Tuesday, September 3, 2013

A twofer

Two cool things in one article in today's NYT: first, an article about a creative college student who came up with an idea that is proving successful, and second, the idea that's proving successful: crowd funding for solar projects.

Too many students think that ideas will come at a certain point in their careers. For better or for worse, you never know when they'll come, and when they come you should be ready! It's new ideas that change the world (when coupled with the power to put them together, to build them into reality) and you guys are as creative now (if not more so) than you will be later, so don't wait.

The particular organization described sounds cool as well: the problem with solar energy is that it has high start-up costs, so a marketplace in which people can contribute to getting projects off the ground is an important contribution. Investors get 4-6% return and builders get the chance to set up the solar projects they want, while being enabled to pay things back later when the project is doing its thing. Win-win.