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Entrepreneurs have many ways of measuring success. But building a passionate team, growing your venture to an industry leader, selling it to a partner and shepherding a spin-off through the sale to a multinational conglomerate is arguably a peak metric.
That's the compelling story I'll share today about Rob Freeman, Geoff Coventry, and Matt Gilhousen, the co-founders of Tradewind Energy Inc.
Founded in 2002, Lenexa, Kansas-based Tradewind was one of the US's largest independent wind and solar project development companies and the number one developer and installer nationwide in 2017, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
In 2019, Rob, Geoff and Matt sold Tradewind to a partner, Enel Green Power North America. As part of the deal, Tradewind's utility-scale solar business, Savion, was separately sold to Green Investment Group Ltd., a London-based subsidiary of Macquarie Group Ltd., an international bank based in Sydney.
Rob and Geoff joined Savion as CEO and COO, respectively, and helped lead Savion to a 2021 acquisition by Shell New Energies US LLC, a Royal Dutch Shell PLC subsidiary.
Quite a serendipitous journey, and one I can't wait for you to hear all about in today's two-part show.
As Rob explained, "I'm a classic guy who didn't know what he wanted to be when he grew up until he was 42." An unhappy lawyer with an undergraduate degree in geology, Rob said he ultimately realized he was an entrepreneur at heart.
His eclectic career background, including starting a bottled water company and working at a utility, fueled his fascination with renewable energy and formed many pieces of the puzzle that enabled him to contribute to the Tradewind startup.
Rob started networking and met Geoff, a serial entrepreneur from New Zealand, and Matt, a rock drummer with a civil engineering degree.
"I was probably the natural leader because I was a little longer in the tooth," Rob recalled. "And Matt was the logical Chief Development Officer with his engineering background and interest in, as he says, 'all things mechanical.'"
Initially, Rob and Geoff worked on origination and developing relationships with area utilities. But at some point early on, "we realized we badly needed expertise with transmission in-house. And so I went to Geoff one day and said we don't have the money to hire a crackerjack transmission person.
"Jeff probably said something like, 'I don't know anything about transmission.' And I said, 'Well, you're a smart guy, and you'll figure it out.' And he did."
Rob talks about the nuances of building a company and facing investors who challenge whether the leadership has the right experience. Based on feelings and intuition — "I liked these guys, and they had all the passion in the world" — Rob kept the team intact.
"We stayed together and sort of bit by bit, month by month, year by year, this thing that was such an odd couple grew into a very close friendship, and our different personalities and backgrounds ended up being the magic," Rob said.
Geoff makes some great points about the uncertainties and confusion of the early days of a new company. "Looking back at some of this, it's pretty amusing as you think about how the early days began and the things we didn't know."
He recalled talking with a utility executive about one of Tradewind's first wind projects. "And he used the term SPP, which is short for Southwest Power Pool (which manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for the central United States). I had no idea what he just said, and it sounded like a foreign language, and I didn't even know if it was letters. Like, 'what was that word?' That's the level we jumped into, but, you know, it's a fast learning curve," Geoff said.
Matt said, "We didn't know what we didn't know, the scope of it or how much money we needed."
Matt, Geoff and Rob offer excellent insights into how Tradewind grew its investor pool and persuaded people to believe in their abilities to execute their ideas. "We had a number of these near-death experiences, like most startups, and it was definitely not smooth sailing," Rob said.
Their strategies and insights about building a renewable energy company are valuable for entrepreneurs of all skill levels.
"Things always take longer, and they're harder than people expect. I used to love to say, and I haven't said this in a while. But it always sounds great that if you wrote down the ten things you would absolutely not want to have or come anywhere near in a business, we had all ten of them.
"We had no market, no customers, the product was new. The wind turbines themselves were early days, and then, of course, building a team— all of it. So, yeah. We had a long ramp to revenue," Rob said.
I hope you'll take the time to listen to the full interview. You'll learn a lot about building a company and the importance of surrounding yourself with the right team from these successful sustainable energy pioneers.
"There's not a whole lot of secret sauce in this business, and there never has been. And you know, if we look at the success of Tradewind, there's no question it's a story about people and the team," Rob said.
Over time, Tradewind grew to 145 people — probably because of what Rob called "a certain amount of luck and a certain amount of being very purposeful about the people we hired and the culture we created. We ended up with a team that, there's no question, was widely recognized around the industry as the top in the country."
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES:
“It’s a story about the team. And I think that ended up being the secret sauce.”
“Sometimes what you don’t know is a good thing. Because you don’t know what you can’t do.”
“We’re going to work this problem until we solve it, like there is no option of not solving it. We have to just work it, iterate it until we feel it’s good enough.”
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ABOUT THE HOST OF SUNCAST:
Nico Johnson is the creator and host of SunCast, consistently rated a top solar podcast in the clean energy sector. The content of the show is geared towards listeners looking for insights on where the markets are headed, how to position themselves or their companies, and what today's market leaders do to stay ahead of the pack.
Nico is an Investor, Executive Coach, and 16-year veteran of the solar industry, having led development in the US and Latin America for global companies like Trina Solar and Conergy.
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