Suncast

This week we have a really interesting angle on the way that cleantech companies are lifted from the dust. Today's intrapreneur and entrepreneur is Trish Cozart, Program Manager for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. Now, Trish has been recommended by several people, but a special shoutout to Antenna Group for helping make this interview happen for you. Trish and I really dig into how the National Renewable Energy Lab, through its Innovation Entrepreneurship Center, is helping to spur entrepreneurship, hence supporting what most cleantech activists and advocates are trying to bring in to the world, both from funding as well as enabling a much broader network, far beyond just the dollars that go into the companies that come through the cohort's in her organization within NREL. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mys

In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Emma Nicholson, Jon Wellinghoff, and Dawn Weisz, as they share with us their insights on week 5 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Ian Lochore, Vice President and General Manager of Baker Electric Home Energy starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, Presented by LG Solar”. Each week, Brian will go 1 on 1 with an industry expert to get hot takes and the latest topics impacting our industry. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/306 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Tw

Special shoutout to Nicole Watson from Iconic Earth Foundation back in Episode 277 for the intro to Dr. Phil Watts, today’s entrepreneur. Dr. Watts studied aeronautical engineering at McGill University, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering Sciences from Caltech, where he lobbied for on-campus recycling and green buildings. Upon graduation, he worked as a research scientist for around a decade, publishing more than 30 scientific papers in some of the top peer-reviewed journals in the world. This pioneering work, carried out with renowned academic colleagues, created the foundations for a brand new field of science and resulted in at least one paper being referenced more than 100 times. Today’s story is about a critical moment in 2002 when his daughter was born, and the newspaper headlines rang alarm bells that would forever change the history for him and his family, as well as how he showed up to the world. Stick around to find more about what has happened ever since. Remember you can

We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. Alongside my friend Glenda Johnson, we're stoked to have been invited back by the SPI team to bring you an exciting new segment - the SunCast Weekly Roundup, presented by LG Solar. This is a recap of week 4, where interesting sessions like “Using Storage to Achieve Long-Term Equity Outcomes “, and “Storage Solutions for Utilities” took place. In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Jessica Lim, Kate Howling, Cameron Freberg, and Marion Hill as they share with us their insights on week 4 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. We also had Brian Lynch, LG Electronic’s Director of Solar and Storage, and Mike Casey, Founder of Tigercomm starring in our newest segment, “Industry Pulse, Presented by LG Solar”. Each week, Brian will go 1 on 1 with an indu

In case you haven’t heard about Hanna Grene, Head of Commercial Development for PXiSE Energy Solutions, I invite you to listen to episode 296 where she and I talked about the 16 Core Infrastructure Sectors of Modern Economy. In today’s interview with Hanna, we‘re going to deep into a framework we’ve both used in our career: a 30/60/90 plan. Michael D. Watkins, author of the book “The First 90 Days” framed this out for millions of other hiring managers, and Hanna will help us understand what the framework is, how to best apply it, why would someone use it, and who would find this framework useful. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/303 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for

This week's entrepreneur is someone who's risen to the title of CEO of the largest public power, gas, and electric utility in the United States, CPS Energy down in San Antonio. If you’re from Texas, then this episode is especially for you. Paula Gold-Williams is the President & CEO of  CPS Energy, a company that has over 3,100 employees and more than two billion dollars in annual revenue. Paula leads more than 3,100 team members with the vision she has coined “People First,” whereby CPS Energy is evolving its efforts to create and deliver value to its customers, community, and employees into a new age of energy solutions. I was impressed with the thoughtfulness that she and her team have crafted around a massive renewable energy commitment. They've just rounded out an RFI for 900 megawatts of solar and storage, which is a historic amount of renewable energy to be added to the CPS portfolio. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more t

If you didn’t have a chance to listen to part 1 of this episode, I invite you to check it out clicking here. During that episode, Impact Energy Solution’s Adam James and I walked down memory lane and reminisced some interesting facts about the clean energy industry back in 2015 when SunCast began. This is Part 2, where we get really deep into Adam’s daily routine, how he manages his calendar, and how he manages his schedule. Adam kind of gives all about how he balances a family of three and being the effectively right hand of the CEO of this major venture fund. It's a wide-ranging but very fun conversation. I hope that you'll stick around and enjoy it. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/301 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, Li

