Hi Reader ,

A few years back, I backed Hopium, a hydrogen-powered sports car startup. It went public and became of the fastest-growing company on the Paris Stock Exchange, peaked at $578 million valuation — and secured a $1 billion pre-order from one of Europe’s largest auto leasing firms. This isn’t just a win for clean mobility; it’s proof that climate innovation can deliver extraordinary growth.

We often frame climate change as a moral crisis. But what if it’s really a symptom of an outdated operating system holding us back?

Climate change isn’t just about saving the planet — it’s about upgrading the systems that run it. We’re living through The Big Shift, with climate as the second major force rewriting our world.

3 IDEAS FROM ME:

I. Climate is a Data Problem Disguised as a Moral One

Think of climate like software with outdated “emission codes.” Five major sectors generate most CO₂:

• Electricity & Heat

• Transport

• Industry (manufacturing & materials)

• Agriculture & Land Use

• Buildings (residential & commercial energy)

These aren’t villains — they’re legacy systems. Climate tech means rewriting these codes to be cleaner, faster, smarter. Moral outrage alone can’t scale solutions. What matters is precise measurement and relentless execution. Thanks to AI, sensors, and satellites, we now have real-time visibility — and the next step is transforming data dashboards into decision engines.
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II. Every Emission Code Is a Startup Opportunity

Each sector calls for innovation at scale:

• Transport → Electric, hydrogen, mobility-as-a-service

• Agriculture → AI-powered precision farming

• Industry → Carbon capture and circular manufacturing

• Electricity → Decentralized grids, solar-as-software

• Buildings → Smart energy retrofits

The challenge is not inventing new ideas — it’s scaling them fast enough to move the needle.​
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III. The Next $100B Companies Will Rewrite the Operating System of the Physical World

Blitzscaling alone won’t cut it — only atomic scaling with smart leverage will create planetary impact. Look at Tesla’s early play: Elon Musk didn’t just have vision; he forged a strategic alliance with Tencent, China’s tech giant, which invested early $1.8 billion in 2017. This unlocked Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory the next year and a patent-free approach to the ecosystem that paved the way for Chinese EV powerhouses like BYD — a company Warren Buffet backs heavily.

This playbook — small, high-leverage teams paired with powerful - most likely cross-border ecosystems — will be the formula for breakthrough scale across all emission sectors.
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2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS:

I.

“Climate change is a result of the greatest market failure the world has seen.” — Nicholas Stern, Former Chief Economist at the World Bank

II.

“Investing in climate solutions is the largest economic opportunity of the 21st Century.” — John Doerr, co-founder of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and early investor in Google, Amazon, Sun Microsystems, Slack

1 ACTION FOR YOU:

The Hopium Investment Filter. Before backing any climate startup, I ask:

• Playbook: Does it credibly solve at scale one of the five emission codes?

• People: Is there a “magical pair” leading it — a visionary storyteller and a data-driven operator?

• Prediction: Does it have a clear, sustainable unfair advantage, backed by measurable weekly hypotheses around financing and distribution?

If you can answer “yes” to all three, don’t just stand on the sidelines — get involved.

Be a participant, not a spectator. Let's Play,

Ludovic Bodin

3x Entrepreneur, 2x Unicorn Investor, 1x IPO. Founder of BOBIC Generational Wealth and Author of Atomic Scaling

PS: If you haven’t grabbed your free digital copy of Atomic Scaling yet, it’s available now — plus, we just released the narrated audio edition.

Grab the audio edition on Amazon: Atomic Scaling: How Small Teams Create Huge Growth → Narrated by Robert Plank, listen Atomic Scaling on the Go: https://a.co/d/5ybfEn7​
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Prefer print? Reach out for bulk orders starting at 20 copies. ​
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WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

"Atomic Scaling illuminates the path to unicorn status for startups, revealing many growth secrets of the video game industry." — Jason Zhao, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

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