No book on renewables risk takers could be complete without including market intelligence guru and former Olympic skier, Michael Liebreich, in his journey creating @bloombergnef. With his interview complete, I’m 1/3 of the way through my journey in completing “We Took the Risk”, due out next Fall, 2022.
“Starting New Energy Finance for me was like rappelling into the abyss. Here I was – a Cambridge engineer, Harvard Business School alum, Baker scholar, first class, everything’s great, but I was high and dry, unemployed,” said Michael after emerging from the boom and bust of the dot.com era of the late 90s.
Unshaken and through adaptability and foresight, Michael grew out the famous industry-leading research platform that forever transformed how investors, developers and technology providers alike approached a growing clean tech sector.
Coaching entrepreneurs in our industry today, Michael states that building a successful startup “requires a 360 assessment of the market and a lot of luck. But you’ve also got to have the right investor, the right market, make the right hires, and develop the right product.”