Starting Up & Starting Out

How Startup Accelerators Can Be Like The Hunger Games

It’s been a while since my last post. I know I’m slacking but being in Betaspring while building out RecoVend’s collaborative procurement platform for Higher Education has left me with little to no time. What free minutes I do have goes towards spending time with my incredibly supportive and amazing wife, Shira. She’s been my absolute rock throughout all the startup insanity, keeping me grounded and motivated despite not quite knowing what she was getting herself into by marrying a startup hustler.

In my never ending quest to score brownie points with her, we checked out The Hunger Games over the weekend. Now this $155M blockbuster is sure to be the start of the next huge franchise, and as an IMAX shareholder, I couldn’t be happier. But as we watched the drama of Katness Everdeen unfold before us, I couldn’t help but draw some comparisons to my incredible experience thus far in the Betaspring startup accelerator.

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE OR READ THE BOOKS YET*

 

Alliances Are Everything

Being in an accelerator is a grind. You can go for days without sleep, weeks without proper food, all with the sole focus on doing enough to stay alive. Entrepreneurship is a long, lonely journey, especially for the CEO, and if you don’t have people to share that time in the trenches with, you can go crazy. I’m lucky to be surrounded by 40 other founders in the same trenches as me that I can turn to whenever I need a pick me up.

Mentors Will Put You On The Path To Survival

You need to trust those who have been there and done that before you! I’ll say it again, since so many entrepreneurs can get stuck in their ways and not be open to  taking advice from outside: TRUST YOUR MENTORS NO MATTER HOW ABRASIVE THEY MIGHT SEEM AT FIRST! When you’re sitting across the table from someone who has killed to survive and conquer the startup game, they can pass along some gold nuggets that might seem like complete BS at the time, but will prove to be priceless down the road. I was lucky enough to meet incredible people through the Betaspring mentor network who have helped RecoVend get better, faster and stronger for our battle.

DON’T GO FOR THE EASY SUPPLIES

You remember in the beginning of the Hunger Games scene, when the Game Maker puts all the supplies right in the center of all the combatants and they’re tempted to make a mad dash for them right off the bat? That’s like when people tell you to try and solve easy problems with your startup, or to pattern match and create another “me too” company without any originality or creativity. Facebook for teachers? PadMapper for dogs? We’ve heard all of that. And that advice SUCKS. For the love of god, do not follow it. If you’re going to take this crazy journey to be an entrepreneur, you better make damn sure your company is going to change the world, even in some small way, and to make it a better place. Otherwise you won’t have the passion you need for the sustained momentum and drive to succeed in this game and make something awesome. And if you aren’t working to create awesome every single day, why get out of bed?

If The Rules of The Game Are Rigged, Make Your Own Game

The climactic scene of The Hunger Games, right at the end of the competition, features Katness and her new, potential love interest Peeta as the only two survivors left. The rules of the Hunger Games had been dramatically changed so that there could only be one victor, even after a public announcement earlier in the movie enabled there to be two survivors if they were from the same District. In a fit of frustration and to force the Game Maker’s hand, Katness and Peeta begin making moves to consume poisonous berries, killing them both and leaving no winner. At the last moment, the Game Maker stops them, declaring them both winners. How the hell does this relate to startups, and to your experience in an accelerator? Sometimes the game can feel like it’s rigged against you - investors don’t give a damn unless you’re already a hit, mentors are stretched so thin that they never respond, and you always feel like you’re a day too slow to adjust. It’s up to YOU to find the loopholes, force people’s hands, hustle and grind harder and more passionately than you ever have before…because when you do, you have the power to not just change the rules, but to change the game.

Of Revolutions…

A revolution isn’t an after school activity - it’s something that you must commit your heart, your soul, and sometimes your life towards. It’s balls to the wall, all or nothing - and when you do actually commit yourself to a cause, it’s something that gets in your blood and doesn’t ever leave.

I am privileged and honored to come from a long line of revolutionaries. My great, great grandfather was involved in the Scarlet Revolution, overthrowing the czarist regime and helping to usher in the era of communism in Russia. My grandfather, Dov left behind life as a lawyer in South Africa and along with his wife of one week, my grandmother, flew to the newly formed nation of Israel to found and command their Air Force. Whether it was stealing Czechoslovakian fighter planes, or manually throwing bombs out of the hatch during strafing runs over attacking countries, he did what had to be done to bring about his vision - a secure and safe homeland for the Jewish people.

