Founders
GREGG FREISHTAT, CEO and Co-Founder
Gregg Freishtat is a technology executive with over 20 years of experience leading innovative and transformative companies. He founded five venture-backed start-ups, with four successful exits and is now Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Solar Inventions. Deeply rooted in venture capital and management of technology companies, he has led several companies through acquisition and has had a hand in developing disruptive technologies in convergence of telecom/internet, personal finance/online banking, web based analytics and digital media/online marketing and currently solar energy.
Freishtat is an active private equity investor, is the inventor on 18 patents, and has served on many Boards including: Greensky (GSKY), Telet, Proficient Systems, VerticalOne, Vertical Acuity, Marketworks, Relevant Knowledge, OutWeb, Camp Kudzu, Jewish Federation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, S1, USA.net, Saleswise, and others.
Freishtat received an undergraduate degree from Boston University and was awarded his J.D. from the University Of Maryland School Of Law.
Dr. Ben damiani, Chief Scientist And Co-Founder
Ben has spent his career in solar. His innovations have enjoyed global reach through his work at early solar pioneers, Suniva and SolarWorld. He has worked across the world commercializing new solar technologies and building solar manufacturing facilities.
Ben received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and did part of his grad work at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. After graduating he joined Intel’s Process Technology Development (PTD) group and lead the medium current ion implant group. Bridging the technology from the integrated electronics industry into the solar industry, Ben was responsible for the first-ever implementation of Ion Implanted Solar Cells in high volume production for Suniva, Inc. Ben successfully realized this USA born technology from concept and feasibility to 180 MW’s production capacity in less than 28 months, a process that normally takes 6 years.
As the Director of Industrial Technology Development for Semco Engineering in France, he developed new processes for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, low pressure diffusion and oxidation, bifacial solar modules, and n-type PhosTop solar modules. He holds several patents and has authored more than 30 papers.
Bill NUSSEY, Chairman AND CO-Founder
Bill spent most of his career as a tech CEO. He co-founded his first company in high school, which provided graphics software for early, text-based personal computers. His second company was started out of his college dorm room and ultimately sold business software across 45 countries. After several years as a venture capitalist with Greylock, he left the firm to run a portfolio company which he took public and grew to almost $500 million in revenue.
He later joined Silverpop as CEO, which IBM acquired in 2014. He was promoted to IBM’s VP of Corporate Strategy out of their world headquarters in New York. Most recently, Bill re-entered the world of venture capital as a partner at Engage and Tech Square Ventures.
Bill’s companies have created thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in value. Bill received a degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He holds several patents and has published three books, including the most recent one, Freeing Energy. He is also the host of #1 ranked podcast on renewable energy, also called Freeing Energy