Bridging The Nature Tech Talent Gap
And announcing Superorganism’s jobs board!
🪸 We’re Superorganism, the first VC for startups that benefit biodiversity. Each month we publish thoughts from the frontline, company updates, and a round-up of new happenings in the nature tech world.
As nature tech emerges, we’re convinced that the intersections between conservation and technology are going to grow in importance. With enterprise-level companies tasked with monitoring and minimizing their nature impacts (see here and here), they’ll need trusted talent that can move fast while producing scientifically rigorous and defensible results.
We’re fortunate to call both conservationists and entrepreneurs friends and collaborators, and have found that they share a surprising number of traits. They’re passionate, they’re resourceful, and they frequently work miracles off tight budgets.
Despite these similarities, there are often gaps in skills, terminology, and cultures to bridge. This is an enormous missed opportunity, as the private sector is poised to play a larger role in protecting biodiversity at scale.
Today, $200B is spent annually, globally, in service of nature. This amount needs to triple by 2030 to meet international climate and conservation goals. New nature-focused regulations like the EU’s CSRD and 20% restoration targets are creating structures (and importantly, buyers) to drive biodiversity monitoring, management, and restoration across millions of acres of land and ocean. And the new crop of nature tech startups meeting this moment need the talent with the best science, on-the-ground knowledge, and stakeholder relationships, as well as the best tech, operations, and scaling experience.
Put succinctly: we’re going to need more conservationists who can think like business people, and business people who can think like conservationists.
The pros of going corporate
Traditional biodiversity work comes in many varieties. Whether in research, teaching, nonprofit management, field conservation, or any number of paths, it’s uncommon for conservationists to wind up in the private sector. For those that do, the transition can be bumpy. Still, there’s much that can be learned from the private sector. A non-exhaustive list:
Faster pace. The pace of business, startups especially, tends to be faster than in academic or NGO environments. Where your work in the latter might be to publish after years of work with high degrees of certainty, many businesses select for faster decisions with a higher tolerance for risk.
Operate at scale. With frequently larger budgets and teams, solving problems in the private sector can often scale to thousands, even millions of people. A small change inside a large organization can make a significant dent quickly.
Apply your knowledge. A frustration we hear over and over in the nature world: we’ve done the research, we know there’s a problem, and nothing has been done about it. Working in industry can be a path to “doing something about it.”
The pros of walking on the wild side
Meanwhile, for the nature-curious in the private sector, it can be difficult to find the right program or path to biodiversity learnings. Conservation organizations are notorious (at least in jest) for posting a job description for a highly technical, business-focused role… while also requiring a MSc in Wildlife Biology. Many eager product managers have left the tech industry to work in conservation, only to be met with low salaries (or volunteer-only posts), past fieldwork experience required, and challenges coming up the ecological learning curve. But, for those that persist, some benefits to working in nature firsthand:
Understand nuance. “Move fast and break things” doesn’t apply well to the natural world. Until you get into the field, it’s hard to know the challenges of working there. Working in rugged conditions, earning community trust, understanding tradeoffs, are realities that become much more apparent once you get your boots on the ground.
Do work that matters. Bringing your skillset into an organization that’s benefitting the natural world can be incredibly gratifying. Every day, even the menial ones, you’ll know you’re working towards a positive impact on the planet.
Go deep. There are many problems in the biodiversity world that need solving, but the best way to learn is to get to know a place or a challenge up close. Developing an intuition and appreciation for the pace of working on the ground will make you more effective long-term.
Landing that nature tech role
Already convinced you want to move your career into nature tech? Great! Here’s general advice we’ve shared with friends looking to make the switch:
Be patient. This is an emerging field, and some of the best nature tech companies are themselves still small. Within larger companies, a few are beginning to hire their first heads of nature, and are only starting to staff out their teams. You’ll need persistence and luck, no matter how qualified you are.
Keep building your skills. Soft skills and hard skills are both vital assets in nature tech roles. Softer skills like collaborating on teams, navigating ambiguity, and presenting can be developed in either a conservation or private sector role. Harder skills, like geospatial analysis, machine learning, Excel, genetic analysis, will be more specialized to the roles you’re pursuing. Whatever you’re doing now, take every opportunity to develop and hone those skills.
