Scaling Clean

#Cleantechers -  My most recent Scaling Clean guest has a compelling background. You might say he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.  Russ Bates grew up in the southern Indiana coal fields, starting his career as a union electrician, then moving up the ladder to foreman, and eventually VP. At the 26-year mark, he moved into company ownership, and he's now the founder of the Cleveland-area NXTGEN Clean Energy Solutions. NXTGEN is a one-stop shop for solar, wind, battery storage, and EV charging station projects.  Here are Russ’s B3P’s: 5:08 - Clean energy is drawing people to it because it seems every day brings a new breakthrough.  14:34 - As a CEO, ask yourself: “Is this decision going to be sustainable? Is this decision going to lead us to do enough business” to take care of your family and employees. There’s so much going on in this sector, especially with an election approaching, that could derail a business plan. It’s important to be mindful of those questions so you are best prepared for future changes.  25:35 - When you need to make the tough decision to fire someone, make sure you are confident in your reasoning as to why. Then, do it quickly. The employee might not have done something wrong but just weren’t the right fit. In those situations, sometimes the best thing for them is for you to part ways with them. Thanks for coming on the show, Russ.

My most recent Scaling Clean guest has been at the helm of her company for 16 years. Geraldine Gray runs Endiem, a Salesforce practice based in Houston. Her company works to help companies drive commercial growth by aligning their strategic goals with their Salesforce options. She has served clients in a wide number of sectors, not just in cleantech. Geraldine has also been very public about her successful battle with cancer, and I want to acknowledge her courage in sharing that story on LinkedIn. From several friends of mine, I've learned that overcoming such a challenge often brings an exceptional level of perspective and wisdom. Here are Geraldine’s B3P’s: 2:16 - There’s no “easy” button for making your business successful. You need to be resilient and just grind it out, looking for continuous improvement. The search for continuous improvement comes with challenges, so be okay with accountability and negative feedback. 19:10 - Working in cleantech is different than mature industries. People in the renewable industry tend to have several roles over several companies, while those in the oil, gas and chemical companies tend to stay at one company for a very long time. The benefit is that they bring a broad range of experience and knowledge to a project, but it’s hard for them to see what’s possible in the future vs. what needs to be done today. People in the renewables industry tend to have a broader mindset. 28:00 - Success in a business depends on how a leadership team executes its strategies. Tactics is doing things right. Strategy is doing the right things. You must have strategic marketing, strong sales and business development executed by people who care, not just have an engine that's generating leads. Don’t pursue opportunities that are a bad fit, with no strategy behind them.  Thanks for coming on the show, Geraldine.

My newest Scaling Clean guest is Katie Mehnert. She got her start in oil and gas, and she’s become a leading thinker and evangelist for growing the clean energy talent pool as CEO of Ally Energy, a global consultancy based in Texas. Katie’s journey through the incumbent parts of the energy sector has given her an enhanced perspective on being a clean economy CEO.  Here are Katie’s B3P’s 12:38 - As a leader, you have to surrender the notion that you can control everything, because you can’t. CEO doesn’t stand for “Chief Everything Officer.” Rather, it’s about making sure you pull in the best team you can, and help them make things happen. 16:28 - Visible leadership is when someone leads a company, rather than runs it. To be a visible leader, determine what your “why” is, and march forward. My “why” is to help give my child a cleaner future. But, the world will not be a better place if you are on the sidelines, playing it safe.  23:26 - When you look to hire someone, it is important to consider what the workforce values right now. The job search is no longer about the gold watch – the best benefits and pay can only get you so far. People instead look for a purpose. Create a purpose within your company that attracts people and gives them a reason to enjoy their work. Thank you for coming on the show, Katie.

