Actually there is recent good news for the brothers from SolarCity. Not only have they succesfully sold a business to Dell; now, they have gotten First Solar to invest $25 million in SolarCity. The deal calls for First Solar to deliver 100 megawatts worth of solar panels to SolarCity over five years beginning in the first quarter of 2009. I learned this reading:

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/first-solar-invests-in-solarcity-...

Joel, you are great. thanks for sharing all of your valuable insights into the field of cleantech. Can't wait to read your book!

One company in Wantagh, NY has been working on some insteresting green solutions from a a net energy gain perspective.

You can find information about their initial idea here:

http://www.amilabs.com/news.htm

There's another pretty cool company doing pretty cool things...Agilewaves

Joel, thanks for highlighting Nau's story. Our original approach was not, as you point out, ultimately successful. But while your book was at the publisher we managed to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and with learning's in our back pocket re-launch the business. We partnered with Horny Toad, a Santa Barbara based apparel company. On October 21 we launched our new website and introduced our Fall 08 line. Our fundamental philosophy about the way we do business has not changed, although parts of our business model have. The one material change is that we will not be re-opening our own stores but instead distributing our product in partnership with select retailers. Maybe this next phase of our journey will provide some relevant content for your next book.

http://www.nau.com/

Ian

http://www.mkd-arc.com

Entrepreneurship is often difficult and tricky, resulting in many new ventures failing. The word entrepreneur is often synonymous with founder. Most commonly, the term entrepreneur applies to someone who creates value by offering a product or service, by carving out a niche in the market that may not exist currently. Entrepreneurs tend to identify a market opportunity and exploit it by organizing their resources effectively to accomplish an outcome that changes existing interactions within a given sector. Some observers see them as being willing to accept a high level of personal, professional or financial risk to pursue opportunity. Business entrepreneurs are viewed as fundamentally important in the capitalistic society. Some distinguish business entrepreneurs as either "political entrepreneurs" or "market entrepreneurs," while social entrepreneurs' principal objectives include the creation of a social and/or environmental benefit.Meanwhile had you heard about Shop it To Me? Well Shop it To Me is a free service that you can sign up for to find clothes on sale. For those of us who don't want to contemplate getting instant payday loans because we need a couple of shirts, Shop it To Me is a great idea. We are aware that some of you feel a moral obligation to pay the full price that some suit in New York thinks you should pay for it. You have to wonder though when those same suits get stock options and the poor maltreated people that slave for them get virtually no reward. But, if you like to find bargains on clothes – made in factories thousands of miles away from the same material as the stuff at Wal Mart – then Shop it To Me might be for you.

Fantasic to see this line-up of people who want to do things differently and change or break the rules to get things done. The world needs advocates and idealists, but IMO opinion it needs this breed of people more.

Internet Marketing Guy