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Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo met at Stanford Business School and quickly became friends — a not-surprising development since they are both entrepreneurial. 

"We initially wanted to start a solar installation business. So we put together a pilot project for a commercial scale installation of about 50 kilowatts for a boarding school and went through the whole project, soup to nuts," Chris recalled.

They soon fell into the complicated, cumbersome process of solar project design. With no readily available software to support it, it devolved into "a tool soup of Excel spreadsheets Frankensteining out of control." 

"Then more and more people started inquiring whether solar would make sense for them, and we were like, 'We don't know. We need a better way of figuring this out.' And that's how Aurora was born," Chris continued.

Chris and Sam founded Aurora Solar in 2012 with a mission to reduce solar design costs. Their cloud-based platform aims to make solar simple and predictable.

The software quickly and accurately designs rooftop panels through aerial photos, eliminating the need for the installer to climb on the roof with a tape measure. 

In today's Tactical Tuesday, Chris, Aurora's CEO, and Sam, its Chief Revenue Officer, talk about the Menlo Park, California-based company's incredible track record and the origin of its industry-leading software platform. Now a leading software for residential and commercial PV sales and design, Aurora is used in about 100,000 PV systems designs every month by more than 7,000 installers across the globe. And, they recently hit 2 huge milestones - their 10 Millionth solar project design on the platform, and a massive $200 Million Series D fundraising. It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview both Founders at the same time, and we took full advantage of the moment.

Regular listeners may remember my first conversation with Sam on Episode 199. And in Episode 394, we shared news of Aurora's acquisition of a leading competitor, Folsom Labs, the developer of HelioScope, a leading software platform for the commercial solar sector. As the two teams became one, they benefited from a larger engineering team and an expanded product suite.

Aurora is considered one of the primary “essential” design products in the industry by many and —arguably offers some of the industry's best training and visual graphic support. Sam called that intentionally strong support and robust marketing a strategic advantage.

"Our mission as a company is a future of solar energy for all. And we want to build a platform through which all these solar installations pass and are better off. The intent is it's more accurate, and the homeowner has a better idea of what they're getting," Sam explained.

Sam and Chris noted that their pilot project was in Nairobi, Kenya.

"It was so far away that we couldn't visit. So it amplified the pain points," Chris said.

The remote design software they invented bridged the gap. "And then we looked at the US and realized all these folks are climbing on roofs, adding to installation costs. It was a big cost we knew we could solve that with technology," he continued. That focus on remote design optimization proved a potent advantage these last 2 years through the pandemic, and Aurora has firmly seated itself at the head of the Solar Software table here in the US residential solar market. 

Join us to hear how these two business owners grew a company to become one of the few real unicorns in a space where few thought there would be unicorns. You'll learn how the evolution of Aurora has impacted the industry and what's next for the company. 

Coinciding with the release of this episode, Aurora is also presenting their annual Empower Virtual Conference, which is a Free 2-day event designed to provide inspiration and education to empower our community with greater insights and community gatherings. And they lined up legendary Hollywood actor, Edward Norton, to keynote the kickoff at 9:30am PT - so if you are reading this in time, you should head over and Register so you don’t miss out! 

Today's conversation was part of the RE+ PowerUp Media Zone, a live production of SunCast Media.

Thanks again to this week's sponsor, helping keep the podcast FREE to you!

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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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