Hi, I’m Cooper. I care about climate, the experience of meaningfulness, and the feeling of agency. I spend my time working on frameworks, building and investing in transformative companies, having heart-to-hearts, and generally trying to validate my existence by helping others achieve their climate visions and experience a sense of agency over their life.

I want to help build a world where technology serves the human need for meaningfulness.

 

I grew up in a small farm town in California.  My early life mostly comprised of existential crisis and time spent in a car commuting to school.  I felt compelled to understand the meaning of life, the universe, and everything and sought solace in science.  You know, kid stuff.
In adult life I swapped out time in a car for time on a plane.  Motion and activity were proxies for progress and I found myself living a life on the go out of fear of standing still.  Definitely healthy behavior.  Today I’m focused on being present rather than believing that I need to constantly try to get somewhere else.

Early struggles with weight turned into crucibles for identity.  I remain obsessed with units of energy, but I’ve exchanged the kcal for the kWh.

The questions that drove me evolved from existential to practical to mysterious, ultimately leading back to where I started: meaningfulness.  But now I can engage with the questions that most enrapture me with the gratitude that comes with knowing that I will always have a mystery into which to dive.

Realizing that I would never find answers to the questions that most drove me, I turned to finding problems to solve.  I used to think that another class of humans (let’s call them superheroes) was looking after the world and solving all the great problems.  Over the years, and as a consequence of my great privilege, I’ve come to realize that there are many truly extraordinary people out there working on the most meaningful problems.  But they’re people, just like us.

The problem that continues to consume most of my mindshare is climate.  I’ve evolved from thinking that technology is the answer, to recognizing the innovations in finance are necessary, to understanding that policy and culture are ultimately needed, to finally believing that human behavior change and simultaneous action on all fronts is required for us to have a chance.  But there is a chance.