Podcast appearances and mentions of dan yates

Dan Yates co-founded Opower in 2007, based on the belief that consumers want to use less energy—and that their utilities could actually help them do it. He was right. Opower took off, and Oracle bought the customer engagement platform in 2016. A year later, Dan founded Dandelion Energy, a startup that uses geothermal energy for heating and cooling buildings. Electrifying buildings is a major tenant of decarbonizing the power sector, but air-source heat pumps can be expensive. Installation costs are even higher with geothermal heat pumps, but they offer energy efficiency advantages. Dan is a big fan. After investing in Dandelion and serving on its board, he became CEO in 2023.This week on With Great Power, Dan talks about the potential for residential geothermal heating and cooling, why it could be the clean energy that gains instead of loses federal support in the near term, and the role he thinks utilities can play in the technology's deployment.With Great Power is a co-production of GridX and Latitude Studios.  Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get podcasts. For more reporting on the companies featured in this podcast, subscribe to Latitude Media's newsletter.Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Erin Hardick and Mary Catherine O'Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. Sean Marquand composed the original theme song and mixed the show. The Grid X production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.

In this episode, Stop & Talk host Grant Oliphant engages in a heartfelt conversation with Dan Yates, board chair of the Prebys Foundation and co-founder/CEO of Endeavor Bank. A true San Diego native, Dan's journey from Paradise Hills to becoming a leading civic figure in San Diego reveals a profound commitment to community and service.Dan shares his experiences growing up in a diverse and complex environment, which instilled in him a deep sense of empathy and a drive to uplift his community. His story highlights the significant role of his upbringing, particularly the influence of his parents, in shaping his values of kindness, service, and inclusion.Throughout the episode, Dan discusses his path to banking, driven by a desire to connect business with community. His work at Endeavor Bank exemplifies this, blending entrepreneurial spirit with a strong focus on civic leadership. Dan emphasizes the importance of listening to, understanding, and supporting the diverse fabric of San Diego, from his efforts with Second Chance to his ongoing engagement with Morse High School students.Dan's unique blend of professional acumen, vulnerability, and heartfelt community involvement is making a lasting impact on San Diego. Listen in to hear his insights on how local business can serve as a force for good, and his vision of a more connected and inclusive community.Credits:This is a production of the Prebys Foundation.Hosted by Grant OliphantCo-Hosted by Crystal PageCo-produced by Crystal Page and Adam GreenfieldEngineered by Adam GreenfieldProduction Assistance by Tess KareskyThe Stop & Talk Theme song was created by San Diego's own Mr. Lyrical Groove.Recorded at the Voice of San Diego Podcast StudioDownload episodes at your favorite podcatcher or visit us at StopAndTalkPodcast.orgIf you like this show, and we hope you do, the best way to support this show is to share, subscribe, and review our podcast. Thank you for your support, ideas, and listening. 

Dan Yates is the CEO and Chairman of Dandelion Energy, a Series B Stage startup deploying solutions for residential geothermal energy. As Dan explains it, residential geothermal distinguishes itself from utility-scale geothermal by not aiming to exploit a scarce, underground heat source for electricity generation through turbines. Instead, the process involves circulating an aqueous solution through a closed loop underground. This allows the system to harness the stable temperature of the soil beneath and employ it for both heating and cooling functions in a residential ground source heat pump. Essentially, residential geothermal aligns with the trajectory of residential HVAC heat pump adoption, serving as a means to maintain a dependable and efficient temperature for optimal heat pump performance.Dan is a repeat guest on My Climate Journey. He joined Jason way back on Episode 7 to recount his journey as the Co-founder and the CEO of Opower. Dandelion's Co-founder, Kathy Hannun, was also on the pod way back on Episode 35. A lot has changed in that time. In today's conversation, we touch a bit on Dan's Opower journey, but most of the time is spent on Dandelion and geothermal. We also cover Dandelion's current geographic focus areas, the technologies it has developed, how they operate the company, the business model, the recent tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislation that have benefited the company, and so much more.In this episode, we cover: Dandelion's mission to bring residential geothermal to scaleDan's experience at Opower and its thesis Difference between residential geothermal and utility-scale How residential geothermal works and its benefitsDandelion's closed-loop solution Geographic focus areas of Dandelion Energy The company's heat pump technology Recent tax incentives for geothermal energyAn overview of Dandelion's operations The company's business model and funding to date Dandelion's biggest challenges and barriers to growthEstimated cost breakdown for homeowners looking to switch to geothermal with DandelionCareer opportunities with Dandelion and how folks can spread the word about geothermalEpisode recorded on Jan 18, 2024 (Published on Feb 15, 2024) Get connected with MCJ: Jason Jacobs X / LinkedInCody Simms X / LinkedInMCJ Podcast / Collective / YouTube*If you liked this episode, please consider giving us a review! You can also reach us via email at content@mcjcollective.com, where we encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Bio Dan Yates: Dan is a passionate snowboarder, splitboarder, mountain biker, climber, and a poor but enthusiastic surfer. But most of his adult life has been spent as a whitewater kayaker & athlete. He has paddled some of the remotest and hardest rivers across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia over the last 25 years, with kayaking defining his love of the environment and his desire to protect it. Dan has spent the last decade as an environmental ambassador for several outdoor brands and has been involved in the creation of 2 environmental NGOs. His activism has focused on engaging the outdoor community in the preservation of our last wild places, be they in the heart of the Himalayas or behind the local village.

