Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Gmail Peter Burgess Greentech Investors Forum, Thursday, Oct. 10. Simply Grid: Bringing Electric Power to Food Carts, RV Parks and Much More. Special Guest: Jigar Shah Gelvin Stevenson Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 1:06 PM To: Gelvin Stevenson Bcc: peterbnyc@gmail.com Simply Grid: Bringing Electric Power to Food Carts, Marinas and RV Parks, and Public Places from Airports to Coffee Shops. Also, Special Guest Jigar Shah will introduce his new book: Climate Wealth Host: Crowell & Moring. LLC 590 Madison Ave. at 57th Street The Greentech Investors Forum will have its inaugural meeting on Thursday, October 10, 2013. I am pleased to announce that, at the end of the program, Jigar Shah, the well-known clean energy entrepreneur (founder of SunEdison, LLC) and thought leader, will discuss his upcoming book: “Climate Wealth”. (http://climatewealth.co) As important as electricity is in our lives, there are still some places where it’s just not available when you need it. Simply Grid is changing that. Simply Grid provides a solution for on-demand access to electricity--in charging stations or outlets. The company’s proprietary technology includes a custom engineered controller which is deployed either within industry standard electric charging stations or as an augmentation to standard in-wall electrical outlets, and an Internet based management and billing system which allows for the automated initiation/termination of electric service via mobile app or text message, monitoring of usage, and billing. Time: 8:00 – 10:00 am Place: Crowell Moring, Room 20A 590 Madison Ave. at 57th Street, south-west corner Registration: Email Gelvin Stevenson at Gelvin.stevenson@gmail.com Fees: See below Simply Grid provides and manages electricity access in three markets: the mobile food industry, marinas and RV parks, and personal electronics in cafes and other public spaces Powering the mobile food industry: The growing numbers of food carts that populate public spaces are not your fathers’ food carts. Mobile food carts and trucks have transcended such traditional products as Pretzels, Honey Nuts and Coffee & Bagels. They now include offerings from Parlez Vous Crepe and La Petit Poutine, The Sammich Guy, Cheese & Confused, Pie Pushers and Waggin Wagon, to name just a few. There are over 25,000 food carts and food trucks in the United States. This is a rapidly expanding space, and the “food truck rodeo”—where a variety of food trucks gather at a street fair or other popular place to sell their fare—is spreading to cities throughout the country. Their legacy source of energy, gas or diesel powered generators, is both expensive for the vendors as well as a pollution and noise nuisance for their customers. Simply Grid’s solution—usually a four-foot high pedestal—enables private lot managers and municipalities to provide electricity to these vendors at a significant cost savings while providing a more pleasant environment for their customers. At present, Simply Grid's deployments are focused on the mobile food industry, where it has a pilot in New York City's Union Square (with Rafiqi’s, a popular halal site on the north side of the Square) in conjunction with the Mayor's Office, ConEd, and DoT. Additionally, the company has deployments at food truck parks in Austin, TX and Atlanta, GA. Food carts’ portable generators—used by about 60% of all food carts—emit twenty times more particulate matter and other asthma-causing pollutants than NYC’s electric supply, according to the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. Simply Grid's technology allows lot owners and municipalities to provide grid electricity to mobile food vendors which makes them cleaner, quieter, and more profitable. Electricity is made available to these vendors via outlets in industry standard electricity pedestals which have been customized with proprietary metering controllers. The controllers connect wirelessly to Simply Grid’s cloud-based platform which manages customer accounts, metering, and billing. The system allows vendors to initiate service with their mobile phones and connect to the electric grid with cables they already use with their generators. Grid electricity is a significantly cheaper energy source for food vendors, and it also eliminates the pollution and noise associated with running a generator. Managing electricity access at marinas and RV parks: There are more than 8,000 marinas and 13,000 RV parks in the United States. Many of these facilities either have no capability for the automated provisioning, management, and billing of electric service, or they have a legacy RFID card system which leaves customers unable to check their usage and presents proprietors with a myriad of operational challenges and customer support issues. Simply Grid’s solution provides both a metering and control capability to these locations which can both enhance their revenue generation from electric service and streamline their operations. Charging personal electronics in cafes and other public spaces: There is an increasing demand for personal electricity supplies in cafes and other public spaces by transient customers and, more significantly, non-customers. Proprietors have been providing—usually at no cost—resources and space to some visitors who spend little or no money. In addition, municipalities wish to provide these resources to visitors but have no capacity to do so. Our solution enables these locations to provide electricity and other resources to customers or visitors while generating revenue. Simply Grid has raised about $100,000 and is now seeking an angel round of $600,000 