The most awesome startup I have ever seen
I just got a very nice email from Danielle Fong, the 25 year old middle school-dropout, cofounder and chief scientist of Lightsail Energy.
That’s not the amazing part.
Lightsail makes regenerative brakes for the power grid. You know how your* Prius takes the power from the brakes when you don’t need it, and dumps it back in to the engine when you do need it? Lightsail does the same thing for energy plants that can’t scale their production quickly with the needs of consumers, not to mention greentech like wind and solar that creates power when Willard Scott says so.
Still not the amazing part.
So where are the startups you know headquartered? Someplace cool and funky, right? We put Ontela in the Smith Tower, the tallest building west of the Mississippi (until the disrespectful hooligans in the midwest built the Kansas City Power & Light Building in 1931). It was fantastic! But Lightsail? Forget that. Check out where they call home.
The Lightsail Firehouse
Oh yeah. Remind you of anything?
The Ghostbusters Firehouse
And you know what? We’re still not at the mind blowingly awesome part yet. Because you know what they have in the basement?
Oh yes.
- The Lightsail RAES-V1… ectoplasmic containment unit
Bravo, Lightsail. Bravo.
Urgent Addendum:
Danielle informed me after publication of this article that they have vacated the Ghostbusters firehouse and moved to a chocolate factory.
I rest my case.
*(I’m assuming you have one, because everyone else seems to. Personally, I drive a 2004 Scion Xb, in which the only thing regenerating is the dirt on the floor mats.)
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