Thread by @yoavlurie

HEY EVERYONE, big news:
@SimpleEnergy and @Tendril are merging to form a new company — which is now the leader in energy software and will power the fight against climate change.
Our new company is @Uplight 1/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen tl;dr: we’re effectively pulling together five companies: @SimpleEnergy, @Tendril, @EnergySavvy, EEme and @FirstFuel to create SaaS platform w/ nine-figure revenue serving over 75 utilities and who cover over 100 million homes and businesses. 2/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel You should read the full release about the formation of @Uplight at uplight.com/press/simple-e…. It’s good. Go read it. I’ll wait. 3/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel Ok. So, how did we get here? What did we learn? What’s next? 4/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel I started @SimpleEnergy in 2011 with @JustSegall.
We had one requirement for whatever we built: it had to “do well (financially)by doing Good (for the world).”
It wasn’t enough to make money and give it away. We had to make money while saving the planet.
Simple, right? 5/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel About the same time we started, I met @davidcohen and @bfeld on their book tour for the first @Techstars book at the @Cooley office outside DC.
The fact that these incredibly successful guys were out there helping newbies like us was crazy to me. 6/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley That was the first of three times that @bfeld fundamentally changed my life.

He told me that I needed to do three things:
(1) Move to #Boulder,
(2) Join @Techstars and learn from the incredible @nglaros, and
(3) Meet @BWEnwall, the founder of a company called @Tendril 7/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall So, I did what I was told:
I moved to #Boulder and @BWEnwall became our lead mentor in @Techstars, introduced us on #DemoDay, and even invested. Tim would later lead @Revolv (bought by @GoogleNest) and now runs @MistyRobotics. He’s a genius and a mensch. 8/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics We graduated @Techstars, partnered with @Tendril, and landed our first customer in @SDGE.
We raised close to $1 million. We felt like a legit startup.

I tried to move us to SF, but thankfully @bfeld intervened again and convinced us to stay (That was time #2). 9/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE So, I called @skimayeva and somehow convinced her to move across the country to a place she’d never been before. She later claimed my intentions were unclear — but, come on, we all knew where this was going! 10/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva And it pays to have a brilliant life partner: @skimayeva wrote most of our early RFP responses and she has lived every win and every loss, every hire and every exit. Everything. And we built a life. I’m reading this to our two little humans now. They’re unimpressed. 11/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva So, we were #crushingit, right?

No way.

A couple years in, our small team had no real product-market and a few pilot customers.

We’d been rejected by over 100 VCs. Startup life wasn’t proving as glamorous as we’d hoped. 12/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva An aside: among the 100+ VCs who shot us down are some great folks I still consider friends (even if they missed out on a massive outcome) — chief among them are — @bznotes, @matthewnordan, @nicksinai, and @rigomundo — hopefully I get to work with them some day 13/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo Somehow, @SteveWestly, @reubenmunger, and @davidcohen believed!

They invested, they supported, and, later, they threw good money after bad when, objectively speaking, all was lost.

I’m proud of the very strong returns we’ve now delivered for them. 14/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger We spent our VC money just as you’d expect: we wasted it.

There was infighting and fiefdom building and we solved every problem by hiring more people. But, there wasn’t any revenue growth.

Within 16 months, we were days from being cash-out. 15/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger At about that time, our biggest competitor tried to swoop in and buy us.
They offered less money than we’d raised — but, said they’d still make sure both @justsegall and I got millions on top of that.
“Who cares about your early investors?” they said.
We did. 16/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger We went back to Boulder and did the only thing we knew to do: we called @bfeld.

He cleared his calendar and we all charted a new course.

We agreed that, just maybe, if we cut deep enough and pushed hard enough and got lucky — we might survive. (That was time #3) 17/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger So, May 18, 2015, we laid off 2/3rds of our team.

Good people who did exactly what they were told were fired because we had been reckless, distracted, and unfocused.

It was the hardest thing I’ve had to do; and, it nearly killed the company. 18/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger Usually, that’s the end of the story: Startup raises money. Startup wastes money. Startup lays off team. Startup dies.

But, for us, that was actually the beginning. 19/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger Being lean gave us focus. And we focused on three things: goals, values, and customers:

GOALS: We put a whiteboard up and posted sticky notes for every dollar that came in the door. That whiteboard still stands (we now have four sets of goals at a time) 20/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger VALUES: We tore the giant posters of our old values off the wall and wrote an eight-page document about four simple values that we lived by and expected everyone else to: #OneTeam, High Performance Happy, Ownership, and Communicate Actively. 21/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger CUSTOMERS: We realized we needed to stop building exactly what our customers *said* they wanted and start building what we knew would most move the needle for end users. We were relentless. And, we invented utility marketplaces with instant rebates. 22/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger Within a couple years, our new product was doing incredibly well.

We went from $4mm in revenue to $12mm to $24mm to $45mm! And we did it without raising another dime of equity because we didn’t need any.

This thing was finally working! 23/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger But, we needed to have a bigger impact. So, last year, we sold a big chunk of the company to @TheAESCorp.
They promised to be a great partner, to mostly to stay out of our hair, and to fund growth and acquisitions.
And, they did all of those things. 24/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp And, wouldn’t you know it, the first acquisition target on our list was @Tendril!
And the feeling was mutual: Tendril’s CEO, @adriantuck, and I had been talking about bringing the companies together for years.
We had similar missions and values and were both still in Boulder. 25/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp But, that was going to be much easier said than done.
Just as we were on our rollercoaster, they were on theirs, and by late last year, had partnered w/ Rubicon Technology Partners (a PE firm).
RTP wasn’t selling and neither was AES.
It didn’t look possible. 26/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp So, we proposed something everyone thought was a bit nuts:

Instead of us buying them or them buying us, we’d put the companies together and start something entirely new. It wouldn’t be @SimpleEnergy or @Tendril.

The market needed a new leader. The climate needed this. 27/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp Enter @Uplight.
Birthed from the merger of @SimpleEnergy and @Tendril. Backed by an amazing set of capital partners (including both @TheAESCorp and RTP).
Comprised of more than 300 incredibly talented people, serving over 75 utilities, and covering over 100 million homes. 28/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp So, here we go again...

Nearly a decade after starting up, we’re starting anew!

Now there are three of us: @JustSegall and I are both fully on-board (we “rolled” 100% of our equity into the merger) and @adriantuck is @Uplight’s CEO. Bam! 29/

@SimpleEnergy @Tendril @Uplight @adriantuck @bfeld @JustSegall @davidcohen @energysavvy @Firstfuel @techstars @cooley @nglaros @BWEnwall @revolv @googlenest @MistyRobotics @SDGE @skimayeva @bznotes @matthewnordan @NickSinai @rigomundo @SteveWestly @reubenmunger @TheAESCorp And, we’re still committed to that first rule: “do well by doing Good.” @Uplight is going to have a huge impact on #climatechange by enabling utilities to accelerate the clean energy ecosystem.

Together, we’ll create a more sustainable future. 30/end

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