đ Earlywork #47: Dishinâ the Dirt on Cleantech
Featuring Kiya Taylor (EVP) and Nick Zeltzer (CEFC), Gigs from Lyka and Mantel Group + One Minute Hustle with Thanh Du (Founder & CEO of Oss)
Hello Earlyworkers!
Hot off the press today is Earlywork #47, a careers newsletter providing free weekly career resources, news, jobs & real-world career stories for young Aussies & Kiwis in the tech, startup & social impact landscape.
If youâre not already part of the crew, subscribe now to keep a pulse on our latest stories and conversations:
đ We made it in the AFR!
Usually, weâre the ones interviewing cool guests, but this time, we got to sit on the other side of the table to chat about how Earlywork started, the power of the community and the future of the early careers space.
Thank you to Natasha Gillezeau and the AFR team for this feature!
đĄWeekly Cheeky Tip
Roll up your sleeves and get those gardening gloves on because weâre about to dish the dirt on whatâs been happening in the Cleantech space. đ
Our headlines have been dominated by lip service to climate action, the outcomes of COP26 (or the lack thereof), accusations of greenwashing and more.
Itâs really not pretty.
Our most recent Earlywork Community Masterclass featured Kiya Taylor (Head of Platform & Community at EVP) and Nick Zeltzer (Associate Director, Clean Energy Innovation Fund @ CEFC), and from that conversation, it was clear that thereâs a whole heap to be hopeful about as well when it comes to cleantech.Â
đ¸ Following the money in cleantech
Rewind a couple of years and cleantech investing often fell into the âtoo hardâ bucket - itâs hardware-heavy (making a lot of VCs cringe), feedback loops are much slower than SaaS software and itâs simply hard from a scientific point of view too.
However, the narrative is shifting:Â
Tesla (yep, itâs a cleantech company) is now valued at over a trillion dollarsÂ
Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes announced that they are committing $1.5 billion of their personal wealth towards reversing climate change
Aussie Agritech Loam Bio raises a $40 million series A just last month (October 2021)
And itâs just the beginning.
What was once an asset class just to âtick the boxesâ is now a growing area that not only makes sense for the planet but also rakes in financial returns as well.
ESG funds have quadrupled over 2019-2020 and VCâs are âfightingâ to have a seat at the clean-tech table. And although one startup or one VC alone probably canât reverse the effects of climate change overnight, those in the startup ecosystem can become leading players towards our planetâs most urgent problems.
Hereâs Nickâs take on the current climate of cleantech investing:
âThe quality of entrepreneurs in the sector that are now targeting solutions in the space means the velocity of new ideas has increased exponentially and with that, weâre seeing generalist VCs also playing a role in the space as opposed to just specialist VCs and governmentâ.
đŚ Cleantech in Australia
âCleantech is now so many things. There was a point in time where cleantech was very much synonymous with energy-tech. Now itâs evolved beyond that.â - Kiya
Cleantech is no longer just solar panels or wind turbines.Â
Itâs everything from utility-scale energy generation, energy storage & transportation, alternative proteins, energy retailing and gadgets we use in our homes.

đ¤ So, what does all this mean for early careers?
The cleantech space is, by no means, the easiest sector to be building or operating in. However, the challenges are met with equally large opportunities.
Regulation. Thereâs a lot of innovation that cannot happen unless there are changes in regulation. Changes in the market will open many doors for entrepreneurs and investors.
Political. There is a lot of politics surrounding the sector. Find ways to cut through the noise and defend the people.
Complexity. Cleantech is inherently complex. In terms of science, itâs hard. Unfortunately, trying to read your energy bill and understanding the tariffs and charges is also very hard. The opportunity here is to simplify UX and focus on the end customer experience. Â
Diversity. Previously the sector has been dominated by a few particular skillsets - engineering and economics to be exact. Bringing in talent from diverse backgrounds will accelerate creativity & innovation in cleantech.
Both Nick and Kiya are great examples of people who started their careers in very different fields.
Kiya, ironically, started in the mining sector, developing an appreciation for energy generation and the complexity of that process.
Nick started off in investment banking and later âfollowed [his] heart and brain to see that there are plenty of problems worth solvingâ.Â
âIf you want to be in the cleantech space, you can...it makes sense, both for the planet, but also commercially now which has been the main change that weâve seen over the yearsâ.
What content would you like us to cover next? Anything we missed? Keen to share your own Weekly Cheeky Tip?
