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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

#71

Post by yepnopemaybe »

kingcharles wrote: post #47
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.

Tell me you don't want to answer the questions without telling me you don't want to answer the questions...

Happy to answer any questions. The fact is that financial return will depend on the risk profile - which we will depend on factors like

a) Will the investor take on construction risk b) Will the facility be insured c) Who is the power customer (off taker) how creditworthy are they, and what are the terms? d) Will the financing include tax equity incentives and how will they be distributed.

These questions are all a matter of design and pragmatism. I want the financial design to be as considered as, and will integrated to, the user experience design.

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

#72

Post by PragmaticPulp »

yepnopemaybe wrote: post #63
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 be…

Rooting for you to succeed, but to be candid your response kind of proved my point. Many of us on this site have a lot of experience with early stage startups and get nervous when we hear founder roles described like this:

> She will be key in helping Legends create a resonant brand with cultural currency as we grow and evolve.

Brand is no doubt important, but execution is what makes a startup work.

> I wanna push back on the idea that designers are no 'doers'... 'Doing' is an ethic, not a discipline,

Hard disagree. Plenty of startups have risen to fame on impressive branding only to fail because they treated execution as an afterthought. Execution is at the core of every startup, and it's certainly not just a mindset. Someone has to execute.

> there are plenty of examples of designers rising to be successful entrepreneurs (AirBnB, et al.).

True! But in the startup world I've also seen many, many founding teams who thought they'd design the product and then figure out how to execute it later using future hires.

It's basically a meme: Usually "we have it all figured out, we just need a few engineers..."

It doesn't work out. Getting someone on the team who knows how to execute should be the top priority.

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

#73

Post by factfindingisfn »

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…

EXACTLY, I was thinking the exact same thing. Like a team of folks who do not have any experience in Energy are trying to build a distributed energy company that also includes shared real estate. This looks like someone's summer project that got published accidently

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

#74

Post by yepnopemaybe »

vorpalhex wrote: post #36
splitrocket wrote: post #13

The math here is pretty straightforward, however, it doesn't look like all of the components necessary to do the math are available. 1. How long do I "own a solar panel"? Indefinitely? 2. What is the wattage of the solar panel and where is it located? i.e. what wattage will it produce consistently YoY? What power market? 3. What percentage fees does Legends take? Frankly, #1 is the most important factor here by a lon…

(2) is critically important as well. A panel is going to do differently in Texas than Maine.

Both Texas and Maine would be unlikely candidates. Maine has some pretty stringent and arbitrary rules about behind-the-meter commercial power arrangements. Texas is possible with commercial facilities, but their regulatory framework is also deterrent, really to any kind of development.

To be honest, in all odds the financial return is more likely to be dependent on factors like who the off-taker is, if the financing includes construction risk, if we are insuring the facility, etc than its physical location.

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

#76

Post by yepnopemaybe »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #72
yepnopemaybe wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 be…

Rooting for you to succeed, but to be candid your response kind of proved my point. Many of us on this site have a lot of experience with early stage startups and get nervous when we hear founder roles described like this: > She will be key in helping Legends create a resonant brand with cultural currency as we grow and evolve. Brand is no doubt important, but execution is what makes a startup work. > I wanna push ba…

We are more than just a website/hype machine... we've sold a few $100K worth of panels to accredited investors while we get our app and platform off the ground. We are only 5 months old, but plan on bringing on project finance experience ASAP. For the time being, we lean on some of our pre-seed investors for help on that front.

I am running things fairly conservatively, the marketing site is the tip of the iceberg. We need to prove retail demand to get off the ground but the other pieces are also coming together (project finance, deal flow, transactions, engineering, etc).

Per 'doers' - my point is that 'doing' is not taught in engineering school or consulting or Goldman Sachs any more than it is in product design. In that sense it is an ethic, not a credential or professional discipline. I think we are more or less simpatico here.

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

#79

Post by yepnopemaybe »

LunaSea wrote: post #7

I wonder if it will be possible to sell your stake after having bought some solar panels? Also, will you be legally proprietary of said panels?

We hope to operate a secondary market, may introduce some other form of periodic liquidity.

Ideally yes, you will own a real individual panel. But we may settle on a different structure if necessary from a regulatory or tax perspective (its a long story).

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

#80

Post by yepnopemaybe »

foobiekr wrote: post #56
yepnopemaybe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will depend on so many factors. Our current accredited investors are getting about 10%+, but that's only because they have access to tax equity benefits. We are still in an early stage of creating the financial product, and the realized returns will be a function of the risk profile we choose (i.e. will there be construction risk, insurance, who is the power purchaser, etc.) Don't worry, you'll get a detailed fina…

So let me get this straight. You are soliciting engagement and don’t even have the financials worked out?

I'd say we are 80% of the way there - every solar facility will have different traits and economics as an investment. We have the legal infrastructure and finance partners to make it happen pretty quick.

As with any investment, we can't make claims about financials until everything is finalized and vetted. That will have to wait until we have a pro forma ready to go. Soliciting 'indications of interest' is a fairly common practice across all industries.

To be clear, we are already financing larger $100K+ deals with friendly investors in our network as we design and engineer a product for a larger audience.

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