352 - Superconnector Anna Siefken on managing change & empowering the Clean Economy

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Thank you so much for lending me your ears and the only non-renewable resource that you've got: your time.

Today's guest, Anna Siefken has spent her career making the business case for energy efficiency, cleantech innovation, and building performance as a means to address the world’s energy challenges and the global urgency of climate change.

She is the inaugural Executive Director of The Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University. Through programming, targeted outreach, and partnerships, she guides the Institute’s efforts to optimize energy resources, reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and use, and develop breakthrough technologies that will have a meaningful impact and accelerate the transition to a sustainable low-carbon energy future.

In 2020, Anna was appointed by the U.S. Department of Energy as a U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Initiative Ambassador. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) selected Siefken for the 2018 Energy Executives Leadership Academy. That same year, she represented CMU as part of a City of Pittsburgh delegation to study district energy systems planning in Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark, at the invitation of the Danish Energy Agency.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 350 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 Anna on LinkedIn

Check out the amazing work of The Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, Carnegie Mellon at their website and Twitter

Register to CMU Energy Week 2021

DOWNLOAD the IMPACT Annual Report

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Book mentioned:

Drawdown - Paul Hawken

351 - Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Hiring in Action with Catherine McLean, Paige Rutten, Melanie Santiago-Mosier, and Lindsay Reichert

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

This is Tactical Tuesday, a short-form conversation, typically with subject matter experts designed to give you the practical tools, tips, and advice for building your solar business or career and grow with us here on SunCast.

What you are about to hear is content from our Career Summit, a fantastic series of conversations all about not only how to find your dream job, the perfect opportunity to transition into clean energy as a career but also how as an industry we can improve the concepts of hiring with justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

How are managers creating a diverse and inclusive work environment? You’re going to hear from a panel of hiring professionals and D&I experts as they dispense practical advice, best practices, and processes to efficiently implement D&I strategies to your hiring procedures.

You’ll hear Catherine McLean, Paige Rutten, Melanie Santiago-Mosier, and Lindsay Reichert as they describe the D&I initiatives implemented by some of the most leading companies in the clean energy sector, their importance, and strategies to attract a more diverse workforce.

Related to the conversation that we're having today is our Dream Job Coaching Program, which we call Mission-Minded. You can learn more about that at events.mysuncast.com/dreamjob.

If you love this episode, then you should check out our more than 350 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 Catherine McLean on LinkedIn

Connect with Paige Rutten on LinkedIn

Connect with Melanie Santiago-Mosier on LinkedIn

Connect with Lindsay Reichert on LinkedIn

350 - Career pivot, Heidi Lim's journey to Climatetech startup Opus12

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Every week, we try to bring you thoughtful conversations with thought leaders in the Clean Energy and Climate tech space. And we've looked at it through the lens of founders, entrepreneurs intrapreneurs.

Today's guest is our friend Heidi Lim of Opus 12. While I hope that we can do more on Opus 12, we actually don't talk a ton about Opus 12. Today we talk about her process of finding what she calls a “career on purpose and meaning”. Opus 12 happens to be now the vessel through which she pours that energy.

I'm excited to bring that conversation to you, so I encourage you not just to listen in to this conversation, but also to go take the time to read the tome that she created, which was the genesis of this episode and this interview.

I found Heidi by reading on my own around what is it like to get a job in the clean energy space and trying to really understand the journey that you all are on, and nobody that I've read in the last year has put it more succinctly and more action-oriented than Heidi.

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

About Heidi: Heidi Lim is a curious environmental technologist working to accelerate carbon dioxide removal, an urgently necessary pathway to a sustainable planet. She's on a mission to build inclusive communities, encourage others to follow impactful and fulfilling work, and increase public literacy around environmental justice.

In 2018, she left her comfortable job as a product manager in enterprise software to follow her purpose to work on what she sees as the world's most pressing issue, climate change. She is currently the Chief of Staff at Opus 12, a California start-up that has developed a technology to recycle CO2 into valuable chemicals, materials, and fuels.

Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn , Instagram and Twitter

Check out the amazing work of Opus12 on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

Chasing a job with purpose

We need to talk about carbon removal

349 - Case Study: Inside the Job Seeker Experience with Patti Lowe, Malini Kannan and Eric Lindley

Welcome back, Solar Warriors.

This is 2Fer Tuesdays. Whether that's a Tactical Tuesday or just content from one of our many live events like SPI Podcast Lounge, this is going to be a short form conversation, typically with subject matter experts designed to give you the practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business or career and grow with us here on SunCast.

What you are about to hear is content from our Career Summit, a fantastic series of conversations all about not only how to find your dream job, the perfect opportunity to transition into clean energy as a career but also how as an industry we can improve the concepts of hiring with justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

With a goal of taking candidates from being an outside observer to HIRED by a cleantech/clean energy firm in 60 days or less, I launched my Clean Energy Dream Job Case Study group in August. Hear from candidates from the program as they share their experiences.

Related to the conversation that we're having today is our Dream Job Coaching Program, which we call Mission-Minded. You can learn more about that at events.mysuncast.com/dreamjob.

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 Patti on LinkedIn

Connect with Malini on LinkedIn

Connect with Eric on LinkedIn

348 - Success Stories: How to Land your Dream Job? with Caitlyn McCloskey, Rozina Kanchwala and Miles Braxton

Welcome back, Solar Warriors

This is 2Fer Tuesdays. Whether that's a Tactical Tuesday or just content from one of our many live events like SPI Podcast Lounge, this is going to be a short form conversation, typically with subject matter experts designed to give you the practical tools, tips and advice for building your solar business or career and grow with us here on SunCast.

