The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘solar’

One Block Off the Grid, a company that helps residents get competitive group pricing for solar panel installation, has raised a $5 million series A round of venture capital from New Enterprise Associates. The company has gotten pretty far without formal venture cash—installing more than 600 panels in 2009, most of that in the fourth quarter. 1BOG, as it’s called, hopes to install five-to-ten times that amount this year, so that NEA cash will help the company hire and grow.

Think of 1BOG like another NEA investment, Groupon, but focused on solar panels. The site groups together customers in large metro areas interested in having panels installed and helps get them the best price. Only one could argue there’s a much bigger need for IBOG than Groupon. Most people don’t know where to start if they want to install solar panels and have no idea how to compare bids between contractors. On average, 1BOG saves customers 15%. And, of course, there’s the whole getting-us-off-foreign-oil/saving-the-planet benefit to 1BOG.

The UI is impressive. You enter your address and it pulls up an aerial view of Google maps. You pick your roof, outline where you want the panels and get a few detailed options including cost, leasing options, local rebates, added value to the house and how much time the panels will take to pay for themselves. Prices and the benefits of solar can vary wildly depending on where you live, local subsidies, what you pay for electricity now, and how much sun you get. “There are some areas where the economics for solar are mindblowing, but no one knows it,” says Dave Llorens, 1BOG’s CEO.

This is less a company saving the world, and more of a company that helps people who talk a good game about saving the world actually go through with it. And that’s the key. While solar investments are down more than 60% in the last year, lean companies that can help bring on the tipping point in adoption have a much better shot at getting some cash.

Speaking of big talk about changing the world, the company is a spin out from Virgance, which we’ve written about before here. In previous articles, Virgance’s founder Steve Newcomb described the company as a startup that would release “Activism 2.0 campaigns” much like EA releases blockbuster games. That model seems to have evolved. Now, he talks about the company in terms of an incubator that helps create and spin-out low-cost companies that will help make the world a better place.

This isn’t a non-profit. The focus is just on greed-based, high-growth companies that will also “do good.” So far, Virgance has four in its stable, and Newcomb is trying to figure out whether there’s a way to scale that up to 40. He doesn’t yet know if that’s feasible, but if it is, expect him to raise a big venture round too.

These days, thanks to its growing ubiquity in the media, nearly everyone knows what Twitter is. But back in 2006, when it was known as Twttr, a side project of the podcasting service Odeo, no one knew what it was. So co-founder Biz Stone made a video.

As you can watch below in “Twttr 101,” dug up by Say OMG, Stone dresses up as some sort of crazy scientist with Harry Potter glasses and sports an even crazier accent. Also worth noting is that at the time, Twitter was described as a “social texting service based on the contents of you mind.” Most users today don’t realize it, but in the early days, Twitter was almost entirely based around SMS.

For those wanting to know more about Twitter’s past, you should also check out Stone’s blog post from July 2006, announcing the launch of Twttr. In it, he writes, “Jack Dorsey is one of Odeo’s brightest stars so when he told us about this idea that has been haunting him for six years we had to listen. It’s not even remotely related to audio but it’s an awesome idea so we told him to go for it.” This foresight in switching from audio idea of Odeo and going with Twitter proved to be a very smart move.

MySpace has just announced that CEO Owen Van Natta has left the company. Taking his place will be co-Presidents Mike Jones And Jason Hirschhorn, who had been serving as the company’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively. The news comes less than two weeks after we interviewed Van Natta about his first eight months running MySpace, when he gave no indication that he was intending to leave the company. Van Natta joined MySpace last April alongside Jones and Hirschhorn as part of a major executive shakeup.

We’d previously reported that Chief Product Officer Hirschhorn would soon be leaving the company. Obviously that isn’t the case. Our sources tell us that there has been a long standing conflict between News Corp digital chief Jon Miller and Van Natta, and that part of Van Natta’s decision to leave was his inability to terminate Hirschhorn.

Before MySpace, Van Natta had a short-lived stint as CEO of Project Playlist, where he stayed for around five months.

We’ve included the release below:

News Corporation today announced that Owen Van Natta will step down from his position as MySpace CEO, effective immediately. Mr. Van Natta will be replaced by newly-elevated co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who will each report to Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corporation. All three executives joined MySpace in April 2009, with Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn previously serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively.

“Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work,” said Jon Miller, News Corporation’s Chairman and CEO of Digital Media. “However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts.”

Mr. Miller continued, “Mike and Jason have demonstrated true leadership in their operational and product guidance, respectively, and I have the utmost confidence in both of them to lead MySpace into its next chapter.”

In a joint statement, Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn noted:
“We joined MySpace last April with very a specific set of goals in mind, and are anxious to continue working together to make those goals a reality. This business is now pointed in the right direction, and we have a great team of employees that will continue to push MySpace closer to its potential as the place where people go to be discovered and to discover great content.”

Mr. Van Natta commented:
“MySpace is an incredibly unique place and we’ve made real gains in terms of product focus and user experience. I’m proud of the work we’ve all accomplished together and look forward to watching its continued growth.”

Prior to his role as MySpace COO, Mr. Jones founded and operated several online businesses, including Userplane, a leading provider of tools for online communities such as MySpace. Userplane was acquired in 2006 by AOL, where Jones subsequently served as a senior vice president and focused on social media monetization and also pioneered the distribution of widgets and other technology to Web publishers. He also was founder and CEO of Tsavo Media, an online content and search network developing next-generation publishing platforms and technology services.

Since joining MySpace, Mr. Hirschhorn oversaw all aspects of product development, and previously has led both start-up and established online businesses. He was president of Sling Media, Inc’s Entertainment Group, which created consumer-driven applications and services for the Slingbox device, and was chief digital officer at MTV Networks, where he oversaw the company’s digital media businesses, products and strategies. Hirschhorn joined MTV Networks following the acquisition of his company, Mischief New Media, which provided interactive services to the entertainment industry.

I’ll be damned.

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Scosche solBAT II solar powered charger actually decently priced at $30

My first experience with solar energy was in Cub Scouts, when we made a solar-powered hot dog cooker.

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Double Review: SolarVoice 908 and SolarCharger 906

My first experience with solar energy was in Cub Scouts, when we made a solar-powered hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, solar technology hasn’t advanced terribly much in the intervening decades. At the consumer level, solar power still isn’t particularly useful for very much outside of a few niche markets

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Double Review: SolarVoice 908 and SolarCharger 906

What we have here is somewhat self-explanatory.

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Oregon Scientific goes green with solar powered weather stations

Apparently this whole “solar power” thing really works. Case in point, this Solar-Breeze apparatus uses solar power to clean your pool all day long and, aside from keeping your pool clean, it cuts down on the amount of time your pool’s pump has to be running since it grabs gunk and leaves before they get sink to the bottom and get sucked into the grate

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Solar pool cleaner works all day long, won’t come between you and your wife

When the power goes out and you finally find your flashlight, it’s invariably out of batteries. Soon you’ll be able to buy a solar-powered flashlight from Chinavasion

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Solar-powered flashlight features LEDs, lithium-ion battery

Sony’s “not-a-netbook” VAIO P series will be getting refreshed this fall, according to company officials. While details on the actual specs are scant at the moment, we can likely expect a bit more horsepower as Sony is promising significantly faster boot times over the current crop of VAIO P devices that can take almost a minute and a half to load up Windows.

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Sony readying new VAIO P line for late fall