As CEO and co-founder of Nori, Paul Gambill is hitting his professional stride.
His startup, a Seattle-based marketplace for removing CO2 from the air, raised $1.3 million in a “pre-seed” round earlier this year and is most of the way toward reaching its next funding goal. The company is a Techstars Sustainability Accelerator graduate and has a weekly podcast featuring conversations with leading voices in carbon removal.
Gambill is ready for what’s next, particularly the chance to expand his team.
“We’re about to enter the phase of growth that I’ve been looking forward to for six years,” Gambill said. He’s not so smitten with the cash-strapped earliest phase of startup life. “I love managing projects where I have resources,” he said, “and can experiment and try things.”
Gambill has degrees in computer systems engineering and engineering management. After working in quality assurance engineering and consulting, in 2014 he launched The Happy Crate, a monthly subscription box of marijuana-related activities, snacks and smoking accessories. It was a largely one-man show, with Gambill running product sourcing, filling orders, doing web design, customer service and marketing. He had help from contractors, but missed the camaraderie of colleagues.
He sold the company in 2015 and decided to tackle something bigger.
“I wanted to work on something that would attract a lot of really talented people,” Gambill said. “Climate change seemed like an obvious challenge that many more people would care about in the future. I, maybe naively, thought that if the problem was that there were too many greenhouse gases in the air, then the solution was to pull them back out.”
So he started a meetup group focused on carbon removal. While he and his newly created community were studying carbon removal, Gambill was also working on sticker-making company that he co-founded.
After two years of research and building connections around the globe, Gambill and his co-founders started Nori in the summer of 2017. Using cryptocurrency, Nori sells carbon credits to individuals and businesses to offset carbon emissions. The startup pays farmers to use verifiable, sustainable practices that store carbon in their soil.
Since Nori’s launch, demand for his product has grown. Companies have ramped up their climate commitments, including Microsoft’s pledge to be carbon negative and to remove enough greenhouse gases by 2050 to wipe out its historic carbon footprint and Amazon’s promise to be net carbon zero by 2040. Both efforts, as well as those from other corporations, will require carbon removal in some capacity.
“I’m optimistic that we’re entering the right time — a period where there is massive interest and attention on this and an openness to trying new and different things,” Gambill said,
We caught up with Gambill for this Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for his answers to our questionnaire.
Current location: Seattle
Computer types: MacBook Pro 15″. I’m still using a mid-2015 model because I hated the butterfly keyboard. Now that Apple has replaced the keyboards on all their laptops, I’ll probably switch to a new MacBook Pro 13″.
Mobile devices: iPhone X. I’m planning to upgrade to whatever pro model comes out this fall.
Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: 1Password, Tweetbot, Evernote, Brave browser, Narwhal (Reddit client), Fantastical, Spotify, Slack, Plex
Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? I find it really hard to get focused work done if there are sensory distractions. Looking out a window, or sitting in a coffee shop are things I try to avoid. So to be honest, I like putting my desk up against a wall. I have an adjustable standing desk, and try to remember to stand more often than I do.
Speakers with a halfway decent subwoofer are great for music (I like instrumental stuff when working). I always prefer a large main monitor with my laptop as a second screen to the side. There’s a Logitech webcam mounted on top of my monitor.
Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? Get really good at compartmentalizing. And also remember that it’s up to you train others to expect or not expect a response from you outside working hours. So if some email comes in at 7 p.m. that isn’t a total firestorm, I’ll leave it as unread and respond in the morning.
Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? I figured out a few years ago that it was easiest for me to separate things by using Facebook for personal and friends stuff, and Twitter for business and politics and just general talk about ideas. So I try to share ideas and my opinions on Twitter and keep Facebook for planning events and catching up with friends.
Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? Seven. I use the “mark as unread” feature for task management, so if I have unread emails, that’s how I know how much work is left. We use Gmail’s G Suite and so I tend to just let email threads sit in my inbox as unread when I’m done with them.
Number of appointments/meetings on your calendar this week? 31. Seems like there are more now in a world where most people are working remotely.
How do you run meetings? Meetings start and end on time. It’s a really important value of mine to make sure we adhere to commitments we make to each other and respect everybody’s time.
Lately with everything shifting to video calls, I’ve taken to always having a Google Doc open with the agenda written out and taking notes live so that everyone can follow. That’s really helped keep things on task when we’re not in the same physical space.
As a manager, my ideal is to let others voice their opinions and have conversations with each other while I act only as a moderator, before I opine or make a decision. I loathe chaotic and meandering “brainstorm” meetings, and always prefer to use meeting design patterns like those found in Liberating Structures.
Everyday work uniform? Untucked casual button-down shirt, jeans and boots. T-shirt, shorts and sandals in the summer. People shouldn’t be slovenly, but other than that, I think everyone should be free to wear what makes them feel comfortable and that their fashion represents who they are as individuals.
How do you make time for family? By setting strong boundaries around work. I make sure that when I’m ready to hang out with my girlfriend or friends that I’m truly done with work for the day and won’t be responding to messages. Context switching between work and family/relaxation time is very draining, and should be avoided at all costs.
Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? Reading, cooking, weightlifting, going outside and live music are how I do self-care. Anything that can help me get out of my head and feel more in my body. I made a conscious decision last year to start playing more video games to get more non-work intellectual stimulation. Turns out that was a good bet to make once the quarantines started.
What are you listening to? I’m a huge Phish fan, and their recent album Sigma Oasis is one of their best. Genres I love are jam, psych rock, afrobeat, jazz, funk and Romantic-era classical. If you haven’t heard Kikagaku Moyo, their KEXP session is a must. The band Parcels put out a pop-funk live session album recently that’s been awesome to put on repeat. I’ve listened to Sturgill Simpson’s “SOUND & FURY” a few dozen times since it came out last year. In the evenings I’ll wind down by putting on classical KING FM, hoping to hear some epic symphonic piece by a composer like Mahler or Brahms.
Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? I’m always testing and iterating on this. I think it’s really important for a business leader to stay up to date with current trends and events, so I spend about an hour every morning reading newsletters and Twitter. My favorite newsletters are Numlock, Benedict Evans and Daily Stoic. I spend most of my web browsing time on Reddit because of the sheer diversity of ideas and articles and memes I’ll find on there.
Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? COVID has me yearning for some good escapist sci-fi lit, so I’m working my way through John Scalzi’s bibliography for the first time. I just finished his Interdependency trilogy, and am starting next on his Old Man’s War series.
Night owl or early riser? I’m not a night owl per se, but I also hate early mornings. I’m generally in bed around 11 p.m. and waking up at 8 a.m. I like having enough time in the evening to pursue other activities that aren’t work.
Where do you get your best ideas? My very honest answer is that my best ideas come while stoned at a live music show. I have ADHD, so being able to move my body and having some groovy beat playing are enough to distract my pent-up energy and just let me focus on creative thinking. Cannabis helps me draw connections between things and people in a way that’s normally difficult for me, so I always value the new perspectives I can find while high.
Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? Many years ago I read Richard Branson’s “The Virgin Way” and learned a lot from him. I still keep a daily handwritten notebook because of his recommendations. I like being in a position where I can jump in and help different areas of the business when it’s useful, and so I like learning how generalists have been successful.