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Green Light Distrikt
Green Light Distrikt is about entrepreneurship focused on the cleantech sector. Edited by Chris Williams with frequent guest posts from friends, experts and industry insiders from clusters across the globe. Our goal is to provide a place where cleantech entrepreneurs in various clusters across the globe can learn from one another. Green Light Distrikt is creating the "Hitchikers Guide to Clentech" to provide a resource for cleantech entrepreneurs. Read more
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January 18th, 2012
5 Lessons You Can Apply to Prototyping New Products
TOPICS: BICEP, BOSTON, Prototyping
Last year, I built and sold my first cleantech product. It is a tool used to install solar PV modules more efficiently.
Here is the story and what I’ve learned about prototyping in the process. Hopefully, it will be useful to you as well.
Here’s a quick snippet of what I learned.
- Closeness with customers is key, especially if you’re getting them to change their behaviors. If you’re building a new product and are not building relationships with beta customers, this is a problem. It is critical for time between iterations and testing. This is also critical for them providing you blunt feedback. Lastly, with many cleantech products you’re interrupting existing operations. If they don’t trust you, they won’t want to risk it.
- Don’t assume you know the answer. I was the target customer but 15 minutes of feedback on our alpha prototype enabled us to reduce manufacturing costs by 400% for our beta. This is key because unlike software or internet products, cleantech products are EXPENSIVE and tend to require face to face relationships.
- Work on your communications. The concept must be clear to the customer quickly or it will be difficult for them to provide useful feedback that can use to enhance the product.
Click below to read the full story. Also, apply for Cleantech Prototyping Academy if you want to learn best practices of how to build products faster (and cheaper) in order to impress investors or find beta customers. CPA is taught by Ethan Labowitz.
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January 10th, 2012
Green Light Distrikt in 2012 – Can We Increase the Velocity to $1 for Cleantech Companies?
TOPICS: BOSTON
Another year has passed and Green Light Distrikt is still alive.
The goal of Green Light Distrikt is constantly changing as my work, and the work of other industry insiders, continues to shift. Currently, I’ve published a study guide for the Solar NABCEP exam, invented a solar installation tool, I’m responsible for all marketing and sales at HeatSpring, and am consulting with both renewable energy installation companies and companies launching new products, technologies or services targeted at the solar or geothermal industry. All of these experiences have provided me a valuable skill, into how to build a product quickly, get it in front of customers, and collect money, or not.
What started as a personal blog, turned into a blog about the cleantech industry in Boston, then about the industry in multiple cities, and now Green Light Distrikt is a blog that is for people who are building cleantech companies. The goal is to make the blog for other people like myself, those that are constantly exploring opportunities and working to build successful companies in the cleantech industry.
Here’s a review about who Green Light Distrikt is, what we’re writing about, the projects that we’re working on and how they relate together and then topics and themes we’ll be writing about in 2012.
Most of the topics fall under one simple concept that GLD is beginning to focus around: How can we increase the velocity of cleantech companies to $1 faster ? By this I mean, what can we do to get companies out of “idea stage” and into “making money stage” as quickly as possible.
December 8th, 2011
NYC GLD Meetup: How can we Create Profitable, Easy to Test, and Cash Flow Positive Businesses Focused on Cleantech?
TOPICS: Entrepreneurship, NEW YORK
The renewable energy and cleantech industries need to be making more money. This might seem like a simple observation, but I don’t think it’s talked about as much as it should be within our industry. I certainly do not hear it enough.
In order to help facilitate this process, I’m creating a meetup in NYC for entrepreneurs looking to build companies and make money in the renewable energy industry. Read below for the backstory, meetup details, types of opportunities we’re look at and the types of individuals who will be at the meetup.
December 6th, 2011
How to Grow Electric Vehicle Sales
TOPICS: Marketing, NEW YORK, Transportation
Electric vehicles are one of the sexiest new entrants to the clean technology space, highlighted by interesting initiatives such as EVroadside assistance developed by AAA and Green Charge Networks, all-electric commercial fleet vehicles by Smith Electric Vehicles, and of course battery swapping by Better Place. But what I found most intriguing at last week’s “EVs in NYC” event (watch the video online) hosted by SolarOne was a sidenote by Anatol Feygin of Loews Corporation.
“The first few phases of adoption are going to be relatively simple. The EV industry is trying too hard to address issues of range anxiety and others that the early adopters will be relatively comfortable with. There will be people who are early adopters of other technologies who are comfortable with those initial hiccups.”
Anatol reminds us that it’s essential that these companies optimize their marketing resources and target the audience that will be most likely to purchase electric vehicles regardless of their existing limitations.
Let’s consider the history of hybrid electric vehicle sales as a proxy for the growing electric vehicle market. Read past the break for the full story and join the Green Light Distrikt Facebook group for updates on new events, blog posts and more. Continue Reading >
November 28th, 2011
Reincarnating “Skunk Works” approach in Cleantech
TOPICS: Business Insights, Entrepreneurship, London
1943, is the year in which the antecedents of Lockheed Martin’s “Skunkworks” can be found. Since those early days the famous division has produced famous planes such as the U2 and the Blackbird. These tremendously innovative projects were all founded upon the idea of small, unconventional teams of engineers and innovators operating in a large corporation.
The ground breaking innovators in the “Skunkworks” were shielded as if working in start-up firm, isolating them from bureaucratic interference. Considering their main customer was the government, this was a huge and extremely effective achievement.
November 23rd, 2011
The Polarization of Energy
TOPICS: Business Insights, CleanTech Events, NEW YORK
It’s no secret that at the core of the Supercommittee’s failure earlier this week is the increasing polarization of American politics. Huffington Post contributor and law professor June Carbone illustrates this transition over the past half-century:
“A half century ago, neither political party disproportionately consisted of those who favored a my-way-or-the-high-way approach. Unbending ideologues did not make it into leadership positions. Today, it may be the only way to get elected – for one of the parties. That party has framed the debt limit as a matter of principle and used it to fire up the base. For a group inclined to see the world in terms of absolutes, compromise can accordingly only be seen as betrayal.”
What’s causing this polarization? It’s certainly not that Americans feel that this polarization is good for the country. Eight in ten Americans disapprove of Congress, more than half disapprove of the President, and three-quarters believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction. So what gives? Read past the break for the full story and join the Green Light Distrikt Facebook group for updates on new events, blog posts and more. Continue Reading >
November 21st, 2011
Update on GLD UK: Trends, blooms, philosophy and crowdsourcing
TOPICS: CleanTech Events, EnergyBar, London
I want to give you all a brief update on the Green Light Distirkt over in the UK. Since the founding of GLD in London more than six months ago, things have been going from strength to strength. GLD UK has so far, hosted five fascinating Energy Bars, with speakers each bringing their own unique twist of insight.
May – The start!
May was our inaugural Energy Bar in London; the first small step in building up traction in the UK. Conveniently, Chris Williams happened to be travelling through Europe completing research for the development of the Hitchhikers Guide to Cleantech. During his stop off in London he dropped by to give a talk on the founding of GLD and his latest projects. The event was a fitting start for GLD UK to host our first Energy Bar with the GLD founder in town. Continue Reading >
