536: 10 Millionth Solar Design, $200 Million Series D, How Aurora Empowers the Solar Industry With Mission-Critical Digital Tools, with Co-founders Chris Hopper & Sam Adeyemo

Stanford Business School grads Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo founded Aurora Solar in 2012 with a mission to reduce solar design costs. They created software that quickly and accurately designs rooftop panels through aerial photos, eliminating the need for the installer to climb on the roof with a tape measure. And it fast-became the industry standard digital tool that every residential solar installer needed in order to empower their increasingly digital-first sales orgs. In today's Tactical Tuesday, a live conversation from our recent PowerUp Media Zone at RE+ in September, Chris, Aurora's CEO, and Sam, its Chief Revenue Officer, talk about the Menlo Park, California-based company's incredible track record and the origin of its industry-leading software platform. Now a leading software for residential and commercial PV sales and design, Aurora is used in about 100,000 PV systems designs every month by more than 7,000 installers across the globe. And, they recently hit 2 huge milestones - their 10 Millionth solar project design on the platform, and a massive $200 Million Series D fundraising. It’s the first time I’ve had the opportunity to interview both Founders at the same time, and we took full advantage of the moment.Regular listeners may remember my first conversation with Sam on Episode 199. And in Episode 394, we shared news of Aurora's acquisition of a leading competitor, Folsom Labs, the developer of HelioScope, a leading software platform for the commercial solar sector. As the two teams became one, they benefited from a larger engineering team, a global user base and an expanded product suite. Coinciding with the release of this episode, Aurora is also presenting their annual Empower Virtual Conference, which is a Free 2-day event designed to provide inspiration and education to empower our community with greater insights and community gatherings. And they lined up legendary Hollywood actor, Edward Norton, to keynote today’s kickoff at 9:30am PT - so if you are reading this in time, you should head over and Register so you don’t miss that as well! Today's conversation was part of the RE+ PowerUp Media Zone, a live production of SunCast Media.If you want to connect with today's guest, you’ll find links to his contact info in the show notes on the blog at https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/.Our Platinum Presenting Sponsor for SunCast is CPS America!SunCast is proudly supported by Trina Solar.You can learn more about all the sponsors who help make this show free for you at www.mysuncast.com/sponsors.Remember, you can always find resources, learn more about today’s guest and explore recommendations, book links, and more than 730 other founder stories and startup advice at www.mysuncast.com.Subscribe to