YouSaid · the spoken record

Lynn Jurich

lines on the record: 31
first: 2021-01-28
most recent: 2021-01-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“There will be a time when many of our competitors really fail or flamed out. We grew through that entire period because of that discipline. And that has served us very well, I think back in 2015, no one probably would have expected us to be the market leader. And now here we are more than double the size of Tesla.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've always had a very long term orientation. I went to Stanford undergrad and I was there during the first tech boom. And I really rejected a lot of this short-term thinking. And the entrepreneurs who really flipped companies and was attracted to infrastructure, to the physicality of it, the fact that this is our natural world and I really love nature. In infrastructure, you're making 20, 30 year decisions. It's a long-term industry. And that's always the approach we've taken, which is it'll come. There was a period of time where we were being outgrown by some competitors, by Solar City. They went public a couple years ahead of us and were able to have the capital to scale really quickly. Now, our philosophy was let's grow. Let's be aggressive, but let's also be sustainable because we're in a trillion dollar market with tailwinds coming our way.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. There's so many analogies to the values and the space I want to create at work. Just the presence and the moment, the awareness from all senses. One of the things I talk about at my company is there's a lot of scientific research here that there's so much knowledge in the body. And so we have sayings like, do you have a whole body yes to that? We watch a people squirm around in a meeting because they either don't agree with you or they're not going to follow through. So I think the physicality, the presencing that you get through bird watching is what helps us just both have more fun at work and be more effective.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Get enough homes together to then be able to go raise the capital. If we funded the company ourselves, we raised $12 million and had to spend through the equity capital buying systems $50,000 at a time to get to a pool big enough to then go bring to a bank. And they didn't want to see it unless it could be a $40 million investment. So we were spending all this money, which is quite scary. Then the financial crisis hit. And we hadn't raised the bank financing yet. Thanks in huge part to my co-founder, who's just really incredible at the legal risk tax financing and just a bulldog in terms of closing the deals. We closed a $40 million funding from U.S. Bank the dayman brothers went bankrupt. We've been through a lot.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. We started this company. My co-founder and I at Stanford Business School. I remember like a good student. I looked through the entire database of Stanford alum that work at utilities and energy companies, pitched the idea to them. And 100% of people said, no, you can't do this. There's a lot of sophisticated people working on this, don't do it. So we started it despite that. We went from very prestigious financing jobs to selling solar at the farmer's market. We started the company before the financial crisis. So we had to survive the financial crisis while raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a consumer asset class. I think part of the founding story that I think is interesting is that we were pursuing this solar as a service model on homes. Typically all of energy is developed with big projects where you can underwrite a single developer or a single power plant. What we had to do was”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just execution, it's drilling holes in people's rooftops, it's inspiring people through a remote workforce. I'm pleased that the tailwinds are very much there. What we compete with is utility electricity. That's increasing three to four percent every year. And utilities are spending about $100 billion annually in CapEx. And that's really driving up prices, which enables us. And at the same time, our costs are continuing to decline. So we have that as a tailwind. We have certainly the new administration and focus on climate as a tailwind. We have the addition of the electric vehicle and the battery, which makes solar that much more appealing to people. There's a lot of things coming together for us. And now it's about operating well.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, we should have been there many years ago. I think people are finally recognizing the value of the model, the long-term, the size of the market. If you look at the top 20 utilities in the US, it's probably $500 billion of market cap. There's no reason why we shouldn't be one of the largest utilities going forward. So I think people are starting to recognize that we're generating a lot of cash flow so the business is profitable. And again, I think that people are seeing the model evolve to more than just solar and really having a bigger wallet share of the entire home's energy wallet or day one, as Jeff Bezos would say.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Has not been an issue again, another benefit of being the market leader is that you're first in line typically for the product. And so we haven't seen challenges.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, we've always looked at our business model as let's build the pieces that scale, that we have a competitive advantage in, and let's partner with the other side. The innovation is happening so quickly on solar because it's really global. It's a global market. That's not our expertise. Our expertise is really in business model innovation, in project finance, in customer acquisition. When we started the business, we quote things in Watts, but it was $4 a watt for a solar panel. And it is now 30 cents. That's how much it's approved. The solar panel is not really all that differentiated. You want higher efficiency and lower cost. When you get into the battery, that starts to change matters. And so what we're doing is we're working closely with the OEMs to meet our specific end market needs, but relying on”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's really a people based business, and I think we've been very effective at inspiring our people to bring that passion to customers. Secondly, we are leading in opening up these virtual power plant type programs. And so the customers who decide to choose Sunrun, they can benefit from an additional revenue stream off their solar and their battery. It's just like the sharing economy in Airbnb. You're not using one of your rooms. You rent it. You're not using your battery unless the power's out. So you sell that power back to the grid, which gets back to my point of why this is moving to a winner-take most market and really to call us a residential solar company is missing the bigger picture. These are increasingly advantages that I think we're winning at.