Technology and innovation are increasingly being applied to manage the growing threat of wildfires. Pete Miller, CEO of The Institutes, welcomes Bill Clerico, founder of Convective Capital, to discuss how early-stage firetech companies are making a difference in improving community resilience, mitigating risk and enabling a safer and faster response to fires.  

Bill shares his personal experience with wildfires and how it led him to start Convective Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage wildfire technology companies. Bill highlights the three main problems these startups are solving: building resilient landscapes, creating fire-adapted communities, and ensuring safe and effective response. He provides examples of companies in each category, such as BurnBot for resilient landscapes, Fire Aside for fire-adapted communities, and Pano for safe and effective response. Clerico also emphasizes the need for greater collaboration among stakeholders, including utilities, insurers, and regulators, to address the challenges of wildfire prevention and mitigation. Finally he shares some ideas on how insurers can fund pilots to capture data that could save billions down the road by reducing wildfire risk.

Resources:

Convective Capital: https://www.convectivecapital.com/

BurnBot: https://burnbot.com/

Fire Aside: https://www.fireaside.com/

Pano: https://www.pano.ai/

OnSight Technology: https://onsightops.com/

Red Sky Summit: https://redskysummit.com/

Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS): https://ibhs.org/

Predict & Prevent website: www.predictandprevent.org

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