Joining Evergrow

2022-02-27

Software engineering is a curious trade where the right app or ad network can earn you billions of dollars. Meanwhile, our world is beset by deep existential problems that threaten our common destiny.

The longer I worked in conventional tech, the more I felt that my work was meaningless compared to the deeper problems humanity faces. This feeling was unclear and nameless at first, but no matter my compensation, my team, or the problems I was working on, the feeling remained. Eventually, it grew strong enough that I could name it clearly, and deep enough that it was spilling over into every aspect of my life.

So I quit my job to try something new before it was too late. I was fortunate that I had support from my family and enough money to tide me over.

I expected to take my time and recharge. What I didn't expect that I would so quickly find a team that aligned with my values and that I could join with my whole spirit. So I'm happy to share that I'll be joining Evergrow as a software engineer starting tomorrow.

I talked to all kinds of companies during my job search, but I chose Evergrow for four reasons:

Mission — Evergrow is a small company with a big ambition: to lower our total CO2e emissions by one gigaton by 2030 and by an additional gigaton every year soon after. Through its deep understanding of carbon offtake markets and institutional capital, Evergrow aims to standardize the climate risk underwriting process and make it an order of magnitude easier for carbon capture projects to secure money from institutional investors. If you're curious to learn more, you can read more about Evergrow on TechCrunch.

Growth — Evergrow is at the rich intersection of climate policy, finance, and traditional software engineering. In addition to taking on a lot of engineering responsibilty, I expect to learn an enormous amount about fintech and climate, two spaces that I've been curious about for a long time. In the right role, you can do a year's worth of learning in days, and I expect that principle to hold true at Evergrow.

Money — I would be lying if I said this wasn't a consideration. But a healthy amount of venture funding is flowing into climate work again, and the landscape and urgency have shifted greatly from the Solyndra years. There is meaningful climate work that offers competitive startup compensation.

Team — I've worked on some wonderful teams in the past, but it's such a relief to be surrounded by people whose mission and values are the same as mine. And it's a cherry on top that those people are brilliant, passionate, driven, and kind.

Evergrow is a startup with the normal startup risks, and it could very well be that this experiment with something totally different will blow up in my face. But existential problems require existential action, and there's no better time than now to try something bold.