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536: 10 Millionth Solar Design, $200 Million Series D, How Aurora Empowers the Solar Industry With Mission-Critical Digital Tools, with Co-founders Chris Hopper & Sam Adeyemo

536: 10 Millionth Solar Design, $200 Million Series D, How Aurora Empowers the Solar Industry With Mission-Critical Digital Tools, with Co-founders Ch…

FromSunCast


536: 10 Millionth Solar Design, $200 Million Series D, How Aurora Empowers the Solar Industry With Mission-Critical Digital Tools, with Co-founders Ch…

FromSunCast

ratings:
Length:
30 minutes
Released:
Nov 1, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Stanford Business School grads Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo founded Aurora Solar in 2012 with a mission to reduce solar design costs. They created software that quickly and accurately designs rooftop panels through aerial photos, eliminating the need for the installer to climb on the roof with a tape measure. And it fast-became the industry standard digital tool that every residential solar installer needed in order to empower their increasingly digital-first sales orgs. 
In today's Tactical Tuesday, a live conversation from our recent PowerUp Media Zone at RE+ in September, Chris, Aurora's CEO, and Sam, its Chief Revenue Officer, talk about the Menlo Park, California-based company's incredible track record and the origin of its industry-leading software platform. Now a leading software for residential and commercial PV sales and design, Aurora is used in about 100,000 PV systems designs every month by more than 7,000 installers across the globe. And, they recently hit 2 huge milestones - their 10 Millionth solar project design on the platform, and a massive $200 Million Series D fundraising. It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview both Founders at the same time, and we took full advantage of the moment.
Regular listeners may remember my first conversation with Sam on https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/199 (Episode 199). And in https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/394 (Episode 394), we shared news of Aurora's acquisition of a leading competitor, Folsom Labs, the developer of HelioScope, a leading software platform for the commercial solar sector. As the two teams became one, they benefited from a larger engineering team, a global user base and an expanded product suite. 
Coinciding with the release of this episode, Aurora is also presenting their annual https://aurorasolar.com/empower-2022-agenda/ (Empower Virtual Conference), which is a Free 2-day event designed to provide inspiration and education to empower our community with greater insights and community gatherings. And they lined up legendary Hollywood actor, Edward Norton, to keynote today’s kickoff at 9:30am PT - so if you are reading this in time, you should head over and https://aurorasolar.com/empower-2022-agenda/ (Register )so you don’t miss that as well! 
Today's conversation was part of the RE+ https://www.re-plus.com/mediazone (PowerUp Media Zone), a live production of SunCast Media.
If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info (linked, twitter, etc) in the https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/ (show notes) over on the blog.
SunCast is presented by https://www.mysuncast.com/sungrow (Sungrow), the world’s most bankable inverter brand.
You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you, here: https://www.mysuncast.com/sponsors (www.mysuncast.com/sponsors)
Remember you can always find the resources and learn more about today’s guest, recommendations, book links, and more than 535 other founder stories and startup advice athttps://www.mysuncast.com/ ( www.mysuncast.com).
You can connect with me, Nico Johnson, on https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo (Twitter), https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickalus/ (LinkedIn) or email.
Released:
Nov 1, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

SunCast is dedicated to providing the knowledge, research, tools and expert guidance you need to understand, grown and be ahead of the curve in the fastest growing solar markets in the world. Each week, host Nico Johnson takes you deep into conversations with solar energy industry executives from leading companies like SolarCity, SunEdison, Nextracker, Trina Solar, Conergy, Greentech Media and discovers what THEY are using to get ahead in emerging markets like Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Panama, Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean. Tune in, and stay informed.