technologies like solar and biofuels are the answer to crises in climate, energy, and food.What if the most leveraged way to solve these problems was infotech? This is the provocative idea of the "Cleanweb," which is the application of information technology to resource constraints. I have been involved in cleantech as an investor since 2002 (Nanosolar, Solazyme, Zeachem) and was an internet pioneer starting in 1994 (America Online, Brightmail, Linkedin, Zynga).I will explain how companies like AirBnB, Zipcar, Mosaic and others are already improving efficiency and reducing the need for fossil fuels, water, food, land, and other resources. I'll explore the scale required to impact climate and oil security and why traditional cleantech hasn't solve these problems yet. I will also identify new opportunities to create major new cleanweb companies and opportunities for corporations to leverage cleanweb for their products and services.
Presenters
SUNIL PAUL is the Founding Partner at Spring Ventures and CEO of ShepherdIS. He has a history of creating successful companies and making high performance investment decisions in both internet and cleantech markets. Mr. Paul co-founded Freeloader (acquired in 1996 for $38M) and Brightmail (acquired by Symantec in 2004 for $370M). He made investments in industry leaders such as LinkedIn and Solazyme and sits on the board of Zynga.
In 2002, Sunil began investing in cleantech, embracing an opportunity to address climate change, energy security, and resource scarcity with new technology. He coined the term “cleanweb” to describe the aggressive application of social, mobile, and Internet to resource constraints.
Sunil's previous experience includes working for America Online, the United States Congress, and the NASA Space Station. He is proudly active in non-profit projects such as Clean Economy Network, Gigaton Awards, Gigaton Throwdown, Carbon War Room and MAPlight.
Saturday, March 10
