Climate Careers: Andy Towne, Founder Partner & CEO of Hobbs & Towne Inc.
Today's guest is Andy Towne, Founding Partner & CEO of Hobbs & Towne Inc.
Founded in 1997, Hobbs & Towne Inc. is an executive search and advisory service firm. Partnering with venture capital, private equity, and family office investors, as well as global companies, HTI manages retained executive searches for high-level business leaders and C-suite positions. The firm's advisory services include restructuring, interim management, and mergers, acquisitions and proprietary deal flow. HTI works across sustainability and climate technologies, primarily in energy, mobility, food, agriculture, and water. Over the last 20 years, they've placed over 2,500 leaders in more than 600 companies globally.
With two decades of experience, Andy is a climate career veteran. He has witnessed the many iterations of cleantech over the years and is a fantastic guest. Andy explains what Hobbs & Towne Inc. does and how the recruiting firm has developed since its inception. He walks me through the similarities, differences, and evolution of the cleantech sector over his illustrious career. We also dive into advice Andy has for those looking to make a career transition. Whether you are a veteran reorienting your career towards climate or a newcomer finding your place in this massive industry, you won't want to miss this episode.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on Twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded March 16th, 2021.
Advice Andy has for those looking to make a career transition:
- Educate yourself on the topic you are interested in pursuing in climate
- Meet as many people as you can, go to conferences (virtual), and develop an opinion on a sector or subject
- Get on Twitter and follow climate leaders
Want to get in touch with Andy? Reach out to him on Twitter @HobbsTowne or via email atowne@hobbstowne.com
In Today's episode, we cover:
HTI's initial focus, how it has evolved over the past 20 years, and what the firm focuses on now
History of cleantech from a recruiter's perspective
Why the first round of cleantech failed and the errors made by early investors
How the 2008 financial crisis affected HTI and the cleantech industry as a whole
The sector and clients that HTI focused on pre-2008 and how their focus shifted after 2008
Who the major cleantech players are today
Who is marketable to climate tech companies and how those with tech CEO/Executive experience become appealing to these companies
The importance of transferable skills when embarking on a career transition
If the influx of cleantech is a bubble and how that affects the future of industry
HTI's methodology and how they evaluate prospective clients
-
Jason Jacobs: Hey everyone, Jason here. I am the My Climate Journey show host. Before we get going I wanted to take a minute and tell you about the My Climate Journey or MCJ as we call it membership option. Membership came to be because there are a bunch of people that were listen to the show that weren't just looking for education, but they were longing for a peer group as well. So we set up a Slack community for those people. That's now mushroomed into more than 13,000 members. There is an application to become a member. It's not an exclusive thing, there's four criteria we screen for. Determination to take the problem of climate change, ambition to work on the work impactful solution areas, optimism that we can make a dent and we're not wasting our time for trying and a collaborative spirit. Beyond that, the more diversity the better.
There's a bunch of great things that of come out of that community and a number of founding teams that have met in there, a number of non-profits that have been established. A bunch of hiring that's been done, a bunch of companies that have raised capital in there. A bunch of funds that have gotten limited partners or investors for their funds in there. As well as a bunch of events and programming by members and for members and some open source projects that are getting actively worked on that hatched in there as well. At any rate, if you wanna learn more, you can go to myclimatejourney.co, the website, and click the become a member tab at the top. Enjoy the show.
Hello everyone. This is Jason Jacobs and welcome to My Climate Journey. This show follows my journey to interview a wide range of guests to better understand and make of sense of the formidable problem of climate change and try to figure out how people like you and I can help. In today's Climate Careers episode, we welcome Andy Towne the co-founder and CEO of Hobbs & Towne. Hobbs & Towne pioneered ESG and sustainability focused executive search, building the top firm in the clean tech and climate tech category since 1997. I was excited for this one as Andy has been around through multiple clean tech and climate tech waves. And he is so people-centric that he can speak first-hand to what happened last time, what he's seen this time, similarities, differences, hopes and expectations for the future. And most importantly, advice for people that are either veterans looking to make their mark and have their day in the sun or newcomers that are looking to find their spot. Great discussion, I hope you enjoy it. Andy, welcome to the show.
