Could this be the start of something green?
I have been interested in the green/clean technology market for quite a while, but I was not sure how to get involved. The problem I was facing was that my work experience did not seem to lend itself to any of the typical green tech disciplines: biofuels, fuel cells, solar cells, etc. I just wasn’t sure what I could do. Then I heard about the California Clean Tech Open (CCTO). It’s a business plan competition focused on green/clean tech related business ideas. It sounded like the perfect thing for me, but I still didn’t know what to do.
It turns out the CCTO was sponsoring a Technology and Entrepreneur Matching Event. The idea was a bunch of people interested in starting green businesses would meet up with a bunch of researchers with green technologies. The event was held at SRI in Menlo Park on June 4, 2007. It sounded like a perfect opportunity for me to find something to work on.
I was disappointed with the event for the most part. I guess I was expecting a bunch of guys showing of their cool, green technologies trying to connect with an entrepreneur partner. It turned out to be mostly research institutes (SRI, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, PARC, Sandia, EPRI, UC Davis and Stanford) talking about all the technologies they had to license and a bunch of entrepreneurs looking for money. There must have been at least 10 guys there from calcars.org promoting their plan to take their plug-in hybrid non-profit into the commercial sector.
I had almost given up hope, then I met one guy, Nathan, who was talking about his research project from UC Berkeley. He was using wireless sensor networks to improve the home thermostat by making it more efficient while at the same time improving comfort. I had been thinking about using wireless networks to monitor electrical consumption in the home, but this application could provide real financial value by saving the user money on their electric and gas bills. I chatted with the guy for a bit, but then I was shoved aside by the more aggressive entrepreneurs in the crowd.
I went home disappointed.