LinkedIn and 3rd parties use essential and non-essential cookies to provide, secure, analyze and improve our Services, and to show you relevant ads (including professional and job ads) on and off LinkedIn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy.
Select Accept to consent or Reject to decline non-essential cookies for this use. You can update your choices at any time in your settings.
Our founder Shreya was live on Startup Street at CNBC-TV18 yesterday, talking about our plans ahead.
If you are keen to join a purpose driven, high integrity and long term thinking start-up - then do write to us! Here is a link to open leadership roles at SolarSquare https://lnkd.in/d-d-FaDc
Mumbai based home solar startup Solar Square has raised $40 million in its Series B funding round, The venture claims. The funding marks the largest venture capital raise in the Indian solar sector. The round was led by Lightspeed with participation from Light Rock. Existing investors Elevation Capital, Chris Sakas, Lower Carbon, Nithin Kamath, Rain Matter and Brujas Prop Tech also invested in the round to talk to us about the road ahead. Joining me now is Shreya Mishra, the cofounder of Solar Square. Shreya, welcome to Startup Street. Now Solar Square is a full stack. Residential solar brand that eliminates middle men and does solar installations Take us through your offerings? Also how you making it easy for families to make the switch to solar? Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here, Shruti. Uh, like you said, we are a full stack brand and solar is a very unique category, which unlike consumer durables, is not a plugin play product like your television or a refrigerator. It's a full solution that goes to a customer's home. And so, you know, being a full stack brand is very, very important so that we control the entire value chain. This includes, you know, procuring over 70 components that go in a solar system, then designing it custom to each home and each roof is unique in India and then, you know, taking care of all the government permits. Taking care of high quality and safe installations and then also helping consumers get financing or easy loans to go solar. And last but not the least, also taking care of the after sales for solar. So because in you know, solar is a new category, the solar revolution is just unfolding before our eyes. Every family being a first time buyer has a lot of buyers anxiety because like I said, it's not a plug and play. So that's why being a full stack brand allows us to control the full value chain and give reliable solution to the consumer. I would say that there are three main things people look for #1. Is a hassle free, you know, solar solar journey. It can take up to two months for you to get solar start to finish. Secondly, reliable after sales and reliable performance and last but not the least safety standards. So we've innovated on everything in the value chain. All right, you've also acquired over 20,000 homes and 200 plus cooperative housing societies as customers across India share. Talk to us about your post sale solar maintenance service that you were talking about. What kind of feedback have you got so far and also elaborate on your tech edge. Sure. So like I said, you know, after sales is extremely important in solar because India is a very dusty country and when the dust settles on the solar panels, it impacts performance up to 3040% in just six months. Solar Square has a natural legend after sales service where, you know, as the brand, we've actually introduced the concept of after sales in the residential solar market. This is a very fragmented industry where all the mom and pop on strollers were in the business of, you know, install and then the consumer takes care of the after sales. But as a brand we take responsibility of that after sales, we do monthly maintenance. For the customer and their rooftop solar very much like your car and air conditioner requires regular maintenance. Solar requires a lot more in terms of panel deep cleaning, you know, mechanical checks, electrical checks. So we take care of all of that Shruti. And today we are the largest operators of distributed solar assets in India with, you know, 10s of thousands of homes and housing societies that are powered by solar square. So we have dense after sales network and we've also built an asset monitoring tech stack which allows us to get real time data on how much power is being produced on every single. Home and also diagnose issues and you know solve problems when they occur, correct. Let's now quickly get to the fundraise Shreya. You plan to use the $40 million raised to expand operations to over 50 cities from the current footprint of 20 cities. You also plan to invest heavily in technology, talent and brand building. If you could elaborate on each of these plans. Absolutely. So unlike you know, you're speaking Zomato or quick commerce. So you know, which are top 2030 city businesses. Solar is actually a grassroots revolution every home in every Tier 1 Tier 2. Your three city, even rural India will want to go solar. So as solar square, we are still in just 20 cities across India, so barely scratching the surface of, you know, just the market size that exists. And through these 20 cities, Shruti, we've already in the last three and a half, four years become the number one residential solar brand in India and we have disproportionate market share in every single city where we operate in. However, when you look at our market share in India, it's just a sliver. So the first thing we want to do is get into the top 50 cities of India, all the major cities we first want to get to. And of course, you know, this is like. Said it's a full stack solution, requires a lot of technology and operations excellence. So we're going to be investing in our technology stack for installation, after sales, quality, all of that. And you know as we expand, we also want to invest in branding. We have so far grown with very minimal investments in marketing and branding, but we do want to, you know, we feel ready as a company to start branding and get our brands to more cities and more consumers. OK. You also plan to build a state-of-the-art asset management tech stack. I think you touched upon it for remote