Transcript:
KATIE: [00:00:04] Hi, everybody, and welcome back to the Enterprise Coworking community spotlight. This month we are sitting down with Trent Lessar from Lessar Energy. Trent, thanks so much for being here with us today.
TRENT: [00:00:18] Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you for having me.
KATIE: [00:00:20] Of course, our pleasure. Why don't we start with you telling us a little bit about yourself and your company.
TRENT: [00:00:28] Yeah, sure. So Lessar Energy, we are a home energy company. Basically what we do is we provide a range of services really including residential solar installation, we do battery backup, we do electrical vehicle charging stations, we do energy efficiency upgrades like attic insulation, solar powered attic fans, and we do home energy audits. We operate from really the whole front range of Colorado, from Fort Collins to Pueblo right now. And then looking at expanding into a couple of new states, quarter two and quarter three of this next year. I'm the founder and the CEO. We started about three years ago so it's been it's been super fun. Just super grateful so far.
KATIE: [00:01:25] Excellent. Do you do you have some other states in mind already or just kind of going to feel it out?
TRENT: [00:01:32] Yeah, no, we have Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, specifically that we're intentionally going to be opening. So, yeah, got a lot of the plan in place. But I've learned like to make sure that you're prepared before you like, Oh, we're going to go do this, you know.
KATIE: [00:01:50] Yeah, get the ducks in a row first. That's exciting.
TRENT: [00:01:54] Oh, for sure.
KATIE: [00:01:56] What makes Lessar Energy different from some of the other companies in your field?
TRENT: [00:02:03] Oh, that's a great question. I would say the thing that really separates us from like every other company in our industry is that a lot of companies just sell solar and we really want to make sure that we come into the home and that we make sure, one, that the home is even a good fit for solar. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes when we do an energy audit, we discover that the home just isn't a good fit. A lot of homes aren't a good fit. But we first and foremost, just want to make sure that if we can, let's help them save money and reduce the amount of electricity in the house and make the house more comfortable and efficient. What really sets us apart is that the equipment that we use, the manufacturers, the vendors that we have, we make sure that they're tier one equipment. And what that means in our industry is just that it's the highest level of of equipment with the best warranties. And then we also offer basically a 25 year warranty that covers bumper to bumper, if you will. So it covers maintenance, monitoring, service and all the necessary equipment parts for solar installations, as well as our electrical vehicle charging and our insulation and our attic fans. The other thing I would say that really separates us is that one of the biggest things to us is customer satisfaction and just making sure that everyone that we do business with, that we under-promise and over-deliver on everything that we're going to do. So one of the key problems in specifically in the solar industry, if you go to Google, do research reviews, you'll see big companies like Tesla or SolarCity, or even Sunrun, you look at the reviews, the reviews are really bad, and it's because people have had a horrible experience. A lot of that horrible experience revolves around them being able to sell a product that's super simple and easy to sell, but fall short on setting correct expectations of how this process works. It can be a long process. We handle the entire process from start to finish. So we permit with the city, with the HOA, a lot of times in residential neighborhoods, and then we permit with the utility company as well. And so these projects can take anywhere from 90 to 120 days on average. So just setting clear expectations. But one thing that we do specifically is have a dedicated customer success manager assigned to every single homeowner to just ensure that the project process is moving smoothly for them. We've answered all of the questions. There's a lot of clarity and transparency around what's going on. And then we also just recently launched basically like an online dashboard where when you qualify or if you decide to go solar through us or have a project through us, you can actually see the entire pipeline and the different steps and you can log in. So we've created a customer dashboard for that. So I would say that that really separates us and makes us different is just our level of of quality and customer service.
KATIE: [00:05:22] Totally, I think providing that transparency to customers is huge, especially in such a big and booming industry. That's got to be a big reason why you have such great customer service is you're not just going for the sale, going for the full picture. I love that.
TRENT: [00:05:39] Yeah. Because, you know, when you first start, especially like, you know, your early years of entrepreneurship and like when you're first launching, it's all about like, oh, let's just make money, let's just sell, let's try to build this product, minimum viable product and just get it out there to the marketplace. But then what happens is, is that the actual fulfillment of that takes back place a lot of times. And it's not like the highlight. So for us, we know that if we do a really good job, like word of mouth business will grow us so much bigger, especially local communities, you know, keeping up with the Joneses like we deal with all this, a lot of homeowners. So if one homeowner's had a great experience and then they, you know, another homeowner decides to buy an electric car because now we're in this time of transitioning this huge into hybrid electric vehicles, then someone's going to go, oh, what about solar? I'm thinking about solar. And if someone in that neighborhood has had a bad experience, you've just shot yourself in the foot for that whole area.
KATIE: [00:06:46] Totally makes sense. So you've been you've been a member of Enterprise Coworking in Greenwood Village for a little bit now. And I know you just recently upgraded to a private office, so that's exciting. Trent, why did you initially choose Enterprise Coworking?
TRENT: [00:07:06] Location, Great location, tech centers great. I haven't even been to the Rino location. Actually, I just kind of float the tech center because it's like, all right here and it's easy. I like the tech center vibes over the downtown vibes. So definitely that. But then also the Enterprise location, it's a really nice location. Like I just I like how everyone's like laid back chill here. It's not super busy. A lot of the businesses that are here are like, you know, it's motivating to come into the office and it's motivating to see people like working and want to get stuff done. It's fun to be in an environment where you have just all these different creators and different people just trying to make stuff happen. So yeah, it's a great location all in all.
KATIE: [00:08:06] That's great to hear. Thank you. And to kind of wrap up our spotlight here, speaking directly to our viewers, what would you like them to know about Lesser Energy, your company?
TRENT: [00:08:22] Sure. You know, I would just say to really understand that the solar industry is just rapidly growing and it's undergone significant changes in terms of technology and pricing and warranties and incentives like federal and state tax credits. And so a lot of people had misconceptions about solar energy and what it was due to a lot of misinformation or people constantly trying to knock on their door or whatnot. So it's really important, like if someone is interested or you see people that are that are looking into solar to just make sure that you do your research and really explore the programs and incentives for your area, specifically what you can do if you are interested, because you'll see there's so much more people in residential areas that are starting to install solar on their house. If you're interested, you can always just log on to our website. It's lessarenergy.com and it's lessar not er, but we have like a free savings calculator tool and one of our energy specialists can literally just email you over all the information so that you can just get all of the information, even see if it's even going to be a good fit and if the house even qualifies, because a lot of times it won't.
KATIE: [00:09:45] That's great. That's that makes it really easy for people to start out their research and get their foot in the door. That's great.
KATIE: [00:09:54] Well, Trent, thank you so much for taking the time today to do our community spotlight. We love having you be a part of our community at Enterprise Coworking. And we will make sure and help spread the word for you.
TRENT: [00:10:08] Awesome. Appreciate it. Katie, thank you for your time, too.
KATIE: [00:10:11] Yes, any time.