Andy Towne: Thank you Jason. Great to be on.
Jason Jacobs: Well it's great to have you. And it's kind of weird too because most people don't know this about me but before I spent a decade building a running app company, I was a headhunter doing CEO searches for venture backed companies. So everything comes full circle here. I remember a little bit but obviously not nearly as steeped in it as you've been for decades now.
Andy Towne: I take you back to the glory years.
Jason Jacobs: Yeah, exactly. And- and not only that, but I was particularly excited because you've not just been a recruiter for a long time but also doing so specifically in- in climate tech or you probably didn't even call that when you first started doing this work.
Andy Towne: No, alternative energy. Back in the late 90s when we got involved it was just the emergence of distributed energy. We were doing things at the time in microturbines and fuel cells and back when we thought that was just gonna be right around the corner. And who knew it would take 20 years to get there. It was exciting times. It was the- the tail end of the bubble and it was really the first energy tech bubble as well, the late 90s.
Jason Jacobs: Well before we get to far down the path let's just take it from the top. What is Hobbs & Towne?
Andy Towne: So Hobbs & Towne was founded back in 1997. I'm one of the co-founders along with Bob Hobbs. It's an executive search firm., and advisory service practice. Our core work is executive search. And we work broadly across sustainability and climate technology in the categories of energy, mobility, food, agriculture and water primarily. We have 15 partners and a team of 40 spread across our North American offices. And we also have an- an office in London. And we work with investors all over the world which has changed dramatically over the last 20 plus years. It's the wealthiest individuals in the world. It's the major family offices today. And then also, you know, your more traditional private equity, venture capital and also the large strategics have an appetite for climate technology as well.
Jason Jacobs: And so did the company always have a sustainability focus or how and when did that come about?
Andy Towne: 1998, we were introduced to a company by the name of Capstone Microturbine. We did their work pre-IPO. At the time, we had worked primarily with industrial players and pharmaceutical companies, larger companies. And we just fell in love with it. We loved working with young companies were we could be a business partner. We actually co-invested in their last round of funding. So we invested in their Series G, as in girl, round of funding. And then took the company public in 2000 and caught the tail-end of the bubble.
So we started in energy tech and then it just evolved from there. We continue to work with many of the investors that were in that deal. And then in about, I'm gonna say about 2003, we were shifting to renewables, we were doing a lot of the early energy management work, what became demand response. Building out that category with companies like Converge and EnerNOC. And then Vinod Khosla and [John Doerr and Richard Branson started to invest in the category in biofuels. We started working heavily with them in the biofuels category and then migrated into agricultural biotechnology. And then into the food science area, the early plant based food work. And then, you know, migrated from there into mobility.
Jason Jacobs: And then is this strictly retain search and strictly executive level? Or what- what's the focus of your practice?
Andy Towne: I get asked that question all the time. So our focus is executive search and it's retained executive search. However, we've placed so many CEOs and other business leaders that have come back to us and they need help in really narrow scientific categories or they need help with individual contributor roles that are very challenging for them. And want to support. We're a business partner in those deals. We wanna make sure that the people that we place are successful. We do everything we can to help. So if we're needed on something that is not at the executive level, we will support when necessary.
Jason Jacobs: What'd it look like when you first started doing this work many years ago?
