SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive says the energy sector is where the internet was decades ago, ripe for disruption. The biggest obstacle: people think solar is expensive and only for the rich. Rive uses referrals and partnerships with Home Depot and Best Buy to change that perception, and draws on underwater hockey and survival training to explain the resilience entrepreneurship demands.
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Do you see any interesting businesses that you would want these guys to start or think would be interesting opportunities for them to start?
In the energy space? I'd spend a lot of time in the energy space. It's one of the largest sectors in the world. So it's a trillion-dollar industry. It's hard to find an industry bigger than the energy sector. And it's going to go through a massive change. All the technology is beefing up. to a point now where it's going to collide. There's going to be other ways of delivering energy that's going to be at a lower cost and cleaner than the current way of delivering it. And you have this massive infrastructure that has to transition out of it. So I think the energy sector is going to— it's almost equal to the internet in the early '90s, like really early '90s. It's like, what? What's the internet? What is email? Who actually has an email address? It's kind of like that phase. What can the internet become? Why do you want to browse the net? What are you going to find there? These are all the type of things. That's the phase we are right now. And so by getting into that sector, seeing what innovation you can hit could be interesting.
Now, I've noticed your trucks around. How do you market? How do you get customers to know about you? Where does that come from, and where did it come from at the beginning, and then how has that evolved?
Yes, so our number one challenge is getting the word out. Everybody still thinks solar is expensive and a product for the rich. It's like you still read articles about that. In fact, I was in Nevada yesterday testifying at an assembly committee. defending solar. And one of the senators said, I'll never be able to afford solar. Solar is only for the rich. And it blows my mind. We're now in the state. We have over 1,400 people in the state, and the product is cheaper, cleaner energy. There is no investment. So that's the biggest challenge that we have as a company is to get the word out for homeowners and businesses that there is— it doesn't cost you anything. Given the choice of paying more for dirty power or less for clean power, which one do you want? Why is this so hard? And so the best way we get our word out is through referrals. Customer explaining to another customer gets the message across. The— then traditional direct marketing, we do that. And then we have partnerships with Home Depot. If you go in any Home Depot store, you should see a SolarCity representative. If you don't, let me know. There should be one there. If you go to Best Buy, we started to roll out Best Buy. And you're surprised. I was surprised to see the success we've seen in Best Buy. A person's going there to buy some electronics, but they come out buying a solar system. So that's pretty cool. Then DirecTV, we've done a partnership with them. We've got some partners—
Do you have the installer do both at the same time?
No, because ours is a lot more complicated than that. The person installing the satellite dish can then say, hey, look, I've done this. Are you at all interested in reducing your energy costs for your home? That's all they have to ask. Paying less for clean energy versus paying more for dirty energy. If you are, great. We'll have somebody follow up with you. So it's pretty straightforward referral.
So you've had to survive through thick and thin. It's been a long haul. These guys all went through some survival training, and I understand you play underwater hockey. Is that part of sort of— I mean, was that kind of thing rampant in your household while you were growing up? And do you think survival training, like physical survival training, helped Helped you become a good entrepreneur.
Absolutely. The underwater hockey, just so everybody knows what that is, is— because what the hell is that? Mask, fins, snorkel, puck made of lead but covered in plastic. So bottom of the pool, pool's about 7, 8 feet deep, 6 players a side, 4 subs, so 10 players in a team. Go down, hold your breath, play as long as you can. Before you run out of air, you pass the puck to your buddy. You go up, get some air. He plays. You come down and support them. So that's the sport. So back to survival training.
Sure.
It's a total team sport. You can't communicate, so you have to know your team and trust your team, because you're underwater. You can't communicate. And when you're in the worst possible moment, where every part of your body says you have to breathe. Like, now's the time for you to breathe. If you don't breathe, I'm gonna shut things off. You have to ignore the signals and push through. So that's kind of the— back to survival training. Every part of your body is gonna say, abort. Like, let's get out of here. This is too hard. This is painful. Abort, abort, abort. This is what your body will tell you when you start your own company. This is too hard. This is not right. I don't have any social life. I don't have any quality of life. I'm just working. Abort, abort. Ignore the signals and push through. And that's kind of underdog hockey. Thank you.
