
LightSail Energy Storage and the Failure of the Founder Narrative (2016) - apsec112
https://www.greentechmedia.com/squared/read/LightSail-Energy-Storage-And-The-Failure-of-The-Founder-Narrative
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apsec112
My thoughts on this: At some points, it feels like Wesoff (who left as editor
of GTM today) goes out of his way to beat up on LightSail. But at the same
time, this article has a bunch of information that really isn't published
anywhere else. It seems that most articles on startups are really just re-
dressed press releases, which means it's hard for outsiders (or frequently
even customers) to get accurate information.

~~~
DaniFong
for some reason he equated the fact that we paid for lunch once a week, with
the fact that we had financial difficulties in the 2015-2016 time period.
somehow, the truth of the matter, which is that cleantech financing for
private companies focused on technology had been on life support since 2011,
and that in 2014 there was a terrible financing

that's not the only bad journalism here, either. he took my quote out of
context, and though he claimed to call up 10 employees, he didn't actually
talk to all of them, one specifically told us that he "only needed to say he
spoke to him" and then hung up. i don't know what he js against us, but he
definitely didn't attempt to get a fair or complete picture. if he had, he'd
have talked to any one of the founders or the board, at least to get our
perspective, not to twist it. i don't know why he imagines that his brand of
heavy hitting editorializing is more accurate. it's just meaner.

there are probably numerous thing that we could have done better, and
differently, but a, we are still around as a business, when almost all other
cleantech companies are dead or in trouble. we have a decent shot at
developing a great business around to production of carbon fiber pressure
vessels, and these can be used, in a number of ways, to get really cheap, high
density energy storage -- beyond compressed air, which is sadly being
overtaken by lithium ion at the moment.

re: articles on startups, not our fault. journalists write the stories they
know how to write -- in the tech press, basically hype or scandal. what we put
in our talks and website and comments afterwards is fairer criticism, we can
do something about it. i always tried to state as clearly as possible what the
actual situation was, and where we were, and answered sometimes dozens of
comments and questions per article. but we haven't responded to gtm after we
were abused this way; frankly, what's the point of providing more content for
them to sell subscriptions. but hn, that's my turf and my people, so thanks
for asking the question.

you can reach me at daniellefong at daniellefong.com

if you want more