The story that you're going to hear today takes us back to the very beginning. Mr. Adam James was the first interview guest here on SunCast, and he’s back to celebrate this important milestone with us. It is a distinct honor to bring him back now for his third appearance here on SunCast. In that time, Adam has risen to the position of Chief of Staff at Energy Impact Partners, which is a nearly $700MM dollar strategic venture investment fund focused on sustainable energy. Adam is going deep down the rabbit hole of how he helps to run this very impactful fund in our industry, as well as a little baby of his called the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, upon which he sits as a board chair and as Co-Founder of that nonprofit, which empowers young professionals in clean energy. This is Part 1 of a 2-part episode. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 300 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www

We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. Alongside my friend Glenda Johnson, we're stoked to have been invited back by the SPI team to bring you an exciting new segment - the SunCast Weekly Roundup. This is a recap of week 2, where interesting sessions like “Financing Renewables in the Face of COVID 19” or “Variations on Community Solar Program Design” took place. In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Cassandra John, Utopia Hill, Jessie Robbins, and Caileen Gamache as they share with us their insights on week 2 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/299 (Gai

Today's entrepreneur is a new friend of mine, introduced by our friend Tara Doyle and Amanda Bybee. Ebony Seymour is the Associate Vice President at GQR Global Markets, and if you're not familiar with either GQR or Ebony, you're in for a treat. We're gonna go deep into how Ebony rose from Associate to Associate Vice President in the recruiting world, and how she's adding value to private equity, investment banking in the renewable sector and infrastructure, and the many ways she has self-educated herself and helped educate others about how the renewable energy world works. She is adding value for companies that trust her to bring talent to the table, so if you are looking for talent or if you see yourself as a talented professional trying to find your way through the quagmire of information of how to break into the clean energy business, today's interview is for you. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder s

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. We're so excited to be back with you for SPI, ESI & NORTH AMERICA SMART ENERGY WEEK 2020 in its new virtual format. Alongside my friend Glenda Johnson, we're stoked to have been invited back by the SPI team to bring you an exciting new segment - the SunCast Weekly Roundup. This is a recap of week 1, where interesting sessions like “Closing the Circuit: Outlooks for a Cleaner Electricity System” or “Get on Board: Engaging Stakeholders in Developing Grid Modernization Plans” took place. In today’s episode, you’ll be able to hear insights from clean-energy thought leaders like Anne Hoskins, Virinder Singh, and Fatima Ahmad, as they share with us their insights on week 1 sessions, as well as their experience of participating in this fully-virtual format of North America’s most popular cleantech tradeshow.

Today’s guest is taking us into what is like to work in a fast-moving intrapreneurial role at a mega-corporation inside Energy Industry. Hanna Grene is the Head of Commercial Development for PXiSE Energy Solutions, a growing company that builds technology to manage an increasingly complex, renewable, and distributed energy grid. In this role, Hanna oversees market development, sales, marketing, external relations, and global partnerships. She goes down the rabbit hole of positioning yourself not only as a young leader but also working through the dynamic as a female leader in a largely male-dominated industry. After having Hanna’s boss and Co-Founder of PXiSE, Patrick Lee, for episode 266, we invited her to come back today. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/296 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from

Today we have a repeating guest, Jesse Grossman, Co-Founder & CEO of Soltage. We already had Jesse on the show in episode 283, where we dropped the replay of the webinar we had back in June: Solar Project Finance & Acquisitions in the Post-COVID Era. The webinar included valuable insights around not only how Soltage has grown to be one of the leaders in developing solar assets in the United States, but also advice and insight from Jesse’s 10+ years since the last recession. Today, we’re going to drill down on one of the topics that came up during our last episode: how to support and empower developers through the development cycle into the disposition of the asset-selling process, and how to do it not only to build their business but YOUR business as well, in case you are a company bringing asset finance and deep market knowledge. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysun

I’m‌ ‌honored‌ ‌you’re‌ ‌joining‌ ‌me‌ ‌for‌ ‌another‌ ‌fantastic‌ ‌foray‌ ‌into‌ ‌the‌ ‌world‌ ‌of‌ ‌solar‌ energy.‌ Today’s guest, Daren Goldin, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Goldin Solar, one of Florida's leading solar energy contractors with over 1,000 active installations throughout the state. Daren founded Goldin Solar in 2014 to bring the best solar technology available to Floridians to help them save money and protect the planet. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/294 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

If you have been building a residential solar installation business, then today’s episode is for you. Are you on the front lines trying to convince homeowners for value over price, and trying to help them understand how this investment is going to improve their overall well-being and life? Grab a seat and listen to this conversation with LG Electronic’s Brian Lynch, the Director of Solar and Storage. Working closely with industry contacts and partners, Brian has been involved in hundreds of megawatts of solar projects that are generating clean energy around the world. We went deep on some recent consumer research information that’s going to help you better sell solar. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/293 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with the me, Nico Jo

What do the Chicago Bears, United Airlines, and the solar industry have in common? Well, the particularly quick mind, feet, and contributions of today’s guest. Eric Peterman, the CEO of GRNE Solar has such a transformative and interesting story. Eric and I knew each other preparing for a Midwest Solar Expo panel that you’ve probably already heard. If you haven’t, I invite you to go back and listen to that one about O&M. Eric impressed me and I had to get to know more about his story, and is such a classic and interesting grassroots story about grid, determination, overcoming odds, and sticking to it. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/292 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with the me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast spo

If you listened to our previous episode with Tom Tansy, then you are aware that we left off with unfinished conversations around cybersecurity, which itself is a very hot topic. Today we are digging deeper into some of the implications of the “internet of energy” concept that we are creating, and that the next decade is absolutely certain to cement and expand upon exponentially for our industry. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 290 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/291 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with the me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

We have a returning SunCast guest: Tom Tansy. Having first appeared in episode 111, his entrepreneurial story is remarkable (you can listen to episode 111 clicking here). Tom unfolded how he broke into clean energy, and how he parlayed one opportunity after the other, translating into a successful entrepreneurial career. He has found a home for himself as one of the arbiters of how regulatory policy in solar and internet energy makes its way to us: the practitioners. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 280 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com. https://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/290 (Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here) You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on Twitter, LinkedIn or email Thanks a ton to our podcast sponsors for continuing to help make this content FREE to You! Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Welcome to another SunCast episode with a clean energy thought leader you should definitely know better. Every now and then I have the opportunity to host guests who have as equal or greater a platform as we do in presence in the public from a thought leadership and content creation perspective. Today, Peter Kelly-Detwiler from NorthBridge Energy Partners, LLC is joining us on the show. He has become well known for his advocacy and education around helping others understand not only how the clean energy industry works, but where it's going. He's a communicator focused on the rapid pace of transformation to a sustainable economy. You may have read some of his more than 350 articles on Forbes.com, or surely you have enjoyed his informative and educational (and often very witty and fun to watch) videos on LinkedIn or YouTube. Today, we're going to dive into the mind of a fellow creator. Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links and more than 280

Do you know if your marketing strategy is working? The coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted the way in which we work and engage as a society. Cities, states, and countries are shutting down, slowing the economy. During times of crisis, it’s important to adapt your marketing strategies to ensure your business continues to bring in revenue and thrives post pandemic. Join us for a candid conversation with Katie Ullmann, Senior Director at Antenna Group, Lennie Moreno, Founder & CEO of Sofdesk, and Mike Hilverda, Director of Customer Success at SalesRabbit, as we discuss best practices for: Generating revenue when you can’t meet face to face. Engaging online with potential new customers. Staying relevant and in touch with current customers. Strengthening your brand during a crisis. Employing technologies and processes to track leads with your team in a remote environment. Today’s episode is a recap of one of our Live webinars back in April. Remember you can always find the resources and