đ Earlywork Community
đ The Buzz
We held our biggest event to date with Sahil Lavingia - the Founder & CEO of Gumroad. Check out his book The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less.
And we had our first Earlywork Melbourne meetup! Shoutout to Bryce Chee for organising đ§Ą
đ Trending Topics
Our favourite reads and resources being discussed in the Earlywork community.
Community member Wilson Hou, launched his Substack - Right In Your Mind. Check out the first piece on psychedelics and why they are all the hype.
A Year of Multitudes: 10 Lessons Weâve Learned. A great reflective piece from Vivek Katial, a member of the founding team
Twitter thread on the differential advantage of Tiger vs. Traditional VCs
A podcast about one of the most talked-about NFT collections - Bored Ape Yacht Club
đ Gigs Spotlight
đŞ Strategy & Analytics Associate @ Lyka (Sydney)
Lyka is a pet wellness startup that is on a mission to put our doggosâ health first, and change the status-quo of feeding our pets highly processed, unnatural kibble that often sits on shelves for months. Lyka is also making strides as a green company as Australiaâs only carbon negative dog food.
Theyâre looking for a Strategy & Analytics Associate to join the team and dig into strategic business problems and create effective and scalable solutions to support Lykaâs growth.
Check it out and apply at đ earlywork.co/gigs
â Future Associates Graduate Program @ Mantel Group (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Auckland)
Mantel Group is a âhouse of brandsâ company, focusing on building technology solutions for business partners. Some of their brands include kasna - helping businesses leverage Google Cloud technologies, eliiza - creating scalable data science solutions and CMD - cloud technology consulting.
Mantel Group is now launching its first graduate program in software engineering, cloud engineering and data.
Check it out and apply at đ earlywork.co/gigs
Disclaimer: Earlywork received monetary compensation for the roles featured in this section.
1ď¸âŁ đ đŞÂ One Minute Hustle
We are back once again with One Minute Hustle, a bite-sized interview with an emerging Australian young startup founder or operator.Â
This week, letâs get inside the noggin of a young founder who is helping the people get paid for the personal data that they share.
Thanh Du, Founder & CEO @ Oss
âď¸ What are you working on?
We are working to change the way the data industry treats you and your data.Â
We have built Oss, a data ownership platform that helps you profit from your own data by renting it to businesses as insights - anonymously.Â
Imagine youâre an artist receiving royalties from sharing your songs on Spotify.
With the Oss platform, you receive royalties from sharing your data with us!Â
đą Howâd you get started?
4 key events over 3 years:
Event 1 - Starting working at a Social Media marketing agency, discovering the value of data and insights. Our entire business model was dependent on our ability to read those insights well and advertise to you better. Yes, I was one of those people who made those annoying ads that tracked you.Â
Event 2 - Facebook x Cambridge Analytica scandal opened my eyes to how our data can be wielded to manipulate us to unfavourable outcomes. If it happened once, it could happen again. Â
Event 3 - I followed Andrew Yang during the 2020 presidential race and heard him speak about data ownership for all through legislation. Making Facebook, Google and all the tech companies pay you a Data Dividend for the information youâve provided to them.Â
Event 4 - COVID happened and the business I was running went to a complete halt. I decided to do a bunch of research and followed this thread of data ethics, ownership and privacy.Â
And the rest is history!
đ¤ Why do you do what you do?
Curiosity and a sense of duty.Â
After doing all this research, I found it so bizarre that weâre all suppliers of our own data (the oil of the 21st Century and multi-billion dollar industry), making money for everyone else besides ourselves.
In addition, I want to shine a light on the shadiness of the data industry, buying and selling our information up in the âcloudâ with no transparency for us and no strong control mechanisms.Â
Here are the questions that keep me up at night:Â
Can we reverse the power dynamics of the data industry, where people are included in all the conversations to do with them and their personal information?
Can we actually empower people to truly own and profit from their data like property or an asset?
What happens when Google or Facebook wants to shut us down or absorb us?Â
Keen to share your story, or know a young startup founder or operator we should feature next?
Share your deets and weâll get in touch!
đľ Vibed with this piece? Buy us a cheeky herbal tea!
đ Want more FREE career resources? Be sure to check out the Earlywork Resource Hub for even more free resources on landing a role in tech/startups.
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Ciao for now,
Team Earlywork (Dan, Jono & Marina)
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