343 - How the Texas grid failed? Insights from a former energy trader, Evan Caron

Welcome back, Solar Warriors.

This episode will be different from the Tactical Tuesdays and long-form Thursday episodes we always publish. This is a mini-episode if you will. Sometimes we do this on Fridays or other days when we have a guest that has extraordinary information that we want to share with you and it's timely, but doesn't fit in our normal production schedule.

If you are a Texas resident or if you've been watching what's happening in Texas, you should know by now that there is a crisis in ERCOT. There's a crisis in the electricity markets as well as a humanitarian crisis right now as a result of hard snowstorms. And since I'm not in Texas, but I have friends down there, I called on just such a friend, Mr. Evan Caron.

He's an Austin resident, who is an energy trader and really deeply understands this market. So if you have been trying to figure it out, understand what the heck is happening in that market, we are here to give you some answers.

As of last Thursday, Feb 18th, when this was recorded, FEMA had provided 60 power generators and additional fuel support to facilities like hospitals, nursing homes, and water treatment plants. The federal agency is also providing 60,000 wool and cotton blankets, 225,000 meals, and other supplies after they were requested by Abbott. More info clicking here.

You can now find me on clubhouse at SunCast. Evan and I are going to jump on clubhouse and have a Q&A session and he will talk more about not only what's happening in the markets, but where you might be able to find opportunities to invest either in equities and, and that gets interesting or in building out the future of the Texas grid.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Evan on LinkedIn

Check out the amazing work of ClearTrace on LinkedIn, Twitter and their website.

342 - Serial entrepreneurs bring robotics to solar farms, Tim Matus & Steve Arters of Renu Robotics

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's entrepreneurs are certainly no stranger to the start-up ride, as they have started a number of companies. Most recently, they have made it all the way to Round Three of the National Renewable Energy Labs’ American-Made Solar Prize, which we've discussed here before.

Tim Matus and Steve Arters are intrapreneurs I've come to respect and making it that far in the solar prize is something noteworthy. They created automated robots that help us maintain solar sites, which is something that I took note of and I thought that you might find it interesting as well, not just the technology, but how exactly they got around to the technology, including some tinkering around in their garage, as all good startup stories should include.

Their company, Renu Robotics was launched in February of 2018 to address initiatives to control costs on utility-scale solar farms. The collaboration of ideas led to interest in creating flexible autonomous robots able to be fitted with many different implements.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Tim on LinkedIn

Connect with Steve on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Renu Robotics on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

341 - Clean Energy Industry Overview: Where do I Start? with Sarah Wilder, Becca Ward, Joe Tassone, and Eric Pasi

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, which is a short form conversation with subject matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business, or career.

What does the clean energy job landscape look like right now?

If you've clicked through on today's episode, an overview on where do I start in the clean energy industry, I suspect that you are thinking about a career change or you're thinking about how your career could or should be growing in the industry, and you are looking for some tips and practical advice.

In fairness, this is a replay from our SunCast Career Summit, which happened back in September 2020, but it is a great overview. Not only myself but some of the guests (in particular, Eric Pasi) have written quite a bit about the answers to the oft-made question: “How do I get into this industry? Where do I start?”

If that's you, I hope you'll also take a chance and go to mysuncast.com and click on the “Work with Nico” button. Everybody that fills out my coaching application gets a 15-minute clarity call. I’d love to see where you're at and how I can help you go further.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Connect with Becca on LinkedIn

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn

340 - Innovation in ESG Data Collection with Zach Livingston, Head of Sales at ClearTrace

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today, we are going to have an intrapreneur and entrepreneur, a friend of mine down in Austin, Texas called Zach Livingston, Head of Sales at ClearTrace. We’ll get into the ins and outs of carbon accounting, and all the reasons why it has not to date been done very well, and how his company ClearTrace is leveling up their game and yours.

ClearTrace is a cloud-based SaaS company enabling stakeholders to track, trace, and manage their clean energy footprint. Zach was previously the 'Vice President of Sales and Head of the Americas' at Locus Energy and became the 'Director of Sales - USA' at AlsoEnergy after Locus and Also merged. Both companies supplied solutions for the monitoring, analytics and performance optimization of renewable energy assets.