Bio Dan Yates: Dan is a passionate snowboarder, splitboarder, mountain biker, climber, and a poor but enthusiastic surfer. But most of his adult life has been spent as a whitewater kayaker & athlete. He has paddled some of the remotest and hardest rivers across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia over the last 25 years, with kayaking defining his love of the environment and his desire to protect it. Dan has spent the last decade as an environmental ambassador for several outdoor brands and has been involved in the creation of 2 environmental NGOs. His activism has focused on engaging the outdoor community in the preservation of our last wild places, be they in the heart of the Himalayas or behind the local village.

Dan Yates has been passionate about white-water kayaking for over 30 years. He's travelled to some of the wildest and remotest landscapes on earth and has had some incredible adventures, including being lost on the Tibetan Plateau with no food or water! He has a boatload of first white-water descents under his belt and kayaking has taken him to some seriously epic places where no human has ever been before.During the last decade, he has become more focused on the environment and the need to protect these beautiful landscapes. A plan to dam and divert the Fairy Glen Gorge in Snowdonia led to him co-founding Save Our Rivers in protest, and after a three-year campaign, the plans were dropped.Since then, Save Our Rivers has successfully campaigned against plans for dams in protected areas and fought changes to legislation that would remove protections of our most beautiful landscapes.   Listen in as we dig into Dan's kayaking adventures, his work with Save Our Rivers and the need to protect our wild rivers and National Parks for future generations to enjoy.

Hannah Matterson, CEO of Generator, joins Rebecca Rees to highlight how the rise in new technologies has caused a digital divide across the music industry and the support available to creators in the North East. Join Generator's Digital Union for free here: https://generator.org.uk/developing-the-north-easts-creative-digital-industries/digital-union/. Produced by Rebecca Rees and Lucy Fegan, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Ryan Farley, Managing Director of Cooking Vinyl Publishing, joins Rebecca Rees to analyse publishings place in the digital economy and the importance of neighbouring rights and sub-publishing relationships. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and Jacob Simmons, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Emsy Petersen, Marketing Associate at Blokur and Matthew Lovett, Academic and Project Lead for Centre for Research in Audiovisual & Techonomic Environments, join Rebecca Rees to shed some light on the ongoing data challenge. Exploring the potential of new models and start-ups to increase the value of audio streaming. Read Matthew's paper 'Directions In Music' here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbloc.2020.506721/full?field=&id=506721&journalName=Frontiers_in_Blockchain&utm_campaign=Email_publication&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Email_to_authors_ and about Blokurs collaboration with Massive Attack here: https://medium.com/blokur/powering-online-collaboration-with-massive-attack-7597747acc4a. Produced by Rebecca Rees and Lucy Fegan, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Clare Everson, Music Supervisor at Twenty Below Music, joins Rebecca Rees to underline the challenges facing artists in synchronisation and managing expectations when forming deals. Sign up to Shesaid.so here: https://www.shesaid.so/membership and see the Women's 100 Alternative Power List here: https://www.shesaid.so/alternative-power-100-music-list-2020. See Twenty Below Music's sync for Burberry here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbmW76Cp4s8 and read about the affects of the recession on women here: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201021-why-this-recession-disproportionately-affects-women. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and Jacob Simmons, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell and artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

As part of Sass and Snarls ‘The Revolution Will Be Televised' virtual conference, Digital Dissect brings you this bonus live episode that dives into the job market, managing expectations and attitudes in a business where there is no fixed framework and achieving success in an unpredictable industry. Covering themes such as the recovery of the UK's live sector post-pandemic, a subject that Pauline Macocco, Head of Advertising at Driift Live has been instrumental in getting back on its feet; as well as the ins and outs of rights managements and sync with Verity Griffiths, Head of Sync at Cooking Vinyl, and representation in the industry, aptly answered by Frankie Wells, the Co-founder of Foundation FM. Read UK Music's report here: https://www.ukmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Music-by-Numbers-2020.pdf and the UK Music Careers Information Pack here: https://www.ukmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/UK_Music_Careers_Information_Pack_2020.pdf. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and Saffron Mirza, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell and artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Rob Nancollas, Digital Marketing Manager at Motive Unknown, joins Rebecca Rees to recognise the benefits of paid advertising and emerging revenue streams. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and James Humphrys, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Kerri Watt, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, joins Rebecca Rees to share how she has harnessed Patreon to develop and retain a loyal community of active users in the digital space. Listen to Kerri's debut album 'Neptune's Daughter' and podcast here: https://kw.lnk.to/neptunesdaughter. Sign up to Kerri's Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/kerriwatt. Produced by Rebecca Rees and Lucy Fegan, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

James Corbitt, Digital Marketing Manager at Cooking Vinyl, joins Rebecca Rees to break down the rising concept of audience development and how to best navigate this critical marketing approach. Find out more about Saint Raymond's campaign here: https://www.saintraymond.co.uk, Lucy Spraggan's campaign here: https://lucyspraggan.com and Sam Eagle's campaign here: https://sameaglemusic.com. Produced by Rebecca Rees and Lucy Fegan, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

In this episode: Emily's conversation with Dan Yates, the co-founder and former CEO of Opower. Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. And if people saw they were doing poorly, they'd make changes. It worked.Over time, Opower inked deals with the world's biggest power companies and started processing vast amounts of smart meter data -- making it arguably the biggest energy efficiency success story in business. The company went public in 2014 and was sold to Oracle in 2016.This conversation was recorded in front of a remote live audience in the summer of 2020.This podcast is brought to you by DLA Piper, a full-service global law firm that works with leading technology companies and their investors to meet all their legal needs. It's also brought to you by AES, a fortune-500 company helping organizations transition to new, smarter and cleaner solutions. AES is working toward a world that is 100% carbon-free.Powerhouse partners with leading corporations and investors to help them lead the next century of clean technology innovation. Our fund, Powerhouse Ventures, invests in founding teams building innovative software to rapidly transform our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more about Powerhouse at https://www.powerhouse.fund/

