Nico Johnson  0:00  

Hey everybody! Welcome back to SunCast. I am Nico Johnson, and today I'm sitting down with my friend and fellow founder Daniel Dus, CEO of Clean Tech Industry Resources, and one of my fellow co-founders of Solar Fight Night. If you've been in the industry for more than a minute, you probably have heard of Solar Fight Night. Some call it the Met Gala of Solar. What started as a handful of us just trying to survive in this business nearly 20 years ago has turned into what we think is the biggest night in renewables and one of the biggest fundraising engines that the clean energy nonprofit world has. In this episode, Daniel and I will talk about why it exists, the kinds of deals that have actually come from being in this room, and how you can get your ticket if you're headed to Las Vegas for RE Plus this November. Let's get into it. How do you describe Finite to people that aren't part of the industry?

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Daniel Dus  1:00  

I describe it as an event focused on getting the solar clean tech industries together to help get projects done. That's it. It's pretty simple.

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Nico Johnson  1:11  

I've heard you describe it as the Met Gala for solar.

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Daniel Dus  1:14  

Not me. That was yeah, an attendee posted that online, and we we definitely have run with it. But I've repeated it for sure.

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Nico Johnson  1:21  

It's definitely not as elegant, but it could be. Some folks come pretty. Some folks come pretty.

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Daniel Dus  1:27  

Yeah, some folks wear tracksuits. Okay, I don't know if you know if you knew this.

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Nico Johnson  1:30  

I have been aware. I've been made aware that our star tracksuits are quite. We

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Daniel Dus  1:34  

are going to get those posted on the merch store shortly.

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Nico Johnson  1:37  

Fantastic. So

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Daniel Dus  1:37  

people can pick them up because a lot of people ask. Yeah, yeah, they want. They just want them.

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Nico Johnson  1:42  

What's with the fight persona?

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Daniel Dus  1:45  

Yeah, the industry has always been a struggle to grow. Right, every time things are getting good, something happens. We call it the solar coaster, but it's been a fight from day one. The first events were a group of folks just trying to stay in business and stay in the industry and grow the industry from basically scratch, right? 18 years ago, and it is still a fight, as we know very well from the last 12 to 18 months, right? And so it's really about getting the community together to make sure we have those human connections to make sure we can get through through those tough times.

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Nico Johnson  2:20  

Most common question of Solar Fight Night is there actually fighting?

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Daniel Dus  2:24  

Yeah, absolutely. Every year, dozens of times. There, we do have a boxing ring now, a branded boxing ring, so people can take photos in the ring.

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Nico Johnson  2:33  

Yeah,

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Daniel Dus  2:34  

but there is no. Well, we did have a fight, I guess, two years ago. We had a fossil fuel stilt walker. That's right, and a sun goddess, and they did get an epic brawl.

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Nico Johnson  2:44  

Yeah,

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Daniel Dus  2:44  

you can imagine. You know who won.

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Nico Johnson  2:46  

Yeah,

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Daniel Dus  2:47  

and so we do have fun with it, but no, there's no fight. Last year in Vegas, of course, we had synchronized swimmers representing clean hydrogen. We had a sway pole performer representing the wind. We had someone walking around dressed as a joker, giving out tariff tickets for no good reason whatsoever. We we have fun with the moment. Yes, we have fun with the moment because sometimes if you don't laugh, you cry. Right,

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Nico Johnson  3:10  

but more importantly, over the years, what 17 years now?

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Daniel Dus  3:14  

Yeah,

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Nico Johnson  3:14  

1718, It's been a place where folks can be reminded that the industry is more than just projects. It's more than spreadsheets. It is a conglomeration of humans that are pushing this industry forward.

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Daniel Dus  3:33  

Yeah,

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Nico Johnson  3:34  

deals are done at Fight Night. Partnerships are made. What are some of the statistics that you like to tout about the the value, the return on investment of fight.

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Daniel Dus  3:45  

Yes, absolutely. We know of 10s and 10s of millions of dollars of deals where hands have been shaken at fight night to close those deals. Now, I know personally one of I think it was my second or third fight night. I just closed. I think it was number two. Just closed 100 kilowatt PPA, and that was massive for before then. And people were asking me, "How would you ever be able to get this done? Right. Right. But in that room, I think there were only maybe 18 of us in that room. There was a panel provider. There was an EPC that could help me get help me get it built. There was the director of Solar Pro magazine to help me tell the story about the projects. Right, it's like the whole ecosystem was in even that small room. So imagine now this year we're expecting 3000 industry leaders. The people are in the room to help you get things done. You just have to find them.

