Shomik Dutta
The Reformer
Changing the system from inside it, principle turned into change.
Shomik Dutta qualifies as The Reformer by diagnosing a structural failure in climate finance and engineering a fix from within the system rather than around it. Overture was conceived as a deliberate intermediary, translating government capital into venture-compatible vehicles, redesigning the architecture of climate investing instead of tearing it down.
“For one, we can never bend the laws of physics or chemistry. And so we are taking engineering risk, but we don't take science risk as a fund. I think the two hardest things to bet on are sticks that come from the federal government that will actually put a price on carbon and ultimately ban a lot of fossil fuel alternatives.”
“I was his fundraiser, so I oversaw the mid Atlantic States about nine states. I was 24 years old, cocky and a little bit insane. I'd read a lot of books about Ram Emmanuel, so I thought you were supposed to swear at people and yell and push hard, which I did.”
“And when you factor in things like 45x, this company Harbinger could have negative cogs. And so when you think about what that means for the scale of deployment, I would say the big surprise is not a particular technology. It's just going to be the speed and scale of deployment is going to singe your eyebrows.”
“Know, I'm a bit more of a skeptic, I think, in the tech communities, you get a lot of folks who roll their eyes and say, just build nuclear and you'll be fine. The cost overruns in nuclear have been astronomic.”
Masters in Business: “Shomik Dutta on Climate Tech Investments”
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