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Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

legends.solar

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Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#61

Post by _eht »

yepnopemaybe wrote: post #29
maerF0x0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gonna pile on here so it's easy for OP to answer. 4. What contracts are in place to maintain the panel, and lease the space? What happens if the building decides to discontinue service. Will the solar panel be delivered to me (at what fee?) will the solar panel be re-placed on top of another building? (at what fee?) 5. are the devices insured against common forms of damage? (wind, hail, acts of humankind) 6. Can we i…

These are all great questions - so far we've worked with accredited investors to place $100K+ solar facilities while we've built our product. They are basically beta testers while de get out design, software, payments integrations, etc going. We answered those questions for accredited, for everyday retail investors it will depend on the solar facility we select and the financial structuring design.

They even numbered them for you...

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#62

Post by [deleted] »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #38

Potentially interesting idea, but the founding team doesn't inspire a lot of confidence: https://www.legends.solar/v2-the-team One "product designer", one former art gallery manager, and one embedded engineer with a couple years of experience. Advisors include another "product designer", someone who describes themselves as a "storyteller film maker", and someone in the solar financing space. At least there's one pers…

[deleted]

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#63

Post by yepnopemaybe »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #38

Potentially interesting idea, but the founding team doesn't inspire a lot of confidence: https://www.legends.solar/v2-the-team One "product designer", one former art gallery manager, and one embedded engineer with a couple years of experience. Advisors include another "product designer", someone who describes themselves as a "storyteller film maker", and someone in the solar financing space. At least there's one pers…

Resident 'Summer Design Associate' here - (might be time to take that one off my LinkedIn).

We've been placing 100K+ solar facilities with accredited investors for a few months now as we've gotten our private beta version off the ground. We've also been working with more experienced finance partners to structure future investments available on Legends Solar.

My wonderful cofounder hails from the art world, and has been helping to place our accredited product. She will be key in helping Legends create a resonant brand with cultural currency as we grow and evolve.

Before we raise seed or launch our retail product, we will bring some project finance experience in-house. Recruiting has been easy because people outside of climate love our brand and mission, and people inside of solar finance are often finance professionals who rarely have an outlet to share what they do for the world and the industry publicly. (You should see us as solar finance conferences, we're the bell of the ball - not kidding, we found many of our finance partners there).

I wanna push back on the idea that designers are no 'doers'... 'Doing' is an ethic, not a discipline, and there are plenty of examples of designers rising to be successful entrepreneurs (AirBnB, et al.).

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#64

Post by anakaine »

yepnopemaybe wrote: post #29
maerF0x0 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gonna pile on here so it's easy for OP to answer. 4. What contracts are in place to maintain the panel, and lease the space? What happens if the building decides to discontinue service. Will the solar panel be delivered to me (at what fee?) will the solar panel be re-placed on top of another building? (at what fee?) 5. are the devices insured against common forms of damage? (wind, hail, acts of humankind) 6. Can we i…

These are all great questions - so far we've worked with accredited investors to place $100K+ solar facilities while we've built our product. They are basically beta testers while de get out design, software, payments integrations, etc going. We answered those questions for accredited, for everyday retail investors it will depend on the solar facility we select and the financial structuring design.

100k+ facilities is a bold claim. Do you mean panels?

How many panels does the average facility have?

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#65

Post by yepnopemaybe »

dpifke wrote: post #49
yepnopemaybe wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We hope to eventually operate a secondary market where you could do this. Depends on a few regulatory factors we are still considering. Definitely a priority.

I'm curious the legal structure of what you're selling here. The terms and conditions on your website[0] seem generic, and don't describe the offering. You're promoting something you call "shares"[1], which promise to pay a dividend. Regardless of whether or not they can be resold, I assume your counsel has figured out a way that these aren't considered "marketable securities" within the meaning of the Securities Act…

We are still structuring our first product - so it will depend, but we have options for all of these questions. From the securities side, we might consider Reg A+ or other crowdfunding regulation. I'd look into the structure Masterworks.io uses to learn more (I've in fact discussed this with their GC).

