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Capital Markets and Green Companies
A Panel Discussion

Net Impact 2005
Bridging the Gap
43 minutes, 19.8mb, recorded 2005-11-11
Image caption: Rob Day, David Dreessen, Sanjay Wagle
Rob Day, David Dreessen, Sanjay Wagle

The growing imperative to address our energy and environmental problems creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists working in green tech markets. Along with personal commitment to sustainable technologies, green companies must also stand solidly on their business merits. This panel of industry and venture capital experts from Bridging the Gap, the Stanford 2005 Net Impact conference organized by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, takes a thought provoking look at innovation, and the potential profits and pitfalls in the emerging clean tech sectors.

Solar energy continues to attract investment as the technologies progress from expensive silicon-based materials to thin film and organic polymer cells. With improvements in the dollar per watt ratio, solar is beginning to compete on the traditional energy grid. Water purification, clean manufacturing, sensor technologies and other renewable energy generation, storage and transmission projects are also gaining a lot of interest. As these sectors mature, an ecosystem of talent is growing around them with the wisdom and experience to evaluate risks and successfully commercialize ideas. The panelists also share some tips on spotting the red flags in business plans, which may be built on pipe dreams of perpetual motion.

Is all this just a bubble, or is there potential for sustained, green growth? Clean tech currently wins about five percent of VC funds, and the panelists predict further expansion as new markets open up. The economy is always a wild card, but consumer empowerment and recognition of the genuine need to respond to global climate change are beginning to overturn the historical difficulty of selling on energy efficiency. This is welcome news for those hoping to accelerate the transition of the economy to a more sustainable footing.


Our publication of this program was made possible by the support of the following:



 

 

Rob Day is a Principal with Expansion Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in expansion-stage, Clean Technology enterprises. Expansion Capital Partners (www.expansioncapital.com) targets companies that offer dramatic improvements in resource efficiency and productivity, while creating more economic value with less energy and materials, or less waste and toxicity. Expansion Capital’s areas of focus include: energy, advanced materials, water and wastewater, manufacturing, and transportation. Mr. Day is an observer on the board of Expansion Capital’s portfolio company Agile Systems. Rob was formerly a member of the Private Equity Group at Bain & Company, a leading management consultancy.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Day worked at the Boston Consulting Group, and he was also a founding member of the World Resources Institute's Sustainable Enterprise Program, where he worked with companies across a wide range of industries to develop new business opportunities with economic, environmental and social enefits. Mr. Day is the coauthor of 'The Next Bottom Line: Making Sustainable Development Tangible', leads the Renewable Energy Business Network (www.rebn.org), and authors the website Cleantech Investing (www.cleantechvc.com). Mr. Day received his MBA at Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and his BA at Swarthmore College.

David Dreessen joined Nth Power in 1999. His career includes years of experience in various areas of the energy industry as well as experience in successfully building start-up organizations. Prior to joining Nth Power, Mr. Dreessen served in a variety of management and IT consulting roles for both the generation and retail side of the deregulated energy marketplace. After working for Accenture (Andersen Consulting), Mr. Dreessen started his own consulting practice and subsequently joined the Structure Group, a start-up consulting firm providing integrated business and technology solutions to the deregulated energy industry. Mr. Dreessen was an instrumental member in building the Structure Group from four to more than 50 people in just over a year.

Prior to consulting, Mr. Dreessen was a Naval officer and engineering program manager for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program Headquarters. He had overall program responsibility for several areas supporting water chemistry in the 100-plus power plants located in submarines, surface ships and prototypes. Mr. Dreessen holds bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering with high honors and economics with honors from the University of California at Davis and an MBA from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.

Sanjay Wagle is a Vice President at VantagePoint Venture Partners, a venture capital firm with $2.8 billion of capital under management. He is a member of VantagePoint’s Clean Tech practice group, which invests in areas such as renewable energy, water and wastewater treatment, clean manufacturing, advanced materials, and efficient transportation. Prior to VantagePoint, Mr. Wagle was a Principal at Expansion Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on clean technologies.

Earlier, he had served as an Associate at Blum Capital Partners, a $2.5 billion private equity firm, and an Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation, a unit of the World Bank. Mr. Wagle earned an MBA at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA, magna cum laude,
from Harvard University.

This program is from our Bridging the Gap series.

For The Conversations Network:

  • Post-production audio engineer: Steven Ng
  • Website editor: Liz Evans
  • Series producer: Bernadette Clavier