Advanced lighting is a subsector of cleantech that particularly intrigues me, because it so epitomizes many of the opportunities and challenges across the cleantech spectrum.
First of all, it is a huge opportunity. Most light sources out there are better heaters than they are light sources, and lighting accounts for around 30% of electricity consumption according to some tallies. There's a lot of efficiency to be gained with no sacrifice (and increasingly, with added benefits) for end users. You can find compelling payback periods for some advanced lighting opportunities already, and LEDs (my leading candidate for nextgen lighting technology) are just getting brighter and cheaper all the time, so it's just going to get better. And lighting is a multibillion dollar market where many of the incumbent technologies are being actively phased out.
On the other hand, it's also a really slow-adopting market, or at least major parts of it are. Customers in this market often find it difficult to stay informed of their available options, and no one wants to risk having the lights go out just to save a few bucks, so naturally many customers are risk averse. And it's a market where the channel partners and influencers are critically important, even more risk-averse than their customers, and don't always share their customers' motivations. It is a highly fragmented, murky market with lots of hidden pitfalls for new entrants.
What's critically missing, in my opinion, are the experienced sales leaders. There are plenty of strong sales leaders in the traditional lighting side of the market. Managers who understand the channels, have good networks, understand how to craft an effective customer value proposition, and know how to motivate and manage a sales force in this space. But I'm just not seeing them cross over to the new tech side of the market yet.
Which creates a big challenge, because the entrepreneurs in solid state lighting (and other advanced lighting tech) tend to come out of the technology side of things. They've designed a solid state chip, or an advanced piece of electronics, or advanced controls. But they're out of their depth (at least to start out with) in trying to bring these benefits to lighting customers in the ways that lighting customers are used to. They may not know about some of the shady practices that can go on in the market (apologies for a lame pun). And they don't have the rolodex to help establish initial traction with a subset willing to go against the herd and try something new.
So strong sales leaders out of the lighting industry are pretty desperately needed in the advanced lighting industry. This is why I'm always on the lookout for such individuals, and want to help them find good entrepreneurial settings. Forget about cost and lumens per watt type metrics. For me, when I see the beginnings of an influx of traditional lighting sales managers into the senior ranks at advanced lighting startups, THAT will be my signal that the market is reaching an important inflection point.
