To Freebie or Not To Be

Should you work for free to get climate experience? Probably not.

Fellow Tofu and freelance climate writer Matthew Robare recently posted his passionate LinkedIn article ‘Climate Tech, pay your marketers.’ In the article, Matthew shares a few instances from various Slack communities where founders or other climate tech ecosystem players sought free or almost unpaid marketing support.

I often get asked by jobseekers and marketers looking to get into climate whether they should work ‘for free’ to gain climate experience. My answer is usually a resounding ‘no.’

As Matthew points out, we marketers “provide unique and valuable services. [...] We make or break companies with lead gen, SEO, content authority and trust. We understand the problems the customer wants solved and we put the information about the product or service in a form the customer can read.” Your experience and value have a price.

However, there are a few limited exceptions to the rule:

• Volunteer for a non-profit. When I first got into climate, Cleantech Open, the largest and longest-running cleantech accelerator in the US, was looking for a National Marketing Chair - a volunteer role. While this could have easily been a full-time, paid position, I decided to take on the role because it gave me immediate climate credibility to be associated with this cleantech behemoth; I was part of the national leadership team of the organization; and I was able to access their vast network of VCs, mentors, other volunteers and startups, helping me build my climate tech marketing consulting business.