Think orthogonally. To position yourself for a near-term future when there are more nature tech roles, it’s often smart to think orthogonally. If you’ve had a conservation background working with data, could you take on a data science role at a tech company? If you’ve been inside a tech business, could you advise at an NGO, or enroll in a graduate program, for 2-3 years? These combined experiences will make you that much more compelling as these nature tech businesses continue to grow.
And if you are an organization in a position to hire - hire widely! Conservationists with no previous tech background, or tech industry leaders with no nature history, can have a deep well of skills and knowledge that can accelerate your organization in unexpected ways. Plus, you’ll play a critical role in creating a new wave of multi-tool talent (and potential founders) that have experienced both the fieldwork in nature, and the tech trenches.
With all that in mind…
Announcing the Superorganism Jobs Board
We’re launching the Superorganism Jobs Board as a hub for nature tech jobs from our portfolio. With 49 open roles from insect farmer to radar algorithm engineer, you can find your next nature tech job with Array Labs, Cambium Carbon, Funga, Planet A Foods, and more. Special thanks to Getro, Leone Baron, and Hunter Thompson.
For more opportunities, we also recommend checking out Climate Draft, Schmidt Marine’s Oceans Board, and Y Combinator’s job board (filtered for climate, of course). Any other resources you recommend? Please reply or add to the comments!
Notes from the Field
Updates from our portfolio companies, and from us at Superorganism
🌐 Cecil is building an audience! Join their newsletter exploring all things nature data, and keep an eye out for a big announcement in the next few weeks…
🍫 Planet A Foods is searching for a Social Media Manager. If you know someone a fit for this sweet job (HA) don’t let them miss this one!
🌿 Sway hosted their labwarming party during SF Climate Week, hosting a panel of conversations with Conservation International, Lonely Whale, and others.
🪸 As for us at Superorganism in April…
Ran all over SF during Climate Week, hosting two events including a nature tech founders & investor networking event, and speaking at an IDEO event on the intersection of design and nature.
Visited Dallas for EarthX, hosting a panel with Noelle Laing (CIO, Builders Vision) and Helen Crowley (former Director, Pollination)
Spoke with new Superorganism Mentor David Meyers on the 4Nature podcast on our origin story and investment thesis areas.
Moderated a panel on science-based priority setting for biodiversity investing with Conservation X Labs, One Earth, and Planet.
And most importantly: Kevin proposed to his partner during the solar eclipse, and she said yes! 💍
New Mentors
Our Mentor Network supports our portfolio founders by sharing their expertise and connections, and includes leaders spanning entrepreneurship and conservation. This month, we are thrilled to welcome:
David Meyers, Executive Director of the Conservation Finance Alliance. David has launched and managed various companies including a financial services company, a bamboo-flooring manufacturer in Madagascar, and a technology incubator. David has spent well over a decade in Madagascar, where he helped the country plan and execute a doubling of the area under conservation, and he has worked in 50 countries.
Ecosystem news
💡 Opportunities
Apply to the Ray of Hope Accelerator by May 3 | Biomimicry Institute
Seeking Executive Director by May 25 | Open Environmental Data Project
Apply for Climate Tech Funding Opportunities by May 31 | Elemental Excelerator
🔬 Science and Technology
Here Are Four Good Examples of How to Reverse Environmental Damage | Bloomberg
New Method That Pinpoints Wood’s Origin May Curb Illegal Timber | NYT
Using Artificial Intelligence to Map the Earth’s Forests | Meta Sustainability
First Round launches its Product-Market Fit Method (featuring Superorganism mentor Jason Boehmig!)