Greg Barnes, Freelance Video Producer from Black Dog Films, joins Rebecca Rees to delve into retaining value around visual media during an influx of user-generated content and how to create well on a budget. View Greg's portfolio, including '100ft of Distance', here: http://www.mrgregbarnes.com. View Glass Animals 'Dreamland' video directed by Colin Read here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE7vBk_zLA4. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and Jacob Simmons, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Lore Oxford, Head of Cultural Insights at We Are Social, joins Rebecca Rees to explore how audience behaviour is changing and influencing business strategies as we enter a new decade. View the Creating In A Crisis Report here: https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2020/04/creating-in-a-crisis-how-covid-19-is-impacting-influencers-in-the-uk. The Digital 2021 Report here: https://wearesocial.com/digital-2021. The Social Reset Report here: https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2020/11/think-forward-2021-the-social-reset. Produced by Rebecca Rees and Lucy Fegan, music by Shimasu, master by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Jack Louis Cooper, Youth Facilitator and singer-songwriter joins Rebecca Rees to introduce the key themes of a digital economy and share concerns around making a viable creative career in a saturated marketplace. Watch Jack's masculinity and mental health series 'A Slow But Sure Corner' here - www.instagram.com/jacklouiscooper. Produced by Rebecca Rees, Lucy Fegan and Jacob Simmons, music by Shimasu, mastered by Richard Bignell, artwork by Esme Hallam and Dan Yates.

Dan Yates and his co-founder Alex Laskey built Opower, an efficiency company that saves more energy every year than the hoover dam can generate. It was based on cutting-edge behavioral science -- but it wasn’t always clear how the science would play out.“It wasn’t okay with us to just know that there was going to be a result. It had to be a certain level, otherwise it wasn’t economic. And in the first few months, the results came in and they weren’t changing behavior. The floor fell out from under me. I said, ‘oh my god, we have no idea if this is going to work.'”Opower was founded in 2007 by Dan and Alex, two friends from Harvard. Dan knew software. Alex knew how to sell. And both of them wanted to build a company for environmental good.Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. If people saw they were doing poorly, they’d make changes. It worked.Over time, Opower inked deals with the world’s biggest power companies and started processing vast amounts of smart meter data -- making it arguably the biggest energy efficiency success story in business. The company went public in 2014 and was sold to Oracle in 2016.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Dan about the science behind the idea, how Opower evolved and expanded, and why the company was eventually sold to Oracle.Listen to all our past episodes of Watt It Takes here. This series is normally recorded in front of a live audience. But we’re now recording the interviews remotely. See future events here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation at the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.

The Treasury Department recently issued new FAQs regarding SBA PPP loans. It addresses many key questions and issues, however, some business owners remain in the dark and are looking for clarity.   In part three of the PPP loans series, Derek Myron speaks with Dan Yates, CEO at Endeavour Bank, to offer an insight from the … Continue reading Episode 7 — SBA PPP Loans: What “perplexed” business owners need to know! – with guest Dan Yates, CEO of Endeavor Bank →

In this follow-up COVID-19 episode, we expand on actions business owners should be taking in response to the  COVID-19 economic shut down, and follow up on some previously shared information. As the circumstances are constantly changing, we want our clients and the community to be well informed. Dan Yates, CEO of Endeavor Bank, returns for … Continue reading SPECIAL UPDATE: COVID-19, PART 2 →

Type 2 is a podcast from Looking Sideways in association with Patagonia that explores the intersection between the outdoors, action sports and activism. My guest for this episode of Type 2 is Dan Yates from Save Our Rivers Save Our Rivers is an environmental organisation dedicated to protecting our wild rivers and national parks. For Dan, activism is intrinsically linked to his own love for wild places, sure. But what comes across from his story, and why I think it is so valuable, is the reality of everyday activism. Dan and his peers are fitting in their activism around their everyday lives, finding hugely effective ways to achieve their goals that don’t necessarily rely on direct action, and instead means a lot of hard, dedicated and often unglamorous work. There’s huge value in this because one of the themes that is gradually becoming clear as Type 2 evolves, and I speak to more people, is that for activism to really succeed it needs to be a combination of passion and pragmatism, which is something Dan and Save our Rivers epitomise. New episodes of Type 2 will be released every four weeks through my Looking Sideways channel. Hear it by subscribing to Looking Sideways via ApplePodcasts, Spotify, Podbean, OvercastFM or any of the usual other podcast providers. Thanks to Ewan Wallace for the theme tune, and to my editor Fina Charleson.