Cleantechers -  My recent Scaling Clean guest, Scott Case, is deeply experienced in starting successful ventures. He came to cleantech by way of Priceline, as that company’s founding Chief Technology Officer. Among nearly 20 other different experiences, Scott now runs ZettaWatts, which has pioneered what it calls the “Additionality Rec Market” (AREC). It's offering fixed-price forward contracts to buy AREC from new projects under development. ZettaWatts is based in the National Capital Area, where I live and work, so it was good to have a neighbor on the show.  Here are Scott’s time-stamped highlights:   6:21 – When you think you don’t need help, it’s probably the first sign that you need it.    10:15 – Leadership is a practice. You’re never done.    12:48 – Observe the traits and attributes of leaders you admire. Then, borrow what resonates the most with you.   13:53 – There are three things to come back to as a CEO: Transparency, ownership (ensuring employees have both responsibility and the authority to reach goals) and resiliency. 24:23 – Hiring is the most difficult thing you do as a founder or a leader. You’re bringing new DNA into your culture, and new employees will have a profound impact. If you get hiring right 50% of the time, you’re doing great.  Scott had also shared three big lessons for founders of startups (19:26): Fall in love with the problem, not your solution. Validate that the customer problem is accurately captured. Accept the fact that the early customers aren’t necessarily the full customer base. Spend the time on messaging your value proposition.. Thank you for coming on the show, Scott.

George Hershman is one of the most prominent leaders in U.S. clean energy. He spent his career running SOLV Energy, formerly known as Swinerton Renewable Energy. He also recently served as the Chairman of the Solar Energy Industries Association.  SOLV is a widely recognized EPC. It has built 8 GW of utility scale solar capacity and now manages over 9 GW across more than half the states in this country.  If there is anyone who has collected a lifetime of leadership and management wisdom, it's George. Here are his big three points: 4:30 - You may be eager to take risks right off the bat, but it’s easier for a more mature company to take risks than it is for a new company. If you just started a business, be careful taking risks. Before starting a project, make sure you have the right people and a good understanding of your objectives first.  12:42 - Renewables have moved out of the era of policy dependence and niche markets. Renewables are now the lowest cost of energy and the fastest to deploy. It solves the biggest problems around energy distribution now that we have storage at scale. 23:29 - When interviewing new candidates, it’s important to determine how that person will make you feel comfortable and uncomfortable. When done the right way, people can be transparent and challenge your organization to be better. This is especially important for companies that have low turnover, who may have a narrowed point of view.

Cleantechers –   My most recent Scaling Clean guest is someone I’ve known for 20 years, Stephen Lacey, who has a perspective on clean economy like no other.    He’s covered our sector as an editor and early podcaster at Renewable Energy World, then editor-in-chief for Greentech Media, and now he's the founder of a new media and research company, Latitude Media. Stephen's not only covered our CEO audience, he's joined their ranks as a founder.    Here are Stephen’s B3P’s:   3:58 - People used to view the clean energy industry as “other.” Now, it is a multi-trillion dollar transition that has changed the business models of energy companies across the globe. People now take the transition seriously.    8:48 - The mindset shift from managing one team to running a business with 3+ teams is very different. As a business owner, you need to use your management skills to devote your attention to each team, while how ensuring they work together into one cohesive unit.    19:32 - This industry has dramatically expanded, and incumbents sectors are nervous. But we need to double the trillions of dollars we are already putting into the global energy transition if we are to avert the worst of the climate crisis. That said, if pessimism causes us to lose our ability to fight, we’ve lost.    Thank you, Stephen, for coming on the show.

Cleantechers -    My most recent guest on Scaling Clean has been an advisor to three Seattle-area companies, a policy lead for the e-mobility leader Lime, as well as an official in four municipal transportation departments. But, he's also the CEO of an innovative camper van sharing company, Cabana.    On a recent episode of This Week in Cleantech, I nominated Scott Kubly for “Cleantecher of the Week” because he courageously authored an open-kimono post on LinkedIn about Cabana’s ending.    Here's the thing about cleantech: It's hard. We're disrupting powerful, mature, incumbent sectors, and it's not like the disrupted are passively waiting around for us to put them out of business. Oh, and add to that difficulty the normal challenges launching companies within new industrial sectors.     Everyone is going to have failures. We're going to lose jobs, accounts and companies. I've learned that there are more lessons and improvements available from failures than wins. Scott continues to display that courage and openness by agreeing to be our Scaling Clean guest. He's the first to talk with us about lessons learned from a significant, recent loss. I'm grateful he's done that.  25:25 - Recognize the value of time. Cut off less impactful endeavors (even if you love them) to focus on what matters for demand. Channel your time toward company growth. 29:06 - To be a successful CEO, it’s crucial to make mistakes and apologize without requiring forgiveness from others – but forgive yourself. In the leadership world, errors are inevitable. The key lies in transforming those missteps into valuable learning experiences. 48:55 - The Stockdale Paradox, named after Admiral James Stockdale, is a mindset that involves short-term realism and long-term optimism — a mindset that is often necessary to handle the challenges of owning a company. Even if you are struggling through your current reality, it’s crucial to maintain faith that you will be successful in the end

