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As a serial entrepreneur, Jerry Coleman understands the cyclical nature of business. "You need to prepare for things to go wrong," he said.
This practical approach to business has served him well over the past 20 years.
Jerry is a serial entrepreneur passionate about developing and growing companies nationwide. After founding and cultivating multiple real estate-related ventures, he turned to solar in 2014 to address one of the problems plaguing his investments.
"High energy bills," he explained.
Jerry and Brian Blair co-founded Elevation Solar, a Chandler, Arizona-based residential solar, storage, and energy efficiency and intelligence technology provider. The company aims to deliver homeowners innovative energy solutions while increasing real estate values.
With a law degree and an undergraduate degree in accounting, Jerry understands the interconnection between real estate and finance — and how they act as keys to the solar industry.
Jerry and Brian created Elevation Solar to address rising energy costs on the single-family homes they invested in through another business, Invitation Homes.
Less than 18 months after founding Invitation Homes, the company grew to a team of 1,500 employees and 10,000 contractors, developing the most extensive single-family home rental portfolio in history. Invitation Homes has deployed more than $9.5 billion in investment capital into 50,000 single-family homes.
"Real estate is very local, and so going in and finding the right people in the right markets to do a lot of that heavy lifting is one of the keys to successfully doing that," he said.
But energy costs were an issue — second only to the mortgages on the investments.
After researching how to make their homes more energy efficient, Elevation was born.
The business began with rooftop solar but expanded to include energy efficiency. In 2020, Elevation acquired Curb Energy to add smart energy monitoring technology to its whole home solution. Jerry said the combination of solar, energy efficiency and monitoring provides homeowners with a complete suite of energy solutions.
"You've got to be able to have the right strategy when you're developing new solutions and then roll them out meaningfully to individual homeowners and your portfolios. The key for us has always been finding that balance of having all those components as part of the solution we provide," he said.
Jerry credits his perseverance partly to a high school coach who taught him and his teammates they could accomplish more than we thought. He remembered it when he was re-roofing a house on a record-breaking 122-degree day — and a lesson he's carried with him from missionary work in Argentina for his church all the way through the present.
He talks about lessons learned from his dad, who taught him doors to opportunity are always open by switching careers from a teacher to a citrus farmer.
And he explains why he's more interested in creating than running companies. "There are a lot of talented people that are much better than me at managing a scale business and running those operations and dialing in processes and procedures," he said.
Join us today to hear more about this entrepreneur's intriguing ideas, ventures, and background.
NOTEWORTHY QUOTEs:
“I’ve been very fortunate to have have great partners, throughout my career, I think it’s about finding somebody that’s like minded, that has similar values and work ethic, as you do, as well as, very important to find people that complement your strengths and you complement their weaknesses, and vice versa. That’s always been something I look for to start a new venture.”
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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.
You can connect with Nico Johnson on Twitter, LinkedIn or email.
If you’ve been second-guessing your work decisions or maybe trying to reconsider how you "fit" in the renewable energy industry -> grab 20 minutes on Nico's calendar and discuss whether having him as Your personal coach might be the right next step.