These were two awfully large sets of shoes that my father saw before him as a young man growing up in apartheid stricken South Africa. Seeing a country rife with injustice, racism and intolerance around him, he decided that he couldn’t stick his head in the sand like so many other white South Africans, but that action was called for. He began to feverishly involve himself in student politics at the University of Witwatersrand, organizing protests, marches and giving impassioned speeches designed to illuminate the necessity for the personal sacrifice needed to achieve the dream of a united South Africa. He worked closely with many other heroes of the anti apartheid struggle - Steve Biko, Tokyo Sexwale and of course Nelson Mandela. After years of being the subject of police raids and phone tapping, my father was told he had to leave the country - for his own safety, as well as that of my mother’s and grandparents’. He was forced to sacrifice his entire life in South Africa because of this struggle - to begin anew in a foreign land, cut off from friends and family, and having to adjust to the radically different way of life in America. It was only in 1994, once Nelson Mandela and the ANC were elected into power in the first democratic elections in the country’s history, and after the deaths of all my grandparents and many of my father’s allies in the anti-apartheid struggle, that he was able to bring our family back to South Africa and help President Mandela rebuild a nation that had stagnated under international sanctions for nearly 50 years. His vision, his revolution, was seen to fruition, but he paid a great price.

This is quite the legacy to live up to, but after 27 years I’ve finally found my own personal revolution that I’m undertaking: changing education for the better through technology. In comparison it seems minute - going from founding nations and eradicating racism to changing a single industry. But this is an industry that needs change to survive - with funding in a steep decline while more students enter the system than ever before, there needs to be radical change for this industry to evolve, adapt and empower collaborative efforts across all levels. I believe whole heartedly that we can help achieve this at RecoVend by helping faculty, administrators and executives work collaboratively across departments and institutions to increase efficiency and save time and money. I believe that people working in K-20 institutions want to work together, but there aren’t any systems in place allowing them to do so that aren’t massively time intensive. So this is my revolution, to change an industry that is critical to the future success of our country, to empower educators to do more, better, faster and to change how schools do business.

 

So….what’s your revolution?

A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

I haven’t written anything in a while, mainly because things have been so hectic these last few weeks as we head towards the end of the school semester and things at RecoVend keep cranking along. I definitely have a full plate this year, but as we’re about to enter the Thanksgiving break, I wanted to pause, catch my breath and evaluate everything in my life right now. So much has changed in the last year - I’ve gotten married, started a business, started pursuing my MBA at Babson and a million other seemingly insignificant fragments of the prism that makes up my life. And honestly, I can’t complain about much. I’m very blessed, to have a beautiful and incredibly supportive wife next to me, to be doing something I love every minute of every day, and to have discovered and followed my passion. Ahead of tomorrow’s overindulgence in turkey and fine scotch, I wanted to thank everyone in my life for making this Thanksgiving so beautiful and meaningful for me.

To my amazing wife for always having my back, and supporting me through the late nights, the crazy flights and everything in between. You’ve been my rock and have kept me attached and grounded to the real world during this startup insanity.

To my friends and family for being my support net for those times when the startup rollercoaster is hurtling me downwards at 200 mph. Thanks for helping me pump the brakes. And when the going is good, thanks for being right next to me to help me celebrate all the small wins on the long, slow climb to the top.

I’m so thankful for my business partners with RecoVend, Jason and Joel, who have believed in me and my vision and have poured countless hours of sweat, blood and energy into building an incredible product. While our journey is just beginning, we would be dead on arrival without you guys, and there isn’t anyone else I’d rather be working on RecoVend with than you two. I’m thankful for the opportunity to do what I love, and to make a difference, every second of every day thanks to you guys.

To the community of educators who have fostered and encouraged my passion for education, and inspired me to bust my ass to make their lives and work easier. You have helped me find my passion, and for that I can never thank you enough.

To everyone in the startup scene, those I have met and those I have yet to meet but admire from afar, you guys and gals help keep me motivated. This is a beautiful adventure we’re all chasing after in our own unique ways, and we have the power to change the world and make it a better place. Seeing others out there who are also following the more treacherous, less beaten path, and those who have succeeded, is more fuel for my fire.

