Startup Series: Pique Action
Today's guest is Kip Pastor, Founder and CEO of Pique Action.
When most people think of climate change, they picture stories about wildfires, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and a myriad of other ways we’re all just generally screwed. It can feel pretty hopeless, but those of us who have been leaning into solutions know that not all is lost. There are incredible innovations that have the potential to change so much of what we take for granted today, and it's not far-fetched to believe that these innovations can scale to unlock improvements for our future.
Pique Action is a new media company on a mission to fight climate change with viral storytelling. It's the opposite of doomscrolling. Since their launch in Fall of 2021, Pique has produced 32 micro-documentaries on big climate solutions, amassed more than 7 million views across platforms and gained over 100,000 TikTok followers.
In this conversation, we talk to Kip about the type of climate storytelling that resonates with audiences today and how Pique plans to scale its impact as it grows. We all have a role to play as climate communicators, even in one-on-one conversations, and hearing what's working for Pique Action can also inspire us to think about our own climate voices.
Enjoy the show!
You can find me on Twitter @codysimms (me), @mcjpod (podcast) or @mcjcollective (company). You can reach us via email at info@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.
Episode recorded July 25, 2022.
In today's episode, we cover:
An overview of Pique Action
How Pique intends to change the conversation around climate and drive action
Balancing realism and optimism in climate storytelling
Different audiences and levels of engagement across platforms
Nature Based Solutions with Alaina Wood
How the company finds content creators
Climate TikTok
Kip's background in film/video production and his movement into climate
Differences between climate communication and other forms of storytelling
Gaps in climate communication in various forms of media today
Lack of representation of climate solutions in major movies and television
Pique's partnerships and business model
Kip's learnings from watching next-gen media companies
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Jason Jacobs (00:00):
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 were a bunch of people that were listening 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 1300 members. There is an application to become a member. It's not an exclusive thing, there's four criteria we screen for, determination to tackle the problem of climate change, ambition to work on the most 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 have come out of that community, 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 want to 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 sense of the formidable problem of climate change and try to figure out how people like you and I can help.
Cody Simms (01:56):
Today's guest is Kip Pastor, Founder and CEO at Pique Action. That's P-I-Q-U-E Action, a next-gen media company that tells stories on climate solutions. Pique Action's micro-documentary, NextNow videos on climate tech companies are regularly featured in our MCJ weekly newsletter and their TikTok channel is grown from zero to 100,000 users in just a matter of months. They're seeking to end the cycle of doom-scrolling by showcasing solutions to climate problems and by helping viewers understand things that they can do to take climate action. Also, you might notice that I'm not Jason, this is Cody Simms, Jason's partner at MCJ. I did today's interview with Kip at Pique, and you'll hear me take on episodes here and there going forward. I was looking forward to this conversation with Kip because I personally believe that storytelling is the least invested in category of climate action relative to potential impact.
Cody Simms (02:50):
When most people think of climate change, they think of stories about wildfires, sea level rise, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and basically about how we're all just generally screwed. It all feels pretty hopeless, but those of us who have been leaning into solutions know that not all is lost. There are incredible innovations being built that have the potential to change so much of what we take for granted today and it's not far fetched to believe that these innovations can scale to unlock incredible improvements to our future. After all the fossil fuel-powered and emissions-filled world that we know today is only about 100 years in the making, so why can't we build a new and better way of doing things even faster than that leveraging today's technologies? But most people don't hear about this stuff. They aren't being given reasons to hope and without reasons to hope, they aren't likely to act. So again, storytelling is so important. Kip and I have a great discussion about the type of climate storytelling that resonates with audiences today and about how Pique plans to scale its impact as it grows. We all have a role to play as climate communicators, even in one-on-one conversations. So hopefully hearing what's working for Pique Action can also inspire each of us to think about our own climate voices. Kip, welcome to the show.
Kip Pastor (04:10):
Cody, so good to be here, huge fan of the show and everything you guys do at MCJ.
Cody Simms (04:15):
Well, listen, I am of the mind that there's a ton we can do in technology. There's a ton we can do in climate finance and moving money around. There's obviously a ton that needs to happen in terms of getting the right people in power that can make big change, but I think one of the equally important levers to pull is that of climate communication and how do we help tell the right stories and change hearts and minds? And so I'm so excited for this conversation because my understanding is that is exactly what you are trying to do at Pique Action. So maybe just give our listeners... This is a different interview than we normally do, we normally talk about tech companies. And so you're coming at this from a different perspective as a startup on things that you believe you can do to help solve the climate crisis and would love to hear from you how you describe Pique Action and what you're trying to do.
