Diego Saez-Gil
Co-Founder and CEO, Pachama · 1 appearance on the record.
computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →
founderexecutive@dsaezgil ↗LinkedIn ↗dsaezgil.com ↗
Diego Saez-Gil is an Argentine climate-tech entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Pachama, an AI and satellite remote-sensing platform for verifying and monitoring forest carbon projects. Prior to Pachama, he co-founded the smart-luggage company Bluesmart and mobile travel-booking platform WeHostels.
23statements → 15claims → 13claims resolved → 69%fully supported → 3.83/5average certainty → 1.7/5average debate potential →
9 supported 2 partly supported 2 contradicted 2 not checkable as stated how the 15 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
1 prediction · 14 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 6 disclosures · every statement was checked. The prediction and assertions are the 15 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 13 are resolved, and 2 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Diego argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Saez-Gil: A trillion trees could draw down 200 gigatons of carbon
“There is about one billion hectares in the planet that are available for forest restoration without competing with agriculture, In that land, you can plant about a trillion trees, and that trillion trees has the potential to draw down about 200 gigatons of car…”
Their most notable contradicted claim
Pachama's ML model predicts New England forest carbon under 1.5% error
“And we demonstrated, this is the work of, ah, Elias, who is the PhD that works with us, ah, for four years he was working on this and he demonstrated in New England, less than 1.5% error at predicting how much carbon is there in a forest, comparing...”
Expressed certainty vs assessment result
weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet
Everything Diego Saez-Gil said on the Y Combinator Startup Podcast that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Saez-Gil: A trillion trees could draw down 200 gigatons of carbon
“There is about one billion hectares in the planet that are available for forest restoration without competing with agriculture, In that land, you can plant about a trillion trees, and that trillion trees has the potential to draw down about 200 gigatons of car…”
Saez-Gil: Less than 2% of $80B carbon market funds forestry
“According to the World Bank last year, over eighty billion dollars went into carbon market initiatives around the world. And yet, when you look at the percentage of that funding that is going to forest conservation and restoration is less than two percent.”
Saez-Gil: New airline regulations demand 160M tons of carbon offsets annually
“All the airlines starting in twenty-twenty-one will have to offset their emissions. This is by regulations, right? Mm-hmm. It's called the Corsia Framework. Yeah. We are talking about a 160 million tons per year that are gonna be demanded by the market.”
Pachama's ML model predicts New England forest carbon under 1.5% error
“And we demonstrated, this is the work of, ah, Elias, who is the PhD that works with us, ah, for four years he was working on this and he demonstrated in New England, less than 1.5% error at predicting how much carbon is there in a forest, comparing...”
Founders do not need domain expertise, only resource attraction skills
“And you don't have to be an expert. That's the thing about entrepreneurship. You just have to be good at attracting, you know, resources, right?”
Agroforestry can produce higher yields than traditional monoculture agriculture
“It turns out, according to the data I read, that agriculture inside of a forest can actually produce more yield than traditional, you know, monoculture agriculture.”
Saez-Gil: Certifying a forest for carbon credits costs up to $400,000
“If you want to certify a forest project today, let's say that you want to plant trees, you have a land and you want to, you know do reforestation or do forest conservation, you have to do a certification process that takes two years and it costs between a 104 …”
Saez-Gil: Remote sensing and AI allow precise forest carbon estimation
“Those data points of the forest, and you can be incredibly precise today at estimating carbon storage and carbon capture by forest.”
Saez-Gil: Traditional carbon offset markets rely on multiple intermediary layers
“Today companies that want to purchase carbon offsets, they generally have to go to brokers. The brokers get their credits from, you know, a trader, the trader maybe from a retailer, the retailer from a, you know, a lot of middlemen along the way.”
Saez-Gil: Old-growth forests remain net carbon sinks
“All growth forests continue to capture carbon. The Borneo forest that has millions of years continues to capture carbon, and while a forest, like every living, ah, ecosystem and organism dies out and regenerates, and when a tree dies out, yes, it releases some…”
Wood is significantly more sustainable than concrete for construction
“Wood is a very sustainable material, way more sustainable than concrete or other materials, so we should Continue having tree plantations and harvesting for wood generation, and I think that doing improved forest management on, on timber areas is, is an import…”
Diego Saez-Gil told Pachama investors mission will always precede profits
“I told them before accepting their money, look, okay, now you're convinced that this is a good business. I want to tell you, this is a long-term company. It's mission driven. Always the mission is going to be before profits. And it's going to take time. You kn…”
Pachama assumes carbon markets will expand even without regulatory changes
“Definitely, we are acting as if there's not gonna be any change in regulation, and still this is gonna be a big market.”
Saez-Gil: Fewer than 50 certified forest carbon projects exist in US
“In the US there are less than 50 projects that got certification for carbon credits, and in South America there's less.”
Saez-Gil: Software company emissions average six tons per employee annually
“There is an estimation that, that, you know, for a company like that, It's about six tons per employee per year, the emission.”
Saez-Gil: Carbon credit prices range between $5 and $20 per ton
“Today, you know, prices, prices of carbon credits range between five and 20 dollars.”
Saez-Gil: Offsetting a software employee's footprint costs $50 to $150 annually
“Between 50 and a 150 dollars. Per employee per year for a service company. At that price level.”
Saez-Gil: One hectare of full-grown forest contains about 200 tons of carbon
“One hectare of land of full-grown forest contains about 200 tons.”
Saez-Gil: Carbon market capital flow is growing 50% year-over-year
“The flow of capital going to carbon markets is growing. 50% year over year since the Paris Agreement.”
Pachama turns carbon credits into digitally traceable assets
“We're trying to make it a digital asset in which you can trace digitally everything from how a credit was issued, how it was calculated, how it's monitored, and how it's traded.”
Pachama partnered with the world's two largest satellite companies
“We partnered with the two largest satellite companies in the world, and we're, you know, sourcing really good imagery from them”
Pachama onboarded 10+ projects and closed 10+ customers in year one
“We onboarded over 10 forest projects in the US and Brazil into our platform that we analyzed, validated, and, you know, listed on our platform. We have closed over 10 customers.”
Pachama raised double its target from Ryan Graves, Sacca, and Accel
“We ended up racing almost twice as much as we wanted to race initially from an amazing group of people. Our lead investor is Ryan Graves, the co-founder of Uber. He, who has experience building a global marketplace. We got investment from Chris Saka, who, you …”
Appearances (1)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Diego Saez Gil - How Pachama Uses Tech to Solve Climate Change · Y Combinator | Jan 28, 2020 | 32m |