Why We Exist
Extreme wildfires are happening at an unprecedented scale and frequency, and we need new tools and techniques to keep up.
The Problem
Wildfire is a complex, compounding problem with interrelated causes.
A century-long policy of maximum fire suppression with poor forest management has created record fuel loads.
Climate change has lengthened the fire season, increased fuel dryness, and reduced precipitation.
Housing in the wildland-urban interface has grown by 40% in the last 20 years, putting more people in harm’s way.
And the same high winds that cause extreme fire behavior also cause our brittle power grid to fail at the worst possible times.
We have to break this dangerous cycle before it’s too late.
What’s Missing?
Technological innovation. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we aren’t scared of hard, thorny, serious problems. We’re optimistic and believe that solutions to extreme wildfire are possible - and soon - but they require different thinking. With approaches grounded in market forces, entrepreneurial creativity, and an appetite to take risk and accept failures along the way, firetech founders, alongside philanthropists, scientists, policy-makers and firefighters can beat back this vanguard of climate change.
We also believe that building solutions to extreme wildfire is good business. Industries like utilities, insurance, hospitality, timber, and agriculture are threatened by wildfire and losing many billions of dollars each year to the consequences of climate change. They’re desperate for new solutions to help them adapt, but need smaller, nimbler partners to help them innovate. We are inspired by the founders who are harnessing this acute market need to solve our larger societal problem.
Extreme wildfire can be solved. Our mission is to back the founders building the tools and solutions necessary to do so.