Kip Pastor (05:09):
Thanks Cody. And for that reason, I think I would encourage all of the audience to keep listening because storytelling is fundamental to everything that everyone is doing and incredibly complimentary and also enables folks to reach different audiences. And that's ultimately what we want to do at Pique. It goes without saying, but climate change is not just the most profound issue facing our time, but that it touches every single one of us and it already is. And at Pique, we really believe that this is not going to be humanity's downfall and that it can be our greatest moment. And so for the listeners, there's a lot of really smart people working on climate, but a lot of those solutions are not being deployed fast enough. And there's also this culture of doom and everybody has climate anxiety and it's crippling. And some of us try to do our part, it might be recycling or a beach cleanup, but we also recognize that that's not really moving the needle. And then there's a lot of us that also feel very nihilistic, this is too big of a problem for them to make a difference and nobody can really shake this reality. And so as a result, from a communication standpoint, it's hard because the audiences are desensitized, people don't know what to do and often the messaging communication has failed. But we also know that there's this deluge that's coming, right? How do we mitigate climate in our own lives, as well as other peoples? How can we transition skills? How do we invest? How can we help the people that are actually doing it get involved? And for us, it's changing the conversation around climate.
Kip Pastor (06:40):
We're all so used to polar bears floating out to sea and hurricanes and fire season and drought, and that's not moving the needle, that's not actually getting people engaged. So we want to stimulate curiosity with content and drive action as well. So it can't just be telling stories, it has to be being a conduit for people to actually get involved and ultimately to drive systemic change, because that's really what we're talking about. So this is a long introduction, but Pique Action is, at our core, a new media company. And we're starting with short form content that can be ubiquitously found online with the idea of having positive messaging and becoming trusted guidance and helping envision a different world and helping the people that are in the fight get what they need, whether it be customers or investment or employees and bringing a whole new audience climate curious and inclusive of everybody and ultimately to be involved.
Cody Simms (07:37):
And there are two things we can hit on separately that I think is really interesting about the content you create, one is it absolutely shines a light on optimism and how innovation can help with outcomes. But it also still, it doesn't hold back from highlighting problems, right? It's not all Pollyanna syndrome here, you are actually saying, "Hey, here is a problem, but did you know there are these solutions?" And then I think two is you also, in a lot of the content that I've watched, you push your listeners or your viewers to take action of some sort, right? So you help them become aware of solutions, but especially, I think on the really short form content on TikTok and Instagram, you give them things that they can do. So maybe hit on each of those, how have you balanced optimism versus realism? And how have you balanced lean back consumption versus call-to-action?
Kip Pastor (08:34):
I can't say we have the perfect alchemy yet, I think part of what we're doing is learning from the audience all the time and learning what people do want to engage with. And so there's this feedback loop that's fundamental, but as far as balancing realism and optimism, I think there are no rose-colored glasses here, I think we at Pique are very aware that there is a challenge that we have and there's going to be untold human suffering, but we want to mitigate that as much as possible. And by doing that, it's not ignoring the problem, it's rather focusing on problems that we can solve and focusing on problems that are being addressed and the ways that they're being addressed. So that balance there is not ignoring the truth, but it's focusing on actionable and, top-of-funnel, that's just creating new awareness, that's creating a conversation for somebody to have in a barbecue in the backyard, "Hey, did you know that this company takes sequestered CO2 and makes diamonds. Wow, that's wild." But to that end, when you're thinking about the balance of this lean back versus a call-to-action, it's a little bit of an experiment, we're learning, can you port people from A to B and then from B to C? How much do people want to know and how can we engage with them? And so that's something that they were working on our website as well, to give people opportunities to think, "I'm not going to leave my job," right? If somebody isn't going to leave their job, how else can they be involved? And again, there are individual actions, but there's also systemic change that needs to happen. And for systemic change to happen, it takes a lot of individuals. And so I think the idea is ultimately to be a conduit for all of these things, for folks to get involved in different ways that resonate with their skills and resonate with what brings them hope and passion and joy. Because if it's not that, it's not going to motivate people to actually follow through.
Cody Simms (10:26):
And have you seen any early data on what kind of content tends to resonate the most? Is it what I would call more FYI content about, "Hey, this really cool startup, this really cool tech company that has a solution to this thing you might be worried about. Nothing for you to do here, but just be aware that this exists and hopefully it gives you some peace of mind and something to root for." Versus content that is more directly call-to-action, such as, "Hey, when you go grocery shopping, did you know that you can use a reusable produce bag for picking your produce?" Which is one of the videos I saw recently on your TikTok channel. Curious if you have data so far and maybe it depends by channel on what tends to be most popular.
Kip Pastor (11:11):
It's a great question, it's a big question. So there isn't a one-size-fits-all. We've already found that, is it a B-to-C product that people respond to? Sometimes, absolutely, sometimes people really just want to know what the heck do I buy to build resiliency in my life? So right now we're working hard to meet the audience where they are. And so each platform connects with a different audience and we want to connect with them in a way that is organic to that platform. But we're also just starting with short form, ultimately longer-form content reaches a different audience, and it reaches that audience in a different way. So if you watch a 30-second TikTok, is that going to change your life? No, but if you watch a couple hundred of them over a couple of months that can help lead you there. And if you watch a whole docu-series on it, are you more likely to be involved and having produced longer-form content and feature docs and feature films and television, there is different levels of engagement with each kind of content. And it really depends who the audience is and what you want them to do. So that's not a non-answer, it's more to say that I think it's complicated. We have found that there is definite interest in jobs, right? So that doesn't necessarily mean people are looking to change their jobs, but it is a curiosity about what these opportunities might be. We've also seen that folks are interested in things that they can do in their daily life in that moment. And so we think about that, but we're not going to strictly cater to what those needs are because we want to continue to learn and grow with that audience as well.