This week's On the Rocks takes a candid look at the adult film industry with Falcon Studios Exclusive Cade Maddox, AVN nominee Silvia Saige, and Sean Cody's Dan Yates aka Brysen, with guest co-host model and on-air personality Kevin Benoit and your host, Alexander Rodriguez! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the Million Dollar Mortgage Experience, Jon Maddux is joined by CEO and President of Endeavor Bank, Dan Yates and Steven Sefton. The three discuss what an inverted yield curve suggests, vaping and its effect on the SAFE banking act, politics and much more. Back in early 2015, Dan and Steven envisioned a bank for businesses and their owners where decisions are made locally and services are delivered by an experienced banker who is also a trusted advisor. Armed with decades of banking and business experience, the two and a board of directors made up of leading financial experts and San Diego businesspeople, began actively laying the foundation for Endeavor Bank in the summer of 2016. After an initial capital raise of $26.6 million and the backing of over 450 investors/owners, they opened for business in January 2018. The San Diego business community has embraced their new Endeavor, realizing that they deliver more than an exceptional banking experience through our consultative banking approach. *This podcast is intended to aid mortgage professionals* For more great content, visit our Youtube channel: http://bit.ly/2TTRQOA Follow us on Instagram: @FundLoans FundLoans NMLS ID:1202262 If you are in the mortgage industry and are interested in learning more about FundLoans' Jumbo and Super Jumbo Non-QM Mortgage Products, contact us at Info@FundLoans.com or call 866-234-6981. Website: http://bit.ly/2ON6SQt

Sexy Funny Raw sits down with Dan Yates, former MMA fighter and top rated Sean Cody model ("Brysen"), with guest co-host adult film star and AVN Best Newcomer Stirling Cooper...with your host, Silvia Saige. Follow us on Twitter/Instagram: @SexyFunnyRaw and check out all of our shows on www.SexyFunnyRaw.com

Today’s guest is Kathy Hannun, the co-founder & CEO of Dandelion. Originally conceived at X, Alphabet’s innovation lab, Dandelion is now an independent company offering geothermal heating and cooling systems to homeowners, starting in the Northeastern US. Previously, Kathy was a product manager and Rapid Evaluator at Alphabet's X. Prior to Dandelion, Kathy led a team that created technology to extract carbon dioxide from seawater to create carbon-neutral fuel. Kathy has been recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Creative People in Business, one of Albany Business Review's 40 under 40, and as a Leader of Tomorrow. Kathy graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Computer Science.  In today’s episode, we cover: Founding story of Dandelion Overview of geothermal and how it works Its market potential and what has been holding it back Why now is the right time for it to flourish and how Dandelion plans to make that happen The process that went into identifying the Dandelion opportunity, and what led to the decision to spin out from X What utilities like about the approach The impact Dandelion/geothermal can have @ scale on decarbonization How special it is that a high impact opportunity like this fits neatly in the venture capital model and timelines Whether the process to select Dandelion could be repeatable to find other ideas The pros/cons of launching at X vs independently and how to decide The magic of finding a solution that makes people’s lives easier while having a meaningful impact  Some key wishes Kathy has for things that would change that would help accelerate the clean energy transition Some surprising advice Kathy has for people concerned about climate change for how you can help Links to topics discussed in this episode: Kathy Hannun Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooperkathy/ Dandelion website: https://dandelionenergy.com/ Geothermal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy Google X: https://x.company/ Dan Yates: https://www.myclimatejourney.co/episodes/dan-yates Con Edison partnership: https://dandelionenergy.com/press-release/con-edison-dandelion-energy-partner-offer-westchester-homeowners-5000-off-geothermal-installation Impossible Foods: https://impossiblefoods.com/ You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests. Enjoy the show!

Today’s guest is Matt Rogers, the co-founder of Nest and now Incite.org. Incite turns big ideas to improve the world into big deals. They offer early money & support for changemakers through Incite Labs, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that makes grants and program-related investments to further charitable, educational, and scientific purposes, Incite Ventures, an investment fund that supports mission-driven enterprises through investments in businesses with the potential to scale, inspire others, and make a difference, and Incite Politics, the name of the work of Incite’s founders, Matt and Swati, to personally organize and support initiatives to pass legislation and elect candidates who approach our country’s issues from a fresh perspective. Matt is a builder at heart. He started at Apple, building the software team for 10 generations of the iPod. He was one of the first engineers on the original iPhone and involved in the development of 5 iPhone generations, and the first iPad. As co-founder of Nest, Matt built the team that built the first machine learning thermostat. And by doing so, has built the leading connected home brand — Nest. Matt is a Star Wars enthusiast and can often be spotted playing with his Airedale terrier friend, Bingley. In this episode we discuss: Matt’s time at Apple where he worked on the iPod, iPhone, and iPad The aha moment that led to Matt leaving Apple and founding Nest with Tony Fadell How Matt blended product and mission at Nest, which helped lead to it’s 3.2B acquisition by Google Matt’s time post Google acquisition and what led him and his wife Swati to found Incite.org The work Matt and his wife Swati are doing at Incite in startups, government, philanthropy, and politics Matt’s personal views on climate change and his expectations of those who have achieved success Links for topics discussed in this episode: Matt Rogers LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattrogers2/ Matt Rogers Twitter: https://twitter.com/nestmatt Swati Mylavarapu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swatimylavarapu/ Incite.org: https://www.incite.org Yoky Matsuoka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoky_Matsuoka Apple: https://www.apple.com/ Nest: https://nest.com/ Tony Fadell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyfadell/ Dan Yates: https://www.myclimatejourney.co/episodes/dan-yates Google acquires Nest: https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2014/01/13/google-acquires-nest-for-3-2-billion/ Carbon180: https://carbon180.org/ Cyclotron Road: https://www.cyclotronroad.org/ Julio Friedmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julio-friedmann-86a83a44/ ClearPath: https://clearpath.org/ UC Davis: https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/can-seaweed-cut-methane-emissions-dairy-farms/ New York Times article w/ Matt Rogers: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/business/carbon-removal-technology-start-ups.htm I hope you enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future topics or guests. One correction: In this episode Matt Rogers said Cyclotron Road will soon be called Activation Energy. In fact, Cyclotron Road is a program managed in partnership between Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Activate (formerly called Activation Energy), an independent nonprofit organization.

