20: From founder to climate investor - Talk with serial entrepreneur and investor Tim Schumacher

In today's episode, I am speaking with Tim Schumacher. Tim is a German Investor and Entrepreneur with a long-term focus on Impact and Climate. He co-founded and led the publicly traded Sedo.com as CEO for ten years. 

Since 2012, he has founded and invested in multiple start-ups like Eyeo (makers of Adblock Plus), SaaS.group, Zolar, CarbonCloud, Pachama and Ecosia. Tim Schumacher also very recently co-founded the World Fund which is a 350 Millionen EUR VC fund focusing on Climate Startups who have the potential to save 100 Mio Co2. 

In this episode, you will learn about Tim’s journey from an entrepreneur to an investor, climate activism as a teenager and as well his Top 3 bets in the Climate Tech sector. 

Please check out show notes and background information: www.sustainnow.ch
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Chapters

• 2:20 What has been your common nominator in these different roles and what is the biggest difference?
• 4:00 What are the biggest differences between the founder and investor side?
• 5:40 What were the driving factors to change from an entrepreneur track into an investor track?
• 7:35 Do you remember a particular situation which triggered the thought process to dedicate your time to climate change?
• 12:00 The tree planting practice has been quite criticized in the last year for promising too much but cannot be delivered. How do you address that at ecosia?
• 17:25 Can you give an overview on World Fund?
• 19:42 How do you make sure that you have expertise in choosing investments?
• 21:15 What is the craziest investment you've done to date?
• 23:40 Do you realistically see that these startups will exist in Europe?
• 26:00 What is the role of VCs in fixing the financial gap for climate and what do we need to change to better close this gap?
• 28:20 How do you see the role of the policies in climate?
• 30:10 Climate tech start ups often require a long period of investment - How does the VC model work in this system?
• 31:30 Many other digital entrepreneurs are considering moving into the climate tech space - what would you recommend to them?
• 35:00 What does sustainability mean to you?
• 37:00 Is it possible for individuals to invest in World Fund?
• 39:00 How can people reach out to you?