Earlier in Zach's career, he spent time interning in the Clinton Foundation's Executive Office, working with the former President and his immediate staff, and interning for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s clean water advocacy group, Riverkeeper.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Zachary on LinkedIn

Check out the work of ClearTrace on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Carbon-accounting startup ClearTrace raises $4M

339 - 5 Pro Tips to actually make Salesforce work FOR you, with Geraldine Gray, Endiem (Saleforce MVP)

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Today's entrepreneur is someone I've had the pleasure to get to know recently, through the context of exploring how software can serve and also sometimes be the bane of our existence. She has worked over the past several decades helping businesses improve their business operations and processes using a little piece of software. Maybe you've heard of it: it’s called Salesforce.

Geraldine Gray is the CEO and founder of Endiem, and you're going to hear what that company is all about today as well. I would encourage you to stick around to the very end because this decade's long Salesforce MVP is going to share her Top Three App Exchange Secret Weapons. Of course, we'll discuss the Salesforce platform and how solar businesses can get ROI from that platform.

Geraldine is the founder and CEO of Endiem, a partner trusted to deliver brilliant Salesforce solutions for the energy sector. Self-funded from Day One, she has grown her business from one-woman-at-her desk to the largest independent Salesforce Consulting Partner in Houston. She is recognized by Salesforce executives as being among the top 1% of all Salesforce talent in the world and has been a Salesforce MVP 10 consecutive times since 2010.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Geraldine on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the amazing work of Endiem on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

338 - Marketing 101 for commercial solar: lessons learned with Meghan Gainer at DSD.

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's intrapreneur has been inside the leadership team of some of the most successful brands in the solar industry and at critical times in their growth journey. We're going to take a look at her view from the Bridge as it were.

Meghan Gainer is Head of Marketing Communications at Distributed Solar Development, or DSD, as we'll refer to it, which originally was incubated inside of General Electric. Her 14 years of commercial Marketing and Communications experience help her thread the needle for marketing and communications, public relations, strategy and execution for the companies that she's been privileged to help build companies like Comcast, SunEdison, Solar City, Tesla, GE, and now of course, DSD.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Meghan on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Distributed Solar Development on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

DSD Acquires 17 MW Community Solar Portfolio in New York from Source Renewables

Mentioned Books

Give and Take - Adam Grant

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong - and What You Really Need to Know

337 - 5 key decisions for effective strategic partnerships with Josh Beck, Managing Director of BCI Technology Investments

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

It’s February 2021 and I’m stoked to have you here. Today's entrepreneur is a good friend of mine that many of you perhaps listened to in 2020, especially when he brought the 10 things that every entrepreneur needs to know when they're trying to raise capital: that's my friend Josh Beck.

Josh is the Chief Investment Officer at BCI Technology Investments. He's had, in many ways a storied career. He's one of my favorite insider investor minds when I get to just chat with someone about what is happening in the world of global supply, especially with regards to obviously BCI is a big steel manufacturing concern.

He's had some opportunities to be involved in major organizations in the industry like NEXTracker, which we spoke about in previous episodes.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Josh Beck on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of BCI Technology Investments on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

336 - Marc Andreessen is Wrong. Clean Energy can drive a domestic infrastructure boom, with Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect Power

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

It is a pleasure to have you here and I am glad that you're tuning in. January is almost coming to a close, and what a January we’ve had. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are working hard at bringing renewable energy and climate action to the forefront and bringing jobs back to our shores, giving us all the opportunity to participate in this democracy and elevate the game for clean energy, and today's guest has done that in spades.

If you listened to Episode 261, then you're no stranger to Mr. Sheldon Kimber of Intersect Power. But I wanted to bring Sheldon back, especially in this month, where we're thinking hard about what can the current administration and our industry do to elevate our voice to ensure we take massive action on climate change.

Sheldon wrote an article back in the fall, and it got a fair amount of traction on LinkedIn (even Jigar Shah and many others commented on it). I wanted to bring Sheldon on to talk specifically about this article that he wrote, titled “software is eating the world, but steel is the hardware it runs on” and it's a reply to Marc Andreessen's essay "It's time to build" where he posits that we don't have the drive to build the infrastructure and that complacency is killing the opportunity. Not so, says Sheldon...and we get into just exactly why we need to Dream in Steel again!

