Episode Details

Episode Summary

On this special episode of Solar Maverick, Benoy is a guest on The Formula with Timothy Roman.  Benoy divulges his criteria for investing in different ventures, how he interacts with the companies he’s invested into, and how the movie Back to the Future influenced one of the companies he’s currently working with.  Also discussed is the importance of networking, podcasting, and personal branding and Benoy reveals his favorite television show. 

Benoy Thanjan

Benoy Thanjan is the Founder and CEO of Reneu Energy, as well as an advisor for several solar startup companies. Reneu Energy is a premier international solar energy consulting firm and developer, and the company focuses on developing commercial and industrial solar, as well as utility-scale solar plus storage projects. The company also sources financing for solar projects and hedges both energy and environmental commodities. Reneu Energy has brokered $27 million in environmental commodity transactions. 

Benoy received his first experience in Finance as an intern at D.E. Shaw & Co., which is a global investment firm with 37 billion dollars in investment capital. Before founding Reneu Energy, he was the SREC Trader in the Project Finance Group for SolarCity, which merged with Tesla in 2016. He originated SREC trades with buyers and co-developed their SREC monetization and hedging strategy with the senior management of SolarCity, to move into the east coast markets. Benoy also worked at Vanguard Energy Partners, Ridgewood Renewable Power, and Deloitte & Touche.

Timothy Roman

Timothy Roman is the founder and CEO of Roman Media Group, a passionate team of young entrepreneurs with a proven track record for helping businesses get from zero to 7 figures 100% on the backbone of digital marketing.  He was featured in Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence-and How You Can, Too by Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim recently began his podcast The Formula where everyone from real estate titans to self-made entrepreneurs share their formula for success.

Insights from this episode:

• Details of Benoy’s progression into entrepreneurship and his interest in renewable energy.
• Strategies on how Benoy chooses what projects to invest in and the various roles he plays in each investment.
• How to determine if an investment is right for you and how to develop the ability to say no.
• Benefits yielded from networking, how that leads to new opportunities, and the synergy created between different investments.
• How to employ personal branding for product development and the impact video marketing can make.

Quotes from the show:

• On what it takes for Benoy to invest: “If you can trust the person, you can see their vision, you can see examples of that (vision) and them having a track record of success.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #61
• “I see so many business opportunities now because I have invested in several businesses and I would say 97% I say no to because it’s not the right opportunity.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #61
• “The restaurant industry is a lot harder than I ever imagined it to be.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #61
• On technology and Reneu Energy: “We are probably very tech-savvy for a solar energy company.  We take a lot of things that we’ve learned from other industries and incorporate it.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #61
• “The network of people is important.  It’s all about who you know.” – Benoy Thanjan, Episode #61
• “I learn from the entr