Stay warm. Eat well. Drink up. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Why ‘I Don’t Know’ Isn’t a Good Enough Answer

                                          

My father has a trademarked saying that I heard all too often growing up, “I don’t know isn’t a good enough answer.”

Typically this was said at our family dinner table, or as my brother and I fondly refer to it, The Courtroom. You see, while my dad works as a consultant, he was originally trained as a lawyer. This dangerous combo of legal questioning skills and being paid for your opinions is enough for any child to try and go up against in an argument. Frequently, three quarters of the way through dinner, just when you were feeling satiated and slightly drowsy….it would begin

“So Kyle, why’d you get a C on that chemistry test?”

“I don’t know”

“I don’t know isn’t a good enough answer!”

This same conversation would loop like a broken record for the next 30 minutes while my mom and brother would sit there awkwardly pawing at their food. Being cross examined is never fun, but especially not when you’re a 15 year old who is just busy trying to figure out who the hell you are and where you fit in life. Plus, chemistry is boring as hell.

Those times sucked, a lot, and I frequently left the table muttering obscenities not quite under my breath. At the time it left me with alot of resentment, and it was only in the last few years that I’ve come to truly appreciate the experience for how it has molded how I think, prepare and argue.

While to the uninitiated it might seem like my dad was being a Grade A douche, he was actually training my brother and I how to think critically at all times. That doesn’t matter when youre 15, but when you’re 27 and running a startup it makes all he difference in the world. I look at the startup ecosystem around me with astonishment, seeing dozens of companies drifting aimlessly without truly knowing what their mission and value to users are, or should be.

“I don’t know isn’t a good enough answer”

On Monday I met with Ben Israelite, accomplished hustler with Castile Ventures and Dart Boston, and over some frosty beverages we both lamented some of the super talented, highly connected folks in the startup world that are going around with no clue. Trying to recruit a technical co-founder when you don’t even have an idea to work off of? Not quite knowing what you’re passionate about and what drives you to want to change the world?

“I don’t know isn’t a good enough answer”

Starting this venture with this mantra burned firmly into my brain has been a huge asset because I have those answers - and they aren’t just bullshit filled with rainbows and unicorns. I’ve forced myself to sit down and critically think about frequent questions like “how will you make money?”, “why are you doing a startup in this economy” and “what do you hope to achieve with this?”. I know there is no way I could try and recruit a technical co-founder, convincing them to give up financial security, if I couldn’t clearly communicate my vision and goals for this venture.

It’s been an important exercise that has helped define my passion for education and ridding the industry of imperfect information about products and services. Conversely it has also helped me realize those moments when it IS ok to say I don’t know - after all, I’m a first timer flying by the seat of my pants, I need to know enough to know that I don’t have all the answers at times, but that I’m eager as all hell to learn them.

How the *%#&$ do you find a technical co-founder

This past Saturday, I was lucky enough to attend the MIT StartupBootcamp and hear some pretty incredible founders like Paul English(Kayak), Nathan Blecharczyk(AirBnB), Leah Culver(Convore) and others drop knowledge from their experience starting a company and raising venture funding. I thought Drew Houston from Dropbox stole the show - he was funny and engaging in walking us through how he came up with the idea for Dropbox after leaving his flashdrive at home, to their present day status of +40M users worldwide.

Drew raised an interesting story along the way - about how legendary investor Paul Graham was going to turn him away from Y Combinator unless he found another founder in 2 weeks. This is a pretty crazy proposition, as Drew said, it’s like finding someone and marrying them in 2 weeks. You end up spending all your time with this person, depending on them when it counts and going to war with them - that’s a pretty weighty decision to figure out in 2 weeks!!