What you are about to hear is content from our Career Summit, a fantastic series of conversations all about not only how to find your dream job, the perfect opportunity to transition into clean energy as a career but also how as an industry we can improve the concepts of hiring with justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

Hear from a panel of industry professionals who have landed their dream job (or internship). Take a look at their journey and get a few tips in helping you take on that next step.

Related to the conversation that we're having today is our Dream Job Coaching Program, which we call Mission-Minded. You can learn more about that at events.mysuncast.com/dreamjob.

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 Caitlyn on LinkedIn

Connect with Rozina on LinkedIn

Connect with Miles on LinkedIn

347 - How to build a resilient and sustainable infrastructure, with ICFs Head of Energy, Environment & Infrastructure, Anne Choate

As you probably already know, it is Women's History Month, and here at SunCast we have very intentional programming for the month of March. 3 years ago Miss Tara Doyle, a good friend of our show insisted that we do more for not just the gender diversity, but the equity across the board. We’re doing our best to keep that habit and intention here in March, promoting female voices and increasingly more equity generally, throughout our show.

We want to nod here to all of the fantastic leadership that is coming into the solar industry that just continues to blow our minds away. It’s well documented that companies with female leadership excel across many different metrics, not the least of which is profitability. And leadership skill is something that I personally learned more from my female bosses than my male bosses.

Today, we have someone that I'm really honored and proud to have on the show, Miss Anne Choate, and she’s been such an instrumental figure for so many organizations, public and private, across government lines across (country and state level) at ICF. If you haven’t heard about Anne, you’ll get to hear how she has risen through the ranks to command a legion of climate champions within an organization like ICF.

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 Anne on LinkedIn

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

About ICF’s Anne Choate

Estimating Transportation-Related Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Use in New York State

How to Build a Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure

346 - How-to career transition into Clean Energy, with Resume expert Amanda Rico

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

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

If you’re outside of the clean energy or solar industry and you’re trying to transition from another energy sector, this episode will give you great insight into what steps you should take.

Today we are going to feature Dr. Amanda Rico, an expert in the field of technical writing and resume writing. She runs Rico Editorial Services and specializes in helping folks in the energy sector level up and find the career they love. She’s also a mentor in our own Coaching Program, helping applicants achieve exactly that.

Amanda is an expert in resume building, editing, and career solutions for Senior and Executive-level professionals - most of whom are in the oil, gas, and energy industries. She is also a Houston Business Journal career columnist and professional development speaker.

With 13+ years of experience ranging from generating materials for TEDx speakers & Healthcare executives to optimizing profiles for Energy & Petroleum managers, Amanda Rico is passionate about helping forward-thinking leaders level up.

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 Amanda on LinkedIn, Twitter, and her Youtube channel

Check out the amazing work of Rico Editorial Services on LinkedIn, Twitter, and their website

345 - The Patagonia of Banking with Ravi Mikkelsen, Co-Founder at Atmos Financial

Welcome back, Solar Warriors.

This is financial Thursday and we're going to help you put your money where your heart is. There are some secrets out there about how your money is being invested against your better interests.

Today's entrepreneur is my good friend Ravi Mikkelsen, and if you tuned in back in October 1st, 2019, you might remember that we did the episode with Samuel Adeyemo of Aurora Solar organized through ClimateLink, one of the organizations that this multifaceted entrepreneur has put together.

Ravi is someone I've come to respect and admire, and today we're going to dig into his latest brainchild that is gathering traction. Certainly several of you have no doubt heard Jigar Shah and others mentioned it from the stages of Energy Gang and other platforms recently, it’s called Atmos Financial. We're going to learn all about that today and why in the world he would be trying to take on big banks.

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 Ravi on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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

If you are ready to start your own journey toward aligning your money with your mission, make sure to visit www.joinatmos.com/suncast and get your FREE AtmosACTION account in just 4 mins.

344 - Is rooftop solar+storage finally here for C&I? Omeed Badkoobeh, CEO of Yotta Energy

Welcome back, Solar Warrior.

Today's entrepreneur is no stranger to the wild and crazy ride we call the solar coaster. He cut his teeth in the industry more than a decade ago and has worked at companies you'd recognize like Tesla. He got the entrepreneurial bug several years back, in this case, seeing before many others the coming wave and rise of energy storage and the need for a slightly different format and a form factor in the market that was underserving almost entirely unserved at that time in history.

We'll hear more about that and how Omeed Badkoobeh and Yotta Energy have sought to address a little addressed market that is actually a huge total addressable market. We'll dig into energy storage for commercial and industrial as well as the journey of this young entrepreneur today on SunCast.

Omeed Badkoobeh is the co-founder and CEO of Yotta Energy. Badkoobeh has over 10 years’ experience in solar PV, energy storage, and the electric vehicle industry. He has been personally responsible for sales exceeding $10M for renewable technologies ranging from microgrids to electric vehicles. Omeed is the co-inventor of the SolarLEAF™ technology and was awarded a U.S. patent for it. Prior roles include working at Tesla and at Evoke Electric Motorcycles, a startup based in China.

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 Omeed on LinkedIn

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

Books mentioned

Venture Deals - Brad Feld

The Culture Code - Daniel Coyle

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