At Interstellar, we get to meet and work with some pretty cool people. During the early days of each new brand relationship, a good amount of time is spent getting to know one another as best as we can. And these conversations can be some of the most rewarding if the connection is real.
I’ve always been curious about the story behind the brand, and I know I’m not alone. The team members working hard to succeed, the challenges they encounter, and the lessons they’ve learned. These things and more can be hard to see from the public-facing side, but they are the glue that binds a brand together. So with that in mind, today we begin a new series called Dark Matter, where we’ll introduce you to new Interstellar brands and share some of the intangible things that have an impact on their journey.
To start things out, we knew from the very first call with this team that we could achieve wonderful things together. The vibe was just right, everyone came with a sense of purpose, and were open to any and all ideas. We met the Sun Badger Solar team thanks to some very good friends of ours over at Streamline Jacks. We could fill an entire different article talking about these amazing ladies, and likely will :) But I got to sit down with Kris Sipe Managing Director of Sun Badger, joined as well by Jordan Philbrook, a Partner with Streamline Jacks, to talk for a little bit.
RYAN
Thanks for being our first ever brand in our new series! I’ve been wanting to do this sort of thing for some time now, and we felt that Sun Badger was the perfect place to begin. So if everyone has a drink and is ready to rock, let’s go. I think we should start where you started, and that’s the very first days of Sun Badger. How did this thing come together?
KRIS
Well, I had been working within the energy industry in Australia for about 14 years. I eventually made the decision to come back to the midwest to be closer to family. I spent some time working within the manufacturing side of things, before moving into residential solar installation. And throughout all this time, both while in Australia and once I had returned, I was connecting with people who had big ideas and a strong desire to be involved at the forefront of the solar industry. But at the same time, we knew that most companies were struggling to even keep up with the industry, must less lead it.
So, we would all connect periodically in the Chicago area and would discuss at length our ideas and beliefs for solar and renewable energy as a whole. And it just so happened that during this time, with new government initiatives that were launching, the Illinois market was about to go crazy. Friends and peers were encouraging us to apply some of our passion and ideas by trying to build something different within the midwest market. And so I guess you could say that was the very start of Sun Badger, just some good friends spending time talking about something we cared about, and it grew from there.
RYAN
And it didn’t hurt that your passion was in a pretty hot market for sure…
KRIS
You know, being in solar is certainly an emerging and exciting industry to be in. But there’s a lot of distrust and disingenuousness, and there’s misinformation and plenty of corrupt practices out there. Yeah, we knew that we were working in an industry that we truly believed in, and that we believed in the environmental aspects above all. But when we started the company, we wanted to start a company that valued integrity, education and transparency above all else, and that trajectory has been exactly what we’ve wanted.
RYAN
So it’s been working for you?
KRIS
Yes, it’s been to our advantage. Those things, integrity, education and transparency, matter on both sides of a relationship. When our values are in line with our customers values, that’s going to be mutually beneficial. And it has been a success, based on our customer reviews and our references, all of which has created more opportunity for us.
“IT SEEMS THAT SO MANY ENERGY COMPANIES RELY ON THE CUSTOMER BEING IN THE DARK MORE OFTEN THAN NOT.”
RYAN
You mentioned that there’s a lot of distrust and misinformation out there. How do you see this affect customers at the end of the day?
KRIS
I would say number one is timeline. It’s not uncommon that a build can take up to fourteen months, with the best companies in the market coming in at around nine months right now. To us, that just isn’t acceptable and proves to be a major hindrance for residential customers especially, who are looking for an installation solution that is more efficient.
We knew from our own experience that one of the major impacts on timelines has to do with how solar panel companies traditionally handle nationwide contractor resources. We saw an opportunity to build our Installation Partners at a localized level. By developing and supporting local partners, installation timelines become more regionalized and contingencies are easier to respond to without impacting installs on a larger level. And we also believe strongly in the hyperlocal approach, where installers are working with customers right in their backyard, so to speak. That sort of local community is important to us, and is important to the growth and adoption of renewable energy nationally.