I thought Drew’s analogy was apt because when I was searching for a technical co-founder it felt like I was getting out there and dating again. And I’m not gonna lie, I got lucky. I ended up finding someone with a wealth of technical expertise within the industry I wanted to target, someone who was entrenched in the same community as I was that shared my passion and vision for changing education. Not having any technical expertise or background, this was a high anxiety period for me. What if I made a mistake? How could I know what programming language and infrastructure I might need? How can I get someone to see my vision and believe in me enough to quit their job, leave behind the paychecks (for the near future at least) and join me on this crazy rollercoaster? For me it felt a little like being Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild - dropped into foreign, alien terrain with a long, potentially dangerous journey ahead of me. In dodging the pitfalls along the way, I learned a few lessons, so hopefully you can find your way to a technical co-founder….before the sun goes down

Get out there and mix it up
Finding a co-founder, just like dating, is a contact sport - the more people you contact, the better your chances of finding a fit. Rarely will you find a co-founder from the first person you speak to about your idea - it’s far too complex of a process to have perfect kismet like that. You’re probably still figuring out how to pitch your idea to others, and they need to be in the right time/place/mindset in their life to share your vision. It took me a solid 4 months of calling around to developers and web savvy folks within education before I had even an inkling of what kind of questions I should be asking, what skill set the position would demand, and how to accurately express my technical ideas in a simple, understandable way. So get out and speak to folks, attend every networking event in your greater metro area, and call anyone and everyone in your network that might be able to lead you in the right direction.

Use technology to your advantage
Technology is a beautiful thing. Not only can it connect you to people all over the world, but to people who shares your same passions, skills and ideas. You need to leverage the shit out of every available tech platform to help you connect with the right folks - Twitter, Linkedin, awesome resource websites like Greenhorn Connect or MatchFounders - hell, Drew Houston only discovered his co-founder after posting a video to Hacker News! Personally, I found and connected with mine via Twitter, even though we had spoken on the same conference panel almost a year earlier.

Learn the Lay of the land
Just like a relationship, you can’t rush into finding a co-founder (with notable exceptions for Drew, and several others). There’s a fine line to walk between being trigger happy and gunshy when bringing on another teammate, so make sure you have a good lay of the land. What I mean by this is put in the time and do the research so that you have an idea of what you’re looking for in a partner, and the complimentary skill set they should bring to the table. Yes, it took me an excruciatingly drawn out 4 months to find a co-founder, but by the time I did, I knew exactly what I was looking for, and wasn’t going to waste any time screwing around and not bringing them on board. (Sidenote: I consider this behavior the exact same as when I met my wife - years of getting to know what I wanted in a partner, and when I finally found her, I didn’t waste any time).

Be able to clearly articulate your vision
This one is tough but is super necessary, even just as a good workout for you in the early stages to get your pitch running smoothly. Be able to concisely describe the problem your product or service is addressing before going into the detail about your idea and vision. Lay out your argument clearly, but passionately - no one likes to hear someone droning in monotone about the impending value of the semantic web. If you aren’t able to clearly describe your product or idea to someone, then there’s no chance they’ll ever give up their status quo and join your team, buy your product, etc.

Make sure they share your passion
More experienced entrepreneurs might argue, but for me this was a deal breaker. I knew I had to find someone who shared my passion for shining a light on the murky world of education procurement, helping institutions instantly become more efficient, and ultimately change education for the better. Would you really want to spend the next several months or years of your life working in close quarters with someone who’s heart isn’t in the game, who isn’t as balls-to-the-wall committed as you are? Hell no, and if so, there’s little chance your company would survive intact. This is your first test as founder…don’t blow it.

Advice to my brother…

Jay,

This post is dedicated to you as you begin your own journey of grad school out in LA. I hope I’m able to pass along some useful tidbits of information on what has made my time at Babson, and where I’m at now in life, so awesome.

Surround Yourself with Excellence
I’ve been lucky enough to have a super supportive network around me most of my life, whether it was the family, friends or colleagues. As I’ve gotten older that network has only grown to include more amazing people to share life’s incredible moments with. I’m blessed to have an absurdly supportive wife, friends and family that would kill for me, a super talented co-founder for my venture and connections scattered all over the world that I know are always good for a phone call, no matter what hour. You need to surround yourself with excellence - excellent people, ventures, mentors and opportunities. They help you ride the wave when things are going great, and they’re the ones that pick you up and keep you carrying on when things really suck. Take every opportunity you can to meet new, exciting, engaging and interesting people that can add awesome to your life. The rabbi at Shura’s funeral this past week said something that has stuck with me, and I’d like to share it with you now - “It isn’t about having the scotch, it’s about who you’re having it with, and celebrating the mere fact that you are with them”.

