Cleantech investors are commonly approached by very early stage entrepreneurs. And by "very early stage," I mean garage-based-inventor stage. In many cases they're not directly looking for funding from my firm at their stage, but they're looking for advice on how to raise seed capital.

We all need such entrepreneurs to succeed. Their innovation and enthusiasm is the lifeblood of our sector. And so while it's gratifying to encounter such innovators, it's also frustrating to find that so many are having a hard time getting started. And I have come to believe that in many cases these innovators are having an especially hard time because they're not looking for the right thing. They...

As talk of the "internet of things" -- ie: smart equipment via automation and machine-to-machine communications -- continues to get attention, we're seeing more and more entrepreneurs bringing forth some flavor of idea involving energy-focused equipment controls. Smart-home plays, automated load shifting efforts, smart grid software, etc.

From a cleantech perspective, the basic concept is the same: Using automated intelligence, make hardware save energy spend via optimized usage patterns, and then build other value propositions (e.g., preventative maintenance, more granular data, remote sensing, etc) on top of that core value proposition.

As entrepreneurs tackle a variety of...

After the Cleantech Group released their 2012 cleantech venture totals this past week, I heard a surprising amount of pessimism out there. I saw the sector called a "bust" and was asked a couple of times if the sector is just plain dying out.

Of course not, c'mon people.

First of all, regular readers of this column probably found very little of surprise in the Cleantech Group's numbers. For a while now we've been talking about how LPs have pulled back from the sector and how that has been forcing VCs to pull back from the sector, and in many cases to go find new jobs altogether. Given all this anecdotal evidence, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the retrospective...