Last week, I went down to NYC to get my feet wet and explore the green scene in the big, hopefully green, apple. So, I figured the Green Entrepreneurship Summit would be a good place to start. A huge shout out to Erica Grigg who told me about the event and invited me to come down.

There were two awesome panels, one on marketing and the other on financing. My buddy Kosta Stavreas did an awesome compilation of thoughts from the finance panel and I’m going to share what I learned from the marketing panel.

But first, for those of you not into the NYC scene, my first impressions. First, there are a lot of awesome people from NYC. Second, no one is actually from there. Third, I noticed the NYC industry tends to be 1) small companies/consultants/freelancers 2) service based companies 3) web based technology companies. It doesn’t seem like there are as many technology based companies as in Boston, probably due to university access. Just a little insight. However, if you’re reading this and live in NYC and have a different perspective, please share, I’d love to learn more about the industry there.

The marketing panel is below:

• Michael Margolis – Get Storied, company branding and positioning
• Susan Mcpherson – SVP Fenton
• Marissa Feinberg, Co-Founder, Green Spaces
• Martin Saposnick – Hudson Valley Innovation Center

And here’s the takeaways from the panel. A lot of these are useful in other business, but I feel they are NECESSARY for green businesses:

1) Get clear on your backstory. people want to know if you’re for real and they’re looking for authenticity
2) Can’t convert people, but you can find people that care about what you care about
3) Your story should reaffirm someone existing world view
4) Get other people to tell your story for you, empower them!!
5) Find a cause your small business can relate with

One thing that would have been a little helpful was if the panelists gave a specific example for each, but most of them are straightforward.

Do you think they missed anything glaring that green business should be aware of?

There is it folks, short and sweet. I hope you like it

Chris

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About Chris Williams

Chris Williams is the editor of Green Light Distrikt and Chief Marketing Officer at HeatSpring . He has experience in business development, prototyping and new venture research with a focus on geothermal heat pumps, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic technologies. Chris is an IGSHPA accredited geothermal installer and NABCEP certified solar installer. Chris is focused on solving customer facing issues in the creation and adoption of clean energy technologies and products. Chris has installed over 300kW of solar and tens of geothermal systems. He's invented the PV Pal , developed many trainings at HeatSpring, publishes the NABCEP Study Guide , the Hitchhikers Guide to Cleantech and has done due diligence research for Urgent VC . Feel free to connect with him @topherwiliams , on Linkedin , or through email about new ventures, collaborating, writing, research or whatever is on your mind.

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Tags: carbon outreach, erica grigg, fenton, get storied, green spaces, hudson valley innovation center, michael margolis