We've had serial entrepreneurs, power sector veterans, techies, and people with finance and energy trading backgrounds, but Nikhil Vodhovkar is one of the few first-timer CEO’s we've had on the show. Not only is he an alumnus of academia at a very high level – Johns Hopkins,  MIT – but he leveraged that background to start Raptor Maps.   This SaaS company provides owners and operators of both utility-scale and C&I projects with digital solutions to boost production and manage the health of their assets. Raptor Maps plays a vital role in scaling the industry through software that records and tracks asset performance, digital solutions for asset management and remediation challenges, and the deployment of solar robotics.   Here are Nikhil’s B3P’s (“Big 3 Points”):   11:02 - Get in the weeds, get your hands dirty and fail quickly. The quick pace necessary to make decisions and try new things will likely lead to failures. But that’s crucial for company growth. That is how you to learn and move on. Embrace failure because it’s rich in lessons… if you’re willing to learn.    20:03 - If you want to be a CEO, don’t worry about what constitutes the “perfect idea.” Find (or create) the seed of what you believe will be successful, and iterate. If it’s not the current idea, it will be the next one. You’ll need grit and courage to see growth.    23:03 - While making new hires, always have a technical or hands-on component of the interview process. This will help you determine what you are looking for with the new hire. For example, if you are hiring someone for your sales team, do you care more about their ability to pitch someone on the spot or research a company well? Then test that ability. This will also show you how that candidate reacts to the challenge, not just how well they perform.

As listeners know, our show engages CEOs in conversations that harvest best practices and usable tips to successfully build, run and lead companies. Our diverse lineup has featured power sector veterans, techies, individuals with finance and energy trading backgrounds, among others. Now, we introduce our first CEO with an environmental consulting background, Robin Laine. She’s also possibly the youngest CEO we’ve had on the show.   Robin now runs the renewable SaaS company Transect. She founded her company with a mission to revolutionize the way traditional environmental consulting firms evaluate potential development sites for renewable energy projects. After dedicating 11 years to three different traditional environmental consulting firms, Robin recognized the need for change.    Here are Robin’s B3P’s (Big Three Points) from the show:   8:31 – Working in clean energy fosters a unique and collaborative environment, driven by a shared commitment to save our planet. Due to the industry's rapid technological advancements, we work in a space with creative mindsets and problem solvers.   11:00 – As a new CEO, having a clear "why" is crucial. It helps overcome fundraising rejections, challenges with early clients, and product criticism. It’s also important to aim for your product to be 10x better than the current solution.   27:34 – The energy transition has the current administration's support. We also have both the appeal of capitalism and public opinion urging the private sector to rapidly expand power generation and integrate it into the grid. This creates a positive momentum for the transition.

Over the last 2 years of interviewing clean energy CEO’s, Sean Kelly is our first with the background as a veteran energy trader. In fact, Sean has traded or managed traders for over 7 different companies in his career   I brought Sean on the latest episode to speak about his background in energy trading and how that helped equip him for his role as co-founder and CEO of @Amperon for the last 6 years. He describes Amperon as “the forecasting company for the energy transition.”    Sean had some unique things to share. Here are his B3P’s (Big 3 Points):   11:31 - The clean economy sector is where everything is headed – it’s not the “clean economy” sector anymore, just the economy. Once someone starts working in this sector, it’s hard to move elsewhere because this is a good spot to be.    18:39 - To be a great CEO means to inspire the right talent, bring them into your workplace and be a leader who demonstrates good leadership.    29:53 - If you want to keep a high level of performance as CEO, it’s important to take care of yourself. Spend time with your family and focus on both physical and mental well-being. Release any stress outside of work so you can start each day on a good note.

