Curious what it’s like to be a young entrepreneur in the cleantech industry? On February 18, we had the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Ponec, Stanford undergraduate and co-founder of Dragonfly Systems. Andrew was accompanied by one of his co-founders, Daniel Maren, as they spoke about their college ventures in the solar industry.

Dragonfly Systems is a cleantech power electronics startup that creates small electronic modules to improve reliability and reduce installation costs for large commercial and utility-scale solar power installations.

“Your team is where the value is in the company, not the idea,” Andrew explained. He described how their team’s biggest learning experience was when their original idea wasn’t working. They worked together and learned that the most valuable feedback came from actually sharing their ideas and the project they were working on with potential customers … and even competitors. “Don’t be afraid of the big companies,” Andrew advised.

In 2014, Dragonfly Systems was acquired by SunPower Corporation, a U.S.-based solar company, and is currently ramping up production of the Dragonfly devices. SunPower was in the process of building a similar product to Dragonfly Systems’, but it was unable to complete the project. Prior to acquiring the startup, SunPower was initially a customer of Dragonfly Systems.

Andrew’s parting advice was to ask yourself every day, “If this failed tomorrow, would I still be happy I was working on it today?” If the answer ever turns into “No,” then you have a problem. But then ask yourself, “Would we still want to try?” and hopefully the answer is “Yes.”

HubNami.

Q&A time at the Fremont Startup Grind event with Andrew Ponec.

Be sure to join us at Fremont Startup Grind chapter’s next fireside chat on Tuesday, March 15, 2016. We are delighted to have Aaron Carpenter, chief customer officer of the social media management startup, HubNami.

As CCO at HubNami, Aaron oversees all sales, marketing, and user experience efforts for the company. He joins HubNami with 17 years of experience in digital marketing, e-commerce, site design, and sales, most recently as vice president of Global Marketing at The North Face. Prior to The North Face, Aaron was a tenured marketing executive at Levi Strauss & Co. He also holds a master’s degree in international marketing from the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis.

Don’t miss out on this event! Get your tickets here.

Won’t be able to make it to our event with Aaron Carpenter? Don’t worry, we have more spring events planned. Stay tuned to find out about the April 19th event with Donna Novitsky of Yiftee at a new location!

Remember to follow us on Twitter @FremontGrind, and on Facebook at Startup Grind Fremont.

If you have any
question or suggestions for guest speakers, send an email to Shilpi Sharma,
Co-founder & CEO of Kvantum, and
Chapter Director for Startupgrind Fremont.