Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Taylor.
Lee, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
REsurety started as my grad school research project: an academic thesis that became a commercial endeavor. The basic problem we were trying to solve? With the rise of renewable energy generation, weather is becoming the new fuel resource (as opposed to natural gas, or coal) – and commodity / capital markets are bad at managing that risk, unnecessarily driving up the cost of capital for good projects. REsurety’s thesis was that with accurate underwriting, insurance providers could be brought into the renewable energy marketplace to manage fuel risk: when and how much the wind blows, for example.
To fund the business we initial raised capital from friends and family and a program called Upstrat – which allowed me to securitize (sell shares in) my personal future taxable income. We later raised venture capital from Launch Capital and the Clean Energy Venture Group, as well as a handful of angel investors.
Today the business is up and running with a number of different business lines, all of which focus on managing the financial impacts of resource intermittency on wind farms (uncertainty of when the weather as a “fuel” will show up at a wind farm) and have won a few significant accolades for our efforts, including: IJGlobal’s North American Wind Deal of the Year (http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/Capital-Power-s-Bloom-Wind-Project-Receives-Recognition-as-North-American-Wind-Deal-of-the-Year-1001842496)
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Struggles included:
– Fundraising: our initial efforts to raise money from venture was slow and unsuccessful.
– Market adoption: we sell a new product into a very conservative market (infrastructure project finance), so getting potential clients to trust or try something new has been a multi-year process.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about REsurety, Inc. – what should we know?
REsurety’s core competence lies in the ability to 1) accurately quantify weather-driven financial risks for a wind farm, and 2) efficiently transfer that risk from a project to an insurance counterparty.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
First and foremost, my wife and immediate family (mom/dad/brother):
Entrepreneurship, especially the “bumpy” parts, can be an emotionally taxing adventure. My family has always had unwavering confidence in me and my company, even when I don’t share that confidence. That’s an invaluable asset when trying to start a company.
In addition: there are several people who have served as important formal and informal advisors / mentors along the way:
Kenneth Westrick – my co-founder of the company.
Ken Davies – the original source of my thesis project at business school, and a consistent advisor over the years
Barney Schauble – one of the sponsors of my grad school research work. His firm is a REsurety client – and his advice has always been incredibly valuable.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.resurety.com
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