This is the start of Week 3 here at SolarAcademy.
Last week was a whirlwind. We certainly did not get to all the to-do’s I set as goals at the beginning of the week. Having said that, we did accomplish some important things.
Accomplished last week:
- Got offered investment capital from a number of friends / colleagues. We are not yet raising capital at SolarAcademy until we have a better idea on what our MVP is going to be. On that note, I came across this great resource by my friend Fabrice Grinda on How to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for less than $20k which also talks about why not to raise capital until one figures out their MVP. This is exactly the stage we are at right now. So we are not yet raising capital.
- Explored developing some quizzes for “property owners” titled “Let’s measure your Solar Consciousness!” but have not yet gotten them to a stage where they are succinct, effective, crisp, presentable. If you have any suggestions on such engaging quizzes, how to create them, how to market them, SaaS platforms, etc… would love to hear your your thoughts.
- Received verbal commit for our first revenue (minimal amount) from a friend / colleague who also happens to be in real estate. Our engagement will be about guiding / educating them around how to become a “Solar Entrepreneur / Developer”. I have a feeling our services will save them considerable time and money in getting started and building their first set of solar projects/assets built.
- Gotten interest from a friend to evaluate his property for an off-grid microgrid installation.
- Set up an appointment with a leading solar industry company to explore co-creating educational content for new solar industry entrants.
- Had a great brainstorm discussion with Chris Collins of Ohm Analytics on the need for various new services for the long tail of solar installers, ideas on how to deploy large amounts of conscious capital with simple yet far-reaching designs among other things.
- Worked with two former CivicSolar colleagues who happen to be great designers and UI/UX folks on improving the look and feel and the general experience of our website.
Goals this week:
- Travelling tomorrow to my home country (Turkey) for 2 weeks. Mostly for family/friends. I am also invited to speak at an industry conference about Sustainability. Excited about informing folks about the rapidly approaching new world order of Energy (see this week’s Economist article). On this topic, I frequently forward people to this amazing talk by Tony Seba which is now more than 4 years old, yet still so relevant.
- Last week, we had a goal to reach out to all 20 solar installers to discuss the various services we are looking to offer them. Only reached out to 4 installers last week. Hope to accomplish the rest this week and next.
- Gain better clarity on which service to productize as MVP in the next months.
Many people are curious if I am personally writing all the content on SolarAcademy. The answer to that is no. I do write the weekly journal. And I review the content for other days. Sara Carbone is our amazing writer. She also happens to be a tutor for kids and adults, a mom, an actress and singer. I like working with people who have many interests, skill sets, and are multi-dimensional.
And if you are curious about the rest of our team, I am also working with Marc Boudier who is our website designer and coder. Marc is originally from France. I met him in the Bay Area almost 2 decades ago and currently he is on a e-Bike World Tour. He is loosely quarantining in Cambodia these days. We also have a couple of interns helping with some content as well as a UK based colleague who might help with our sales efforts as we figure it all out.
As I am struggling with the uncertainty of this early stage startup and not really knowing how everything is going to come together, the one book that comes into my mind everyday is – The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer. Highly recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in a tough space in the midst of lots of uncertainty.
That is all for this week’s journal entry. Now I have to pack for my flight tomorrow.
If you are a homeowner looking to go solar or if you are a solar professional and you have some thoughts on how we can help you or vice versa, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Simply reply to this email.
Thank you for your time & attention…
Kerim
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