Beyond timeline, price is also challenging because there’s such a gap when it comes to price. As with most industries, there are price guagers who market the lowest price to simply get people in the door…but they’re installing 3-5 year old products. And because solar is silicon, it degrades over time, but the customer is none the wiser in most cases. So the panels need to be replaced sooner, and customers in these scenarios aren’t happy with the longevity of their installation. At the end of the day, this sort of approach has a negative impact on the adoption of renewable energy.
And not to be understated, the other big area affected is education. It seems that so many energy companies rely on the customer being in the dark more often than not. Many don’t make an effort to educate, and others simply package their sales sheets under the guise of something educational. And what this creates for the customer is confusion at best, it makes solar seem challenging to grasp, too costly, or too time consuming. We constantly strive to achieve education over salesmanship.
JORDAN
Yeah, I second that. We can see that education is having one of the biggest impacts on customers, whether that’s during the sales stage, throughout installation or well after the trucks have packed up and gone. It’s a recognizable part of why Sun Badger is seeing such great success and hearing such great feedback direct from customers. It seems like everyone is so hungry to actually educate themselves.
KRIS
Exactly. I remember that from day one we had an honest conversation about what tools were needed to better inform and educate customers. We felt strongly that these things needed to be a priority for Sun Badger, and that would require serious investment into educational resources. The bottom line is that we want to see solar adoption just go nuts here in our backyard of Wisconsin and Illinois. And like most things in life, if people are going all in on something, they need to understand it.
JORDAN
I honestly think we’re on this crazy line where everyone is starting to get that solar is happening, and a lot is going to happen in the next few years or so, and they sense an urgency to start having real conversations about transitioning. Education is so critical during that phase of a customer’s journey to solar. I know I’ve asked Kris a million questions as we’ve been going through the transition process for our own home, and the passion to talk about this stuff and to talk about it in a way and at a pace that we could follow, is so clearly evident. And from talking to others on the team, I know it’s a passion they all have in common.
And for Sun Badger, that passion seems to resonate strongly with customers. A brand new customer in the Chicago market had this to say:
“Mike Hopper came to my house from Sun Badger and said, “I’m not here to sell you, I’m here to school you on solar panels and the entire system.”
He made me feel knowledgeable about solar, and explained every step that would be taken and about all the incentives being offered. I felt confident in my decision to go to the next step, which I took on my timeline, without a sales pitch coming at me every day. Everything went exactly as he said it would, even faster than he anticipated.”
RYAN
You know, it’s a simple fact that the investment into education isn’t cheap. It takes real dollars and it takes real time, which is also more dollars by the way, to deliver educational resources to your customers. Which is why talk is so cheap, right? But it seems that Sun Badger is actually putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to education.
KRIS
Yeah, that’s fair I’d say. Here’s the simplest way I can think to express how we feel about education as a part of our culture. We’re committed to having the most well-educated and valued customers in the industry. And it’s on us to make that happen. Period.
JORDAN
One thing that really resonated with us at Streamline Jacks, is that Sun Badger is truly doing things their own way. And I think because of that, there’s a genuineness that’s inherent to the team, which of course bleeds through to everything, and positively guides both Customer relationships and the relationships with our Installation Partners.
RYAN
On the topic of paving your own way, it’s no secret that the energy market is largely male dominated. Through our audience research efforts, we noticed that the majority of execs on LinkedIn with "sustainability" in their title were women, yet the industry as a whole is still so male focused. This is changing, of course, and Sun Badger is at the forefront. For example, your operations team is 100% female.
KRIS
Yeah, a lot of energy companies are the same. Culture is very similar, tone is somewhat identical, regardless of the expensive packaging that’s been layered on top. It’s a sales culture more than anything. It’s male dominated. But we really don’t want to be that, we want to do things a little…
{At this point we’re interrupted by a member of the Sun Badger team who pops into the room for a quick decision from Kris. And we’re back...}
Sorry about that, I could talk about this stuff all day, but I guess a few on the team would love it if I did some actual work for them!
RYAN
Ha, no problem at all. But that sort of thing, paving your own path and trying to address the misinformation and the distrust that exists, wanting to shake up the male-dominated culture… I mean, you’re on the way to becoming the number one installer in the midwest. All of this comes with challenges for sure, right?
KRIS
Absolutely. Because we don’t fit the mould, one area where we don’t get a lot of support or assistance is from the non-profits and industry advocates. We don’t toe the line. So that’s been a challenge to navigate, there’s been plenty of pushback from the establishment due to some of these decisions, which I know sounds so punk, haha.
RYAN
It does, but I grew up with punk so I can hang with you man. Speaking of the establishment, that’s a perfect segue into something I know is very important to you, Kris, and to the Sun Badger team, and that’s ol’ Uncle Sam. How can government better support the adoption of renewable energy?
KRIS
Well, this is another thing I could talk about all day. Obviously, on the national landscape there’s a federal tax credit, but that’s ramping down now and we have no clear idea of what that’s going to look like in the future. Everything to us is based on political climate. To draw a comparison, in California all new homes must have solar. Imagine if in Wisconsin there was a mandate that all new homes were required to have solar!
Wisconsin is a great example to us because the population is very self-sufficient. In Minnesota, which is a place we really want to succeed, the market is promising and the incentives are great, but the state government hasn’t done anything to promote the actual workforce. So they have all these incentives, but no resources to help folks take advantage of those incentives. And in Illinois, politically they have a solar incentive, but putting it together, presenting it to people and actually getting them paid, is a bureaucratic nightmare. Every single area that we work in has these crazy bottlenecks, and it has a tremendous impact on growth and adoption rates. The government has got to work to normalize these processes and incentives on a national level.
“THE GOVERNMENT HAS GOT TO WORK TO NORMALIZE THESE PROCESSES AND INCENTIVES ON A NATIONAL LEVEL.”
RYAN
Okay, so they make it challenging for you. But is anyone out there doing it right?
KRIS
Probably New York State is one of my favorites, it’s a simple tax credit on the State side. And that solves everything. I mean, Louisiana had a 50% State tax credit, but then it got all screwed up. Iowa has a 20% State tax credit. If it’s just a simple tax credit, it’s easy for people. All you do when you do your taxes is say, “Hey, I put up solar,” and it’s as simple as that. There is so much bureaucratic red tape across the country right now, it’s ridiculous.
I mean, the whole Green New Deal thing from AOC, it’s ironic to me that so many people are saying she’s crazy, and that this is never going to be done. But the truth is that she’s right. If we don’t do this in the next five years, we’re all fucked anyway! And that’s what’s going to happen, because regulators at the federal and state level have made things so complicated, it slows everything down.
RYAN
The Gov is moving at a snail’s pace here, big surprise. So what can us common folk do to help move solar adoption along?
KRIS
Well, that’s the thing, again it’s purely political. People vote with their hearts, and we just hope that the growth and adoption of renewable energy is something that truly becomes near and dear to everyone’s heart. Because it must. And I think to accomplish that, it comes back to the education piece. Renewable energy is now much cheaper than any other form of energy, yet we’re still propping up fossil fuel energy creation purely because people think it’s a job growth thing. But solar is one of the fastest growing job markets in the country, outside of the marijuana industry. There’s a lot of political spin tied to special interests, and we’ve got to work hard to undo the misconceptions being promoted by some of our national and state leaders.
At Interstellar, we take pride in all of our clients. But we do consider ourselves particularly lucky to work so closely with industries we truly believe in. Kris and the rest of the Sun Badger Solar team represent a changing tide for the country and the world as a whole and we are are thrilled to be a part of their punk rock approach. As they continue to expand across the US, they bring their passion, philosophies, and fast-as-lightning Installation Partners with them. If you ask us, there has never been a better time to finally #gosolar. And so in the spirit of education, here’s a parting tip for ya!
