Clean Energy Industry Growth Forums
NREL's Industry Growth Forums bring together start-up clean energy companies, venture capitalists, and senior business executives to catalyze learning about business growth strategies and facilitate strategic business partnerships.
For more information about the 21st NREL Industry Growth Forum, please visit the 21st NREL Industry Growth Forum Web site. You can also view presentations from the 20th Forum.
Not Your Typical Venture Forum
Industry Growth Forums provide a venue for companies to present and receive feedback on summary business plans before a panel of venture capitalists and other business executives interested in the industry, businesses, and technologies discussed.
Industry Growth Forums are designed to provide a unique opportunity for companies to improve their business "cases"-their core business concepts and overall strategies. In more traditional venture forums, presenters may get only 10-12 minutes to make a business case, and frequently receive little feedback. Industry Growth Forums, by contrast, involve more than a half hour of formal interaction and additional time for informal interactions, thus providing small renewable energy companies a more meaningful opportunity to explore financing and partnership options and receive constructive feedback from venture financiers and senior business managers.
Forum evaluation panels are made up primarily of established venture capitalists that bring a high level of experience and credibility to presentation and feedback sessions. Participating venture capitalists introduce presenting companies to the "due diligence process"—the process of proving assertions and assumptions captured in the business plan—that these companies will experience with increasing frequency as they grow their businesses and expand their networks to include a wider range of strategic partners.
Other Forum evaluation panel members, such as senior executives from utilities and large businesses, bring the perspectives of the user community to presentation and feedback sessions. They also represent a source of potential partnerships for presenting companies, able to bring strategic resources to start-ups and to provide credibility within the investor community.
Investor Opportunities
Forums also offer the financial community a chance to acquire information on the status of renewable and other clean energy technologies, assess potential clean energy investment prospects, and start a dialogue with companies in the industry.
Forums also offer venture capitalists the opportunity to develop working relationships and share investment risk with other investors who share an interest in sustainable technologies.
Improving Chances of Success
Finally, Forums allow NREL and DOE to learn where renewable and other clean energy companies are in their transition from start-up to a commercial enterprise that is capable of sustaining itself and thriving over time. Forums also give NREL and DOE a chance to observe what resources and actions are needed to foster healthy companies that can successfully bring technology into the marketplace.
To date, Forums have facilitated the formation of at least 25 strategic partnerships. They also have helped to identify and focus attention on a number of "business growth" weaknesses common to many start-up companies in the clean energy industry. Insights from past forums have helped to improve the number and rate of commercial successes in the clean energy industry, and have enabled NREL and DOE to manage and maximize return on technology development investments. Finally, the forums have created a rich marketplace for financing and collaboration with companies engaged in commercializing renewable energy, energy efficiency, and related technologies.
