Hire people who are smarter than you, and don't be afraid to work with them as partners. Make it clear that you plan to learn from them, not just the other way around. The right, smart, motivated people respond very well to that approach, particularly coming from a younger manager like I am.
Lynn Jurich
You have to accept the fact that not all your decisions are going to be right - and when they are wrong, you have to own it right away. I try not to have an emotional connection or investment in the decisions I make so that when they need to change, I can quickly move on to: 'How do we fix this?'
Since Sunrun introduced solar as a service in 2007, it has become the preferred way for consumers to go solar in the nation's top solar markets. Sunrun has deployed more than $2 billion in solar systems and has raised more than $300 million in equity capital.
Rooftop solar is the first true form of competition that utilities have ever faced, and that is why they're attacking it.
For every family in liberal San Francisco that went solar with SunRun in 2010, nearly eight families in more conservative Fresno made the switch to our solar power service.
There is a new wave of environmental consumers I like to call Pocketbook Environmentalists. They're going green primarily because it makes good financial sense, but the fact that it benefits their families' health and the environment also makes them feel good.
When wireless cellphones first came out, analysts predicted that at peak, it would only replace 5% of landlines. They said the quality wasn't good enough. Clearly that was improved. I think you'll find a similar thing in solar.
I was an investor doing well and decided to be an entrepreneur.
For Pocketbook Environmentalists, financial savings are the primary motivator. However Pocketbook Environmentalists are changing the face of the market and the planet for the better by demanding that going green saves you money.
Our customer base isn't just people saying, 'I'm an environmentalist, I'm in my Birkenstocks, I went to Woodstock.' Solar is a bipartisan technology. Republicans like solar; conservatives like solar. Over 30% of our customers are veterans. There's something very American about being able to produce power on your own rooftop.
All people believe in America, jobs, creating energy here, not being dependent on foreign energy sources.
Before solar, before Sunrun, if consumers wanted electricity, there was a monopoly of someone who told you how much it costs.
Innovative companies have started to realize there are not enough 'green consumers' willing to pay more for something just because it's green.
For a lot of people, one of the reasons they don't like to work for founders of startups is that they can be sensitive and protective around what they've built. You have an emotional attachment to the early marketing and technology materials, and you don't want to hear that anything's wrong with them.
For me, not owning a car means I may spend a little extra time on public transportation, but I can use that time to read, catch up on work projects, and make the phone calls I couldn't get to earlier. Plus, I never waste time at the mechanics or gas station.
Homeowners want solar power. It's cost-effective. We invented a business model that makes it really easy for consumers to switch to solar - and that's solar-as-a-service.
When Netscape failed, it didn't mean the Internet was over.
I'm on the board of the Sierra Club Foundation and am myself a big environmentalist. But the way to make the biggest difference is to change mainstream behavior.
We're leading a fundamental shift from centralized energy to distributed energy. Energy will go in that direction, just like mainframe computers went to client servers, then to the Internet. I believe in solar, and the macro trends are just too undeniable.
I think, in a lot of places, the solar panels are a badge of honor; they're trendy. If you go to Hawaii or Japan, people even install fake solar panels because it's cool and it's popular. And so I think solar panels have gotten a lot more attractive. They're sleek, black, they look good on a roof.
We believe widespread adoption of home solar will significantly improve life in cities by phasing out polluting coal plants, eliminating miles of ugly new transmission lines, and ensuring cleaner, healthier lives.
With Zipcar, consumers avoid the upfront cost of buying a car, not to mention gas, insurance, and repairs. Plus, they reduce the number of polluting vehicles on the road. Suddenly the planet-smart carless option is also the convenient money-saving option.
On Sundays, I like to plan how I want to exit the week and what are the key things I need to get done that week. I list them, and then I do check-ins on them each morning.
Thanks to the social web, we can share and trade to use a whole universe of things we once had to buy ourselves. From cars to solar panels, people are realizing they can reap the benefits of ownership without the expense and hassle of buying.
It's common for cultural shifts to start with young, urban adopters before going mainstream.
As we settle into 2013, I predict this: We'll see companies that promote this shift from private ownership thrive. More people will be able to access things they simply don't need to own, and they'll save money and live better, cleaner, green lives doing it.
There is a huge market for products and services aimed at what I like to call the Pocketbook Environmentalist: a shopper who's savvy enough to know things don't necessarily have to cost more just because they're good for the environment.
Since I work in home solar, I can't resist focusing on the amazing developments happening here. What many homeowners don't know is that they can have solar installed on their roofs without owning the panels or paying the high upfront costs.
Prior to SunRun, I was headed toward a career in venture capital and then realized I wanted to apply my knowledge of finance more directly to helping change the world.
With the right infrastructure in place, home solar will be recognized publicly as affordable, easy, and smart, and every new home built in the developed world can have clean energy sources built into it.
Consumers used to think they had to compromise with solar. It was, 'Okay, I'm doing the right thing for the environment; it's cool to see the panels. I have to compromise on the cost and convenience side.' And now they no longer have to. On the cost side, it's cheaper, and on the convenience side, we set it all up.
I just am a clean air freak. I grew up in the woods. I worked in China for a bit and was exposed to all the resources being used and the pollution and felt strongly that for our generation, the biggest economic and societal problem is energy.