Cody Simms (12:43):
And maybe just for everyone's benefit, it might be helpful for you to break down the different products and channels that Pique has today. MCJ listeners may be most familiar with your YouTube-based docu-series because we've been embedding them in our MCJ newsletters for the last few months, just as a way to help our readers, who subscribe to the weekly MCJ newsletter, just to see different types of content that's out there. And we've been big fans of the work you've been doing and so we've been wanting to help share and raise awareness of that, those are obviously very focused on climate tech solutions and truly are many documentaries, which is quite different than what you have on TikTok and Instagram that are host-driven commentary pieces almost. So maybe talk through each of those different platforms that you have and the different products that you have.
Kip Pastor (13:36):
Yeah, thanks for taking a step back. So right now we're across social media. So we have over 100,000 followers on TikTok, we're on LinkedIn, we just launched a new Snapchat show and on YouTube and Twitter. And so the series you were talking about that you guys also help to disseminate is our startup series, we call it NextNow. So that's one of our products. And to date, we've launched 34 company founder profiles across platforms, and we've done, I believe at least four of MCJs, probably more. And then I think we have another 10 in pre-production, we obviously love the companies you guys support too. And with that, we also have a nature-based distinct show that's on Instagram and on TikTok. And we also have one that's a little bit more policy, sort of following the solutions in history from other times. And we're launching a bunch of different new series as well, some that deal with looking at policy issues, looking a little bit more closely at jobs. We have a renovation show that we're working on with a partner as well. And some of the content is intended to be educational, some of the content is intended to be inspirational and they're not mutually exclusive either.
Cody Simms (14:54):
And maybe let's talk about some of the personalities involved. So you have Alaina Wood who is your host and I think Chief Climate Communicator, I think is the role maybe she has or something like that. And she, I think, I mean, if you Google climate anxiety TikTok, every article on the front page of Google is about her. So she has built a following as being someone who helps people deal with eco-anxiety and climate anxiety in social media. I wonder if you could share a little bit about Alaina, about how she and Pique Action came together and sort of what that backstory is.
Kip Pastor (15:28):
Yeah, thank you. And Alaina is incredible and she's an incredible communicator. Actually, it's a great opportunity to talk about our team, like any startup, the team is absolutely critical and everybody wears a lot of hats and actually our business development and partnerships team member, Tyler Steinhardt brought Alaina to my attention a long time ago and was like, "You should check out her content," and it was exactly what we were talking about and exactly what we're doing. And so we have been working with Alaina since the fall, and she's a perfect example of how we see this storytelling community and ecosystem is that of a community and it is complementary not competitive and it's ultimately all existential and geared towards the same kind of thing. And so we saw an opportunity to work with her and have her support Pique and support exactly what she's up to and doing. And she's been an incredible partner and we hope to be able to find new ways to work with her in the future. We collaborated with the Harvard Sea Change School on a climate creator list for 2022 and she's one of the 16 creators that we profiled. And I think she's just one of many folks that we are working with and hope to work with. And if there's an opportunity for voices to be amplified both directions, we are very much in favor. And that is certainly part of our strategy.
Cody Simms (16:50):
And you have other hosts on some of your shows as well, folks like Hazel and Dez, how do you find these amazing creators and sort of, what's the process of saying, "Hey, you're already creating interesting content on your own, do you want to come create it with Pique?" What does that look like?
Kip Pastor (17:06):
So two questions there, how do we find them? I don't know if you go down the deep worm hole of climate TikTok very often, but a lot of our folks do. And as a result, it is big, but it's not as big as you would think. And so we try to connect with and have a relationship with just about anybody and if we haven't met them yet, we're interested in doing so. I think it's probably a lot like what you do with MCJ, which is sort of keeping your finger on the pulse of what's going on and seeing if there are ways that we can collaborate. And those collaborations right now have mostly been creating content for our channels or potentially on their channels, but there's a lot of different ways that we're working with them to find opportunities for them as well as create the much larger voice. So from our strategy and our slate perspective, there's a ton of new things that are coming out in Q3 and Q4 and next year in regards to a lot of these different creators, but it definitely breeds a whole new perspective, a lot of engagement and excellent content into the pipeline.
Cody Simms (18:06):
Let's talk about climate TikTok for a minute almost independently of Pique, is the majority of climate content on TikTok sort of this doom-scrolling doomerism content and Pique is trying to shine a light on, "Hey, there's stuff you can be somewhat hopeful about," or, "Hey, there are things you can do." Or are you seeing that in general, TikTok is emerging as more of a younger, more hopeful channel around climate than you're going to get from mainstream news outlets?