I hope that you'll tune in and listen up to this dialogue where Sheldon and I dive into how clean energy as an industry is, like building the Intercontinental railroad, building the infrastructure like dams, and many other facets of the reconstruction of our country in postwar times.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Software Is Eating the World, But Steel Is The Hardware It Runs On: A Reply to Marc Andreessen’s “It’s Time To Build”

Connect with Sheldon on LinkedIn and Twitter

Follow Intersect Power on LinkedIn, Twitter, and check out their website

Remember that the transcript of this episode is available HERE

Books mentioned

Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869

335 - Andy Klump, CEO and Founder of Clean Energy Associates

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

It's Thursday and man, if you missed last night, you missed one of the best parties of the year!

It was one of the best parties that I've been to virtualy, and I just wanted to say thanks to all the folks from Clean Energy For Biden, and all of you who either volunteered, participated, or took my advice and came to what I think was the best networking event that we've had all year, the Clean Energy For America Inaugural Ball.

Thank you to all of you Solar Warriors who showed up, stood tall and had fun last night. The SunCast tribe is a big family, and the guy that is gracing the stage here on today’s episode is a big part of the SunCast family. His name is Andy Klump.

Andy holds the current and long-standing record of most downloaded episode on SunCast. That's right, coming in more than 2000 downloads. I wanted to have Andy back because there's a lot about this man's life in how he ended up in China being a trusted resource for so many companies and individuals like myself around the world from Europe, to the Americas.

I wanted to hear how he came about this venture called Clean Energy Associates, and I wanted to hear how he built through this adventure of living in China. Having a wonderful family, being an upright citizen and all-around good guy.

Today we dig into the man that is Andy Klump, not just how he built his business, but how he's built his career. And I hope that you would come to admire this man as much as I do. He's a good friend, and a very good businessman.

Funny throwback picture included in the episode card- The funniest picture from Solar Fight Night 2018.

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, Endiem for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Andy on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Clean Energy Associates on their website

334 - How to Scale C&I solar with Matt Hankey, Founder of New Energy Equity

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's entrepreneur I have been introduced to multiple times since 2014. Thanks to the homebound lockdowns of the pandemic this year, we finally had a chance to get to know one another.

Matt Hankey is the Founder and CEO of New Energy Equity, one of the fastest-growing companies in our industry. They're the fourth largest solar commercial company in the US seventh largest developer in the United States, and one of the fastest-growing solar developers in the DC area.

Suffice to say, this will be a fun dive into an entrepreneurial journey that has seen some extreme highs, probably some extreme lows, and we're going to learn a ton.

Resources

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

Check out the work of New Energy Equity on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

New Energy Equity develops 789-kW tracking solar project at Ohio school

333 - Supporting the Advancement of Emerging Leaders & Increasing Diversity Across Clean Energy, with Paula Glover

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business or career. What you’re about to hear is a recorded keynote from our SunCast Career Summit.

Paula Glover is the President and CEO for the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE). Established in 1977, the American Association of Blacks in Energy is an association founded and dedicated to ensuring the input of African Americans and other minorities into the discussions and developments of energy policies regulations.

I truly appreciated and enjoyed having Paula come speak to our SunCast Career Summit back in September. And if you missed it, you're in luck because today, you get to hear Paula's keynote supporting the advancement of emerging leaders and increasing diversity across clean energy. It is a fantastic look inside how we can achieve more diversity and inclusiveness in the energy business, not just renewables.

Video replays are part of the paid SunCast Career Summit Evergreen ticket, and are still available for purchase. Get access to the video replay of this and other sessions from our SunCast Career Summit by clicking here. Use the code TRIBE20 for a 20% discount.

Resources

Connect with Paula on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the amazing work of the American Association of Blacks in Energy on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

332 - Abigail Hopper - President and CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) | Part 2

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Thanks so much for lending me your ears and the only non-renewable resource you possess, that’s your time. If you’re new here, We hope you’ll get a ton of value from this episode, and thanks for giving us a chance to earn your attention. 

