Hello!

Welcome to The Saturday Morning Newsletter, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits to round out your week. The concept is simple: 15 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.

I want this to be a collaborative effort, so if you see examples of things that truly impact our future, let me know here. I’ll give you credit for sharing them.

Let’s get started.

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#1: Mantel Capture

Description: Mantel Capture is an innovative carbon capture startup with products designed to operate in high temperatures.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Mantel Capture recently raised a round of $30M in venture capital funding. Carbon capture technology allows polluters to reduce emissions by capturing CO2 in the air. Interestingly, European oil magnates choose to back carbon capture technology over other renewable/net zero energy sources as it allows them to continue producing emissions and profiting from them. That aside, I think developing this technology is important and Mantel Capture is significantly innovating in the field.

#2: Atlas Space Operations

Description: Atlas Space Operations is a provider of station services for satellite and other space communications, considered a provider of “ground software-as-a-service”.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Atlas Space Operations recently raised a round of $15M in venture capital funding. Providing ground services to space operations is a critical piece of the space economy infrastructure. Atlas is building a network of antennas that work together to provide global connectivity integral to space-based operations.

#3: Last Energy

Description: Last Energy is a developer of 20 MW micro nuclear power plants using modular construction, design, and energy delivery.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Last Energy recently raised a round of $40M in venture capital funding. Micronuclear reactors are one of the most sought-after nuclear technologies, capable of powering small towns to mobile forward operating bases, all from the size of a shipping container or small apartment. Last Energy’s design streamlines this development and deployment process as its modular building approach accelerates time to production from regulatory approval.

#4: Carbyon

Description: Carbyon is a direct air carbon capture company building modular devices that rotate activated carbon fibers to capture CO2 emissions.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Carbyon recently raised $15.3M in venture capital funding. Many different approaches have been developed for capturing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. Carbyon believes their device provides the most efficiency for the size and cost as it has a relatively small footprint, takes low energy, but provides a large amount of value.

#5: Reonic

Description: Reonic is a software provider for renewable energy installers to manage each portion of the lead generation, sales, installation, and post-installation lifecycle.

Why Is This Company Interesting? Reonic recently raised $13M in venture capital funding. Throughout the renewable energy boom, most software providers have been targeting large-scale solar and wind farms, neglecting individual homeowners and residential installers. Reonic provides a solution for these residential installers to manage their pipeline and installation processes competently and effectively.

New York Times: Solar Power Powers Wildlife & Biodiversity

Solar farms, currently taking up large amounts of empty land, are slated to undergo a large transition. The Plan: plant new/endangered plants and encourage a wide variety of biodiversity in species of plant and animal in the land they occupy. This can help revitalize parts of the world where the current biodiversity is suffering or nonexistent.

New York Times: Britain Awards Offshore Wind Projects

The British government awarded support contracts for a series of offshore wind farms, continuing the push towards a renewable energy transition. Across all types of renewables, the British government awarded support for 131 renewable energy projects, estimated to attract around $18B in investment and power nearly 11 million homes.

Wall Street Journal: United States Climate Funds Pushing to Be Released

A $400B federal clean-energy lending program is at the center of the political argument after being stalled multiple times. This, in addition to other climate-specific legislation, is at the forefront of the push for Democrat-focused legislation before the election cycle as many fear a Republican government would stifle any climate legislation, potentially even repealing any legislation passed in the last 4 years.

World Nuclear Association: Annual World Nuclear Symposium

To quote the article directly: “Dr Sama Bilbao y Leon, the Director General of the World Nuclear Association, said that the growth in attendees from outside the sector showed that ‘the global nuclear industry is at a crucial moment. Decision makers from outside the sector seriously want nuclear for its benefits – clean, reliable, secure, affordable energy. And for the socio-economic development, the jobs, the ability to decarbonize the entire economy.’”

New York Times: Boeing Starliner Leaves Spacestation Without Passengers

For those of you who have followed this disaster of a space mission, here’s yet another stone to add to the pile. The Boeing Starliner spacecraft is set to return to Earth without any passengers as engineers still do not fully understand the propulsion problems that occurred on the first journey. The two astronauts are going to stay on the space station for another 5 months as they wait for a SpaceX spacecraft to retrieve them.

Space News: Blue Origin New Glenn Mission May Miss Launch Window

Blue Origin, a competitor to SpaceX and Boeing in the space vehicle market, is planning to launch their New Glenn vehicle in October, yet there is still much to do before the vehicle is ready to launch. I wouldn’t be surprised if this launch is delayed as space milestones rarely ever happen on time.

Pitchbook: Startups in ‘Founder Mode’ Do Have a Competitive Edge

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham wrote a blog post this week about the virtues of running a startup in “founder mode” instead of in “manager mode”. Founder mode means emphasizing a founder’s mindset and management style. Manager mode means bringing in competent, experienced managers to run teams. According to Pitchbook data, founder-led companies grew in value significantly faster than companies led by non-founders.

New York Times: Boomers and Young Americans

Shifts in income and wealth are significantly favoring older Americans. Today, younger generations are more likely to fall into lower-income classes than their parents or grandparents. Today, most tax revenues are committed to mandatory spending (largely for older Americans) and to interest on the national debt. It’s no doubt young Americans fear for their economic future.

New York Times: Economic Data, Jobs Report, and Other Data Under Scrutiny

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which produces key numbers on inflation, unemployment, and other economic data, has made a significant series of missteps in the last year. This information sharing potentially gives Wall Street insiders an unfair advantage as they can profit from information not yet made widely public.

Economists and other experts say the data remains reliable, but recent funding and political problems do threaten to undermine confidence in the agency and government statistics more broadly in the future.

Today, the interesting thought of the week relates to an interesting chart I saw on Reddit the other day, describing 16 signs you should quit your job. See below:

This isn’t me saying you should quit your job, it’s just a friendly reminder to remain in balance with any employment you have and to understand when it may be the time to jump ship.

See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,

Drew Jackson

Twitter: @brainwavesdotme

Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.