In this episode, I interview Dan Yates, the Co-Founder and former CEO of Opower, an energy software company he took public and ultimately sold to Oracle for $532 million. I was eager to speak with Dan, as he started Opower from a place of concern about the planet. It was clearly a financial win, but I had so many questions. Was it a win in terms of fulfilling the initial mission? How does he feel now about climate change vs when he started Opower in 2007? How is he evaluating what kinds of projects he takes on moving forward? What advice does he have for other people trying to figure out the same thing? Dan is a consummate professional and clearly a great leader. I also found him to be quite humble and introspective. His perspective was quite helpful to me as I am figuring out my next moves as it relates to helping with climate change, and I hope you find it helpful as well. I hope you enjoy the show! You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and provide suggestions for future guests or topics you'd like to see covered on the show. Links for topics discussed in this episode: Jason Diamond’s Collapse: https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Societies-Choose-Succeed-Revised/dp/0143117009 Map from EIA.gov consumption categories: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=36412&src=%E2%80%B9%20Consumption%20%20%20%20%20%20Residential%20Energy%20Consumption%20Survey%20(RECS)-b1 Robert Cialdini Understanding and Motivating Energy Conservation via Social Norms: http://media.cbsm.com/comments/168079/09+PE+Cialdini+Hewlett+Foundation.pdf Opower: https://ux.opower.com/ Oracle Opower acquisition: https://www.oracle.com/corporate/acquisitions/opower/ Dandelion Geothermal: https://dandelionenergy.com/

First, Bruce Ford of Lodging Econometrics and Glenn are in Las Vegas. Plus, they discuss hot hotel markets. Then, Dan Yates, CEO of Pitchup.com discusses entering the U.S. market, the largest camping market in the world and how he's looking to shake up the travel market. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Text hotel to 66866. Visit www.novacancynews.com Send us your thoughts and comments to Glenn@rouse.media, or via Twitter and Instagram @TravelingGlenn. LIKE us on Facebook! Visit our sponsor: Red Roof, Almo Hospitality Subscribe on iTunes: No Vacancy with Glenn Haussman Subscribe on Android: https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Ifu34iwhrh7fishlnhiuyv7xlsm Send your comments and questions to Glenn@rouse.media.  Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/novacancy Follow Glenn @TravelingGlenn Learn more at www.novacancynews.com Produced by Jeff Polly: http://www.endpointmultimedia.com/

For this episode of Econ Minute, we are doing an experiment. In collaboration with the Oregon Transformation Project, we have Jim Pasero - author of the Oregon Transformation Newsletter - co-hosting while we interview Dan Yates, President of The Portland Spirit. Portland Spirit provides river cruises on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and owns a restaurant on the Columbia at Cascade Locks. Dan discusses the challenges of running a smallish business and how Oregon’s summer wildfires took a huge toll on his and other Northwest businesses. We also talk about some of the regulatory challenges of running a business in Portland. If you want to receive the Oregon Transformation Newsletter, just follow the link.

Opower is a software company focused on energy efficiency. Opower works with utilities to monitor how much energy a consumer uses and gives households and businesses incentives to lower their consumption. The idea is that through the use of behavioral science techniques such as peer proof, people will feel compelled to consume energy more responsibly. […]

