Steve Newcomb Blog http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/ Founder & COO of Powerset en Copyright 2008 Wed, 14 May 2008 13:02:05 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2ysb5-20051201 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Things to do before I die: Drive Tesla Roadster

On May 12th between 6:45pm and 6:52pm I was the coolest person on earth

DONE! On Monday, May 12th, we held the second SF Green Event and again well over 300 people came to the event. I wanted to say a special thanks to VentureBeat, SF Green's new media partner as well as my co-founding team at SF Beta (Christian Perry and special thanks to Cassie Phillipps who simply rocks)

This event was quite different than the previous event in that we had two speakers and a stage from which the speakers could be heard.  Our goal was to have Darryl Siry, VP Marketing of Tesla Motors and Ray Lane GP at Kleiner Perkins answer questions from Matt Marshall in a "fireside chat" sort of style.

]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/05/driving_a_tesla_at_sf_green.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/05/driving_a_tesla_at_sf_green.html Wed, 14 May 2008 13:02:05 -0800 SF Green - Teslas, Smart Cars & Kleiner Perkins
SF Green partners with VentureBeat and together we are showcasing teslas and smart cars plus we have invited Ray Lane GP at Kleiner Perkins and Darryl Siry, VP Marketing of Tesla Motors to talk about green transportation.]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/05/sf_green_may_12th_try_out_a_te.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/05/sf_green_may_12th_try_out_a_te.html Tue, 06 May 2008 08:56:58 -0800 Championing Sustainability Event Saturday May 10th at the Green Building Exchange in Redwood City.

Is your organization moving fast enough to adapt to the new global realities of sustainability?Do you want to learn practical and innovative strategies for taking on the role of a sustainability leader?

REGISTER NOW: Cost: Before April 26th $295 Individual, $195 Team...

]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/championing_sustainability_eve.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/championing_sustainability_eve.html Events Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:40:36 -0800 Green + Capitalism = what? “If you think Green is about saving the Earth, you’d be wrong: it’s about saving the human race.”  That statement was made to me by Miriam Karell, a sustainability expert...]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/capitalism_green_what.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/capitalism_green_what.html Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:30:38 -0800 Carbon Trading versus Carbon Tax In the Green world, one of the hottest and most contested debates is the validity of Carbon Trading versus the validity of a Carbon Tax and I spent some time trying to dig into these two approaches to try and understand them and give you my perspective]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/carbon_trading_versus_carbon_t.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/04/carbon_trading_versus_carbon_t.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:22:12 -0800 The Red-Hot Debate over Green Taxis in SF In a controversial decision, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to require taxi cab companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent lower than their 1990 levels by 2011.   ]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/the_redhot_debate_over_green_t.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/the_redhot_debate_over_green_t.html Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:58:19 -0800 SF Green's First Event Sees 300+ On Tuesday, March 4th, we held the first SFGreen event with the goal of bringing together the SF Tech community and Green community in a social mixer that spurs new ideas and introduces new Green startups. 

]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/sf_greens_first_event_sees_300.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/sf_greens_first_event_sees_300.html Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:37:32 -0800 San Francisco's Carbon Tax: Will it Work? Their are some talks going on now about San Francisco implementing a carbon tax and the big question of the day is will it work?  There are a lot of complex issues in a Carbon Tax and in this post I take a detailed look.]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/san_francisco_explores_carbon.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/03/san_francisco_explores_carbon.html Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:02:41 -0800 Wired.com outs my GreenFund project Yesterday, Wired.com issued a story titled "Powerset Co-Founder to Launch Crowdsourced Green VC Fund" which went in to a little bit of detail about the GreenFund project that I am working on.]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/post.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/post.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:06:54 -0800 My Green Startup Initiative for SF One of the intiiatives that I am trying to push in San Francisco is Green Startup Incentive program.  The initiative that I have in mind, ties in to the Green Campus project, the Carbon Fund and much more..
]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/green_startup_initiative.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/green_startup_initiative.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:00:53 -0800 SF Government Technology to go Green Mayor Newsom calls for actions in a Directive that aim to reduce municipal government’s IT-related greenhouse gas emissions by 24% by 2012.  Check out what the proposal are and read about what I am trying propose to add to the plan.
]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/sf_government_technology_to_go.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/sf_government_technology_to_go.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:23:39 -0800 A Carbon Fund for San Francisco? In a forward released a couple of weeks ago, the Mayor's office announced it would be creating a San Francisco Carbon Fund for local green activities designed to mitigate or “offset” greenhouse gas emissions. I'm going to be getting directly involved in this one and I will let you know how its going.
]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/a_carbon_fund_for_san_francisc.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/a_carbon_fund_for_san_francisc.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:31:15 -0800 Cliff Waldeck - Stepping Up to the Plate Cliff Waldeck is a San Francisco business owner with his finger on the pulse of how the new Green economy could affect his industry. Check out his post.
]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/cliff_waldeck_stepping_up_to_t.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/cliff_waldeck_stepping_up_to_t.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:14:17 -0800 San Francisco Raises the Plug-In Car from the Dead Gavin Newsom announced this week that San Francisco has put 3 plug in hybrid Prius vehicles into the city's municiple car fleet and that there is larger effort to create a bay area-wide "soft" pre-order for plug in hybrids. 
]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/san_francisco_raises_the_plug.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/san_francisco_raises_the_plug.html Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:42:35 -0800 Why I Gave It Up to Go Green Steve Newcomb's Ugly Mug Shot

In September of 2007, I attended a political collaboration event called Renaissance Weekend.  It is a 4 day event, held once every 3 months or so, that brings together young business and politically-minded people like me with senior level political and business leaders from across the globe.  It is quite an honor to be nominated to go and anyone that has gone can tell you that it is a truly humbling experience.  Over the years, it has inspired many people to change their lives and I am proud to say that I am now part of that group of people.

What did it for me was a conversation where I was boasting about how proud I was about being a positive force in the lives of the 72 people at Powerset to a senior political figure. I expected him to congratulate me, but instead his reaction completely flattened, stunned and humbled me.  He said "How dare you...   if you truly think you have the special ability to bring about a positive change in peoples' lives then how dare you limit your talent to only 72 people.  You have made your money, now be done with it.  Dedicate yourself to changing thousands of peoples lives and I will congratulate you then."

In my first day back to work after the weekend I told my fellow founders this exact story and told them I was eventually going to leave.  That was September and in October I left Powerset.  After reflecting on my research in the new Green economy, and after reflecting upon an admitedly up and down relationship with my fellow founder Barney Pell, I decided that the best way I could affect thousands of peoples lives was to dedicate myself to Green.  Why Green?  Because I had come to the conclusion that the Green revolution will cause a larger impact on society, government and business than the Internet and the industrial revolution combined and I believed that I could play a role in causing some of the tipping points in government and in business. 

Now it's been 5 months since that day and I thought I owed it to you to let you know what I have been up to.

]]> http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/san_francisco_leading_the_way.html http://www.blognewcomb.com/blog/2008/02/san_francisco_leading_the_way.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:06:40 -0800