Passion Knows no Punchcard
You’ve been lucky to find what your passion is early in life, and somehow managed to turn all those hours spent singing god awful show tunes, starring in and producing low budget high school theater shows, and at times unbearable improv nights into a profession in which you excel. You’ve turned into an awesome writer and Toastmaster, whether it was your high school salutatorian speech, or your incredible roasting at my wedding. Follow that passion, in whatever crazy form it may take. My own journey to find my passion has been long and winding, with several detours along the way to reset the Garmin. That’s not a bad thing - in fact, sometimes you need those gut checks when you’re lost off the grid to help you figure out what really matters. Don’t reign in your passion - find new venues in which to express it, and if none exist, take the leap and create those opportunities. Don’t let the constraints of a 24 hour day stop you from exploring what you love to do - there’s always time to sleep when you’re old.

Pause to Take it All In
Life is hectic, especially when you live in a wild ass city like Los Angeles and you have several different things on your plate. With the whirlwind of work, class, parties, dodgeball, delicious $2 tacos, girls and everything else it can be a bit overwhelming. Make sure to take some time every week to just take a pause for a few minutes, and enjoy a peaceful, quiet scotch out on the patio. Take it all in, because before you know it you’ll be on to the next stage in life, with totally different challenges and issues facing you.

Enjoy the now. Keep Walking.

Getting Knocked on Your Ass

I’m not even sure what to say right now. Even writing this, I’m stunned and not quite sure how to express whats going on.

Yesterday morning someone very close to me passed away. He wasn’t my grandfather - we weren’t even related. He was Shura Wainer, the grandfather of my best friend that I’ve known my entire life, the father of my godmother. He was a strong, courageous man, a survivor of the Holocaust - the memories of those dark days permanently impressed upon his life and tattooed on his arm. Some of you probably can’t understand why this would hit me so hard - he wasn’t even my grandfather after all. I lost all of my grandparents before the age of 8, my grandmother to Alzheimer’s, the same disease that ultimately took Shura early this morning. Alzheimer’s is an awful disease that robs you of the most valuable parts of life - your memories, your relationships and your health. If you’ve been affected by this disease as I have, I ask you to please make a donation to Alzheimer’s Association

Growing up in my friend Jeremy’s home, he became like a surrogate grandfather to me. I spent time every summer, and actually two full summers down on Cape Cod in Shura’s home - working, living and enjoying my younger years playing wiffleball in his front yard. It hit me hard yesterday morning when I found out, about 5 minutes before I was due to give a Rocket Pitch presentation in class. All the careful preparation went flying out the window, and while it went okay, my heart wasn’t in it - my passion for what we’re working on at SoleVerta didn’t, couldn’t, shine through. I’m sure other entrepreneurs out there have faced similar situations and been able to put their emotions to the side, but I’m so new to this that I wasn’t able to compartmentalize and get it done.

I missed a huge opportunity to advance SoleVerta today, and while that sucks, it’s just another opportunity to learn from moving forward and gives me a chip on my shoulder to keep hustling, keep improving and keep getting better. But for now, it’s time to mourn the passing of a great man.

New Initiative Funds College Campus Innovations

Yesterday it was announced that three Boston area colleges are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to funding on-campus innovations. The Presidents of Babson, Olin and Wellesley Colleges, in concert with the Mellon Foundation announced the creation of the Mellon Presidential Innovation Project Fund. 

In 2010 the presidents of Babson, Olin and Wellesley College formalized a collaborative agreement that builds on their institution’s geographic proximity and complementary curricula to explore the synergies in the schools’ three missions.

As part of this three-college effort, the College Presidents have established the Innovation Project Fund, which is available to the Babson, Olin and Wellesley Communities for projects that will enhance the three-college collaboration and the overall student educational experience. 

The number of projects funded and the amount of the awards will vary from year to year based on project merit and available budget. The majority of awards will likely total between $500 and $2000, but in exception cases awards of up to $10,000 will be considered. Committees comprised of faculty, staff, and students will review proposals and make recommendations on awards for approval by the college presidents.

This is huge news, and builds on Babson College’s existing reputation for nurturing and investing in innovative student ventures. Charlie O’Donnell, an entrepreneur in residence at First Round Capital wrote a great post about how the best opportunities are only found if you’re “living in the problem” - and what better way for these colleges to come up with creative solutions to on campus problems than to tap into the staff, faculty and students that are living in the problem on a daily basis.