Kelly talks to Dan Hill, CEO, Sensory Logic, about how the latest face recognition techniques and technology can tell you many things about people before you agree to do business with them or hire them.   Kelly Coughlin is CEO of BankBosun, a management consulting firm helping bank C-Level Officers navigate risk and discover reward. He is the host of the syndicated audio podcast, BankBosun.com. Kelly brings over 25 years of experience with companies like PWC, Lloyds Bank, and Merrill Lynch. On the podcast Kelly interviews key executives in the banking ecosystem to provide bank C-Suite officers, risk management, technology, and investment ideas and solutions to help them navigate risks and discover rewards. And now your host, Kelly Coughlin. Kelly: Dan, I want to do introduce you and talk to you briefly about what you’re doing with your role as CEO of Sensory Logic, and generally get some of your background and talk about the science of what you guys are doing with this technology. My summary of it is something like you’re using technology to objectively measure 12 human emotions. They range from joy to sadness, and anxiety with the purpose of evaluating personality traits, measuring personality traits, to determine how neurotic or how normal people are for the purpose of identifying matches with whatever the goal might be to using that. Is that a reasonable estimate or summary of what you guys are doing? Dan: We are trying to capture and quantify emotional response and that can apply to consumer’s reactions to the advertising, website, and other touch points of thanks for instance, but if you move over to the more personal side in terms of financial advisors or trying to reduce risks when looking at hedge fund managers, yes, then you start getting into the personality dimensions. Obviously for hedge funds you want to make sure that they are prudent investors and not someone given to overly large risks. There’s both a general consumer application we are talking about here, and one that’s more personnel driven. Kelly: That sounds interesting, using technology to evaluate those things that are clearly has been in the realm of subjective interviews and personal objective evaluation is fascinating. Let’s go over a little bit of your background, Dan. Currently you’re CEO of Sensory Logic, and a little bit about what you are, who you are, and then who Sensory Logic is. Dan: I started the company in 1998, and I got lucky. Someone I knew at IBM sent over to me an article about the breakthroughs in brain science and how much people are emotional decision makers. You may know the conservative estimation is that at least 95% of peoples’ mental activity is subconscious. A lot of what happens to us and for us is below the water line so to speak, and it’s important to access that and the emotional part of the brain sends ten times as much information to the rational part of the brain and vice versa. As to the ratio of emotional to rational in terms of the interactions it is a ten to one ratio. Kelly: Presumably we have a rational mind that’s informing our subconscious mind, correct? Dan: Sure, the mind is very interactive so there is an interplay back and forth, but I think the real thrust of the breakthroughs in brain science in the last 25 years aided by technology and from MRI brain scans for one thing, is that we really have to change our viewpoint. We probably have run for 300 years with Dick Hart’s assumption that we are rational beings. The famous comment, I think therefore I am. Ambrose Bierce, a contemporary of Mark Twain said, “I think therefore I am.” That’s probably a lot closer to the truth. In the financial industry you want to go to the numbers and facial coding gives us a chance to bring numbers to something that otherwise might have seemed rather soft and squishy which is emotions. In reality there’s really two currencies in the business world. Dollars and emotions, and we’re after the second one on behalf of the first one. Kelly: Not to be outdone with your quoting of philosophers, I will reference Aristotle who also used the concept of having, of creating habits that are natural to the human that just make it part of the unconscious, subconscious mind so that your naturally inclined to do, he felt like, the virtuous, the right thing. That took kind of integrating the conscious mind, the rational mind, with the subconscious mind. Is that consistent? Dan: I think the metaphor that Aristotle used actually was that human beings is as if they are in a chariot, and it’s driven by two horses and one’s the rational horse and one’s the emotional horse. He was already acknowledging, obviously, the importance of emotions. I think what the neuro biology advances have suggested is that maybe the darker horse, the emotional horse, may be the stronger of the two, most likely is. Kelly: Dan thank you, you crushed me on your quoting of Aristotle. Thanks, I appreciate that. Dan: That wasn’t my goal, but whatever helps illuminate things for people. Kelly: And I went to a Jesuit school! So let’s talk about your education. You have a PhD. Tell us about your education. Dan: I do have a PhD in English literature, not psychology as some people might assume, but I’m an inquisitive learning sort of guy and really what happened is once I got this article brought forward from the IBM person, I really started on a second education. I don’t have a formal degree, but I have spent a great deal of time reading and talking to experts in neuro biology and psychology over the last 20 years to understand really one of the drivers of human nature and just to give you some feeling for the groundings here. If you go back to Latin motivation and emotion have the same root word, move, to make something happen. That’s how essential emotions are to human behavior, and the person who first realized the importance of emotions was Charles Darwin. In his work on evolution he essentially said to himself, “Okay, emotions must give us an adaptive advantage, otherwise they would have gone away. How can I best capture emotions?” That turns out to be the face, so what we do is use facial coding to be able to bring science to bear on emotions. Kelly: Dan, where do you live? Tell me a little bit about your personal, family life. Do you have any hobbies? Dan: When I have the time, sure. I like to play tennis. I’m an avid movie goer. I enjoy traveling so I’ve been to about 80 countries including a year ago or so was in Botswana on a non-hunting safari. It’s whatever can broaden the horizons. There’s readings, there’s films, there’s tennis, there’s travel, obviously time with my wife, so there isn’t anything remarkable there, it’s just try to be a busy and engaged guy. Kelly: Let’s get down to some business stuff. Tell me in fifteen words or less, roughly, what the value proposition of Sensory Logic is. Dan: Actions speak louder than words, and there are things people can’t or won’t say, and if you can get to emotions you can get below the surface and get to the real thing. Kelly: In terms of the banking ecosystem which is the ecosystem we are navigating through, what is the applicability or this, not necessarily your company, but this technology if you will, that value proposition, how would it benefit, how is it connected? Is it connected now, or is it an area that you guys want to be connected to. Where’s the applicability? Generally speaking. Dan: There’s really two realms. Let’s start with the one we’ve historically been in, because I’ve run my company for 17 years, and we’ve done work for nearly half the world’s top 100 consumer facing companies, so things outside of the industrial realm and so forth. That’s plenty of things in the financial services industry. It’s a long list of banks and institutions, also in the insurance industry, as well that we’ve done work. From that point of view, obviously if you have these touch points with consumers you want to connect effectively. I think the place you have to start is that of course, trust is