On Scaling Clean, we have the pleasure of interviewing people with a variety of backgrounds. One less-represented experience on our podcast are PhD-ers turned CEOs.   That’s why I’m excited to talk to Mahesh Konduru, who is the former CEO and now board chair of ProSep, a global energy services company focused on water treatment and chemical efficiency.   Mahesh's company is private equity financed, with operations and subsidiaries in four regions around the world. He's also CEO of Momentum Technologies, a company that processes critical minerals and metals into high-purity materials with a heavy initial focus on recycling lithium batteries.   If you’re short on time, here's an overview of our conversation:   5:22 – It’s tempting to rush through team building in the fast paced, hectic environment of a startup. But doing so puts your team and company at a disadvantage. Take the time to understand the capabilities and aspirations of employees before settling into a rapid, task-completion mindset.   14:56 – The role of a CEO at a company that’s scaling technology from proof of concept to commercial is a different kind of role than a CEO at an established company.   At an early stage, you’re primarily focused on proof of concept and the path to commercialization, making your responsibilities: 1.            Always make sure there is enough cash. Always. 2.            Set the culture. 3.            Be comfortable with risk taking.   Once the company has reached profitability, the CEO’s focus shifts more to goal setting and talent retention.    18:14 - Match the ambition of your company with the addressable market you're seeking. If the addressable market is huge, keep your ambitions huge as well. If you don't set the ambition, the capital will not follow.   24:23 - CEOs ‘inheriting’ a new team – rather than creating one, as a startup – have a particular challenge in gaining the trust of their new employees. One unconventional way to build a strong team is job shadowing – literally. Spend a day watching your employees in action to understand the full scope of their responsibilities and observe the ways your leadership could make their jobs easier.

Cleantechers, welcome back to Scaling Clean. The podcast that gathers company-building and management tips from the most accomplished leaders in cleantech.  I don’t know about you, but everywhere I go, and everyone I hear from in cleantech leadership is wrestling with the same thing: Where to find talent in a tight labor market. At Tigercomm, we’re having clients ask us to build their corporate communications partly to support recruitment, which is a relatively recent development.  Our guest today is someone with 20 years’ experience solving that problem, much of it for clean economy companies. And as someone running a company that’s also looking for talent, I’m really looking forward to talking with Paige Carratturo, the San Francisco-based co-founder of Sea Change, which describes itself as “a talent venture company.” I suspect that if anyone can give clean economy leaders useful advice on handling this super-tight labor market, it’s Paige. I also think that the way Paige’s shop pursues its mission will equip her with some longer-term insights into what work environments and interview processes are best suited for today’s talent pool.  14:55 – To stay current on the talent pool, a leader needs to be regularly talking to potential candidates. Communicate with your team regularly about market conditions, spend time with your customers, and attend industry events. Don’t be afraid to lean on recruiters to get a detailed understanding of the talent market that comes from speaking with candidates daily. 16:50 - The ‘cool’ factor isn’t enough to draw in cleantech talent anymore. Top talent most values a healthy work culture, the flexibility to follow their passion at work and be able to affect huge issues like climate change, and strong company missions that align with their values. 18:50 - To be a successful recruiter, communicate with your candidates as you would a customer - transparency and clarity about the interview process makes candidates feel prioritized. Each person at your company who talks to a candidate should have a different goal for the conversation to ultimately make a hire based on data, not just gut feelings.

Cleantechers, welcome back to Scaling Clean. This is the podcast that gathers company building and management tips from the most accomplished leaders in clean tech. Today we talk with Hala Ballouz, who has spent the last 15 years growing Electric Power Engineers, EPE as it's known among developers, from a consultancy of 10 staff to a national presence of over 200 grid connection experts. Hala is actually the CEO of two companies, EPE and ENER-i.AI.   She's also led both GridNEXT and the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance. In her current role, she helps developers connect to the increasingly complex power grid through both consulting services and SaaS offerings.  3:38 - Slow down. Take the time to find what you are genuinely passionate about. Then, once you’re there, never say no to new opportunities.  7:30 - Grow your company by delivering the impossible. Build an organization with a handful of people that understand the grid from every aspect: distribution, transmission, generation…everything. 13:44 - Look for people who are motivated to drive on their own. You want your hiring to be aligned with your approach to drive business growth. You want to deliver quality and relevance before you think about the revenue component of things. Invest in the future, not just the present.