monitoring and diagnostics. Of residential solar systems, tell us what kind of an impact will this have in terms of operational efficiency? Absolutely. So Shruti, we're the only company in India which has launched a savings guarantee with solar. So we're not just giving a hassle free installation experience to the customer, we are also taking responsibility of performance of solar thereafter. So we give a five year savings guarantee to the consumer. We're the only company in India to guarantee that, which means if there is any deficit in power production, Shruti, we actually pay back the customer. So in a way it's like you're not just selling a car, you're giving guaranteed mileage. So we're not just selling solar, we're giving guaranteed savings. This is the first in India. And it is because of our asset monitoring tech stack and our dense customer network and dense after sales network, OK, that we're able to provide the right maintenance and have the right technology that allows us to deliver this. Without the technology, the cost of giving a savings guarantee can be very high. The liabilities of underperformance on the company can be very high, Absolutely. So this is where we will our asset monitoring tech stack will come in handy. All right, one final question if you could quickly answer that. Take us to your current business growth numbers. What is the current top line and the road to profitability looking like? Sure. So I had come on this show exactly 2 years back during my Series A, we had 5000 home solarized at that time. And now exactly 2 years later we have 20,000 homes. You know that we are that are now solar square customers. We are currently run rating over 400 crores and our aspiration as we expand into more cities and we invest in our growth with this round of funding is to you know get to 10 times that size in four years or maybe 5. To your question of profitability, we're very close to profitability Shruti. So however, you know in the couple of months we should hit. Our first, you know it PBT, you know, neutral mark we should reach. However, as we've raised this funding, we're going to be investing again in growth. But with this round of funding, definitely the ambition is to get profitable in the next, you know, one and half to two years. All right, on that note, it's time for us to wrap up this conversation share. Many thanks for joining us on Startup St. today and keep transforming 1 rooftop at a time. Thank you so much.
How does CEO & Co-Founder of IdeaFlow, Jacob Cole identify champion talent?
It's not just about skills—it's about finding those rare individuals who are driven by passion, align with your company's vision, and possess the scrappy, self-starter attitude necessary to thrive in a startup environment.
Are you looking to empower your startup with such transformative talent? Let's connect and explore how we can bring passionate, visionary, and proactive champions to your team.
👇 Share your thoughts or tag a fellow founder who’s gearing up to change the world with their next hire!
#Leadership#StartupTalent
🚀 How do you make a successful first hire for your product team? We spoke with Breanne Hargreaves, Strategy & Growth Director at Evolving Web, for expert advice on choosing the right product leader for your startup and building a high-performing product and design team. 📈
Check out her key insights! 👇
#ProductManagement#Startup#TeamBuilding#Leadership#Hiring#GrowthStrategy
It’s tempting as a startup founder to get your product "just right" before launching. The reality is, no matter how much work you put in upfront, your initial product is simply a collection of assumptions about what customers will want. Even an MVP focus can be deceptive as it can lead you down the of assuming you have the product right.
You only need to look to several startups to see how far off their original concept was before getting it right.
> Starbucks' initial focus was on selling freshly ground coffee. When launched it’s earliest coffee houses, they were Italian-styled with no chairs and playing Italian Opera
> Uber's original vision was a more efficient way to hire private drivers.
> Lyft was originally a college ride sharing platform.
Spending too long building dramatically increases the risk that you'll miss the mark on what the market actually demands. The only way to truly validate those assumptions is to get your product into the hands of real users as quickly as possible. #starup#MVP#leaders#leadership#innovation
Happy Monday to my #linkedin#network!
A knowledge sharing post around the trend of Unicorn Leaders/Founders.
Working heaving in the VC/M&A space, an article/post by Chris Tottman really resonated with me. Where do Unicorn Leaders 🦄 really come from?
Here at Strativ Group we are heavily integrated into the global markets where I am specifically meeting founders/c-suite leaders mapping out onwards hiring plans.
Some of recent trends of successful founders are:
🚀Unicorn founders didn't go to business school.
🚀In many cases worked for a fast moving start up/scale up before starting their own.
🚀Solid experience within their industry discipline before starting their own business, often around the 10 year mark.
🚀Key experience in engineering & product.
🚀International global experience ~ often working or studying abroad.
The mantra certainly at play is.
🚀 Join a start up, get the real life experiences and navigate the journey. This is certainly where the magic happens!
George CoeDan Wilkinson and I are putting the finishing touches on our #vc community going live in 2025, stay tuned 🎙️
When we went through the Techstars Austin accelerator, David Mandell pushed me & other founders to focus on the three core responsibilities in our roles as CEO: funding, vision, and team.
Funding the business is essential — it's often a solo mission, carrying the burden on your back to make it happen.
Articulating the vision clearly is critical — it's about attracting talent, inspiring customers, and defining the path forward.
Building a great team is the heart of it all — finding passionate, entrepreneurial people who'll break through barriers and work alongside you.
These three pillars keep me grounded when things get chaotic and the going gets tough.
What are leadership mantras you like to keep top of mind?