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Nico Johnson  4:38  

I know there are a lot of repeat supporters. What is the most common rationale that folks give you for why, among the many ways they could fund many endeavors, initiatives during RE Plus, in particular, or any of the trade shows, why they continually come back and support Solar Fight Night?

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Daniel Dus  4:57  

Yeah, Costa Nico Lau, looking at you, sir. Yeah. Year after year, I think he said that we were his first ever sort of like marketing, advertising events, budget spend, APA solaracking, same year after year, incredible support. I think they're now Ray Tech, and I think that it's an amazing team building exercise and activity. Right, getting your team together outside of the workplace just doesn't happen enough. We don't celebrate our wins enough, right? We're all so in the trenches that we don't pick up our head, take a breath, and celebrate how far we have come from. Oh my God, 100 kilowatt project is massive. How are you ever going to get that done? To gigawatt single site projects, we are winning, and we are winning, and that's why the theme this year at ACP is unbeatable, and RE Plus will be unstoppable because that's what this community

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Nico Johnson  5:47  

is. All three this year: unbreakable, unbeatable, unstoppable. And I know that one of the things I hear from folks is, you know, selfishly they just love because it is the biggest event at, in particular, RE Plus, 3000 attendees. It's by far the biggest party. They love walking up and seeing a line around the door, like it's a massive nightclub, and seeing their logo flash across the screen. There's nowhere else really in RE Plus where you get that sort of a captive audience, where people are flooded with endorphins. They're feeling they're in a good positive mood. They're not particularly tired. It's later in the evening. I know that that has been a key motivator. I've brought to several, brought up several to you who've reached out and said, "We've absolutely carved out space in our budget for fight night this year. What do we need to do? So, what should folks do if they want to either be a sort of a lower financial commitment supporter and get tickets for their team, or if they want to choose, as some are doing, fight night as the way that they allocate more funds rather than having a booth.

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Daniel Dus  6:56  

Absolutely, it's hard to have a better event to take prospective clients to there's very little you could do throughout the course you're in an in the industry that's more fun. So highly recommend reach out. We have a sponsorship flyer. It has tiers for everybody. We have we're offering for the first time ever a title sponsorship, which we would rename the event for a year, company is named Solar Fight Night because we're just trying to raise as much as we can for our nonprofit partners. And this year, it's the leading advocates. At the national advocacy level, Vote Solar at the state level, and run on climate, focused on hyper local candidates in mayoral and county governments, which are so important for our industry. So we need the help. We need the support. They need the help. They need the support, and everything down to VIP tables. We we have we have those available too.

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Nico Johnson  7:51  

The VIP tables for Fight Night for a few $1,000. You can get 510, 15 tickets. I've had we've had a Latin America group of folks that end up getting a VIP group. We have the cabanas, which are fantastic. We're in the same place this year. Quieter, and it is an underrated customer activity. Instead of renting out your own place and spending 20, $30,000, put it to work at Fight Night. You get your own private cabana, free pour alcohol, and and the money goes to a good cause.

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Daniel Dus  8:28  

And logos everywhere. Our distributions go to 10s of 1000s of industry folks and get forwarded from there. So it's definitely helpful in branding, brand recognition. Absolutely, because it's more than just an economic pursuit, right? How often are you able to get on and talk with folks outside of how are we going to do business together, right? How are we going to advance this project? That's super valuable. That's super valuable. I know Fight Night has given us at CIR an enormous reach in our procurement activities, whereas many of our clients, for example, might go out to get bids from three to five suppliers. We go out to 125 to 150 on average. It's a big difference in terms of outcomes in advancing your projects. Is making sure you have those connections, and that's what Solar Fight Night is for. It is

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Nico Johnson  9:19  

all about connection and proving that the industry, as much fight as we've been in, has a lot of fight left, and we are truly unstoppable. Daniel, I know there are some initiatives you've been quietly working on in the background that are a result of the funding that Solar Finnet has received. Tell me a bit more about the subterfuge that we are able to now generate and push out into the marketplace.