💵 Nature Finance
Beetles in a Pay Stack: Stacking and Bundling in Biodiversity Credit Markets | LinkedIn
How do we protect nature & biodiversity if we can't measure it? | LinkedIn
The Nature Tech Nexus: Bridging biodiversity and business | GSMA
🌳 Climate and conservation
Sea Otters Have Helped Bolster California’s Kelp Forest | Smithsonian
How to Revive a Burned Forest? Rebuild the Tree Supply Chain | NYT
400 consecutive days of record-breaking temperatures in the North Atlantic | Twitter
Statement by Luiz Rocha on Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event | Cal Academy
The Widest-Ever Global Coral Crisis Will Hit Within Weeks, Scientists Say | NYT
Helping coral reefs adapt to a warming ocean | Stanford
Cooking the books: The magical math of ‘climate-friendly’ meat | Corporate Knights
🦠 Biodiversity and Disease
A Virus May Help Save The World’s Amphibians From Extinction | Forbes
DSHS Reports First Human Case of Avian Influenza in Texas | DHS Texas
Bird Flu Is Infecting More Mammals. What Does That Mean for Us? | NYT
The infectious disease trap of animal agriculture | Science Advances
Two Hunters from the Same Lodge Afflicted with Sporadic CJD: Is Chronic Wasting Disease to Blame? | Neurology
📜 Science and Policy
EU pumps four times more money into farming animals than growing plants | Guardian
Switzerland’s Climate Shortfalls Violate Human Rights, European Court Rules | NYT
EPA Sets US’s First Drinking Water Standards to Limit Toxic PFAS | Bloomberg
Migratory Bird Conservation Bill Passed by the U.S. Senate | Audubon
Biden Administration Raises Costs to Drill and Mine on Public Lands | NYT
On Earth Day, Biden launched a new site to apply for Climate Corps jobs | NPR
How the Biden admin is trying to boost renewables on public land | Canary
Amazon butterflies show how new species can evolve from hybridization | Phys.org
🦧 Conservation
Conservation slowing biodiversity loss, scientists say | BBC
Introducing Home Planet Fund: A radically different approach to the climate crisis | PR Newswire
Iran frees scientists who studied big cats in surprise move | Nature
Relative of extinct butterfly helps fill ecological void | Revive and Restore
Two Additional Black-Footed Ferrets Born As a Result of Cloning | Revive and Restore
Federal Agencies to Restore Grizzly Bears in Washington State | NYT
🪲 Other content we liked
Boots, Backpack and a Ubiquitous App | NYT
‘The finger-touch sent shivers down my spine’: my encounter with a common octopus | Guardian
The weird deep-sea world, and how mining threatens it | Japan Times
Should We Change Species to Save Them? | NYT
How Do We Know What Animals Are Really Feeling? | NYT
Insects and Other Animals Have Consciousness, Experts Declare | Quanta Magazine
Young toads are teaching Australian lizards to avoid deadly snacks | Science
Introducing Home Planet Fund: A radically different approach to the climate crisis
Thank you!
Thanks for reading and for supporting Superorganism, and a special thank you to everyone who went above and beyond this month with introductions, diligence, advice, and help to founders:
Cameron Adams, Vikram Agrawal, Shelley Alger, Evan Arnold, Colin Averill, Rob Baigrie, Zal Bilmoria, Marcel Bock, Jason Boehmig, Lyndsey Boucherle, David Broz, Aarav Chavda, Helen Crowley, Alex Dehgan, Anthony del Porto, Conor Farese, Lassor Feasley, Ben Fenton, Joe Ferdinando, Jackie Firsty, Justin Fisch, Leah Gerber, Ted Gonder, Taylor Holshouser, Chieh Huang, Julianto Johanes, Conor Jordan, Diana Kaba, Jenny Kan, Joshua Kauffman, Zach Knight, Noelle Laing, David Lang, Dave Lee, Tommy Leep, Conor Lenahan, Mark Lewis, Richard Lichtenberg, Candice Lo, Michael Luciani, Hunter Maats, Justin Manley, Armando Mann, Diarmuid McGann, Murilo Menezes, Lisa Miller, Jahed Momand, Will O'Brien, Tom O'Keefe, Josh Parrish, Sabin Ray, Luiz Rocha, Sam Ruben, Mitch Rubin, Jeremy Schneider, Jordan Soriot, Susan Su, Phil Taylor, Hunter Thompson, Carl Tremblay, Emily Udal, Nick van Osdol, Natalia Vasquez, Matt Wallenstein, Brandon Welch, Kate Wing, and Amy Yin.