I hope other colleges use this coalition as the guinea pig for this type of experiment and relentlessly copy it - or at least the spirit of it. Higher Education can be such a silo’ed, insular industry where departments within a college rarely speak with one another, let alone cross institution communication. Going forward, it will only be through tapping into the collective thought, knowledge and expertise of all stakeholders on campuses, that creative, disruptive new innovations are born. I can’t wait to see what incredible projects get put forward to advance innovation across the three campuses, but i know two things:

1) Only great things can come from this kind of forward thinking initiative, and…

2) I’m absolutely planning on submitting SoleVerta as a solution to cross campus procurement woes. Our mission to create a platform for the easy sharing and discovery of peer product and service reviews, experiences, tips and expertise matches up perfectly with the goals of increasing communication and collaboration across the three colleges. With this greater wealth of information at their disposal, administrators at the schools won’t have to waste months Google searching for potential vendors, and will save money by making more informed, efficient purchases. BOOM. 

For those interested in finding out more about the Mellon Presidential Innovation Project Fund, here is the link for the press release

Universities Need to Cut Costs, but Let’s Get Smart About It

I’m a glutton for information. A veritable knowledge whore. That’s why I have about 15 different Google Alerts set up - sports business, higher education, and education purchasing just to name a few. Most of the links are garbage, but every now and then I’ll find a hidden gem that really intrigues me. Yesterday I happened across an article from Computer Weekly about Durham University (UK) switching to an eProcurement system. This shift to comprehensive online procurement systems, paired with more colleges and universities forming Group Purchasing Organizations, are some the big picture trends in the education industry right now. They become all the more important as these institutions try to keep their heads above water while their budgets get slashed and burned.

While Durham University is expecting to save millions of pounds (that’s like 1.5x millions of greenbacks!) over the next 5 years due to the switch to eProcurement, this is really just a bandaid over a really ugly, infected wound. It’s paying lip service to smarter procurement practices without actually *doing* anything smarter.

I won’t mince words - this SUCKS.

It’s leveraging only the bare basics of recent technological advances to become more efficient - essentially shifting their procurement to become an online yellow pages. They still don’t have a mechanism for including end user feedback into their procurement process to shrink the product research phase - something that we consider to be a necessity at SoleVerta. This is a crucial aspect that literally NO procurement software package includes. And do you want to know why they don’t include it? Because they don’t give a damn. They want to give you something new and shiny that’ll have a room of Provosts ‘oohing’ and ‘aahing’ - and pray that it’s so shiny that people can’t see the big price tag.

They don’t want educators to have access to that sort of information, because like Frank Bacon said, “Knowledge is Power”. And the more power that educators have, the more they might just decide that their current eProcurement system sucks, and they should take a closer look at their competitors (Shameless Plug: Check out SoleVerta, we’re a free resource making end user product/service reviews and experiences accessible across all institutions)

A Passion for Education

This is something I never expected to write, because honestly, I never used to have a passion for the education industry. It isn’t a sexy startup industry like mobile payments, location based marketing, or online learning. In fact, coming from a background of sports management, education was the furthest thing on my mind. But it’s one of those jobs that just gets into your blood. The admins and teachers grinding it out in the trenches aren’t doing it for the pay - they’re earning pennies on the dollar their talents would command in the private sector. But there they are, day in and day out, withstanding pay cuts and hiring freezes, to do the dirty work in and out of the classroom to keep the machine chugging along. 

Immediately after my stint in the sports business, I worked for another startup aimed at the Higher Education sector. It was there that I got to know so many within HigherEd, dove headfirst into social media, spoken at conferences, and developed the idea which I have dedicated myself to for the better part of the last year. I saw firsthand how the imperfect information between education vendors and institutions allow for so many inefficiencies to fester and grow within an organization.

How can educators, stripped of the comfort of large budgets for the last 5 years, make informed and efficient decisions on vendors when the only source of information is the vendor themselves? Do people really think a vendor will send them an honest, transparent reference that isn’t going to be glowing? Why does it take so long for educators to identify potential vendors/products/solutions? How can we streamline this process from sourcing to purchasing to save time and money for institutions that so desperately need it?

These are the questions that keep me awake at night, and are some of the issues we’ll be trying to solve at Soleverta. More posts and information to come!