Welcome to Episode 45 of SunCast.

We're here to help you unlock your potential as a leader in the solar industry.

The recent Solar Pioneers Series we have begun, and some upcoming series on Solar Storage, Understanding Solar Finance, and more are aimed at helping you unlock the potential stored in the wisdom of Other people's struggles, growth and success stories, so I hope you keep coming back for more! 

Today, we'll take another pause in the Solar Pioneers series, returning to Latin America and a discussion I recorded live at the SolarPlaza Unlocking Solar Capital event in Miami back in June.

The first segment of this week's show (about 11 minutes) is from the "Keys to unlocking Capital for the Offgrid Market" panel moderated by Robert Constantino, with guests  

JUAN FERMÍN RODRIGUEZ

CEO & CO-FOUNDER // KINGO ENERGY

JOSÉ ORDÓÑEZ

CO-FOUNDER // HYBRICO ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

ANDY BINDEA

FOUNDER & CEO // SIGORA INTERNATIONAL

ANNE GERSET

SENIOR IMPACT INVESTMENT MANAGER // ENGIE

FERNANDO ALVARADO

PRESIDENT & CEO - SUSTAINABLE ENERGY CENTRAL AMERICA  

They discussed:

• How to obtain financing for off-grid projects
• Keys to making off-grid business models bankable and best practices in risk mitigation
• Opportunities for telecom integration in Latin America and possibilities for PAYG business model
• Overview of business models with potential in mini-grid and off-grid segments

 I wish I had recorded the whole thing, but hopefully, the bits we got were insightful!

And the second segment of the show (about 30 min) is from a session we called  

CEO Spotlight: Two Off-grid companies with vastly different approach to the market

Andy Bindea and Juan Fermin tell-all with Nico Johnson

It's a candid live session with 2 previous guests of the show, Episodes 031 & 032 respectively.  These are two of the smartest and hardest-working young entrepreneurs I've had the pleasure to interview, and they've both raised a lot of money!  I hope you enjoy this unscripted free-form session where I get into the differences between their two approaches to building an off-grid solar company in Latam.

I hope you enjoy both segments, and that you consider attending a future SolarPlaza conference.  Thanks again to SolarPlaza for all the support and for letting me run around like a reporter at this event.

Also mentioned in the show, SPI is in a couple of weeks!

Let's meet up! I'll be attending the annual Tweetup put on by my friend Tor Valenza, aka Solar Fred, and Kiterocket

Tue, September 12, 2017

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM PDT

LOCATION

Flex House (Booth 6340)

Mandalay Bay Convention Center

http://bit.ly/spitweetup

Hey I'd love to know, what are you struggling with? What one thing is in your way that you'd like help solving? Are there areas specific to your business, or the industry as a whole, that you wish you knew how to do better, or where you're getting stuck? Let me know; I love brainstorming ideas and helping people think through these types of problems. And if I don't know it, I just might know someone who does, and we'll get them on the show!

If you'd like to schedule a 1:1 call w/me, you can now do that at www.callnico.com

You can also just shoot me an email, a LinkedIn message, or pop over to the website and leave me a quick Voicemail, right from your smartphone! That website is www.mysuncast.com and email is [email protected].

Check out OpenSolar OS 3.0 at: https://suncast.media/opensolar

If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to their contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://suncast.media/episodes/.

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Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 850 other founder stories and startup advice at www.suncast.media.

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Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/nicomeo

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