NYA FOUNDER SPOTLIGHT ‒ ROBERT SEWELL, VESPRSOLAR CO-FOUNDER & CEO
Robert Sewell, Co-Founder and CEO of VesprSolar, started VesprSolar while he was pursuing his MBA from Tuck. VesprSolar had a simple idea to mount solar modules easier. Today, VesprSolar makes installing a solar panel as easy as a light bulb. Recognized by the Department of Energy as a top 10 innovation in solar, the VesprSolar V-Clamp is a low-cost fastener that makes solar arrays more secure and faster to install. Prior to VesprSolar, Robert spent five years leading transformations at Fortune 15 companies. Robert is passionate about accelerating the global energy transition with smarter hardware. Robert shares how angel investors often may belong to other angel communities, why founders should manage the fundraising process like their sales pipeline, and how VesprSolar reduced their prototype cycles from 6-8 weeks down to a few hours.
How did you first meet New York Angels?
When we raised our Seed round, Boyd Street Ventures led the deal with participation from large angel groups like Launchpad Venture Group and Clean Energy Venture Group. There's some overlap between members of these angel communities, and one of our current investors from Clean Energy Venture Group introduced us to New York Angels.
What were you looking for in investors when you were fundraising, and why did you choose to work with New York Angels?
First, New York Angels is local. I like working with people in the area. Being based in Greenwich, it's nice to meet in person, especially with a physical product. People can see the product live and share their feedback based on the actual product – not just an image or video shared online. Second, the investors at New York Angels have been in our shoes – either running large organizations or being entrepreneurs themselves. That makes all the difference. The caliber of people at New York Angels was really appealing, especially as we considered the long-term partnership.
What was the process like for you when you were fundraising?
To be honest, I think I've had an abnormal experience with fundraising. I didn't have 200 investor meetings that resulted in one check. When I started the business, I was pursuing my MBA from Tuck at Dartmouth. The Tuck network helped us connect with our first angel group and raise our pre-seed round. From there, the people who liked us brought us to other groups. It wasn't a case of sending 500 emails and only having a few meetings. We had a very targeted approach to fundraising, so we focused only on a few groups. Most of the groups that we went into Diligence with ended up investing in our company.
What have you enjoyed most about working with New York Angels?
More so than any other investor group, New York Angels has a very streamlined process. They said they would tell us within a few hours after the meeting if they were interested. Often with investors, you may have a meeting and then not hear anything for weeks. The New York Angels investment process was very fast. The whole process from the first meeting to finalizing Diligence was only 3-4 weeks.
What advice would you give other founders who are looking to fundraise?
We didn't meet with that many people when we were fundraising. Don't follow my example. I think having a broader net and managing the fundraising process like a sales pipeline is important. We're doing that now as we're expanding the round. Now, we manage the process through each stage, looking at the likelihood of closing. Casting a large net is important, even though it's hard to balance while running a business. It’s also crucial to 1) find a few champions who are really in your corner, and 2) ask for help through the process.
What advice would you give other early-stage investors who are looking to invest in companies?
It’s really important for investors to dive deep into the metrics and the product itself. You can make a PowerPoint say whatever you want it to say, but the growth trajectory of a company isn't real unless you can prove it with the product and the team. In Diligence, investors should focus on those details rather than over-hyped trends. For example, if a company is AI-enabled but solving a core problem, focus on the problem, not the AI. Getting deeper into the product and the founding team is the most important piece, which New York Angels does a good job of this already.
What has driven VesprSolar's success?
Two things. First, our team and people. You can't do anything without great people. I've been very fortunate to have a co-founder who is truly brilliant – the best designer and most creative person I've ever met. A lot of our initial traction is exclusively due to his design capabilities, but we can only go so far with just a CTO. You need a team who can support your engineers and take you from a smaller scale to larger commercial scale, i.e. from $100,000 pilots to multimillion-dollar sales. The team we've assembled builds off my co-founder's creative talents. We've surrounded him with great capabilities, which has been critical for us to succeed.
The second thing is resources. We invested about $250,000 in machinery to run all of our prototyping and testing in-house. This reduced our prototype cycles from 6-8 weeks down to a few hours. Before we had these resources, we relied on third parties, and I don't think you can build a business that way, especially with physical steel products. Investing in the right equipment to support our team of brilliant engineers and designers significantly improved our cycle time – giving us the ability to deliver for customers much faster. That's the only reason we're delivering at the level of sales that we are now.
