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Led by Managing Director Dave Kirkpatrick, SJF Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Durham, San Francisco, New York, and Seattle that has been at the forefront of impact investing since 1999. They have invested in 70+ high impact ventures that are creating a healthier, smarter and cleaner future. Dave Kirkpatrick helped lead SJF's capitalization of four funds totaling $260 million starting in 1999. His portfolio engagements include Terabase Energy, ROOM, Waycare, Voltaiq, Living Earth, ENTOUCH Controls, and Community Energy, as well as exited companies TransLoc, NEXTracker, groSolar, CleanScapes, B.B Hobbs, and Foxfire. Dave's industry focus areas include solar energy, energy efficiency, recycling & reuse, and mobility. Dave also serves as the founding co-chair of the Impact Capital Managers, a network of private capital fund managers in the U.S. and Canada investing for financial returns and impact. Prior to SJF, Dave founded and managed two other successful enterprises – KirkWorks, a cleantech investment research firm; and SunShares, a solar energy and recycling company. Dave was named the 2005 CDVC Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance and Recycler of the Year in 1996 by the National Recycling Coalition. Dave earned a BA in Physics and History from Duke University in 1982 and an MBA from UNC Kenan Flagler Business School (KFBS) in 1991. He was named KFBS Executive MBA Alumnus of the Year in 2010. He enjoys gardening, kayaking, and trying to learn Spanish. ------- QUESTIONS THAT WE COVERED: Business What is your investment focus — e.g., sector, stage, geography, check size? What makes you unique versus the competition? Give us some examples of recent investments that you're excited about. Outside of your current business, what other 1-2 climate or sustainability sectors seem like promising areas in which to start a business? What might those solutions look like? Personal Tell us about 1-2 tips you'd give your “younger” self in order to be faster, more effective, and higher impact. What are some habits and routines that keep you focused, healthy, and sane — e.g., meditations, exercise, productivity hacks? What recommendations do you have for our audience — books, podcasts, quotes, tools? What's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you — outside of your own family? ------- PODCAST HOST: Entrepreneurs for Impact is the only private mastermind community for growth-stage CEOs and investors fighting climate change. We're on a mission to help climate leaders supercharge their impacts, share best practices, expand their networks, and reach their full potential. Our invite-only cohorts of 12 executives catalyze personal development and business growth via monthly meetings, annual retreats, a member-only Climate Investor Database, and 1:1 coaching and strategy calls. Today's highly curated Mastermind members represent over $4B in market cap or assets under management, and are influencing corporate priorities and infrastructure much bigger than that. Peer groups are led by Dr. Chris Wedding who brings $1B+ of investment experience, 60,000+ professional students taught, 25 years of meditation, an obsession with constant improvement, and far too many mistakes to keep to himself. Website: www.entrepreneursforimpact.com Membership benefits: https://bit.ly/3l12Gyg Sample Mastermind members: https://bit.ly/3ipSehS Request more information on membership: https://bit.ly/3mj48eM --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/entrepreneurs-for-impact/message
Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon In response to the Financial Crisis of 2008, Rahm Emmanuel — at the time Barack Obama's Chief of Staff — quipped: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The death, economic destruction and havoc wreaked by the Covid-19 crisis is by no means “good;” nevertheless, sometimes it does take a life-economy-society altering crisis to overcome the inertia that stands in the way of fundamental changes. One of those changes that we need to make relates to our archaic electric grid. New technologies — wind, solar, batteries, EVs, computer controls, building electrification, software, heat pumps — make the distributed electric grid cheaper, safer and more efficient. But we have over one hundred years of established grid infrastructure practices standing in the way of transforming our electric grid. Companies that are transforming our electric grid have a tremendous market opportunity, magnified and accelerated by any government stimulus spending that may be allocated. The problem is not just isolated to regular upgrades and maintenance of our grid. Instead, the big opportunity is to redesign the grid — much as the interstate highway system revolutionized transportation in the U.S. One new company in this space is Veloce Energy. It's my pleasure to have Jeff Wofe, CEO of Veloce, as our guest on this week's Energy Show. I've known Jeff for over 15 years since he was the founder and Chairman of GroSolar, a pioneering national distributor and installer of solar equipment throughout the US. Jeff and I served for many years on the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), where we worked side-by-side on solar policies such as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Please listen to this week's Energy Show as we Jeff describes Veloce Energy's grid-edge system architecture. This architecture will provide simplified connections for distributed generation, cost-effective resilience for both buildings and vehicles, and a streamlined path to help us in transforming our electric grid of the future.
#154: Founded & sold groSolar, now focused on EV charging king Tritium. When I first started my solar company in 2006, one of the distributors I relied on was a smaller New England company called groSolar. Over 18 yrs, groSolar deployed more than 150 megawatts (MW) (2,000 installations) of solar PV systems across the US. Jeff sold the RESI piece of the business to SolarCity in 2011, and the rest to EDF in 2016. Today, we’re going to learn what Jeff’s been doing with his time since the exit. Hint - he didn’t retire… Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here - Join the Tribe? Check out Episode 86, in which I explain how YOU can become a SunCast Tribe member and support the growth and stability of SunCast moving forward! www.mysuncast.com/member to join today! If you like what you see and hear, please SHARE it with this pre-filled tweet!
#154: Founded & sold groSolar, now focused on EV charging king Tritium. When I first started my solar company in 2006, one of the distributors I relied on was a smaller New England company called groSolar. Over 18 yrs, groSolar deployed more than 150 megawatts (MW) (2,000 installations) of solar PV systems across the US. Jeff sold the RESI piece of the business to SolarCity in 2011, and the rest to EDF in 2016. Today, we’re going to learn what Jeff’s been doing with his time since the exit. Hint - he didn’t retire… Gain access to all the show notes & resources from this episode here - Join the Tribe? Check out Episode 86, in which I explain how YOU can become a SunCast Tribe member and support the growth and stability of SunCast moving forward! www.mysuncast.com/member to join today! If you like what you see and hear, please SHARE it with this pre-filled tweet!
Dave Kirkpatrick is a Managing Director and co-founder of SJF Ventures, which focuses on high growth, positive impact ventures. Dave helped lead SJF’s capitalization of four funds totaling $260 million starting in 1999. Dave’s portfolio engagements include TransLoc, EnTouch Controls, Community Energy, Living Earth, and ED MAP, as well as exited companies NEXTracker, groSolar, CleanScapes, B.B Hobbs, and Foxfire. Dave’s particular industry focus areas include solar energy, energy efficiency, recycling & reuse, and mobility. Prior to SJF, Dave founded and managed two other successful enterprises – KirkWorks, a cleantech investment research firm; and SunShares, a solar energy and recycling company. Dave was named the 2005 CDVC Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance and Recycler of the Year in 1996 by the National Recycling Coalition. Dave co-founded the SJF Institute in 2001, which merged with Investors’ Circle, a twenty-year-old impact investment angel network, in 2011. Dave earned a BA in Physics and History from Duke University in 1982 and an MBA from UNC Kenan Flagler Business School (KFBS) in 1991. He was named KFBS Executive MBA Alumnus of the Year in 2010. He enjoys gardening, kayaking and trying to learn Spanish.
Jeff Wolfe, the CEO and co-founder of groSolar, talks about solar energy's present and future. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include www.grosolar.com
Jeff Wolfe, the CEO of groSolar, a leading U.S. solar energy distribution and installation company, explains why Germany is developing solar energy at a faster pace than the U.S. Steve Mirsky reports