We’re the world’s largest satellite operator tracking greenhouse gases and we see the climate tech sector chasing the wrong breakthrough

Venture capital loves bold, transformative breakthroughs, but climate technology companies should prioritize scalability over perfect innovation. After 15 years in the climate tech sector, the author found that chasing the perfect technology often leads to expensive, unaffordable solutions. Instead, they focused on delivering market-leading improvements that customers could actually adopt at scale.

When designing their second-generation methane-detecting satellite, they avoided overhauling the entire design and instead concentrated on key features that would ensure industry adoption. The first satellite launched in 2016 proved the feasibility of this approach, leading to the creation of a new market segment. For the second generation, they doubled the detection sensitivity and daily coverage per satellite, making it an improvement over the first generation.

The author stresses that ambition and humility are not mutually exclusive; building an adoptable product is an essential part of making a lasting impact. They caution against resting on past successes and advocate for continuous innovation and scaling climate technology.