Andy Towne: It was energy tech, energy tech and then clean tech kit. And again I think, you know, right around '03, '04 and it was a lot different. It didn't have the feel that it has today which is more like we liken the climate tech crescendo to the .com bubble. There's a lot of similar feel today. Back in the early clean tech phase, it did feel like it was finally emerging as a necessary category. It was finally getting attention but it still wasn't getting the broad attention that it is today. So you had some champions like Vinod, like John Doerr, like Richard Branson that were out in front of it. But it was still very small when you look back at all of the tech investing that was happening at that time. It was still just a- a very small piece. So there weren't a lot of players in category. Everybody took a look and dipped their toe in but not like it is today.
Jason Jacobs: And when you were going through it at the time, did it feel rational, did it feel crazy? What were your impression working with these CEOs and boards of directors that were focused on the... in these different spots in the clean tech ecosystem?
Andy Towne: It was a little bit of the tech sector meets the energy sector. You had a what traditionally was a very slow moving industry that rejected changed. And then all of the sudden in comes Silicon Valley. So it was a little bit of oil and water in some cases. It was everything Silicon Valley tried to come in and move the energy industry fast. And there was a lot of crash and burn scenarios because of it. There were some strong that survived through that. If you look at a company like a Tesla, you look at some of the second gen biofuel companies like Amorous and Gevo that are now coming on strong today, companies like Bloom Energy. Those are the companies that came out of that era. So there were successful companies but there were a lot of crash and burns.
And then when we had the financial meltdown, people went running for the hills. All of our competitors in the market, they basically took down their clean tech flag and became tech recruiters again. And same thing with the investor groups. All of the investors that were clean tech focused were no longer clean tech focused. Nobody used clean tech anymore. They were still investing in similar types of things, they just didn't call it clean tech anymore. So about 2009, clean tech was dead.
Jason Jacobs: Given that you had a front row seat to a lot of these crash and burns that occurred, with the benefit of hindsight, was this just kind of inherent to the venture model that just like any other area venture where you swing for the fences and a lot of them fail and that's kind of part of the game? Or were there unforced errors? What's the post mortem on how that went down and any reflections looking back on it?
Andy Towne: Sure, unforced errors. When you're charting new waters, you're gonna have unforced errors. And in all of these categories, we've been fortunate to be at the front end at a lot of them where you actually had to go out and identify your talent and bring talent in from bigger companies. So you had a risk associated with that because companies or executives that for the first time in their lives they were going to be, you know, with a company that ran of money in 18 months. They just weren't used to be in a cash constrained environment. There was a lot of risk back in that era but there was a lot of education as well.
And many of those executives that went through that time period, and investors, are now having their second or third opportunity during this era. And now the capital is commiserate with the need. So back then, one of the biggest issues was there was this giant void between venture capital and then what needed to happen after the late-stage venture. Not ready for a growth equity buyout firm but there was this big gap, big capital necessary to really allow these companies to transform and it just wasn't there. And today there are different avenues that companies can take and we're seeing it right now. The phenomenon over the last year has been this SPAC market which has essentially filled that void where companies that are trying to transform old line industries that've been around for a long time require a tremendous amount of capital and they take time. There was never that match with capital to get them that time and now there is. So now we're seeing these companies truly get an opportunity to go out and change industries.
Jason Jacobs: In 2009 when as you said clean tech was dead, it- it sounds like you stuck around and- and powered through. Was that a difficult decision and how did you think about that at the time?
Andy Towne: How we thought about it was we were the only player in the category in 2002, 2003 during that clean tech transition. We were the only clean tech focused firm. It's what we knew and what we were passionate about. And we decided to double down. Where others ran for the hills, we saw opportunity to strengthen our partnerships, our commitment to investor groups and to continue to build. To be a recourse to the category. And we did just that and emerged through the downturn stronger and continued to build and be prepared for, you know, what we're seeing today.
Jason Jacobs: How dry was dry during that time?