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the proof is in the market share. So if you look at where we are today, I think we're probably two to three times larger in the residential segment. The adoption is very much about your people and the education that they can bring. And so I think that's why we're successful, because it's a new technology, because utility rate structures are complex.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, you never underestimate, and that's for sure. I think we're still in the adoption phase where Rising Tide lifts all votes. So I'm very pleased with their brand being well-known, well-liked, because it just increases the awareness of solar energy. As we mentioned, it's only 1, 2% penetrated right now. So that'll help lift us. Recently, when I looked at the data in the markets where we're both competing, we have a higher close rate, effectively. Again, it's this normalization of solar that's a benefit. It's the awareness. It's the trust in their brand. And I aspire to over the years have the sunrun brand be better known in terms of turning your home into an electric energy asset.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Back to the company values around win for all, that's how we think. The benefit of solar is that it's popular across the board. As I mentioned, it's 85% to 95% of U.S. citizens want more solar power and would be interested in exploring it for their homes. It's also a very big job creator because the electricity is free. The sun is free. Most of the cost is in labor per kilowatt hour, it's the biggest job creator there is. And it's local jobs. It's jobs that can't be exported. And that, of course, appeals to both sides of the aisle.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Islands, in many cases, will be the place where we'll see these case studies of all first. As I mentioned, Hawaii has a huge population of residential solar. We're also building one of these virtual power plants there with the electric utility. The United Kingdoms will be a great market. Japan will be a great market. There's just a lot of reasons why islands because you have to transmit the power usually around the edges of the island. And those are most at risk of extreme weather. There's a lot of specific reasons why those will be the places where we'll adopt a distributed system first.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To help eliminate this, what we call soft costs and help standardize the installation of solar embedders. And that's been held up in the previous administration. We are very optimistic that we'll get released in the current administration. Another opportunity is Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, as we know, was destroyed by Hurricane Maria. There is an opportunity to completely rebuild that energy system with a distributed renewable system. And the will is there locally and the funding has been held up. And we're also optimistic that the administration can release that and that Puerto Rico can be a perfect example of how we can rebuild our energy system to be more reliable and renewables-based.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The regulators that these assets can be firm. They will deliver. That's the story at the state level. Federally, the industry is subsidized through a tax credit. And we were able to just extend that tax credit recently. The Biden administration has also put aggressive goals out there about retrofitting businesses and buildings. And that's where I think the real opportunity is. We do believe that the United States can cut 70 to 80 percent of our emissions by 2035 if we can effectively retrofit our business and make them all electric, as I described. One of the challenges is that in the US, we have so many different jurisdictions and so many different local building codes and electrical codes. And this gets back to the friction of why isn't it adopted more? The Department of Energy actually had funding.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the interesting thing about solar and energy is that it's very much regulated at the state level, which brings complications, but also opportunities. We're pushing the boundaries of the current market structures in order to move the energy system to more renewables and to a more distributed system. The electricity industry is one of the lowest utilization industries out there. I think there's a huge amount of power plants that run only 5% of the time. And we can more cost-effectively both give consumers the reliable, resilient clean power and make the system more cost effective. The problem is many of the market structures aren't set up to value that asset, that electricity going two ways. So the biggest innovation that we're bringing to the country is opening up these markets, convincing the grid operators, convincing”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Scale technology. What's holding us back is inertia. It's why do I want to do it now? 90% of Americans are in favor of solar. The interest is there. It's just the challenge of friction in the process.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First, because this is called Masters of Scale throughout a few scale facts for you all. So one, we already have 500,000 customers just SunRun. And we've raised capital to install about $9 billion worth of solar. SunRun is the second largest owner of solar in the US behind Nexter, the huge utility. Residential does have scale now and will increase. If you look at a market like Hawaii where the value proposition was strongest first, it's about 30 to 35% of households have solar power. California is about 12%. The rest of the country is about 1 to 2%. It will all get there. The amount of power you can get off of a rooftop with solar would serve 75% of California's energy needs. It would serve 40% of the U.S. energy needs. So it is.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that was the innovation of starting Sun Run we saw solar as a technology that would clearly be the future. What was so breakthrough about solar is that it can be distributed. You can site it locally where the power is actually going to be used. In the US, two-thirds of your power bill is transmission and distribution. From a first principle standpoint, if you're able to use existing infrastructure and put the solar on there, it will be a more affordable solution. We just needed to eliminate the upfront cost. And so we invented the business model of solar as a service where we pay to install the solar system and the homeowner just buys the electricity just like they would from the utility. Only it's cheaper and it's green. When we think about climate, we don't think it needs to be this ethereal thing.