We've been building our beta with accredited investors under Reg D.

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#66

Post by yepnopemaybe »

anakaine wrote: post #64
yepnopemaybe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are all great questions - so far we've worked with accredited investors to place $100K+ solar facilities while we've built our product. They are basically beta testers while de get out design, software, payments integrations, etc going. We answered those questions for accredited, for everyday retail investors it will depend on the solar facility we select and the financial structuring design.

100k+ facilities is a bold claim. Do you mean panels? How many panels does the average facility have?

Sorry, I meant $100K

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#67

Post by yepnopemaybe »

foobiekr wrote: post #55
yepnopemaybe wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What we are doing is super simple. Equity ownership in real, operating solar panels. There is nothing particularly synthetic or structured about these investments (i.e. like BNPL, etc.) We need enough scale to move a large (20M+) facility, but beyond that scale will only help insofar as bringing on follow on investments and referrals becomes a bit easier. We may also do some institutional stuff, but for the time bein…

That is not a competitive differentiator.

Show me where I can buy an operating solar panel if I don't have a suburban rooftop. Would make my life so much easier!

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#68

Post by yepnopemaybe »

coda_ wrote: post #9

Very cool concept, I can see a lot of people being interested in this. The site does a good job of simplifying things to make it very accessible as well. After poking around in the FAQ, I don't see anything about selling your investment if you want out. Once you "purchase" some panels/shares, how and where do you sell them? And how is the price of that sale determined? Look forward to learning more about this.

I can't guarantee a secondary market quite yet, certainly not on launch, but it's something that will be a priority. I may find a way to build in liquidity short of a secondary market (our accredited investors have a 7 year term).

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#69

Post by yepnopemaybe »

sremani wrote: post #44

Good Idea, for those who live in places that are not optimal for Solar on the roof , they can fund one of these and feel good about it. The biggest problem is the green-washers have unlimited marketing budgets.

Totally, I've often thought about how I could contrast Legends Solar with different ESG and impact products offered by large financial institutions with one hand, while they finance oil and financially destructive activities. To do that credibly, we'll have to be insanely transparent and good, which I plan to be.

Re: Legends Solar – Buy operating solar panels on commercial solar farms

#70

Post by dpifke »

yepnopemaybe wrote: post #65
dpifke wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious the legal structure of what you're selling here. The terms and conditions on your website[0] seem generic, and don't describe the offering. You're promoting something you call "shares"[1], which promise to pay a dividend. Regardless of whether or not they can be resold, I assume your counsel has figured out a way that these aren't considered "marketable securities" within the meaning of the Securities Act…

We are still structuring our first product - so it will depend, but we have options for all of these questions. From the securities side, we might consider Reg A+ or other crowdfunding regulation. I'd look into the structure Masterworks.io uses to learn more (I've in fact discussed this with their GC). We've been building our beta with accredited investors under Reg D.

Interesting, thanks for the answer.

For others (like me) that haven't heard of Masterworks:

Masterworks creates a Delaware LLC issuer (taxed as a partnership) and files an offering of ordinary shares with the United States SEC under Regulation A. Each issuer will use proceeds from the offering to acquire a single work of art and title to the artwork will be contributed to a Cayman Islands segregated portfolio company for the benefit of the issuer. The issuer will have no indebtedness, no other assets and will conduct no operations other than relating to the ownership, maintenance and eventual sale of the artwork. The issuer is administered by Masterworks pursuant to an administrative services agreement that provides that Masterworks pays all ordinary and necessary fees, costs and expenses in exchange for membership interests in the issuer.

(from the FAQ at https://www.masterworks.io/)

The Regulation A amendments from the JOBS Act ("Regulation A+", circa 2015) are indeed more recent than my last look at this, so I can't comment further. The Cayman Islands domicile rubs me the wrong way, but that may be out of ignorance.

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