Andy Towne: That's pretty interesting because a lot of professional services firms went out of business. The spigot was cut off. But if you think about it, the groups that we represent are private equity and venture capital. And those groups had raised funds. They still had to deploy capital. They had companies they needed to protect, companies they needed to in some cases turn around. And then they still had growth opportunities. And with downturn comes better valuations and buying opportunities. So it was interesting. When I look back at the numbers, we've only had three years where our revenue went backwards, '01 after 9/11 and it was about 21, 22%. '09, same thing, about 21, 22%. And then for us, not surprisingly, after the 2016 election.
The 2016 election killed a lot of the companies that were just hanging on and they needed EPA approval. They were just there at the cusp and then it was literally dead. There was about a six month period where the spigot were turned off. We've seen a resounding conviction of investors led by Bill Gates putting together breakthrough energy. You know, 27 of the wealthiest people in the world committing to climate technology, committing to climate change. And that has inspired the LP base, the private equity firms. The conviction to the category is like we've never seen it even leading into the election. And then since the election it's been a breakneck pace.
Jason Jacobs: As things have picked up again where's the overlap in terms of where the space used to play and then where are some of the new areas? And also, what's the ratio of stuff that had previously been familiar to you verus building new muscles?
Andy Towne: I would say it's just intensifying what's been there. I don't think that there's been anything new and transformational over the last 12 months. It's been the commitment to things that've been started years ago. You know, even going back, I think I may have told you this the first time we spoke, I knew the category was transforming last summer when my son who was 21 at the time, now 22, and he's just started investing. And he said, "Hey dad, you need to take a look at this company Plug Power." And I said to my son, "Yeah, I- I'm familiar with it. I invested in it in 1999." So it only took 20 plus years to become mainstream. But then to see Plug Power as one of the top five movers on the NASDAQ last year, these are things that've been building for a period of time. Transforming the energy industry and- and the food industry and the transportation industry, it doesn't happen overnight.
So what you're seeing is visionaries like Elon Musk didn't just make a great car company in Tesla, he's transforming the whole transportation industry. Everything we do now, you're looking at doing it with an electric option. When you talk about what's keeping us busy right now, it's companies like Proterra and XL Fleet, all of the companies that are benefactors from what Tesla started many years ago. It's the vehicle charging category, all of the infrastructure that needs to go into play. It's not just the vehicle itself, it's everything behind it. And those are the companies that we work with. And that's- that's really were the job creation is. I- I hate taking it into politics but if you look at where you want the jobs to be moving forward, do you want people going down in coal mines or do you want them being involved in transforming our industries to be more sustainable for our kids and our grandchildren? I mean that's what this industry is all about it. That's what makes it so stimulating for all of us that've been involved for so many years.
Jason Jacobs: And I wanna go back, so you talked about in the first wave how it was oil and water and how Silicon Valley, there were these strong personalities looking to move things faster but it was a pretty small ecosystem. So was it traditional energy and then the clean stuff was coming from the valley or how was that line of sand drawn in terms of who was working on what at that time? And then same question in terms of your client base, what percentage of your client base was those value people coming in verus the traditional entrenched players?
Andy Towne: I think what it was was so the- the companies are spawned all over and we'll just focus on domestic. But the companies were started up all over even though it was Silicon Valley investors, I think there was a belief that you can take people that have come out of Apple or run a software company and they made things go fast that you could plug them into an energy tech company, throw some money it, throw some people at it and just go faster. And it just doesn't work that way. It's a longer period of time, there's a longer qualification of technology that goes on. So I think that's where maybe things didn't mesh. And then based on the investors used to working at [inaudible 00:17:57] they- they setup expectation with their LPs that returns are gonna come at a faster pace. Things just weren't aligned. I think there's better alignment now. And when you have investors like a Breakthrough Energy, they're not setup for fast returns, they're setup more like a family office. It's more about the long term vision, it's more patient capital. Now that works better with this category.
Jason Jacobs: Are you seeing a similar mix as it related to... like is it also oil and water this time around in terms of the valley and the- the old timers?
