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Watt It Takes
with Donnel Baird

In this episode of Watt It Takes, recorded in November 2020, BlocPower Founder & CEO Donnel Baird discusses how he is electrifying and weatherizing buildings in underserved communities—slashing pollution and saving money. BlocPower has raised capital from Goldman Sachs and Andreesen Horowitz. But that process was not easy for a company with a mostly Black leadership team. Donnel was turned down 200 times before any investors were willing to back his vision.

 
 
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Sponsored By

 
 
 

Donnell Baird

CEO and Founder
BlocPower

 

Donnel Baird is the Founder & CEO of BlocPower, a Brooklyn-based energy technology startup rapidly greening American cities. Through their proprietary software, BlocPower markets, finances, and installs air source heat pumps in apartment buildings, churches, and schools in financially underserved neighborhoods. Before founding BlocPower, Donnel served as a political and community organizer, including as the National Get Out the Vote Director at the Service Employees International Union and the National Field Director for Green Jobs at the Change to Win Federation. Donnel holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

"We're going to give you 'equity' not just in terms of treating you fairly—we're going to give you stock in a new corporation that we're co-creating, so that you have financial incentives to participate in the clean energy economy."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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