I’m going to try to marry two different ideas going through my head into one thesis today. I apologize if it comes across a little clunky.
- The Venture Capital / Accelerator types in my area have no interest in real industrial businesses. Instead, they keep chasing the same startup fads - either worn-to-death digital/software ideas, or green feel-good concepts.
- There is a looming industrial/entrepreneurial opportunity to undo and remediate the environmental wastelands created by solar and wind projects, especially wind.
I was about to write about topic #1 when I got an email from co-blogger Mr. CBD stating: “We drove back from the Loire Valley yesterday, and for about 30 minutes we drove through an area of the valley that was covered in wind turbines. Hundreds of them! I saw a grand total of four that were spinning, and it was a typical windy day. And those four were clustered together, which tells me...something!”
I then responded to Mr. CBD: “There will be an amazing business opportunity in 15 to 20 years removing these derelict monstrosities and remediating the concrete-damaged soil where they now stand. I'd mention it to the local VC guys as a great business opportunity, but the only non-digital business opportunity with a tangible product that they care about is startups related to EVs and their batteries.”
Over my career, I have worked with many people who have started and built businesses, from construction to contracting to manufacturing to retail to distribution, etc. Pretty much all of them have some tangible product which they are buying, manufacturing, shipping, or selling. I do understand, of course, that this is a world where some of the most valuable publicly traded companies are only selling bits and bytes, but even the likes of Amazon and Apple are moving a lot of physical products.
But there is also a huge world outside of digital and high tech, and as best I can tell, those interested in startup and venture capital investing (at least locally) are generally uninterested in any tangible product, with one exception – pitches related to EVs and their batteries.
The willingness to be seduced by the EV hype, while abstaining from all other industrial startups is telling. It tells me that these are credulous investors who want to invest in fads rather than in companies with an actual product or service for which there is a market.
A local “startup accelerator” that provides funding and “mentoring” recently let go almost half of its staff amidst a reorganization. I’m not going to link to the story nor name this company, because I am not seeking to mock it by name. Rather I want to point out the myopic focus I observe in the venture capital and “accelerator” arena, at least locally. This is part of the report on where the accelerator will be targeting its time and money going forward:
[These] include companies focused on electric and autonomous vehicles, supply chain innovations, urban planning, smart traffic solutions, automotive battery technology and quantum technology.
That is one trendy list. And clearly, any companies engaged in most of these areas would be relying on government grants and contracts for revenue, especially in regards to urban planning, smart traffic solutions, and the EV related stuff. There are not consumers and businesses clamoring to buy urban planning software or smart traffic solutions.
So, to circle back to my two clunky points. That giant field of static wind turbines that Mr. CBD observed in France will soon be a field of derelict wind turbines. And there are thousands of such fields across the globe. There are over 75,000 ”active” wind turbines in the U.S. alone. “Active” doesn’t necessarily mean that they are spinning or producing any electricity – they just haven’t been decommissioned. But they will. All 75,000 of those monstrosities will have to come down as the wind debacle plays out and they reach the end of their relatively short life span.
There will be a great business opportunity for entrepreneurs to start-up businesses to get into the wind turbine remediation business. But those entrepreneurs won’t be skinny-jean guys who live in lofts and talk about AI and the blockchain. They’ll be guys wearing steel-toe boots and using equipment financed by a bank, because the VCs and “accelerators” will be focused on the latest feel-good fads.
My latest piece has been published at The Blaze, America Last? Not Anymore as Trump Targets Big Pharma.
Pharmaceutical companies now operate under a politically dangerous business model. They enjoy government-granted patent protections to block competition, while squeezing insurers and patients to extract maximum profit. This isn’t capitalism. It’s a merger of legal monopoly and short-sighted corporate greed — a textbook example of protectionism paired with profit-maximization stripped of ethical restraint.
It’s behind a paywall, but if you’re a Blaze subscriber, I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.
[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]