The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Former Meta CTO, Schrep on Why Climate is a $10TRN Problem, Operating Lessons Scaling Products to Billions at Meta and Why the Best Leaders are Like Music Conductors

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May 29, 2024

Mike Schroepfer, Founder & Partner at Gigascale Capital and former CTO of Meta, shares insights on leadership and climate innovation. He likens effective leaders to music conductors, emphasizing the importance of incremental progress in company building. Schrep sees cheap and clean energy as crucial for future advancements and explores its role in climate investments, arguing that markets will drive solutions, not just philanthropy. He also discusses the potential of fusion technology and suggests a messy yet opportunity-rich landscape ahead in climate tech.

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ANECDOTE

Early Coding Dreams

Mike Schroepfer recalls a childhood memory of a Disney World trip where a cartoonist sketched him at a computer.
The sketch depicted young Schrep with a speech bubble saying, "Oh no, bugs in my software," highlighting his early interest in computers.

ADVICE

Handling Nos

When facing repeated rejections, analyze the reasons behind them.
Use first principles to evaluate if criticisms invalidate your core beliefs or are simply differing opinions.

ANECDOTE

Sequoia's Zombie Apocalypse

After many rejections, Mike Schroepfer pitched his startup to Sequoia Capital during the dot-com crash.
The office felt eerily empty, but partner Mike Moritz engaged in a deep, personal interview, ultimately leading to an investment.

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Mike Schroepfer (Schrep) is the Founder & Partner @ Gigascale Capital, a new kind of climate-focused investment firm. Prior to Gigascale, Mike was the CTO @ Meta where he scaled products to billions of users, shipped millions of units of consumer hardware, constructed tens of millions of sq ft of data centres, built teams of up to 35,000, and made breakthroughs in AI. Before Meta, Mike led engineering at Mozilla and founded a company acquired by Sun Microsystems.

In Today's Show with Mike Schroepfer We Discuss:

1. Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg and Meta:

What are Schrep's biggest lessons from Zuck on truly effective leaders?
Why does Schrep believe the best leaders are like music conductors?
What does Schrep mean when he says, "building a company is a game of inches"?
Why does Schrep believe "inertia is one of the most underappreciated forces in company building?"

2. The Future of Energy:

Why does Schrep believe that the "availability of cheap, clean energy is the biggest rate limiter to human progress?"
Does Schrep agree with Sam Altman that energy will be the currency of the next decade? Or does he believe Mustafa Suleyman is right and it will soon be free and abundant?
How does Schrep predict the next five years for both fusion and nuclear?
Why does Schrep believe the next few years will be "messy but with huge opportunity"?

3. Investing in Climate: It has to be Profitable:

Why does Schrep believe that markets and not governments or philanthropy will solve the climate challenges we face?
What leads Schrep to suggest that the climate change transition is a $10TRN opportunity for investors?
What is the single hardest element of investing in climate change solutions today?
Why do climate change solutions need to reshape how they market to consumers?
How much capital does it take to build a defensible moat in climate?

4. Schrep: The Man Behind Whatsapp and Instagram: AMA:

How does Schrep reflect on his own relationship to money? How has it changed?
How does Schrep think about what it takes to be a great father?
How did Schrep manage the physical stress and pressure of managing engineering for products that serve billions of people in WhatsApp and Instagram?