Andy Towne: No, it's not necessarily old timers, it's, uh, it was more old thinkers. But- but now, no, I think there's a much better blend, absolutely. I think there's much better alignment between investors, expectations on returns and commitment of capital that's gonna be necessary to get to those returns. You know, you're talking about companies that are really over North America, all over the world that are doing these transformations. It's not just Silicon Valley centric. We're working with companies like Shoals Technologies which just went public. They raised a billion nine, they're at- in Portland, Tennessee just north of Nashville. You've got a big center now in the Phoenix and Scottsdale market. Companies like source global which will likely be a SPAC candidate, you know, within this year. Array technologies which went public in October, November timeframe. You've got companies like Usher that were down in the Raleigh, North Carolina ares. So, you- you know, there- it's really the companies are all over, not just valley centric. And now the- the investor base is broader than just the valley as well.
Jason Jacobs: I know that there's some firms that are investing in these areas and some companies that are working in these areas that have been as you said established and working over many years that are now starting to have their heyday if you will. And then there's a number of new companies that are starting up. And I'm certainly seeing in my little corner of the world a lot of talent from the valley that's both interested, you know, operating executives interested in being employed by, uh, high growth climate tech companies. But also founders wanting to found companies in this area and help with this problem. Are they two different sports, the new blood coming in and the entrenched companies or is everybody playing the same sport, everyone going in the same direction and, you know, kind of blended together in a way that is becoming more indistinguishable?
Andy Towne: Yeah, I- I think it's much more of a blend. Now you look, even at the utilities, National Grid has their own venture arm, they're investing in sustainability. They've invested in their LPs and venture funds in the category. John Pettigrew has made a commitment to a shift in the way National Grid does energy and they've invested, directed things like companies like Smart Wires where we just placed the- the CEO to transform the grid to be able to allow more renewable power. We've seen that from other utilities as well. NextEra, NG as well has made a big commitment. So now we're seeing the bigger players getting aligned with the venture investment. And again it's now in the private equity world as well. Black Rock has made a big commitment to ESG and sustainability. And then again, it's the uber high net worth's.
Jason Jacobs: If you look at the people that are in the trenches doing this work, I mean I know the first time around you talked about experience building big and that'll translate and finding that it won't. So if you look at the people that may be have come out of an Uber or a Stripe or a Facebook or a Plaid or- or one of these high growth Silicon Valley companies that has very little to do with climate tech or at least mini sectors of climate tech but founders and executives who are motivated to tackle this problem. I know, because you retain search, you don't help the candidates find job, you- you- you help the companies find very specific talent. When you see those kinds of people that are impressive operating execs in domains that have very little to do with climate tech but that are climate motivated but are impressive executives, what do you make of that? Are those people that are marketable as it relates to these climate tech companies or should they maybe stick to their knitting?
Andy Towne: No, I- you look at some of the people that have made that transition, like a Chris Sacca from an investment standpoint, he seed funded with George Soros, the company by the name of Servest out of London and we just did the chair search there. As a matter of fact, they'll be some big announcements coming out of Servest very soon. This is a- an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur, very successful who now has filled a platform to address global climate change in the infrastructure environment. No, I think when you've got somebody that knows how to build companies and they've got a passion for something, I believe what's happening now is we're attracting the best and the brightest and people are recognizing that there are more important things, more important technologies to address than true tech. We're talking about there's no time left, we have to transform or it's gonna be very difficult to combat climate change. So these things need to happen now and they need to happen fast. And I think people are recognizing that and it's the more the merrier.
Jason Jacobs: I come across these people quite often and with increasing frequency as more of the pick their head up. And what I found and I mean even from my personal experience is that it's a difficult transition. A lot of these domains aren't necessarily intuitive. There's some skills like hiring and storytelling and capital raising that are quite transferrable. But in terms of the actual expertise, something like the grid for example, is a- it's an acquired taste and- and there's a lot to learn. But because these domains are so broad, it's very hard to think of what like an into course would be that would transfer across the grid and synthetic meat and micro mobility and nuclear and fusion and AI machine learning and forward looking modeling for resilience planning and- and insurance products and et cetera. So is there like a starter curriculum that you think could be helpful to people coming into climate tech generally or- or is it much more kind of not a climate demarkation but more of a sector demarkation?