Kip Pastor (18:34):
That's a great question, Cody. It is a very hard one to answer for a couple of reasons. One, I would say there's both. So just to start, I think that there is a lot of anxiety that's being expressed on TikTok that is genuine, authentic, and upsetting. I will also say that there's a lot of positivity and solutions that are being shared on TikTok as well. TikTok is the most interesting and perhaps the most unique platform, just because of the way their algorithm works. And for those of you who aren't on TikTok, you should go on TikTok and experiment, but basically the algorithm defaults to giving you what it knows you like, not necessarily who you follow. So it's kind of funny, it might expose you might realize I follow the New York Times and The Economist and The Washington Post, but really you just like dance videos, and so it's just going to keep serving up dance videos because it knows that's what keeps you engaged. So to answer the question of is there more climate doom or is there more climate optimism on TikTok is hard to say because the algorithm's going to dish it to you. And so if you're going on a doom-scrolling expedition, you're going to find a lot of that, but there's new features being released all the time that allow you to search the same way that you can search on YouTube and find the content that you really want to find.
Cody Simms (19:52):
And Kip, let's talk about how you got into all of this, you've been working in production and film and video for a while, a long time. What was your foray into moving into the climate world? And how did you also get into building a company that is really specializing in activating people with short-form climate content at least to date?
Kip Pastor (20:13):
Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Georgia, I grew up in a family of folks who really wanted to make a difference in the world. So it was a really great place to get that is the baseline. Democracy, voting, literacy, conservation, these are things that were really important to the family and travel and education were the manifestations of those values. And so I also spent a lot of time in wilderness from a very early age, so hiking and climbing and mountaineering. And what's surprising about growing up in Georgia in the '80s was that in public school, I learned early on about global warming. And so this was something that I could immediately understand as it related to time and wilderness. And so I went off to college and I studied diplomatic history with the idea that I was going to get involved in politics from a policy perspective. And I worked internationally and I moved to D.C. and quickly realized that politics was about winning and not about ideas and perhaps that's intuitive, but I really felt it. And so I started taking some night classes in film and it clicked immediately that visual storytelling is going to be the most effective way to disseminate important social ideas to affect change. So I moved to Los Angeles to get my graduate degree at the American Film Institute. And when I got out, I started a commercial production company right away. And if you told me I was going to move to LA and make commercials, I never would've done it, but it was an incredible way to build out my toolkit. So on somebody else's dime, I learned how to tell high production value stories and quality stories. And at the same time I was doing exactly what I wanted to do.
Kip Pastor (21:48):
I was making my first feature length documentary, it was called In Organic We Trust. It was about food and agriculture and sustainability and inherently, it was a solution-based film. The second half of the film is all looking at rooftop gardens and school lunch programs and farmers market programs and EBT. And so it has been woven into everything that I've done. And I did a short documentary with Protect Our Winners on the Enbridge tar sands Pipeline that was affecting huge swaths of land belonging to the First Nations communities there as well. And so part of my career has been working for other people and part of my career has been creating the content that I wanted to create. And most recently I ran production for a few prolific Hollywood Producer Directors, John Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia, and their third partner was Jake Avnet and he is just a real big innovator in the digital space. And so we made traditional movies and traditional television, but we experimented a lot in digital content. And there I produced the first Snapchat feature film. We shot it vertically on an iPhone, it was not on film itself. It was called Sickhouse and it connected with 110 million views. And so we knew this opportunity for a different kind of storytelling was massive. And then I also helped oversee and build the 60 second docs team. And I did 150 or 200 of those before I left. And that's really when I understood the power of short-form content. And it's not an either or, again, it's an and. So you need short-form content, but you need longer-form content. You need events, you need to bring people together. And at each one of those phases, those things became clear to me. And so Pique really was born out of that. And the idea was how can we tell high quality stories that have solutions that have a call-to-action that can connect? And so we started with climate tech, it's where solutions are, it's where innovation is, it's where the mind blowing ingenuity of humanity is really being showcased.
Cody Simms (23:49):
And I'm curious how doing climate communication is different than other forms of storytelling. I guess maybe what's similar and what's different about talking about climate change?
Kip Pastor (24:01):
It's a really good question. I think what we are finding with the different platforms that we're working with, it's not all cinematic storytelling. Some of it is direct communication. Alaina Wood is a great example, Hazel is a great example, Dez is a great example of people who are telling stories and information and knowledge that they have and communicating directly with an audience. So I look at them all as sort of shades of gray of what is ultimately part of changing the conversation. So, we can use storytelling or climate communication and they can look and feel like different things, but ultimately the goal is still the same. And this is where Pique is not just focused on the communication, Pique is really focused on the communication, the curiosity as driving then action, because you have to put those pieces together, you can't just tell a story and walk away. I learned that with In Organic We Trust that the work was not done when the film was delivered. And I didn't realize that at the time, but I went on tour, Chipotle did a nationwide screening series. The environmental working group is really supportive. And I went around the country and what I discovered was that the film was not the reason people were there. It was the excuse to bring people together, everybody was there for the panel of local experts talking about local issues at the end of the film. It was how was my community handling these challenges and what solutions does my community have? And so oftentimes content can be that excuse, it can be that rallying cry, but there has to be that follow through.