#CEO#Founder#ProductDevelopment
Video Edits by GrowthMatch
Adjusting your leadership team in a scaling startup.
Building a great team is an investment in your startup’s future. Even when leaders see and agree about its importance, hiring and other “people” priorities are often the first to get sidelined when other things feel more urgent.
As a founder, recruiting talent and creating a great company culture will be a core part of your role — and the amount of time and resources you dedicate to it (or don’t) will serve as a model to the rest of your organization.
🚀 “How to find Product Market Fit & use The RVP PlayBook to Scale a SaaS Business” 🎙️💡
If you're involved in the startup ecosystem or considering joining one, this is a must-watch! Richard King shares invaluable advice on hiring for different growth stages, from seed rounds to Series C.
My key takeaways?
👉 Learn why it's crucial to hire individuals that match the current growth stage of your startup. From thriving in chaos at the seed stage to fitting into established processes at scale-up levels, every stage requires a different breed of talent.
👉 Richard delves into the glamorous vs. the gritty realities of working in a startup. It's not all about stock options and potential big payouts; it's also about the capacity to handle intense challenges with a small team.
🔗 Don't miss these insights that could redefine how you approach building your team and navigating the startup world! Watch the full video for a deeper dive into ensuring your hires align perfectly with your growth trajectory.
👀 Watch now and let us know how you're ensuring the right fit in your hiring process! Links to the full episode can be found in the comments below 👇
#StartupLife#HiringStrategy#BusinessGrowth#Leadership#BusinessInsights#podleaders
Ever wondered why some startups skyrocket while others fade into obscurity?
It's all about leadership.
🔍 Let's dive into the unspoken art of transformative leadership that propels startups into success stories.
One principle: Empathy over authority.
During Uber's early years, Travis Kalanick's aggressive leadership style drove rapid growth but also led to cultural toxicity. Contrastingly, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky emphasized empathy and inclusion, which resulted in a 200% increase in employee satisfaction and a valuation that soared to $31 billion.
Fostering a sense of belonging can exponentially boost team morale and productivity.
Another principle is decisive adaptability.
In 2006, Flickr pivoted from a gaming startup to a photo-sharing platform. Leadership's quick decision-making turned a struggling venture into a $35 million acquisition by Yahoo.
💡 Theory of Cognitive Dissonance suggests that people are more motivated to change when their beliefs are challenged. Effective leaders leverage this to inspire innovation and adaptability.
Want to uncover more leadership insights that can catapult your startup to the next level?
Connect with me or reach out directly. Let's turn your vision into reality.
The Power of High-Performance Teams 🤺
The journey from ideation to a thriving venture is seldom straightforward. Actually, it's never that. It's usually a dirt road fraught with peril, brigands and bad weather. 🐎
Until it's not. 🛬
It's the people who early on join your venture that determine how you'll traverse all that terrain. And its the early team members who become high-performance contributors behind the scenes that make the difference. 👥
I can recall on more than one occasion working with an early-stage startup that had a revolutionary product but struggled with execution. ⛑
Proverbially, it was like they couldn't get the kid out the door to its first day of school. 🎒
IYKYK
By focusing on new talent acquisition and executive coaching the team members who were emerging leaders, we assembled a team that not only met but exceeded expectations, and got that kid out the door to school. 🏫
1️⃣ We established and then refined their performance management processes.
2️⃣ We instilled a culture of accountability.
3️⃣ We fostered leadership that thrived under pressure.
And all of this transformation was pivotal in ultimately securing substantial institutional funding and achieving significant liquidity events. 💰
Building a startup is more than just having a great idea; it's about having the right people to bring that idea to life. 🚌
Simple, right?
It's not. It's always the people. Don't forget that.
If you're ready to build or scale a high-performance team, let's discuss how we can turn your vision into reality. 🔭
#TeamBuilding#ExecutiveCoaching#StartupSuccess#SaaSGrowth#TechVenture#GSD#ItsThePeople
Founders Scaling Without the Chaos
Every growth phase needs a new structure—but I’ve had some first hand both experiencing and noticing founders stumble with these 2 things:
- Hold onto too much- You create bottlenecks and burnout.
- Hire too fast- You bloat your team and slow everything down.
An easy way to transition/focus:
1️⃣ Startup Phase
- Founders juggle operations, marketing, and sales themselves.
- Once revenue stabilizes or you hit 50+ customers, start handing off key tasks.
2️⃣ Scaling Phase
- Bring in role leads (product, customer success) instead of full teams.
- Now’s the time to focus on building systems—let your team handle the details.
3️⃣ Mature Phase
- Shift fully into strategic leadership—build cross-functional teams and a leadership pipeline.
- When daily operations slow you down, step back and let others lead.
The key?
Stop managing and start designing.
Build a system that scales without you.
#founders#Startup
HR Gernalist
3dOne of my friends is looking job as an Team Leader