Bill Hetzel - Clean Tech Exec and Angel Investor - Startup Success in Maine

Podcast Sponsored by Peter Fasse of Fish & Richardson

Dropping prices for solar panels sank many American clean tech companies. PIKA Energy, however, was able to benefit from the trend by innovating. Generac acquired them in 2019 because of their uniquely efficient home energy storage system. Bill Hetzel, former COO, tells the compelling story of this Maine Angel (and Sal)-backed success and more.

Highlights:

• Sal Daher Introduces Bill Hetzel, Clean Tech Exec & Angel Investor
• “The original idea behind Pika Energy was to make the world's lowest cost, highest efficiency home/residential wind turbine.”
• “His wind turbines sold for around $10,000. They were sized to power part of your home.”
• “Every year, as we developed our wind turbine, the price of solar dropped faster, and that means one thing to a startup, pivot.”
• “…one of the great things about Pika Energy…were these power electronics and the power electronics we had had a special capability. It meant that each part of the system controlled itself without some fancy engineer coming in and programming it.”
• “You mean you had a more elegant design than Elon Musk's design?”
• “Well, our batteries, too, didn't come in one big, five-person carry Powerwall-sized monolith. Our models came part by part and you built them on-site for the battery as well. A solar installer felt very comfortable.”
• “The business community in Maine is really human-scale... I mean, you can get to know everybody and it's very supportive. I've invested in three Maine”
• “I just got on the phone and I called up Ben [Ben Polito, co-founder of PIKA] and said, "I'm interested in learning more about your company." Ben and Joshua, who are like all good entrepreneurs, were willing to open up their network.”
• “Pika Energy stood out as it was a small, but a seriously well-run company. Did things well, took care of investor money. It was serious about that.”
• “I think one of Pika's big strengths was the ability to listen to advice, and Ben Polito, the CEO, was really good at this.”
• Excellent Monthly Reporting to Investors Made Follow-On Rounds Much Easier
• “And we cycled and got better with each cycle.”
• “We got better at what we did and that made a huge difference when we were ready to pivot because we already had a foundation of business processes, and so our pivot wasn't the entire company.”
• “We showed them [Generac] a demonstration of our product and they were just thrilled. They'd been working on it in-house to build it themselves. They had looked at competitors and they were sophisticated enough and far enough along in their own investigation of this that they recognized our patented power electronics were special.”
• Angel Investing in Maine – A Strong Statewide Ecosystem
• “Maine Angels tend to go out of their way to support the company, not just in terms of money, but also in terms of advice, connections, providing all of the resources that the companies need.”
• Eighty Percent of Success Is Showing Up During a Maine Snow Storm
• ORONO Spectral Solutions – Highly Efficient Water Screening
• HighByte – Making Information from the Industrial Floor Easily Available for Analysis
• Junora – Tech for Depositing Thin Film of Different Elements on Architectural Materials
• VETRO – Mapping Optical Fiber Networks
• “…I can say that there's a certain pride that Maine has, and the Maine Angels have that same feeling and it makes for a really close-knit community. It's really a joy to work with this group of people.”