Sightglass Insight Series: Interview with Christopher Naismith, CEO of AET

John: Thanks for joining today. It’s always great to see you.

Christopher: Good to see you too. Thanks for having me.

John: I’m joined today by Christopher Naismith, CEO of AET. We’ll be talking about the challenges faced by different climate tech founders as they grow and scale their businesses. Christopher, I’d love to hear an overview of what it’s been like building AET so far, some of the difficulties you’ve encountered, and your early learnings.

Christopher: Absolutely. I’m the CEO and founder of AET. My background is in mechanical and civil engineering—so I’m not a natural entrepreneur—but I couldn’t solve the problem I was working on without launching a software company.

AET helps large real estate companies model their carbon transition pathways and access the technologies and services needed to reach net zero. So not only do we face the typical startup hurdles, but we’re also trying to create a new category in an evolving economic segment. That brings a lot of unique, day-to-day challenges.

John: Climate tech and green tech are really hot right now—no pun intended. But starting a business today requires so much capital, sometimes even before a product exists. What advice would you give to founders navigating this space?

Christopher: I’d start with advice I received early on. One of the first books I read was Steve Blank’s Startup Owner’s Manual. The biggest takeaway? Get out of the building.

No matter how good you think your understanding of the problem space is, it’s probably wrong. The only way to improve it is through experimentation and engagement with the market. We started AET in December 2019—right before the pandemic. During the early months of COVID, commercial real estate froze. No one was buying. So we used that time to interview over 100 people. They were all stuck at home, but willing to talk. That helped us gain incredible insight.

That principle hasn’t changed: talk to people before building anything or raising money.

John: That emphasis on product-market fit really stands out. People usually only share the good news. Can you tell us about the hard lessons you’ve learned while developing your product and finding fit?

Christopher: One big lesson: every startup book is written in retrospect. They all paint a neat picture—like there’s an “aha” moment where things suddenly take off. In reality, it’s a series of iterations, trial and error. You make bets, use your intuition, and hope to learn quickly.

Also, most advice is geared toward consumer businesses—high-volume models where you can run large-scale experiments. But enterprise is different. Your buyer might be a committee of ten people. Sales cycles can last 6, 9, even 12 months. So you have to extract what’s useful from general startup advice and throw the rest away. Learn from your own market.

John: Most climate tech ventures start from a place of altruism. But like us at Sightglass, you also need to build a sustainable business. How have you managed to keep climate at the center while handling the pressures of scaling?

Christopher: It’s tough. There’s always the question: are you a startup or a climate company first? I think of it in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy—business viability has to come first. We can’t fulfill our mission unless we survive long enough to execute it.

That means keeping the mission front and center while making tough decisions. We’re like any other startup: learning the business model, making mistakes, taking risks. I try to make the best decision possible at any moment—doing no harm where I can.

John: That long-game mindset is so important. Has your nonprofit background helped you balance mission and business?

Christopher: Yes. I worked with an anti-pipeline advocacy group that used a community organizing model developed by Marshall Ganz—the same one Barack Obama used in his 2008 campaign. It’s rooted in storytelling and uniting people around shared goals.

That framework has helped us reconcile economic and climate imperatives. We all live on the same planet, in the same economy. I don’t need everyone to care about climate the way I do—I just need to connect with how climate impacts their business. That shared leverage point enables real collaboration.

John: Something I love about our two businesses is that we’re both queer- and minority-led. What has your experience been like stepping into leadership in that space?

Christopher: It’s still rare to see queer people in business leadership. It’s only in the past decade that it’s become an acceptable conversation.

I’m a cis white male, so I have the privilege of choosing whether to disclose my identity. That’s not the case for everyone. But I made the decision to be fully out as a way to expand opportunities for others like me. It’s a privilege—and sometimes scary. You wonder, will this cost me a deal? Will it scare off a prospective hire? But ultimately, if someone has a problem with that, I probably don’t want to work with them anyway.

John: How has the rise of ESG metrics and reporting changed the landscape?

Christopher: It’s had a huge impact—especially in commercial real estate. Investment markets have made it clear they care. Whether it’s consumer investors or massive institutions like pension funds, they’re all starting to demand ESG performance.

Real estate is just one asset class, and in order to remain competitive, firms need to show they can perform on ESG. It’s become an existential imperative. That’s a big shift and a real opportunity for change.

John: And then there was the pandemic, which changed everything. What effect did that have for you?

Christopher: It was massive. It changed how we work, but also how we relate to one another. Most of my early meetings happened from my bedroom. That was true for everyone. It gave us a glimpse into the humanity behind business.

It also made the world feel smaller. I was able to join accelerator programs in New York, London, and across Canada—all from home. I raised $10 million without leaving my city. That wasn’t possible before. Now it’s normal to open and close large enterprise deals without in-person meetings. It’s a huge accelerator.

John: What excites you most about AET’s platform and the technology you’re building?

Christopher: We provide decarbonization analytics for commercial real estate—just one part of the global supply chain. But what excites me is that we’re digitizing that supply chain, understanding its carbon performance, and attaching it to specific actions to get to net zero.

It’s like creating a digital twin of our economy. That level of visibility hasn’t existed before. It’s a massive engineering challenge—not intractable, just hard—and now we’re devoting serious resources to solving it.

Investors are backing these solutions across manufacturing, logistics, distribution. We’re building the compute systems to enable real optimization.

John: Tell us about your ideal customer.

Christopher: Our sweet spot is large real estate investors—firms that raise money to deploy into real estate portfolios. Once a portfolio gets over 100 assets, the pain of planning decarbonization becomes intense.

These customers usually have public climate pledges and a strong desire to execute on them. But they’re also hands-on. We’re a small startup, solving messy problems. We need partners who are willing to get in the weeds with us—so we can build features together that drive real change across the industry.

John: Thank you, Christopher. This was great.

Christopher: Thanks—always fun chatting.