the emotion of business. Trust is not an emotion you can capture through facial coding, but you can capture its opposite which is contempt. Contempt means I don’t trust you, I don’t respect you. If you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller “Blink”, facial coding was the only tool described in the book for some 30 pages. At the University of Washington in Seattle they have a love lab where couples come in who are in distressed marriages, they use facial coding to figure out whether they can save the marriage. Contempt is the most reliable indicator that the marriage will fail, so if it’s not good for a married couple you can imagine it’s not good for a company and its clients. We use this in advertising testing and websites to understand how people are responding. There’s several varieties of information that is important. The first one is actually do you engage them. Do they emotionally respond? You don’t want to waste your advertising dollar, you don’t want to just be talking to yourself, you need to make that emotional connection. That’s one of the first things we go after. Kelly: Put yourself in the place of a community bank CEO and they’re in the business of making business loans, by example. How does that CEO or that credit officer, how could that credit officer utilize this technology? Not your company, but the technology. How do you envision that this technology could be employed by a credit officer at a community bank in any city in the USA. Dan: There’s actually a template here. I mentioned Charles Darwin earlier, but there’s a man named Paul Ekman, E-K-M-A-N, who’s been honored by the Smithsonian who has been cited by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. Paul worked as a colleague at the School of Medicine in San Francisco. Over the course of about 15 years he created what is called the Facial Action Coding System. He figured out from 43 muscles in the face what are the muscle movements, the action units, the activity that reveals seven core emotions which you alluded to earlier. They run from joy, the high end of happiness, through things like fear and contempt. These muscle movements correspond to the emotions, this is relative public knowledge, also in a book of mine, and that information for a loan officer if they were to do their due diligence, and take some homework assignments, and actually study this a little bit, would give them a feel for the person across the table. There is no lie muscle in the face, it’s not that simple, but there are patterns you can look for. Obviously if the person is unusually anxious, if they show contempt, if there’s an unusual rhythm to how they’re emoting, if the emotions seem inappropriate to the conversation. There’s probably a half dozen little ways in which you can get a feel for whether the person is solid and honest, and therefore a loan risk worth taking, or ones that are passed on. Kelly: These quantifiable and emotional metrics, I’m just going to quickly list them. Joy, and they’re more or less in a continuum here, starting with joy going down to anxiety. Joy, pleasure, satisfaction, acceptance, curiosity, alert, skepticism, dislike, contempt, frustration, sadness, anxiety. So you guys can measure these twelve emotional reactions that appear on a person’s face, convert those into a profile. The profile has to equal 100%, so it comes up with a profile. Again, back to the CEO that’s going to potentially do a loan to this business customer. It comes up with that profile and then what? Dan: In our case we were trained directly by Dr. Ekman, so you are right. You get to a pool of 100%, so you distribute which emotions are occurring based on those muscle activities, and as to the output. Once you know the emotional profile of somebody, I would suggest, for instance, they index very high on anger, or what we call frustration, that should be of concern, because frustration obviously is an emotion about I want to hit you. I want to break through barriers to progress, I want to control my destiny. That all sounds good except the hit part, so someone who is violent or combustible, if they index high in frustration, is there a greater chance that someone is at risk? Definitely for you as a banker. If they are really high on anxiety, why are they so anxious? What is going on here? How solid is the scheme in which the bank is taking a chance. I think particularly when you look at the negative emotions you’ve got to be careful, because we have more negative core emotions as human beings than positive ones, not because we’re negative or Dr. Ekman is negative, but rather it’s a survival technique. People hear bad news more loudly because it helps defend themselves. You want to look at negative emotions like the two I just mentioned, also contempt. Frankly it often corresponds to a lack of honesty or a lack of connection back to you as a banker. If I had to highlight three, those are the one I would probably go to. Although I will say that someone who is overly happy, it’s a nice emotion in terms of it’s embracive, it’s accepting, but a really happy person can be sloppy with the details, so strangely enough, there, too, a banker might face a bit of a risk factor. Kelly: You also have the external environment, for instance, that can influence a person’s behavior on that given day. Could be they just got in a fight with their wife that morning, or their favorite football team lost so they’re having a proverbial bad day. Especially if you have this human subjectively scoring this stuff. I’m intrigued by that, so you have some kind of de facto shrinks up there kind of ticking off, watching the video saying, “Oh look at that he frowned, we’re going to check off he dislikes this,” or “Look at her eyes. She looks a little sad, we’re going to mark her down a little bit for sadness.” It scares me a little bit that police interrogation might be using this. Dan: Quite often that cat’s already out of the bag. Dr. Ekman has done training of the CIA and the FBI. We worked a bit with a company trying to automate facial coding for the TSA, so yes, this is a huge interest, obviously, to anyone involved with national security or policing matters. Whether it’s used properly, whether inaccurately, whether it’s done within the boundaries of the law. That’s really outside of our purview, that’s not how we’re trying to use facial coding, but there’s no doubt that obviously every angle of life people are looking for advantages and security, and because if you’ve never been lied to in your life, congratulations. Facial coding gets you past the lip service to behavior, to actions, as to how people respond based on what they reveal in their face. It’s going to be of interest to a lot of parties. Kelly: From this data that these scores are measuring they are taking that data, and then scoring it. I’ve seen some stuff that talks about the big five model, ranging from extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, to neuroticism. Tell me about that. Dan: I have ten US patents, most of them related to facial coding, and one of them does involve personnel. I have been at work for a few years now looking to see if we can come up with an emotional formula and algorithm so to speak, that can match these big five personality traits. I wouldn’t say we have anything definitive at this point, but I am making the effort because the one thing that bothers me about all manner of these self-reported psychology personality profiles is that it is self-reported. Self-report is a big problem. People tell lies. Dr. Ekman has estimated the average person tells three lies per ten minutes of conversation, but the biggest lies in life are the ones we tell ourselves. I’m reasonable, but everyone else in this meeting is crazy, etc., etc. Self-reporting is rather dubious, and so yes, we are looking for a way around that to say that by picking up these muscle activities, which by the way, all have numbers to them, and I realize you might feel it’s subjective, but