From Private Equity to Climate Tech: A Founder's Guide

Your "Safe" Career Is Not A Detour. It's Your Unfair Advantage.

Many founders believe they need a pure startup background to succeed. They see careers in private equity, consulting, or banking as a detour from the real work of building. Jacqueline van den Ende’s journey shows why this is wrong. Her path—from a global upbringing and a top-tier private equity firm to launching a category-defining climate tech company—is a playbook for leveraging traditional experience to build something new.

Her story isn’t just inspiration; it’s a tactical guide. It shows you how to trade the investor’s mindset for the builder’s, how to launch in a market you don’t know, and how to fundraise for a capital-intensive, mission-driven business.

The Mindset Shift: From Finding Faults to Finding a Way

Working in private equity, like at Jacqueline’s former firm HAL Investments, trains you to be a world-class critic. Your job is to analyze, to find the flaw in the model, and to say "no" 99 times out of 100. You look for patterns and solve problems using established templates.

As a founder, this mindset is fatal. Your job is to have "unreasonable self-belief." You must stare at a problem with no clear solution and believe you can be the one to solve it. You have to think from first principles, not from templates.

The most common mistake founders with finance backgrounds make: They bring the investor’s toolkit to the founder’s job. They create 100-slide decks to analyze a two-way door decision. They hedge, they move slowly, and they try to de-risk everything in a world that is inherently uncertain. Your analytical skills are an asset, but only if you learn to apply them at startup speed.

How to De-Risk the Leap From a "Prestige" Career

Before launching a major venture, Jacqueline co-founded The Kleine Consultant, a non-profit student-run consultancy. This was not a distraction; it was a critical testing ground. It proved she could start something from scratch, rally a team, and build a brand—all with low personal risk.

If you’re considering the leap, don’t just quit your job. De-risk it with a "starter project":

Build a small software tool for a niche you understand. · Start a newsletter or community around a professional passion. · Organize a local meetup or event series.

The goal is not to create a unicorn, but to prove to yourself that you enjoy the messy, unglamorous work of building . Do you like making something from nothing, or do you prefer optimizing something that already exists?

Building in a New Market: Your First 90 Days

Jacqueline’s move to the Philippines to build the real estate marketplace Lamudi (a Rocket Internet venture) is a masterclass in embracing uncertainty. Building in a market where you have no network is incredibly difficult, and hiring is the single biggest failure point.

The source material notes she learned not to "settle for mediocrity." Tactically, what does that mean when you’re hiring from a cold start?

Common Mistake: Hiring for the Perfect Resume. In a new or emerging market, credentials from established companies can be misleading. Someone who succeeded at a large, structured multinational might fail spectacularly in the chaos of a new venture.

High "Slope": How quickly do they learn? Look for evidence of rapid growth and promotion in their past roles. Ask them to teach you something complex they learned recently. · Scrappiness: Have they ever built something with limited resources? Ask about a time they achieved an outsized result with a tiny budget or team. · Adaptability: They won’t just tolerate chaos; they’ll run towards it. Ask about a time their role completely changed overnight and how they handled it. Red flags are candidates who complain about past disorganization. · Ownership Mentality: Look for people who use "I" instead of "we" when describing accomplishments. They don’t pass blame; they take responsibility for outcomes.

Lamudi’s eventual acquisition by Dubizzle Group validates this approach. Getting the first 10 hires right is more important than any other strategic decision you will make.

Fundraising for Climate Tech: Sell the Economic Engine, Not Just the Mission

Climate tech is not charity. To raise serious capital, you must prove you can generate venture-scale returns. Jacqueline’s current company, Carbon Equity, is a brilliant example of how to frame this.

The company has raised €9M for its own operations (including a €6M round in October 2023) and, more importantly, over €160M for its climate-focused investment funds. How?

They didn’t just pitch "saving the planet." They identified a massive, untapped market inefficiency:

The Problem: The most impactful climate technologies (like green hydrogen, new battery chemistries, and carbon capture) are developed by private companies funded by elite venture capital and private equity firms. The average accredited investor has no way to access these deals. · The Solution: Carbon Equity is a platform that democratizes access. It’s a feeder fund and a community that lets a wider pool of capital into the top-tier climate funds. · The Business Model: Like any other investment platform, they generate revenue through management fees and carried interest. It’s a proven model applied to a new, urgent asset class.

The original source notes that storytelling is key and a 15-20 slide deck is the vessel. For a company like Carbon Equity, that deck needs to be relentlessly logical:

The Inevitable Transition: Start with the macro picture. The global economy is moving away from carbon. This is no longer debatable. Show the multi-trillion-dollar scale of the shift. · The Funding Gap: Show where the capital is flowing and who is shut out. Highlight the bottleneck you are solving. For Carbon Equity, it’s the access gap for individual investors. · Your Engine: Explain your solution in simple terms. "We are a platform that gives individuals access to top-tier climate private equity funds." Explain the business model clearly. · Why Now?: The urgency is both climatic and economic. A new generation of investors wants their money to have an impact, creating massive demand for your product. · Your Team’s Unfair Advantage: Why are you the only people who can solve this? Jacqueline’s background in private equity gave her the credibility and network to build relationships with the world’s best funds. Your background is your edge.

How to Apply This This Week

You don’t need an MBA or a family legacy to be an entrepreneur. You need a bias for action and a willingness to learn in public. Here’s what you can do now:

Identify your "starter project." What is the smallest possible version of your big idea? Scope it down to something you can build or launch in a single month. · Draft a "builder vs. optimizer" scorecard. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you enjoy creating from a blank slate versus improving an existing system? Be honest with yourself. · Re-read the resume of your last three hires. Did you screen for credentials or for slope and scrappiness? Write down three new interview questions for your next hire that specifically test for adaptability. · Take your current pitch deck and create a 5-slide "Economic Inevitability" version. Remove all jargon and mission-speak. Just explain how your company will make money from a massive, undeniable market shift.