He wrote a book on solar innovation.

They were at Bell Labs, which is a subsidiary of, of AT&T, and they made a big leap forward because they were working on silicon, and they were using silicon for transistors to replace the fragile vacuum tubes that were used in telephone switches.

This was key to cutting the costs and allowing telephone systems to carry lots of calls simultaneously.

And just one of those occurrences that happen so often in these stories about energy innovation, there was one person that was working on a new type of rectifier to convert alternating current to direct current, and they were using their latest knowledge of silicon transistors.

And this person happened to notice that that silicon transistor technology was sensitive to light, and he had the presence of mind to call up a friend who was working on remote telephone installations.

And those remote telephone installations, they at that time demanded unreliable batteries or diesel generators.

And he called his friend and he said, "What if you could power that with energy from the sun?" And within a few months, they were able to make their first usable solar device.

But did this rapid expansion create a new set of challenges?

So how did you go from like, there's something here and I'm going to give it a go?

Yeah, I think it's a lot of customer discovery.

So talking to people that you would potentially sell your product to and giving it your all.

So quitting your corporate W2 job, which is obviously a huge leap of faith, knowing that you have some stability there.

So having really supportive spouse or significant other that's going to kind of stand by you while you take this leap of faith, I think is super important.

Having the right co-founder or founders is super helpful because you have to have somebody else to take the journey with you.

You know, I think no one can really do it themselves.

One that you're allowed to share publicly.