The headlines can be depressing right now, I know. Because so much journalist attention is being paid to venture capitalists and politicians, when VCs are running scared away from the cleantech sector, and politicians are treating our industry like a punching bag, it can feel like things aren't going well.

That ignores the fact that I see a lot of cleantech companies (outside of a couple of sectors like upstream solar) doing very well operationally right now, growing revenues, achieving profitability, etc. And just as important is seeing how many large corporations are also more and more engaged in the sector, as customers, partners, and acquirers. If the economy can just hold off...

It doesn't matter what kind of business model your startup is pursuing: tech development, service models, financial models, operational projects, etc. Unless you just get really lucky (which does happen, but can't be planned upon), you will need a team that executes at a very high level in order to succeed.

And yet, high-execution management teams are, from what I've found, the single rarest resource for the cleantech entrepreneurial sector. Much more rare than good business ideas. Don't read this as me saying that there are a lot of sub-par individuals out there -- but a lot of folks whose past experiences haven't (yet) prepared them for the unique challenges of their current...

I've seen it happen way too many times: cleantech startups that miss their revenue forecasts, but not because they're losing sales opportunities to other vendors. Instead, it's just because it takes longer to get opportunities in the pipeline to a "yes."

It's understandable how this happens. The cleantech startup will have an offering that's an economic no-brainer for the potential customer from a payback period standpoint, and the potential customer makes all the right noise about being interested. But day to day, energy spending simply isn't a priority for most of these potential customers, so their decision-making slips. And then it's compounded by the fact that the customer...