This is Part II with the brilliant Tom Starrs. Tom’s interview was rich with information on cleantech government affairs and communications, so we decided to split this episode in two parts.  2:11 - We need to scale up renewables to make it a larger portion of our electricity supply, but to do so, we need a new grid model and new technologies such as battery storage and transmission enhancements. 19:04 - There have been missteps in managing the solar supply chain issue. While we’ve aimed to reduce dependence on imported solar panels from China, the transition takes time, and we still need materials from China in the short term. 24:01 - The most important barrier to the clean energy transition is transmission. We need to aggressively pursue new transmission policy that deals with streamlining the siting and permitting of new high voltage transmission lines across the country, in combination with new transmission tech, including grid enhancing tech. This needs to be deployed in existing transmission quarters but also new ones.

Today we're interviewing somebody who has not only been a CEO, he's also advised other CEOs on marketing and public affairs, something he continues to do for his present employer, EDP Renewables.  And Tom Starrs is our precedent-setting guest for a reason. While he's done a lot of things in a career spanning 21 years in five different companies, Tom is, by my reckoning, the longest tenured and most experienced clean tech government affairs and communications lead in America.  And as the accelerating clean energy transition meets growing pushback from the fossil fuel lobby, the future of success of our sectors is not certain.  Clean economy companies are often disrupting powerful incumbents with decades of experience in weaponizing government influence and propaganda against market threats for newcomers like us.  A year after the IRA's passage, it felt like a good time to bring Tom on for his institutional knowledge and his seasoned perspective. I think you're gonna enjoy and benefit from his wisdom.  Whether or not you work in government affairs, you need Tom's wisdom to make sure your company moves forward. We need to scale up renewables to make it a larger portion of our electricity supply, but to do so, we need a new grid model and new technologies such as battery storage and transmission enhancements. 12:45 - Net metering had many economic benefits, but that wasn’t enough to make the technology widely adopted due to other barriers such as utilities disliking the idea. They had concerns about the safety and performance of the new tech, but it ended up being  more reliable than they initially thought. 14:17 - Regulatory barriers, not related to the economic viability of solar, can create obstacles for customers who want to generate clean energy. It’s important to address these obstacles in advance, so that when cleantech becomes economically competitive, we can deploy it without facing these hurdles later on.

If you want a boring guest, you should skip this episode. My guest has worked in over 10 countries on three continents – in the private sector, non-profits and in government across multiple cleantech sectors. After all of that, you might expect David Arfin would be picked to star in the next round of Dos Equis commercials as “The Most Interesting Man in the World.” Instead, he’s the CEO of NineDot Energy, a New York-based laboratory for clean energy business model innovation. Today I’m tapping David’s varied, fascinating career for management and leadership tips we can use in running our businesses. 6:39 – Follow the 1-10-100 rule. When you identify an issue early, it costs you a point. If you put off solving it, it costs you 10 points. If you really let it fester, it costs you 100 points. Help the future you and make the hard decisions early. 10:06 – Policy that determines whether your company’s product or service will be adopted depends on actions taken by local utilities and local government. All of these are moving pieces – and they're moving regularly. It is the ecosystem of policies that can enable or destroy opportunities for the adoption of clean energy.  20:02 – As a company, NineDot Energy prioritizes behavioral interviews to eliminate, or at least weed out, biases so that they can hire and develop a new cohort of values-based learners with different environments. 23:46 – What makes him optimistic: This new generation of young people care deeply about the planet that they are inheriting. It’s a belief system they will pass onto their children and grandchildren. “The interest level and the caliber of this generation gives me great hope that climate issues are going to be addressed by people with the right motivations, the right skills, the right talent, and the right commitment.”

