Hampus Jakobsson: Accidental entrepreneur, to reluctant VC, and now climate investor

Good Future

This week on the podcast I’m excited to be joined by Hampus Jakobsson, his career to discover climate-tech has been a wild ride so far and he has a great knack for story-telling, so I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this one. Hampus is based in Sweden, and he started out as an entrepreneur, bouncing from Sony-Ericsson to Blackberry, building software in the early days of mobile phones, and as he grew to appreciate the incredible power of capital to make big changes in the world, he was slowly drawn to investing. He resisted opportunities to switch to VC for a long time, but eventually he shifted his views, and he ended up working with some of Europe’s most progressive VCs, but in 2019, when he suggested they explore climate-tech investing, they shook their heads, despite having invested in a swag of wildly innovative startups, they couldn’t get their heads around the idea of investing in climate. Since then, things have changed dramatically, and climate-tech has emerged as one of the fastest growing themes in early-stage investing. Hampus Jakobsson went on to launch his own VC fund, it’s called Pale Blue Dot, and has so far invested in some 40 startups, across a range of themes and business models. In this episode Hampus is really generous with his stories and his insights. He explains his methodology and process for identifying those outlier founders that have, not only an audacious business idea to change the world, but also, the tenacity and grit to push past the obstacles and execute on it. Hampus has had a dizzying career so far, but after listening to this one, I’m sure you’ll agree that he’s just getting started. He has energy, and a sharp intellect and a passion for climate solutions that’s infectious. So with that said, let’s get to the episode. You can find all the show notes and links on the website at Johntreadgold.com. Enjoy the show!