This is Part Two of the episode we began earlier in the week with SEIA’s President Abby Hopper. We have a lot of ground left to cover, and we get into some GREAT insights from Abby in this one. But if you missed Part 1, I’d recommend you start there, then come to this one for the rest of the story.

Abby really gets into the details on this episode about how we all can help hold President-elect Biden to account for the awesome opportunity before him to leave a lasting clean energy legacy.

You can always check out the more than 330 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com, and sign up to be notified in your inbox too if that’s easier for you!

Resources

Connect with Abby on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Solar Industry Outlines a Policy Agenda for the Biden Administration, 117th Congress

Department of Energy Announces Equity in Energy Ambassadors and Champions

331 - Abigail Ross Hopper, President and CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) | Part 1

Welcome back and Happy New Year, Solar Warrior!

If you’re in the solar or energy storage industry, then today’s guest will be no stranger to you. I hope I do justice to making this useful and interesting, as she’s shared most of her thoughts and plans with us in a variety of forums.

Abigail Ross Hopper became the first female President and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in January 2017 just as the Obama-era solar boom was being handed off to the Trump administration. Abby has been dubbed the most important woman in solar by the media, and it’s true she carries an immensely important role.

Before joining SEIA, Abby was the Director of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, where she led the agency that oversaw the leasing and development of all offshore energy, from oil and natural gas to offshore wind.

She served formerly as the Director of the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), serving as acting beginning in 2012, and then as Director starting in June 2013. She also served concurrently as Energy Advisor to Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley since 2010. In those roles, she had significant engagement with the state’s electric distribution utilities on matters ranging from resiliency and reliability of the grid to multiple mergers of the state’s utilities.

Abby previously spent over two years as Deputy General Counsel with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Before embarking on a career in public service, Abby spent nine years in private practice.

If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to the show, as that will ensure you won’t miss out on our twice-weekly content just like this. Of course, you can always check out the more than 330 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com.

I’m super excited to announce that On January 20th we’re going to be hosting a not-to-miss event for the Clean Energy industry. Clean Energy for Biden (CE4B) is excited to invite you to the Clean Energy for America Inaugural Ball, a virtual celebration of our achievements in the 2020 election. This celebration is in gratitude for all of your hard work in electing President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris to fight for a clean energy future. Join us for this exciting first-ever event that will bring together industry leaders, clean-energy advocates, and exciting guests for an evening of celebration. Click HERE for more information.

Resources

Connect with Abby on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Solar Industry Outlines a Policy Agenda for the Biden Administration, 117th Congress

Department of Energy Announces Equity in Energy Ambassadors and Champions

Books mentioned

Love Warrior: A Memoire - Glennon Doyle

Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin Donuts

330 - San Antonio triples down on solar and storage: An Insiders guide to CPS Energy's 900MW RFP

Happy New Year, Solar Warrior!

Can you believe it? 2020 is finally over. But before wrapping up this year, we have a final episode that’s potentially one of the best we’ve produced this year.

In early December, I had a chance to sit down with CPS Energy executives to discuss their latest RFP, and I was amazed by the depth of answers they provided. Not only we discussed how the RFP is shaped, but also the underlying philosophy and methodology supporting the landmark power call for the Lonestar state!

As many of you are well aware, having listened to the interview with Paula Gold-Williams (the CEO of CPS Energy) some weeks ago, the largest public power utility in the United States CPS is on a journey of decarbonizing their generation assets. And, as such has been foreshadowing a quite sizable RFP.

On December 1, CPS along with the City of San Antonio announced the largest municipally-owned fully integrated electric and gas utility in the US is launching their RFP under what's known as the FlexPOWER Bundle initiative for a whopping 900MW of solar, 50MW of energy storage, and 500MW of firming capacity as part of the vision for CPS’ Flexible Path.

It's designed to replace aging generation capacity, and introduce new technologies for firming capacity, and around the clock energy reliability for San Antonio. Today we're going to dig into how an RFP like this comes together how a forward-thinking utility in today's energy economy puts together the innovative structure not only to request these resources but to manage them what the leadership requirements are, to dig further into the mechanics of this RFP and the overarching goals.