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Independent of your view on climate, we can offer you a better lifestyle and meet carbon emission goals. If you look at the home, there are about four big choices you can make around energy that lead to your carbon footprint, your car, how you power your home, your heating, and your cooking. An electric vehicle is less expensive. An induction stove is superior. An electric hot water heater can save you money and solar saves you money. So if you look at what we can create for a household, it's an average of $1,000 to $2,000 of savings. So you don't have to be a climate warrior to adopt these products. The challenge is really social and political and financing because many of these green assets, they're more expensive up front, but they're less costly over time.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that we're seeing more impact from extreme weather than maybe the question appreciates. If you think about California as an example with people at home working from home, schooling at home and the fact that the power is getting turned off because of fire risk, that is a very visceral experience for people, and we'll see more of this. Puerto Rico is another example where the energy system is just frail. I think 70% of the energy assets are old and extreme weather is just only making it worse. So I do believe that it is and will increasingly become visceral for people. And back to that change formula, I think that dissatisfaction is and that pain will drive awareness and attention to it. We're taking a different approach, which is in”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was absolutely training, training, training, training. And we find that the salespeople are so adaptable. They know how to connect and they know how to connect even over a video call.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely. Within a week, we moved a huge sales force to completely digital and remote. And frankly, saw productivity increase by one and a half times.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We have a very distributed workforce. We offer our product across twenty-two states and we have a huge diversity of roles as well from your frontline installer and salesperson to a structured finance person. And what really brings everybody together is this shared mission and values where our mission is to create a planet run by the sun. We benefit because we're an essential service. We have people out selling and installing solar every day and really putting the safety front and center has also been, I believe, a very good lasting focus for us.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First, we really looked at the respective cultures of the company and did some significant surveying. And so we were able to map where the two companies were consistent and where there may be inconsistencies that enabled us to do a series of cultural workshops and learn from each other, bridge any sort of potential conflict. And then one of the other things I instituted was a software called Threads, which is a Slack-like system and really pushing people to document more. And this is going to serve the company very well because as we grew up as a startup, fast-growing startup, the information was in people's heads. It wasn't documented as much. And so now it's forced us to have more discipline when we scale to have that information where new employees can get up to speed faster, where the information is”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Certainly made us hesitate a bit. It made the diligence more intense. There were certainly business actions we had to take initially as we didn't know how long this would persist with furloughs, with sales dropping. But what happened was the industry really ended up recovering faster than any of us expected because people were at home. So they're using more electricity. They don't feel safe. So the idea that they can create their own power, store that power in a battery really started to actually accelerate the adoption and really the conviction. I think COVID did help.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was a long time in the works when we look at our industry, residential solar has been fairly fragmented. We had about 12% market share and there are about 4,000 companies. But there are a lot of dynamics now that are moving the industry to more of a winner-take most market. We're seeing residential solar expand to residential solar plus batteries plus electric vehicles and really turning the home into an energy asset and creating really an energy internet where that home is connected to all the other homes is connected to the grid and we can create what are called virtual power plants. And so the evolution of the industry to this more complex system made the logic of the acquisition that much more sound. So really independent. From COVID, just the maturation of the industry is what inspired it.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Both. When I look at Sunrun, what we did tactically was massively increase our corporate metabolism. We moved everybody digitally. We started to use drones to evaluate the households. We started to push local jurisdictions to do instant permitting. So we really accelerated the digital transformation by a couple of years. We also acquired a company during COVID, a $3 billion 4,000 person company. We did this all remotely.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Even more so than ever, I think there are a lot of silver linings to COVID, and it's hard to say that because there's so much loss. But one of my philosophies is that if you really want to drive change, there's a formula that is a coefficient on dissatisfaction and a coefficient on vision. And you need a big one, ideally on both. But what I think we faced this year was the coefficient on dissatisfaction massively increased. And that's COVID. That's the political divide. That's the racial issues. And I'm confident that society will emerge stronger from that.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is called Masters of Scale, throughout a few scale facts for you all. So, one, we already have 500,000 customers just Sunrun. And we've raised capital to install about $9 billion worth of solar. No one probably would have expected us to be the market leader. And now here we are more than double the size of Tesla. Don't have to be a climate warrior to adopt these products. Independent of your view on climate, we can offer you a better lifestyle and meet carbon emission goals I think there are a lot of silver linings to COVID, and it's hard to say that because there's so much lost. What really brings everybody together is this shared mission and values where our mission is to create a planet run by the sun.”
2021-01-28 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Aggressive sustainability, w/Lynn Jurich, CEO of Sunrun · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT