Update

Hi everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog site so I thought I’d take this time to update you as to what’s happened since my last post in February of 2010. You see, I was living in Plano, TX, a suburb of Dallas at the time when I was posting. In the second quarter of 2009, I was released by my employer in a work-force reduction initiative and during my search for my next opportunity I had some free time and decided to use this time to create a blog and post on topics that interest me.

I worked for a manufacturer of power systems aimed primarily at the telecom industry; when the telecom carriers were spending to upgrade and expand their networks, we were making revenue; however, when things were tight – as was the case immediately after the Internet-bubble bust and during the current economic crisis – the carriers cut back on spending and our revenues were heavily impacted. It was also one of the major reasons for the workforce reductions my employer had to undertake to remain viable. All telecom equipment manufacturers were in a similar position; as a result, I wanted to move into a different and growing industry.

During this time, I noticed a lot of activity and investment in alternative-energy, energy-efficiency and energy-management. I was interested in alternative energy especially PV/solar energy and decided to focus my energies to enter this industry for my next-opportunity. As part of this endeavor, I read and research important topics, current issues, opportunities and challenges germane to this industry.

I’ve also wanted to write but never had the time to seriously pursue it; I also couldn’t decide what I wanted to write about. I had heard about blogs and read many of them and thought I could do this! So I decided to combine my two interests and start a blog site to write about the various topics I researched. During the latter part of 2009, I researched and wrote six posts on topics ranging from CFL light bulbs to an experiment I ran in lowering my carbon footprint.

I was also interviewing for my next opportunity during this time and in early 2010, I interviewed with a startup company in Roanoke, VA involved in energy-management and sub-metering; they were looking for a hardware product manager. I liked what I saw and decided to take the offer. So in March, the company relocated me to Virginia.

I was excited to work for a startup and came in with preconceived notions of what to expect. I expected a company with a flat-organization with an entrepreneurial sprit and an intense focus on customers with preservation of cash being a major concern; however, to my chagrin, what I saw was just the opposite! We had many executives who were at times working at cross-purposes with one-another to the detriment of the company; individuals were flying to our many remote sites on a whim with no clear purpose, etc. But my biggest concern was that our actual revenues were much lower than the unrealistic end-of-year targets. I had a feeling it couldn’t last long … and it didn’t.

The company had difficulty raising cash from operations and had to look to external investors; in garnering this investment, they had to show their investors they were making strives to shore up their revenue shortfall so a major restructuring ensued whereby entire businesses were shuttered and personnel including me, were released! I had been there only seven months! My first experience working for a startup company was not good.

I really liked the industry and the products the company made – in a future post, I’ll write about what sub-metering is and how it helps companies – and I was disappointed that it didn’t last longer. I also liked the people I worked with in the Virginia office; furthermore, Roanoke is a beautiful and scenic city albeit being small and not having many of the large-city amenities that I was used to.

In looking for my next opportunity, I shied away from startups and tried to focus on large corporations but I interviewed with all types of companies. In whittling through the opportunities that was availed to me, one company really impressed me in the way they pursued me, but it was a startup company! The people at this company assuaged my concerns regarding working for a startup company; they also explained that they had just secured a major investment from a foreign company so cash-flow wouldn’t be a concern. After much deliberation, I decided to take a chance and accepted the position.

So in November of this year, the company relocated me to Indianapolis, Indiana, my second move of this year! I’ve been with the company for about a month now and this company feels more like what a startup company should be like. Also, Indianapolis looks like it could be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to exploring.

This company is involved in mega-Watt battery power systems in frequency-regulation and grid-stabilization applications with the electric utilities as well as with solar and wind applications and in another future post, I’ll elaborate more on what these are and how my company and our products help.

So that’s what I’ve been doing since my last post. 2010 was a pretty exhausting year for me and I’m really looking forward to a better 2011! I’m still interested in all things related to energy and will be posting shortly again once I get more settled; I move into my apartment in January so it shouldn’t be much longer! I’ll also post on non-energy related topics, i.e., on topics that generally interest me and I hope you’ll find it entertaining and informative.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!