We've got Dr. Cris Eugster, the COO of CPS Energy, as well as Krista Davis, Director of Energy Supply and Market Operations Strategy. The team that is putting this RFP out into the world is managed by in part or in whole these two individuals. And we're excited to have them here on SunCast.

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Dr. Cris on LinkedIn

Connect with Krista on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of CPS Energy on Twitter and their website

Read the official RFP announcement by clicking here!

329 - What is a Solar Marketeer? with Trina Solar's Ryan Simpson, Head of US Marketing

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

I am honored to have you joining me yet again for another foray into the world of clean and solar-powered energy. Merry Christmas, and happy almost new year to all of you who are listening during the holiday season.

Ryan Simpson is the head of marketing for Trina solar North America. He and I have been fellow sales and marketing colleagues and solar warriors in the hardware side of the PV industry now for going on two decades. I love hearing how he parlayed his experience working for McDonald's into a marketing role like Kyocera, for example, he's one of the funniest and savviest marketers I know in the industry. So I'm honored to finally get to share some of these stories. Ryan brings old school tactics for new school tech.

With his decade-plus of experience in solar, Ryan has been instrumental in launching new and innovative products, developing and opening new markets and channels, introducing new marketing platforms and creating technical documents to help companies achieve success. Today, Ryan drives the support levels of Trina’s product management and marketing efforts that develop additional market share for Trina in North America.

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn.

Check out the work of Trina Solar on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Mentioned books

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

Postmodern Management Theory

328 - Deploying 2GW of Renewable Energy in Mexico, Vive Energia's Founder Benigno Villareal

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Merry Christmas to you. If you're tuning in today, it is Christmas Eve. Yes, we are still publishing because it's Thursday. I hope that you'll get a ton of value from today's story. We can keep this short and sweet because Benigno Villareal and his story speak for themselves. Many of you have likely never heard of Vive Energía unless you're doing business in Mexico. Over there, Benny and his partners have developed a massive portfolio and track record reputation across wind and solar. And I've long wanted to know how it all came together. Today, you get to listen in on that very discussion.

Benny Villarreal heads “Vive Energia”, a Renewable Energy Company. He is credited for leading the teams responsible for the development, financing and ultimately the construction and commissioning of nearly 1 GigaWatt of Mexico´s currently installed Renewable Energy Generation capacity. For the last fifteen years, Dr. Villarreal has been intensely cooperating with the Mexican Government and diverse NGOs to obtain the basic legal framework to better develop the renewable energy market in Mexico.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Benny on LinkedIn

Check out the work of Vive Energia on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

Books mentioned

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies

327 - Project development Software for Solar? How to build it as a non-technical Founder, with Phillip Bruner, CEO at ENIAN

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

I'm honored that you're joining us for another fantastic foray into the world of solar energy. And I'm even more honored that you're tuning in this week. Merry Christmas to all of you listening.

Some of you will identify with today's guests and the problems that he solves. If you've spent any time developing large or small solar projects, you know it can be an endless string of whack-a-mole in terms of organizing, checking off tasks, data rooms, diligence, checklists, Dropbox, Excel, Asana, Salesforce, the tools are disorganized, and the tasks disjointed. It's always baffled me why after 15 plus years, seems like we’re lacking a better way to organize and manage solar projects.

Today’s guest, Philip Bruner, was frustrated as well. After Philip had struggled with the data disorganization of developing his own projects, he went on the search to find and then to create a tool that would solve it. And ENIAN was born. His journey to build software as a non-technical co-founder is one that I found insightful and entertaining. I hope you'll stick around and learn as well from his approach and maybe even his mistakes.

Phillip co-founded his first start-up in 2009 called SCENE – a social enterprise that accelerates renewable energy and ICT access for communities worldwide. Then in 2012 he was recruited by a commercial law firm to develop and execute >100 MWp of C&I solar PV, wind and small-hydro across the UK and India. At the same time he founded and led the Green Investment Forum, a private dinner club of c-level professionals overseeing a combined >$200bn in green assets.

His thought leadership has been featured in MIT Sloan Review, the FT and Johns Hopkins University Series on Sustainable Entrepreneurship as well as for the IIED and Oxford Research Group. He is also an EPSRC-funded PhD(c) in Geography at the University of Edinburgh.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Phillip on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of ENIAN on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website.

