I may not have conventional movie star good lucks, but I’m getting my share of screen time here at TAF. Recently, I had a chance to take part in a “Meet the Investors” video series produced by our colleagues at the Social Innovation Generation Network (SiG). This was a great opportunity to explain what it is that makes TAF a different sort of investor. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but here’s the core message I tried to get across in the video: When it comes to financial innovation, it’s not about taking on more risk, it’s about leveraging knowledge to make smart new-style investments.
The example in the video is of the solar hot water utility model we helped Glenbarra Energy Systems to develop. Darren Cooper from Glenbarra (he’s the one with the real movie star looks) does a great job of explaining why working with TAF was essential to getting this model up and running. Darren points out that despite a pretty established technology track record, solar water heating is not something most bankers know a lot about. But TAF does and we were comfortable with the idea that solar hot water heating would work and we were excited about the idea of a financing approach that removes the high up-front capital cost barrier for putting solar water heating on your building. And unlike a conventional financier, we actually hope that others will steal our idea and this kind of financing will become a standard finance tool.
I want to thank the folks at SiG for giving us and other innovative investors the chance to tell our stories in this terrific series. HBO, here I come!
-Tim Stoate