Cody Simms (25:37):
And in a world without Pique, what are the gaps that exist in climate communication? I look at various forms of media and I see huge gaps, right? You look at Netflix and there's not a lot. I mean, there are very deep documentaries on certain topics for people who want to go deep on something. You look at something like the Discovery channel or Nat Geo, and you would expect that there's incredible content that helping people understand solutions, but instead you get shows about how wonderful the coral reefs are and how beautiful the forest biodiversity is when all this stuff is at huge risk. And most of the mainstream nature channels, to me at least, don't even address the problem much less potential solutions. And then you look at traditional news outlets, and I think we all know that it's mostly focused on tragedies. And so that's my sort of perspective looking at it, obviously at MCJ, we have to think a bit about the media landscape, but nowhere near as much as you do. So I'm really curious how you view the climate media landscape and in particular, what things were missing that encouraged you to start Pique in the first place.
Kip Pastor (26:56):
You're so thoughtful about this stuff, Cody, I mean, you hit the nail on the head, which is to say there is a massive white space in the climate content world. And people don't look up as the most recent climatesque feature film, as we all know, there's a lot of reasons why, it's a much more acute story than what's happening with climate. So in many ways it's sort of missing and forgiving, but I think it's a great awareness, it's a great rallying cry to have this conversations. But yes, television docu-series, all of these things are missing. So climate fiction, I think, is a critical component of this whole thing and having made feature films, I know that those are marathons. And so our plan is to do all of that, we've been developing a content slate for feature length docs for docu-series for reality TV, unscripted television, and for climate fiction films. And we're not the only ones just to be clear, there are a lot of folks that in Hollywood and outside that are desperate to tell these stories. And I think that there is appetite now, and I think more importantly, people are starting to crack the code on how to tell those stories with the balance of optimism and realism. And also as a compelling standalone, is this film going to be exciting and fun? One of the things we've been working with, there's a technology company that has developed this absolutely incredible choose-your-own-adventure software for feature films. So just to wet your appetite, imagine a movie that doesn't stop, the direction that it moves is democratically chosen by the audience. And it's not just about the storytelling, you actually get the data, you get to find what people are choosing, why they're choosing it and debrief with the audience.
Kip Pastor (28:36):
But I think there's a lot of opportunity there and it can be a thriller, but it could also be a romcom. Why do you have to be end-of-world all the time? What if we imagine what the world can be like? What if you take that futurist perspective? And so I think we encourage anybody and everybody wanting to tell those stories and there are a lot of groups here that are working on those things. But I also want to point out not a lot of gen Z is watching television, they're engaging on TikTok, right? They're search engine is YouTube. And so you really do need to hit different audiences and hit them where they are.
Cody Simms (29:09):
I love the notion of aspirational, fictional storytelling. It feels like we've had Don't Look Up, which is one film out of hundreds that come out every year and obviously it was satirical. If it were Shakespearean, it would probably be a tragedy, not a comedy, or maybe it's one of his works that would straddle both. But it leaves me to wonder if part of what needs to happen is simply baking a climate change narrative into honestly any film that is set in a future date, right? And so that would leave it up to the director or the screenwriters, then film could be an online series, whatever, any fictional work would leave it up to the showrunner or the screenwriter, whomever to decide if we're talking about an optimistic future or a pessimistic future, or a bit of both, which is probably the reality of what we're going to have. And what does the future look like when we're living off of fusion-based utility power? Or what does the world look like when we have 100% EV adoption? Or what does the world look like when our forests failed to recover? I mean, these are all fodder for stories that it feels like, to date, have mostly been ignored by the entertainment industry, which is just so surprising to me. So I'm venturing into a question more on the fictional side, but I assume you or people on your team attended, for example, the Hollywood Climate Summit, which happened last month in Los Angeles. I'm just curious more about how do you view the sort of storytelling world, much less the documentary world, but the true sort of fictional hearts and mind storytelling world trying to grapple with these things.
Kip Pastor (30:49):
Yeah, I mean, so a lot of us did attend the Hollywood Climate Summit and the Norman Lear Center at USC does a lot of research in television and movies to talk about whatever issues. So they've been doing a lot of healthcare for a number of years and thinking about ways... I'll give you an example, they found out that when you write in a table into a set, that people talk about food, right? So if whoever, the art director was decided, "I'm going to put a table in the middle of the set." Then the writers in those episodes are going to write in food. Similarly, they did a massive study on climate, in feature length, these are fiction films, right? And they did analyze roughly 40,000 scripts from the last four years and they discovered that less than 3% have any mention of any climate change keyword that they created. So that's just even mentioning a solar panel in a script. And the first thing you have to do is you have to identify that this is the problem. And then you have to talk about the solution. And so there's a bunch of teams. Obviously the Norman Lear Center helped with this study. Anna Jane Joyner has a nonprofit called and she's created this Good Energy playbook. That's the same idea, right? It's trying to take, here are some storylines, here are some ways that you can start building this in an organic, authentic way that doesn't have to be on the nose climate change-related content. And I think you're going to start seeing it in television, you're going to start seeing it in movies, but it has been way behind and slow. So whatever we can do to speed that up, the better and part of it is acknowledging, yeah.
