Between September 2021 and February 2023, I was Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of the climate investing platform Legends Solar. 

I joined forces with Lassor Feasley to launch Legends and reenvision the field of Impact Investment. Our objective was to establish a climate-focused technology startup enabling experienced investors (accredited investors) and everyday individuals (retail investors) to own renewable energy infrastructure, like panels atop operating commercial solar projects. We identified a notable gap in this financial services sector, where millions of investors are excluded from the stable investment opportunity offered by owning vetted real-assets, like operating solar, due to an inability to acquire whole projects outright. Our goal was to provide a solution. 

Leveraging our diverse backgrounds and the robust flexibility of today’s technology ecosystem, we emphasized the importance of offering 24/7 data monitoring to our customers, ensuring transparency and confidence in their investments. With the technical expertise of John Compas, our third co-founder, we quickly developed a prototype interface that allowed users to track their investment performance and its impact on averting carbon emissions in real time. We crafted an opportunity for an easier buy-in to such projects by designing a group ownership model where accredited and retail investors alike could own portions of solar facilities and use our tracking system to monitor investments as small as a single panel. By 2022, we successfully secured Pre-Seed funding and acquired our first customers. The proof-of-concept was an instant success and gained the support of leading Solar Finance experts and Tech Investors. These tailwinds enabled us to expand our team with seasoned Solar Finance talent like Antonella Wells and to launch our much-celebrated marketing campaign. With these accomplishments, we gained recognition in trade and industry publications and were acclaimed for our growing expertise and contribution to the Renewable Energy industry. Thousands of investors signed up to use Legends Solar, which collected pre-commitments to buy millions of dollars worth of solar infrastructure. Despite the enthusiasm surrounding our vision and project, we hit repeated challenges due to the inability to find a scalable method to acquire high-caliber investments for our customers. Continuing with our ethos of transparency, in February 2023, we shared the challenges we saw for our ability to grow and secure offerings for everyone interested and decided to cease operations instead of gatekeeping the experience of our product.

We have gleaned valuable lessons from both our successes and failures and continue to support the broader community of climate entrepreneurs emerging globally. Read on to learn more about our journey and achievements.