25 Awesome Things Scotland Gave the World

Scottish inventions and discoveries

Books mentioned

Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into A Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce.com

The Perennial Philosophy: An Interpretation of the Great Mystics, East and West

States and Markets - Susan Strange

322 - The story behind crowdfunding $1M on StartEngine, with Arnold Leitner

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

I'm going to flashback to a previous episode and break down something that we discussed in that episode a little further in detail.

You might have missed our excellent interview with Solar+ Storage entrepreneur and solar pioneer Arnold Leitner. Well in that episode, which I highly recommend you revisit clicking here, we glossed over a fun fact that his company YouSolar, Inc. is among the only 13% of companies that have launched a regulated crowdfunding campaign on a website called StartEngine and raised more than a million dollars, which helped to keep you solar alive during the pandemic, no less.

Today we’re chatting again with Arnold to dig a bit deeper into exactly what this entailed and better understand how and what they accomplished. So if you'd like to hear how to get 500 customers and a million dollars in equity in 90 days through crowdfunding, using a verified platform and a tested strategy, well, you're in the right place.

And also, if you're interested in your own crowdfunding campaign, well, you are in luck, because I've partnered with StartEngine to offer you $1,000 towards your campaign marketing. You can shoot me an email via nico@mysuncast.com with StartEngine in the subject line, and the details of your company and the campaign that you're interested in. And I'll make that intro, you'll be on your way to $1,000 towards your crowdfunding marketing campaign.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 310 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Arnold on LinkedIn

Check out the work of YouSolar Inc. at their website, and follow them on Twitter

How does an afterburner work?

326 - War Stories: TJ Kanczuzewski on How To Build a Lasting Solar Company

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Happy Holidays to those of you who are catching up on your backlog of SunCast.

As we head into the end of the year, it's often filled with a lot of stories a lot of time traditionally spent around the table around the cocktail, happy hours with our friends reminiscing and telling tall tales. I thought it'd be fun, as we have so many stories on the solar coaster to tell some tall tales, some true tales, and as such wanted to bring back an old friend.

Perhaps you were one of those who's been with us from the beginning, then you'll recognize today's guest, Mr. TJ Kanczuzewski of Inovateus Solar, we're gonna dive into some of his war stories, battle-tested from the front lines.

TJ has been with Inovateus since 2007. Driven by the Inovateus pledge to “Build A Brilliant Tomorrow,” he has been instrumental in developing a world-class solar team that has successfully deployed solar energy projects and products internationally. Currently, he is focused on expanding the companies efforts in the Mamoni Valley Preserve by inviting other investors and companies to join in the opportunity to come and learn from Mother Nature in one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with TJ on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Inovateus Solar on their website.

Check out the efforts of the Mamoní Valley Preserve on their website.

325 - The 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources with Gregg Dixon, CEO of Voltus, Inc.

Welcome back, Solar Warrior!

Welcome to another Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation with subject-matter experts designed to give you practical tools, tips, and advice for building your solar business or career.

For those of you who are up on recent episodes, perhaps you’ll recognize today’s guest, Gregg Dixon of Voltus, Inc., recently featured in episode 316. Gregg gave us a fantastic insight into the world of Demand Response, and the way that through his company Voltus, Inc. and his deep experience with a company called EnerNOC, he has learned how the grid is necessarily evolving and integrating new Distributed Energy Resources (DER).

There’s so much to unpack around DER that we didn’t have time to cover it entirely back in episode 316. Gregg and I go into what he referred to as The 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources. What are the 4 new ways that energy in DER format is being traded like an energy product that, in many ways, marks the end of an era, the changing of times for the electricity markets as we know it?

We go into each individual one of these essential elements of Distributed Energy Resources:

• Energy Efficiency

• Demand Response

• Distributed Generation

• Energy Storage

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 320 additional founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. And sign up to receive a notification when the next episodes have dropped!

Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsor, PowerHub and FIMER for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Resources

Connect with Gregg on LinkedIn and Twitter

Check out the work of Voltus, Inc. on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

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