Cody Simms (32:30):
I mean, it seems like a big part of what you're doing is helping people be... And what we're doing at MCJ as well is helping people be aware of here are some of the solutions that are starting to happen. So, take a company like Living Carbon that is bioengineering trees to make them more carbon absorptive. Now let's imagine a future 40 years from now where that is a big part of how landscaping and reforestation is done. What does that world look like? Or take a company like Solugen that instead of using petrochemicals, instead of using fossil fuels to generate chemicals is building them in bioreactors through fermentation, what does that world look like in the future? And if storytellers know more about these potential solutions, hopefully it triggers their imagination. So hopefully that's tying the thread back to the work you're doing today.
Kip Pastor (33:19):
Brilliantly executed. Absolutely, I mean, we look at this idea. You can't tell... Well, you can, but you shouldn't because you're not going to be effective. You can't tell people what not to do anymore. You can't say, "You can't travel." You can't say, "You can't eat meat." You have to find a different solution because... Unless there's government policy that's around that, but it's really hard to effectively get people to change a lot of those kinds of habits. So instead, how do we make travel more sustainable? How do we create more circular fashion? How do we have an agriculture industry and a food industry that can grow at a scale and get people what they want? And it looks a little bit different than the world does today, but there are ways to see that. And so I think that's the idea. So we've shot about 45 or 50 of these movies and you guys have done hundreds of these. And if you can collectively tease them out in other forms of content, in other movies, in other television, at events, and just create an awareness that this is happening and then people can get excited and hit those passion points for themselves and get involved. So yes, that's exactly what we're trying to do.
Cody Simms (34:28):
It reminds me of, think about movies in the mid to late '90s that tried to communicate the internet and how terribly most of them did. You think of something like Sandra Bullock, The Net where her life is getting hacked and it's just a ridiculous movie. And yet over the decade or so thereafter movies generally got a lot more realistic about what was actually possible in terms of technology. But man, some of those early mid '90s hacker movies, like Sneakers and whatnot, where all they have to do is plug in a laptop and they're logged into whatever system they need to be logged into. Just, I think all of us got more aware of what was real and not, and it feels like the same is happening with climate. No, there are real solutions that are out there and maybe let's extrapolate what those might be.
Kip Pastor (35:13):
Yeah, and they're not just moonshots, they're not just crazy ideas. Some of these are already being scaled under our noses and we don't realize them. The built environment is one where it's not super sexy, people don't totally understand it, but once you learn what's going on behind the scenes, that is a huge injection of positivity and possibility that might not have been there before. And so we do films on B-to-C companies. We do films on companies that create some products, but we also love all of the other ones because those are the stories you might not have heard of. And just to be clear too, the companies and the Founders and the CEOs that we profile, they're not paying for this content, similar the way that you guys don't pay folks to come on. And that's important because it needs to be an objective perspective, right? And it ultimately it's promotional because we've had other people kick the tires in the science, we are storytellers, we're not engineers, we're not scientists, we want to make sure that we're elevating companies that can scale, but I just thought I should point that out.
Cody Simms (36:13):
Yeah, well, and that's actually what I was going to ask next is you do have partnerships with some significant tech organizations like activate.org where I think they're helping you understand companies that may be ready for a profile and or help you advise you on how to tell the story about some of these companies from a technology perspective, but that they're not paid relationships, maybe, I mean, A, elaborate on that, and then, B, maybe just talk a little bit about what is the actual business model of Pique Action, how are you turning this into a company as you go?
Kip Pastor (36:42):
Absolutely. The partnerships we have are critical, we have more formal partnerships with a bunch of nonprofits and we work with a lot of organizations like Activate. We're massive fans of what they do and what they've been doing and the companies that they support and the individuals really who they support because it's really that human is what builds those companies, and they identify them really early on. But, we have a laundry list of folks that we've been working with, Harvard Sea Change was one, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, the Keeling Curve Prize with the global mitigation. I think that we are interested in collaborating on campaigns around issues as well, again, what's that excuse to get people together? And then how can we take that energy and apply it now and then moving forward? And so we're always interested in meeting new folks in the space. And again, it depends, some people aren't generalists, oftentimes it's focused on air, water or agriculture and so getting connected with them, we did a bunch of videos with Earth Day around Earth Day, they have a massive reach and it's great to get connected around those seminal moments during the year when everybody has something to think and contribute around climate. And as far as the business model, the heart of the business model is a media company, it's a legacy and tried and true, but we're really a new kind of new media company because we are finding already that the CEOs and the Founders of these companies have emails every week. People have brought up the videos in hiring sessions and recruiting sessions, and we know that we're helping close capital for them and customers and the recruiting side. So right now we're a conduit and we're helping everybody do that, but there's a lot of opportunity in that space. There's a lot of opportunity in being a trusted place for all of those things. And ultimately, that is our goal is to be a trusted resource for all things climate. So we find that storytelling is the way to begin, but behavior change has to follow ultimately to ladder up and to what will be that systemic change. The last thing I'll say is there are a bunch of new products and some of those products are shows, but some of those products are other things to really help become that place. And so in time you will see and we'll see, and we'll chat more about it.
