How I Have Built A Database Of Worth $480M Of Green Incentives And Funding For Building Owners
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hello, I’m Hetal Parekh - an architect, a building scientist, an energy efficiency enthusiast, and the founder of EnerYields - a one-stop solution to connect you with the (free) money that can help you go green.
There are billions of dollars in free money available for owners to make their buildings more energy efficient, yet building owners and developers struggle to find this money, and qualify their projects for it. That’s why we created the most comprehensive database of all rebates, grants, tax incentives, and specialized financing.
Commercial building owners, developers, and investors can search the database for qualifying green incentives and financing for their property, and opt for services and resources to avail financing and carry out the upgrades. Our proprietary green report specifically has nearly halved the overall cost of capital for our clients.
We started in December 2020, and over the last two years, we have successfully expanded across 6 states - New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and Florida and our database houses over $480M in green incentives and funding.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
During my days as an architect, through interaction with various clients, I realized that projects were often ‘green-washed’ for marketing purposes and rarely benefited the environment. My Ph.D. in Building Performance & Diagnostics investigated this further and identified ways to catalyze energy efficiency in building construction.
EnerYields was born as an extension of my Ph.D. research. In interactions with groups of industry leaders, I found that the biggest challenge commercial building owners and developers face was finding cost-effective capital and resources for going green. The billions that are available in incentives across private and public sectors to reduce building energy use are hard to find, and even harder to understand.
Focus your energy on converting your first customer using a sketchy MVP. Technology will fall in place once you have customer feedback.
The database I built was found to be extremely beneficial and building owners showed interest in using this if it was commercially available. So after five years of research, EnerYields is successfully democratizing information and resources about ‘free money’ for ‘going green’ through its platform.
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Our MVP build was completely bootstrapped. We had a small development team and an intern assisting with data scraping and formatting. The MVP allowed users to seamlessly match with incentives and financing options for specific building upgrade projects. We built and tested it out by rolling a beta version to building owners and managers in Pittsburgh & Erie.
The back-end or the ‘brain’ was the EnerYields is its comprehensive database consisting of standardized hard-to-find, technical details for thousands of green incentives and financing products across both the public and private sectors; and put together a one-of-its-kind, comprehensive database.
The user interface was a series of simple questions that the user answered to progressively filter through the database and arrive at the programs that matched their criteria. Once the match results were available, we scheduled a free consulting call explaining to the users about different incentives and the best way to structure them.
We started as a freemium model and moved to a SaaS and Services model as we processed more files.
This is our first ever ‘Product’ video.
Describe the process of launching the business.
Since inception, it took us about 4 months to build out the outer pages, and the product, and find the right partners to test it. We started by launching our MVP for the 2030 Districts in Pittsburgh and Erie partners. This gave us a better understanding of the client's expectations and requirements. This helped us iterate both - our product and our business model.
Running a start-up is all about evolution, so be open to feedback from your users and adapt instead of resisting change.
Following the pilot, we did a soft launch, spreading the word through our network. We started seeing good traction and an increase in inbound leads by Q2 2022.
EnerYields was a part of Venture Bridge and OnDeck Climate Tech. As a first-time and solo founder, I gained a lot of knowledge about the legal and technical aspects of starting a business from mentors and other budding founders.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Since launch, we have adopted a three-pronged approach for customer acquisition. We started by leveraging our existing network to gain access to local governments and real estate investment companies.
We also focused on marketing using educational content through our blog, and sharing insights on podcasts such as Understory, Mission Matters, and How to scale commercial real estate among others
We also partnered with organizations where members were already committed to making their buildings more energy efficient. Customer acquisition through such strategic partnerships with senior lenders, trade organizations, and real estate professionals has worked best for us.
Our customers appreciate the impact we made on their bottom line and have come back to us with more properties.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
In early 2022, we saw our first paying customer and the business has grown organically through word of mouth since. EnerYields is now active in six states, with Michigan being our largest market. This year we are focused on 1. growing our database, 2. growing our customer base in the existing markets, and 3. expanding into MA and TX.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Don't spend time trying to build the perfect product. I spent a lot of time polishing the tool before getting it in front of the customers. Instead, focus your energy on converting your first customer using a sketchy MVP. Technology will fall in place once you have customer feedback.
Messaging is key - even more so when people lack a clear understanding of the benefit of your product. Being a domain expert, I often spoke technical language that my clients did not seem to understand. One of the best investments I made was hiring a specialist to simplify and cut down the jargon. I have seen an improvement in customer conversion since then.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
The outer pages of our website were built on Wix.
The website, database, and services are hosted on AWS.
We rely on Airtable for my day-to-day management and data logging.
We use Stripe for payment processing.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
I love listening to the journeys of different successful entrepreneurs and their ventures on ‘How I Built This’ by Guy Raz. It is refreshing to hear about the hurdles they had to overcome to get their venture to where it is today.
A book that I keep revisiting is ‘Don’t Sweat the small stuff, and It's all small stuff’ by Richard Carlson. It is so easy to get overwhelmed with the day-to-day as a solo founder. Listening to this book helps me center myself and gain perspective.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
I would love to touch upon 3 things - evolve, simplify, and network impact.
Running a start-up is all about evolution, so be open to feedback from your users and adapt instead of resisting change.
Simplicity is the key. Often founders are so attached to the problem statement that they want their product to solve everything at once. But think from the lens of your user, and
you will get a product that is sticky and indispensable.
You can only get so far on your own, so do not hesitate to leverage your network. You will be amazed at where the help comes from and how it changes your growth trajectory.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
EnerYields is young and growing. While we are not currently hiring, we always love to hear from fellow energy efficiency enthusiasts interested in what we do. If you are interested in working with us, you can drop me an email at [email protected].
Where can we go to learn more?
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