followed by a Series A round of $1.5 million. The money would fund further technology development, IP protection and marketing and deployment. Security: If there is a problem at the Security Desk, please contact Ellen Reilly at (212) 895-4265 (first choice) or call Gelvin Stevenson at 917-599-6089. Fees: $50, payable ahead of time or at the door. Cash or checks and credit cards accepted. $25 for call-in. Registered call-ins will be emailed the call-in numbers and, if available, the slides to be presented. $25 for students. See below for Annual Registration opportunities and other important conditions. Agenda 8:00 to 8:30 - Networking with Colleagues 8:30 to 8:40 - Introductions 8:40 to 9:10 - Mike Dubrovsky, CEO, and Jeffrey Hoffman, COO, Simply Grid 9:10 to 9:30 - Samuel Abbay, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, ClosedLoop Advisors 9:30 to 9:50 - Discussion 9:50 to 10:00 - Jigar Shah, author of Climate Wealth To register, send your contact information to Gelvin Stevenson at gelvin.stevenson@gmail.com or 917-599-6089. And contact Gelvin If you have questions or need more information. Bios Mike Dubrovsky – CEO Mike is the founder and CEO of Simply Grid. He is a recent graduate of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Stuyvesant High School. His background is in engineering and polymer chemistry with a strong understanding of hardware and software. He envisioned replacing food truck generators with grid electricity when several noisy food trucks parked near his apartment in Brooklyn. His frustration working with the control options included in industry standard electricity pedestals caused him to develop Simply Grid’s automated management technology. Jeffrey Hoffman - COO Jeffrey is the COO of Simply Grid. He is a seasoned technology strategist and attorney who has many years of operational experience with several enterprises. He has been the CEO of a web development studio, a partner in a law firm, and an executive at an energy efficiency startup which was acquired in 2012. He is focused on raising Simply Grid’s profile and expanding the scope of its offerings from a pure play electricity providers in the food truck space to a technology service provider spanning multiple markets. Samuel Abbay, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, ClosedLoop Advisors Samuel launched his career by applying mechanical and thermal engineering techniques to various spacecraft and satellite projects. In the years following the completion of a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, he consulted at NASA, the Naval Research Lab, Boeing Satellite Systems, and Lockheed Space Systems. All of his projects with those companies required Samuel to approach complex problems systematically, to rigorously design solutions, and meticulously test their effectiveness. In the following years, Samuel entered the computer industry, where he designed thermal and energy efficiency solutions. His efforts there yielded two patents. As his career progressed, Samuel went to work in the consumer market as a consultant in Silicon Valley and then as an employee at NVIDIA. These combined experiences trained him to think beyond the conventional engineering design framework and methodologies; on top of assessing the competitive landscape, the crucial factors of cost, quality, energy efficiency, and performance all emerged as additional variables to weigh in analysis. With an interest in moving further into the business side, Samuel took time off to travel beyond U.S. borders and decide his next career move. While traveling through Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America, Samuel witnessed the triad of environmental, economic, and social problems. It awakened in him a passion to find solutions to the myriad sustainability challenges facing societies near and far. Upon his return to the United States, Samuel landed in New York City where he is prepared to take on the most complex sustainability challenges. His shift in career goals led him to Columbia University to earn an M.S. degree in Sustainability Management. From the skills of a rocket scientist to the keenness of a businessman, Samuel has cultivated what it takes to be a versatile problem solver. Jigar Shah is a visionary committed to renewable energy, Jigar launched SunEdison in 2003 based upon a business plan he developed in 1999 for a university class. That plan became the basis of the SunEdison business model: Simplify solar as a service. This model changed the status quo, allowing organizations to purchase solar energy services under long-term predictably priced contracts and avoid the significant capital costs of ownership and operation of solar energy systems. Under Jigar's guidance, SunEdison pioneered the solar power services agreement (SPSA) model, which has turned solar services into a multi-billion dollar industry. SunEdison now has more solar energy systems and megawatts under management than any other company. After that, he was the CEO of Carbon War Room, Richard Branson’s organization dedicated to advancing high-leverage solutions to climate problems. Jigar is an expert on energy project finance, changing energy policy, working with entrenched stakeholders, convincing different type of customers to embrace energy technology. Today, Jigar works closely with some of the world's leading influencers and guides policy makers around the globe on key issues surrounding renewable energy, global warming and sustainability. Jigar holds a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, and an MBA from The University of Maryland. He sits on the boards of the Prometheus Institute and Greenpeace USA. (Source: Geenbiz.com)