Cody Simms (39:06):
And I think for you all to continue to make impact, obviously you need to turn Pique Action and continue to execute on it as a sustainable business model yourselves. And so you say your business model is that of a media company, there are a lot of different business models of a media company. I'm guessing you're experimenting today, some of it might be... I don't know if you're getting paid on ad revenue for some of the social media content you create. I'm assuming, though I don't know, that some of the future shows that you'll produce, you're going to aim to sell to the large streaming companies out there, et cetera. But I guess it's a little bit of all of the above at the moment, is that correct?
Kip Pastor (39:45):
Yeah, I mean, look, we're generating revenue right now from sponsorships, which is an important revenue stream, and we're doing it in a couple of different ways because every channel is a little bit different and reaches a different audience. We're not bringing in CPM ad revenue yet, so the sponsorship, the pre-roll and the banner ads and all that, although ultimately that will be incorporated, that can be a tricky business. There's another side of our business, we are a commercial production company as well. What we found is that the ecosystem needs storytelling, sometimes it's documentary storytelling that we control the creative on sometimes. Companies and brands need storytelling to be specific with really targeted messaging and we create those things as well. So those are a couple of ways that we're generating revenue already. We also license some footage that we own, but ultimately there is a referral lead gen and more importantly, really a subscription component. We also are creating enormous amount of IP. And a lot of that IP we're already working on translating in full longer-form content. And a lot of those partnerships are already translating. So being a good partner in the space is leading to a lot of opportunity. I sort of mentioned the show that we're working on, working on that show with a bunch of different partners and there's a bunch of brands that are already on board, not just in kind, but in major ways to support because they want these stories told. People don't know what a lot of these tech new technologies are, what they do, whether it's a heat pump or again, how to build resiliency. And we have solar panels on our house, we don't have backup storage because it's very hard to figure out for me. And again, that's why I became a storyteller, not an engineer, but we believe that that narrative and unscripted and short-form can help tell those stories for those companies, as well as the public at large.
Cody Simms (41:32):
So for the productions that you are doing as a production studio, where an organization or a company is hiring you, do those get branded Pique Action or those are basically white label productions that you're doing on their behalf just to help you continue to have income and revenue coming in?
Kip Pastor (41:47):
A little bit of both, it depends what the project is and who the audience is, depends if it's something that we could also disseminate and distribute that would be on brand. So what's nice about what we do in the ecosystem in which we live is there isn't hard and fast rules. And right now we have that opportunity to say, "Hey, is this something that can be good for you? It might be something that's good for us." And so oftentimes it's white labeling, but sometimes our brand is associated.
Cody Simms (42:15):
Well, I can't wait to be able to turn on a film or a series on Netflix or Apple TV or something, and have the Pique Action bug go across the screen in front of the production. Sounds like that is something that we should expect at some point here in the future.
Kip Pastor (42:30):
You will and what would excite me even more, Cody, is for you to look over your 11 year old son's shoulder and see that he's watching a new kind of educational content that doesn't feel like you need a spoon full of sugar to chase it down. And so that should be out just as soon.
Cody Simms (42:48):
That's awesome. And then just in terms of also sustaining the business, you did announce recently your first round of funding, your pre-seed funding led by what I think is just the perfect fund to have backed to you, which is Amasia. I know that the team at Amasia ventures, their entire thesis is on driving behavior change. So clearly they saw the work you're doing and the effect that you're having on a hundreds of thousands, if not millions of viewers today, maybe comment a little bit about the funding round and sort of how you view building the business going forward from a financial perspective.
Kip Pastor (43:20):
Yeah, I am so grateful for the partners we have. Amasia's a great one, Romanon and John Kim are exceptionally intelligent. I love their thesis of this fund and the companies that they're supporting. This is a fun fact, I wrote John Kim a cold email, and I think for all of the CEOs and Founders listening, I'm sure people have had this experience as well, but a lot of our CapTable were cold emails. And that's also within a space where people don't always necessarily want to double down on media products. The round really came together with people understanding that there's a white space and people understanding that there's myriad ways to monetize content. And that what we can do is we can be a top of funnel, we can hit a massive audience, and then we can work our way down through the kind of content and targeting we can do with content and this is unlike any other time that's existed. When I was working with the Avnets and Rodrigo Garcia, Snapchat existed, but TikTok didn't even exist. When I went to graduate school, the iPhone hadn't come out yet, social video hadn't existed. And so things are moving along quickly. And what it does is it creates an opportunity to connect with those audiences. So I know your question was about the other partners. And I think we learned from them also about the companies that are in the space that have the potential to have a massive impact. They've done a lot of diligence, which really helps us determine what's a great founder story, what's something we haven't heard of before. We have a list of over 2000 companies, I'm sure you guys have a similar list, that we'd like to do films on one day, but where do we start? And so our partners are really helpful in that in making introductions and putting us with other folks that are like-minded.
