Celebrating MIT’s 150th Anniversary: Alumni Ian Clemens, Founder Of IDV Solutions (Part 2)

Sramana: Did you begin doing data visualization work within the scope of your consulting work? Ian Clemens: Yes. I was consulting, but I kept wondering what the best way to deliver the results of the consulting would be. Traditionally that is done through charts and reports. I really became interested in how to better deliver

Read Full Article »

Celebrating MIT’s 150th Anniversary: Alumni Ian Clemens, Founder Of IDV Solutions (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  Ian Clemens is the co-founder and chief technology officer for IDV Solutions. Ian is an expert in interactive data visualization, location intelligence and business intelligence software, and has authored a number of articles on the topic in publications including DM Review and Directions Magazine. Prior to

Read Full Article »

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 7)

Sramana: You are among the top six solar cell manufacturers. How do you compete? Is this market commoditizing, or is there still technical differentiation in the marketplace? Shawn Qu: The market has grown very fast in the past few years. I think that we have come to a point where pure growth via manufacturing capacity

Read Full Article »

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 6)

Sramana: It appears that other than Canada, your primary market has been Europe. Shawn Qu: Europe is the leader. We also have very strong sales in the Asia Pacific area as well as in North America. We sell a lot to the U.S. and Canada. We also sell a steady supply into Korea and have

Read Full Article »

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 5)

Sramana: To enter the German market you had to develop a different solar panel. How did that affect your manufacturing process? Shawn Qu: The principles remain the same, and the quality of the system remained the same. By 2004 we were a tier 1 supplier for Volkswagen and had been certified to the automotive supplier’s

Read Full Article »

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 4)

Sramana: Your previous employers were willing to work with you because of your reputation as a scientist as well as because of the potential new sales channels your business could provide? Shawn Qu: Yes, but they were more helpful than they had to be. They also let me talk to their suppliers as well. With

Read Full Article »

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 3)

Sramana: Where did you set up your factory and manufacturing operations? Shawn Qu: I set that up in China. When I received the purchase order, I looked at several locations, including Canada and the United States. I elected to use China.

Building A Billion-Dollar Solar Company: Canadian Solar CEO Shawn Qu (Part 2)

Sramana: What was your vision for the product or service of Canadian Solar when you started the company? Shawn Qu: At that time we had two products. The first product was a solar charger which we designed for Volkswagen. They wanted a small solar charger to go with the Jetta cars.