we’ve done coder reliability. We have been trained by Dr. Ekman, so we know which muscle movements correspond to which emotions. Studies would indicate that human coders well-trained and versed in doing this will be over 90% accurate. Kelly: What would the goal be for this credit officer, he probably does this subconsciously anyway, but he certainly is making some judgements alright, how normal, how neurotic is this guy. Am I able to pry this data out of him and he’s in charge of sales? What’s the likelihood that this company is going to be successful if I have to pry this stuff out of him.” Same with openness, right. Agreeableness. I don’t know how you would determine conscientiousness. Does he show up to the meeting on time, and doesn’t care, I mean that’s kind of a real fuzzy one, that conscientiousness. Dan: Actually that’s one of the traits where we have some of the inklings of an algorithm or a correspondence. You’re not going to want someone who is overly happy and blissful. I already mentioned that if you really index high in joy you tend to be a bit more of free thinker, which is great, but you can also be sloppy with the details, so that doesn’t square very well with conscientious. Being hot-headed and having really intense anger doesn’t work, but actually the face shows eight different versions of anger, from slight annoyance to outrage. The lower grade versions of frustration can actually be helpful from a conscientiousness point of view, because one of the definitions or understandings of frustration is I want to be in control of my life and I want to make progress. If that is done in a way that is not overly combustible then you have the makings of someone who might indeed, if it’s leavened by some other emotions, be conscientious. Kelly: Give me the three to five takeaways that a bank CEO should take from this. Dan: One is they’re going to be making some outreach to people so let’s start on the marketing side. Presumably they’re going to have a website. It’s easy for someone inside the organization to think that their website is really clear, and I can tell you from doing usability tests for all sorts of companies on websites, that it’s often about as clear as mud. So I would say the first takeaway is they should think if their website a lot more like it’s the drive through lane of a fast food joint. That may seem demeaning to them, but these people know how at quick service restaurants to get it across to people and quickly and let them keep moving. If they look at their website from that perspective, and it doesn’t resonate, and it’s not quickly understandable, they’ve got a problem. The joke that has to be explained to you in life is never as funny as the joke you just get, so think in terms of hut, hut, hike. If the connection isn’t about that readily done, you’ve got a problem. The second thing I would suggest is probably a lot of banks will at least, if nothing else, have some print ads or some mailers at times. We’ve discovered that if you put your company logo in the lower right hand corner which is where ad agencies love to put it, that is typically about the second to last place anybody will look at on a piece of paper. That’s bad news because we’ve found that people read quickly, they barely read at all. The banker, the CEOs, the bank may think that people are going to study my marketing material closely, read it word-by-word, not the case. Likelihood is they’re going to spend three to fifteen seconds on it. If you advertise for yourself and it’s unbranded in effect because they don’t get to the logo, then you’ve got a problem. I’d say that’s the second one. Third one is you’re in the people business. If they come into the bank or the bank branches, we respond to nothing more strongly than other people. We can tell the difference, human beings. There is a difference between a true smile and a social smile. Social smile is clearly less authentic than the true smile. It is hard for employees to be able to manage a true smile repeatedly during the day, especially on demand, but knowing that that emotional connection with the customer is important. I sit on airplanes often for my business, and I facially code the people who are serving us in the isles, and look for those little moments where they give away weariness, or something else that’s a little off putting sometimes. Dan: That’s three for you. I think we’ve already touched on the loan officer, so I’ve got you up to four. I guess the fifth one would be, frankly, who you hire, and taking a little more care. Not just look at their credentials, but look at their personality which is what Southwest Airlines does. Kelly: What does Southwest airlines do, briefly? Dan: They actually have their people look for a sense of humor. They ask them to tell little stories about themselves, or incidents, or I think even, if I’m not mistaken, at times literally play comedian for a bit, and try to tell a joke. They don’t want to hire somebody who’s just ultra serious and has no levity to them because if you have no levity you can’t be flexible, and if you can’t be flexible you can’t adjust to your customer’s needs. Kelly: To that end, I’m going to ask you what’s the stupidest think you’ve ever said or done in your business career? Dan: That would be numerous no doubt. I would say one is, someone asked me once if I was quote/unquote a “rebel” and that’s the way they phrased it. I simply said, “I suppose so.” That’s not the answer I should have given. The truth is I’m a reformer. I’m not interested in rebelling against something, I am interested in improving something. Whether it’s market research or in the financial sector, making sure your advertising dollar is not wasted, and that your customer service is better, I go back to my earlier quote. “There’s two currencies: dollars and emotions, and you need both of them and they interact with another.” I’m not a rebel, I’m a reformer and someone who is eager to make sure that people aren’t inefficient, don’t waste their money, make the best progress, the best connection they possibly can. If you step closer to the customer you can step ahead of the competition. Kelly: And since you’re an English lit PhD, I’m going to see if you can identify it. If you can’t, I will think very lowly of you. Dan: Wonderful, wonderful. Kelly: “Arise and go now. I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.” Dan: That would be Yates. Kelly: Very good. He’s my favorite writer. Dan: Yates is a tremendous poet. I was in Dublin a couple of years ago, there was special exhibit on Yates’ poetry, and I fell in love with all over again. Kelly: Good for you. Now I’m uber impressed. Do you have a favorite quote? Dan: I have so many favorite quotes. It’s probably one of them is from Groucho Marx, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?” Kelly: Very good. Dan, I appreciate your time. CEO of Sensory Logic. How can people get hold of you? Dan: We’ve got a website, of course. Sensory Logic.com should be able to do the trick We want to thank you for listening to the syndicated audio program, BankBosun.com The audio content is produced by Kelly Coughlin, Chief Executive Officer of BankBosun, LLC; and syndicated by Seth Greene, Market Domination LLC, with the help of Kevin Boyle. Video content is produced by The Guildmaster Studio, Keenan Bobson Boyle. The voice introduction is me, Karim Kronfli. The program is hosted by Kelly Coughlin. If you like this program, please tell us. If you don’t, please tell us how we can improve it. Now, some disclaimers. Kelly is licensed with the Minnesota State Board of Accountancy as a Certified Public Accountant. Kelly provides bank owned life insurance portfolio and nonqualified benefit services to banks across the United States. The views expressed here are solely those of Kelly Coughlin and his guests in their private capacity and do not in any other way represent the views of any other agent, principal, employer, employee, vendor or supplier of Kelly Coughlin.