Mark Hoffman’s Fourth Run: Enquisite (Part 1)

SM: Mark, where does your story begin? What is the genesis of your incredible career? MH: I grew up in a very small town in the southwest corner of Minnesota. It was a farming community of 3,000 people. It had a good school system. I had a Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer existence while I

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From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 7)

SM: What is the financing strategy that was utilized to build this company? DK: We did a faint angel round with a couple of institutional investors. We raised $2.7 million in 2007, mostly from friends and family, including Cate Blanchett and her husband. My partner’s family is out of New York and is invested in different

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From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 6)

SM: What do you think about small solar farms? Is that part of the industry’s future? DK: Right now I think it is problematic because it is credit-dependent. When I see the future beyond the reign of coal oil, nukes, and gas, we will replace it with a distributed energy utility solution. Every appropriate home

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From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 5)

SM: We have discussed your interface with the customer. What is the process with your contractors once you have a qualified lead to provide to them? DK: We call them pre-wrapped customers because they are not only qualified customers, but from our backend design system we have already developed the kit. We provide the specified

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From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 4)

SM: Do you offer rebate information for all the states and regions? DK: We are only doing business in California, but we do cover rebates for all the cities as well as all of the utilities. That is very complex, and some of the most difficult stuff we have had to do on the backend

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From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 3)

SM: Are you an exchange hub matching contractors with consumers? DK: It is not as e-marketplace as that sounds. We need to have a more concrete relationship between us and the customer, us and the contractor, and match them appropriately.

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 2)

SM: What is the genesis of the startup? DK: My heart’s concern is climate change and energy issues. Most of my campaign work for the past decade has been on climate concerns. I believe that in the last decade we have turned the corner from denial to awareness that it is happening.

From Greenpeace To Green Power: Sungevity CEO Danny Kennedy (Part 1)

Danny Kennedy is the co-founder and president of Sungevity. He has a diverse background as an activist, including his most recent role as the Campaigns Manager for Greenpeace Australia Pacific. In 2001 he ran Greenpeace’s California Clean Energy Campaign, which is largely responsible for the current California Solar Initiative. SM: Tell me about where you

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