Andy Towne: There's gonna be transferable skills in anything. And what we look for in executive is there's gotta be relevance to their experience. Similar types of technology, similar types of customer base. You know, if you're gonna be bringing in a executive, just because they've been successful in another category doesn't mean that will be transferrable. We're looking for those transferable skills that are relevant. So that is part of what we're evaluating when we're evaluating talent. But passion is a part of that as well. And in terms of founding companies, I've met a lot of founders that came from a different category but they were passionate about something else. They know how to build companies and they're inspiring, they have the potential to be very, very strong founder CEOs.
Jason Jacobs: So if an executive is let's say working in ad tech and they just can't do it anymore and they wanna work on something more purposeful and they- and they can't stop worrying about and feeling anxiety about the state of where we are with climate change and the stakes. I know your business is like don't call me we'll call you. So for that person whose sitting there feeling that way, what advice do you have for them in terms of how they should go about that transition with the caveat that I know you're not in that business.
Andy Towne: I get asked that question all the time, friends, business acquaintances. Every aspect of climate technology is not gonna be of interest to you. So the first thing you need to do is you need to educate yourself. And you need to find something that is of interest and you could be passionate about. And then start to educate. I remember going back, this was probably 20 years, and it was a utility executive. He wanted to leave the utility. He wanted to get into a startup. He studied hydrogen. He became so knowledgeable that he became a very credible canidae. We ultimately placed him in a CEO role because he was just so well educated on the category. He had good business leadership experience, natural leadership and we were able to place him in a startup that he was able to scale. But he went through an education process. He went out to, of course we can't do this right now, but he- he went out to the conferences, he met people, he shook hands, he educated himself. He sat in various sessions and he learned about the category and he developed an opinion.
For somebody that- that wants to make that transfer, I think you need to think about what skills you believe you have that are applicable. But then also determine what your most passionate about. There's gotta be different aspects. Now for Pat Brown who as a tenured professor at Impossible Foods, he could've stayed doing what he was doing forever and he was doing interesting work. And he could've worked in therapeutics, he could've gone many different directions. But he became so passionate about the meat industry and the carbon footprint that he sat out to transform that. He didn't set out to make a vegan burger. That's not what- what Pat's passion is. His passion was to combat climate change through transforming the meat industry and then- and then he applied his science to that passion.
Jason Jacobs: And given that you said that in the first wave it was pretty small and that it feels more like the .com boom in terms of the, you know, the scale and just kind of the robustness of where the capitals coming from and companies getting started and hiring that's getting done, et cetera. Do- do you think that's a healthy thing or- or do you worry that there's gonna be a shakeout and that maybe we're into an unhealthy territory in the hype cycle?
Andy Towne: I've talked to a lot of people about this and I have my own opinions. But, you know, if you look back to the .com bubble, some of the biggest and best companies were spawned out of that- that era. You look at Amazon, Google. I firmly believe that this bubble is necessary and meaningful. And I think that this is where the most transformative climate technology companies will be built now.
Jason Jacobs: But a lot of shakeout? So it's like some big companies and then a lot of companies that are toast as well and that's just kind of what progress looks like, is- is that what I'm hearing?
Andy Towne: Sure, possibly. If you're gonna go overboard, if you're gonna overdo it, this is the category to do it in. This is one where we can't afford to miss at this stage.
Jason Jacobs: I think I heard from you, correct me if I'm wrong, but that about your model is that in certain cases you might maybe forgo a portion of cash fee and- and actually tech equity or maybe even in some cases invest in these companies beyond the fee, is- is that correct?