Over the last 17 years, Nick Cohen has held leadership positions in five companies, with four of them in clean energy. He's now the president and CEO of Doral Renewables LLC, which is developing the appropriately named Mammoth solar project at 1.3 gigawatts. It will be America's largest utility scale solar farm. I've wanted Nick on the show since I first talked with him last year. 01:47 – Hone in on your listening skills, and never assume you’re the smartest person in the room. The best leader is someone who can listen and enable the people around them. 10:32 – Even if you hire someone with phenomenal technical skills and experience, you are setting them up for failure without a robust onboarding process, geared to understanding how they work. Nick’s company has each new hire, regardless of position, meet him in a brief, a 5-minute introductory conversation to ensure a strong cultural fit from the start. 20:09 – Resist the urge to have a laser focus on only strategy as CEO. You need to be the biggest believer in the vision of the company. And, you need to be plugged in to the entire company’s ecosystem. 24:57 - The CEO who builds in downtime and knows how to prioritize will always outlast the CEO who works 24/7. 27:26 – If you think of the interview process as a two-way street and emphasize cultural fit as well as technical skills, you’ll have happier employees who stay longer at the company. Our thanks to Nick Cohen for sharing his experience with our listeners.

Jeff Wolfe is an "OC"; – an “original cleantecher.” This entrepreneur has three companies under his leadership belt, including two that he founded. Jeff’s work has spanned solar installation, EV fast charging and investment considerations for Shell New Ventures. His current company is Veloce Energy, which offers easy-to-install EV fast charging infrastructure that's designed to speed the electrification of America's vehicle fleet. Strap in for some well-earned wisdom on building and running successful companies.  3:31 – Just like any job, being a manager requires specific training. But most managers are promoted without it – and it's hurting the clean economy.  8:07 – Schedule your leisure and family time into your calendar alongside work to avoid burnout.  14:53 – A key takeaway from years of cleantech company management: “Half pennies matter now. And when half pennies matter, you need to look at operational efficiencies, not just product efficiencies.”  16:03 – To excel as a CEO, it’s not about convincing people to do the job but convincing them to want to do the job.

Most of our guests to date have led companies that develop renewable energy plants, sell cleantech equipment, or provide energy services. But today our guest is a pure play. She's a career-long investor who served in leadership positions at sequential investment funds, and she now serves as the co-founder and CEO of the DC-based Galway Sustainable Capital. Jennifer Von Bismarck's shop invests in companies, projects and assets that drive environmental and social resilience at the local level. I wanted to learn from Jennifer how a career in investment shaped her views on running a successful company. 7:33 - Rather than always trying to insulate your company from failure, build a team that will excel and bounce back when things go wrong (it’s inevitable!) 10:27 - Her advice for recent grads and early career professionals: to find fulfillment in your job, you should be dedicated to exploration throughout your whole career. 16:15 - There is a huge opportunity for farmers to make additional streams of income from leasing their land to solar and wind farms. 26:10 - Her go-to hiring question: “What do you get excited about?”

#Cleantechers, Scaling Clean listeners know that we seek out clean economy CEOs for their lessons on building teams and running companies. All our guests to date have developed their leadership abilities by ascending a career ladder, and they’ve done that across several companies. Today’s guest has instead learned his leadership lessons on the job, so to speak. Jesse Grossman founded Soltage 17 years ago, and he’s led since then as Chairman and CEO. Soltage is a New Jersey-based utility-scale solar IPP company that was founded on the belief that capital cost shouldn’t stop the spread of solar. I met Jesse several years ago through the sponsor of this episode, Cleantech Leaders Roundtable, and it’s great to reconnect with him today. 15:39: In the unfamiliar, high-pressure environment of an early-stage company, clear team roles and communication are absolutely crucial. Resolve any confusion about responsibilities sooner rather than later. 25:23 – In his many years of socializing with CEOs, he’s noticed that successful ones are:  Serious subject matter experts  Passionate about learning  People with broad interests and experiences 39:43 – Your business model is like a scientific hypothesis, and it’s your job to test if it works, not just to tell people you think it will. For young aspiring startup CEOs, the most important thing you can do is pitch your business concept to a variety of people. Ask friends, family, colleagues and experts in your field to poke holes in it. 41:05 – In hiring for a senior role, start planning a few quarters ahead – then assume it will take longer than planned. Ask job candidates about their hobbies to both change up the flow of the interview and to see how they express their passions.