Cody Simms (45:02):
And what have you learned from the last decade of watching sort of NextGen media companies emerge, startup media companies that you think are things that work and things that you ultimately feel like you need to avoid as you grow the business? We've seen some great successes emerge and we've also seen some companies raise a ton of money that haven't figured out how to build a sustainable business model.
Kip Pastor (45:26):
It is a great question, and one I think we could talk at length for, but I'll try to be quick. I think starting on social media, you need to be platform agnostic, unless you own your platform, you cannot be tied to a single platform because they change an algorithm, they change a setting, they introduce a new feature and companies were wiped out when Facebook did that. So that's important. We also own the content that we create for the most part and as a result of that, that gives us an opportunity to grow a library, it gives us an opportunity to create other content that either can be ancillary products or can be an additional step forward in the storytelling. I think that the business model itself, and you mentioned, I gave you the answer that we are a new media company and you said, "Well, there's a lot of different business models that fall under that." And I think part of it is what that value proposition is. We saw with Quibi do not create content in a massive library before you test it with your audience. Applying a paywall before people are ready to pay for your product is also really challenging. I think what Netflix did is a quintessential example of doing it correctly, they just distributed other people's content, once they realized and once they had an opportunity, they said, "We can't live and die by the pricing that's forced upon us. We need to own our own content." And so they went out and they looked at all their data and they went and said, "We're going to put together an all star team, writing, directing, acting," and that's what House of Cards was. And they made a huge splash and that was the jet fuel that they needed and it was based on data. So right now we are definitely in the discovery phase, we're collecting data, we're talking to our customers, we're talking to audience, we're finding out what is it that you need that's going to get you up in the morning and watch a Pique video. What is that? And we have a bunch of theories and we're testing a bunch of different ways to connect, but ultimately that is going to be what's going to be the business driver. What do you need every day? And then if it's ad-based or not, what would you pay for? And I think we have a bunch of really great answers to that question.
Cody Simms (47:29):
Well, Kip, I have to just say that I think you are operating in what may be currently the most underinvested in area of climate action relative to potential impact. And so I have a lot of admiration for you and Tyler and the rest of the team who are operating on really the bleeding edge of how do you properly tell stories about climate that can inspire people into action instead of trying to scare them into action. And I guess with that, what else should I have asked that I didn't ask today?
Kip Pastor (48:03):
You asked all the great questions at the end also, you saved all the good ones, least the ones that don't make me sweat, but make me think, so that's wonderful. I'd like to say that what I love about content is what I learned with documentaries, which is when you get to tell the stories that excite you, then you can tell them faster. And so as I mentioned, we're full time, we have a very scrappy team. Hana is a prolific producer and Shane has been incredible and Darra has been an excellent edition and Tyler, obviously we talked about. But we've put out almost 300 video pieces of content since October, and that is with a teeny team. So to your point, if you can inject some more funding and you look at the creators that are in this space and you look at the storytellers there in this space, there is an opportunity here to create a lot of content, some of them will be hits, some of them won't, but we'll experiment, we'll learn, we'll iterate and we'll be able to connect with those audiences on those different platforms. So I agree with you, I think there's a lot of opportunity and I think it is underinvested. And I think like any investment, you need to look at the people involved, the products that they're creating, and then ultimately what that big vision is.
Cody Simms (49:15):
And for anyone who's listening, who is excited about what you're building, whether they are content creators themselves, whether they're funders, whether they're distribution channels or whether they merely want to figure out how they can join your team, what should they do?
Kip Pastor (49:30):
Or even more baseline, just watch some of our stuff. If you're a LinkedIn person, watch on LinkedIn. If you're a YouTube person, watch on YouTube. If you're curious about TikTok, be warned, you might lose some hours of sleep, but and of course, Twitter. So I'd say go to the website, poke around, always send us an email. All of those stakeholders you mentioned or people we're interested in hearing from, if you have a comment or a critique or a thought on our films or what you think is missing, we want to hear that too. We want to know what is going to get you up in the morning that you need to check out and be involved in.
Cody Simms (50:01):
And I would say too, even if you don't use TikTok or you don't use Instagram or whatever, if you go to Pique Action's website, they have links at the top that just link to unlogged-in versions of their content on each of those spaces. So you can get a sense of how they're using each of those platforms to communicate. And definitely there's a big difference between how you're communicating on YouTube versus how you're communicating on TikTok versus how you're communicating on LinkedIn, which I think goes to show that you all are trying to put in the work to reach people where they are, as you said at the beginning.
Kip Pastor (50:33):
Thanks so much, Cody, you said it all for me at the end. And it's just, it's an honor and a great pleasure. I'm just a deep fan and I have been inspired listening to you and Jason on runs and crushing as many MCJs as I can.
Cody Simms (50:47):
Well, mutual admiration. And hopefully we can all help the communication part of climate grow up together. So Kip, thanks so much for your time and congrats on all that you all are doing. And can't wait to see what's next.
Kip Pastor (50:57):
So much to the same, Cody.
Jason Jacobs (51:00):
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 @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.