Andy Towne: Sure. Going back to the- our original deal with Capstone Turbine, we co-invested in the, uh, in the series G round and also we took a portion of our fees in equity. We've continued that model today. We also, we don't do as much direct investing today. We have, you know, several direct investments. We've got a number of fund investments where we're LPs as well and we still do trade for equity. We're invested in this category. We wanna help with the success of all of the businesses in this category. So, uh, yeah, we wanna be a business partner and part of the solution.
Jason Jacobs: When you're evaluating these companies, since any dollar that you're forgoing in fees essentially the same as be a direct investment, what criteria do you use to evaluate and what bar do these companies need to clear?
Andy Towne: It's case by case. We don't have a specific methodology. We- we are looking at the investor backing. We're looking at the impact that we can have. We hear a lot of great stories. I fall in love with founders. I love meeting people. They look at the way things are done and think there's a better way and they go set out to do it. So I can definitely buy into the story. There's several different things that we're looking at when we're thinking about how much equity were willing to take on in a deal.
Jason Jacobs: Ah, speaking to the people that are listening to the show who are super motivated about climate but haven't yet found their spot in this landscape where they're putting it front and center in their thing they wake up to do and put food on the table every day. What advice do you have for them or what message do you want them to hear?
Andy Towne: Be aware. Traditional career path is not what it once was. Traditional career path can be a little bit empty. And I am biased but if you wanna be inspired every day this is a category that you want to look at. And get on Twitter, follow some of the climate leaders out there. Pay attention to the different categories and- and develop and understanding for what the significance behind these companies is. Elon Musk has become a rock star but understand what the- what the origin of the company was and what they were setting out to transform.
Likewise with, you know, with a Pat Brown at Impossible Foods. Understand what impossible, what the- the real mission impossible is. And once you understand that, you know, we all gotta wake up call, you know, whether you believe in climate change or not. If you didn't think it was man made, last March when there were no planes flying and no cars out on the road and- and we were all locked down and we all got a chance to see all of the pictures of the skies above Beijing and LA and water in Venice. For anybody that didn't think that that was manmade, that was a wake up call.
Imagine what it would be like going to work every day and to be setting out to transform industries so that we could look at water like that all the time and the skies could be like that all the time. It's inspirational work. You know, obviously I'm biased. We've been in the category for a long time. We've got deep passion for it but I think it's the future. For- for job creation, this is the category where you wanna be.
Jason Jacobs: And, uh, who do you wanna hear from, Andy? And- and how should those people get in touch with you?
Andy Towne: Well I'm open to speak with anybody. I'm accessible via Twitter @HobbsTowne and then also, you know, certainly you can email me at atowne@hobbstowne.com to schedule a- a conversation. I'm open to talking about anybody whose interested in just career discussion in the category. Certainty we'd love to talk to founders who are doing interesting things. Love to talk to investors who are interested in identifying deal opportunities in the category. Yeah, we're- we're always, uh, available and accessible.
Jason Jacobs: Great, anything I didn't ask that I should have or any parting words?
Andy Towne: I appreciate you having me on Jason. This was great. Now we're- we're really excited about everything that's going on in the space. We're big supporters of the transformation that we're seeing here in the country right now. And hey, let's keep the faith.
Jason Jacobs: Sounds great. Well thanks so much Andy for coming on the show and thanks for the important work that you do to help the cause.
Andy Towne: Not at all. Thanks Jason.
Jason Jacobs: Hey everyone, Jason here. Thanks again for joining me on My Climate Journey. If you'd like to learn more about the journey, you can visit us at myclimatejourney.co. Note, that is .co, not .com. Someday we'll get the .com but right now, .co. You can also find me on Twitter at jjacobs22 where I would encourage you to share your feedback on the episode or suggestions for future guests you'd like to hear. And before I let you go, if you enjoyed the show, please share an episode with a friend or consider leaving a review on iTunes. The lawyers made me say that. Thank you.