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Daniel Dus  9:48  

Well, remember, Solar Fight now was completely underground, word of mouth, invite only for a decade, right? So we're used to building things quietly, but we have acquired clean tech. Factcheck.org, and we have started databasing every lie. I call them lies because it's not misinformation. Okay, let's call them what they are. They are straight lies, and well, research scientific responses to those lies, also emotional responses, comedic responses. So folks can have a place to go to immediately capture responses in social media in their daily lives without having to spend too much time to defend their industry that they love so much. Where you've also started cataloging all of the amazing industry videos that folks like you are putting out there about clients who have benefited from lower cost, cleaner power, farmers whose farms have been saved, homeowners who say this is the best investment I've ever made in my home, right? So we have those videos, or ideally we'll have them cataloged. So wherever someone lives, if they're fighting misinformation or community, we'll have local stories for them to resource. So that's where we're headed.

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Nico Johnson  10:55  

How would someone surface these kinds of facts that need to be checked, and then also content that would serve the exact purpose that you just mentioned to counter misinformation.

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Daniel Dus  11:08  

Yeah, we invite anyone to send any of these fun misinformation, lies, and facts to us to for our analyst team to pick up. So Solar Fight Night's been funding a part-time analyst to constantly research, and of course, they're backed by a bunch of great AI tools. And our team at CIR has built in order to find who has the most followers. That's putting out this misinformation and these lies. That's where we want folks to be responding. The next step is we want to build an anti-troll farm. Troll farm.

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Nico Johnson  11:37  

Yeah,

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Daniel Dus  11:37  

I want 1000 cell phones with dozens of interns and AI tools running, identifying and respond and responding to these lies in real time, and targeting those that can be most impactful to stop these ridiculous comments from spiraling and continuing when they have no basis in reality.

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Nico Johnson  11:55  

And I would imagine that even there are folks who have no interest, particularly in funding what some refer to as just a big party, which we which we hate because we believe that Solar Finite is much more than an industry soiree. But there are some who would say, you know what, I'd rather have my capital aligned in a different sort of way. How can folks just support Clean Tech Fact Check? Are there other ways? Not only

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Daniel Dus  12:20  

Clean Tech Fact Check, but right on SolarFightNight.org, we have data based every renewable-focused nonprofit fundraiser in the world that we've been able to identify. So folks can go there; they can search for those that they feel most connected to, and either contribute through us or directly. We don't care. It's just about getting the word out there and getting the support for these nonprofits.

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Nico Johnson  12:43  

Danny, appreciate all that you do. Thanks for helping not only spread the word but increase the just the amount of awareness and vigor and truth that we have at our fingertips.

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Daniel Dus  12:55  

Yeah, exactly. It's hard to take the time to respond and make sure that you're researching these things and responding properly. So you can go on cleantechfactcheck.org immediately, cut and paste, and respond to that crazy neighbor or whoever it might be, right? In the socials, that's a little off their base.

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Nico Johnson  13:16  

I love it. Anything else

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Daniel Dus  13:18  

for Solar Fight Night? That is the focus this year. We really do want to raise for advocacy in advance of the midterms, right?

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Nico Johnson  13:26  

Yeah.

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Daniel Dus  13:26  

And there's a lot of great bipartisan efforts to make sure that we have, as Jigger says, political power. So let's all come together.

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Nico Johnson  13:34  

Thanks, Daniel, for helping us better understand the story of Solar Fight Night. No, we don't have our gloves on. No, we're not actually fighting. Although we do believe that not only are we in a fight for our future and the future of our children, but that clean energy is an unstoppable freight train. This year, it goes down November 17 at Zook nightclub in Las Vegas, right in the heart of RE Plus, tickets, VIP tables, and cabanas are all still available right now at SolarFightNight.org. And if you want more stats and data on all of the ways that the other voice, the other side, is trying to be naysayers about clean energy. Well, I suggest you check out cleantechfactcheck.org. Grab your tickets, come find me in the crowd, and let's raise some money for a great cause. Remember, you are what you listen to. Thanks again for showing up, Solar Warrior. It's half the battle. See you in Vegas.

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