Dan Cohen joined Jim Schafer (Nenni & Associates) of the Building Energy Efficiency Podcast to talk about his road to entrepreneur-ism and the direction of the energy industry.  Listen to hear about Sona Energy and their vast experience in the energy space and how they can help your business achieve it’s energy efficiency goals.

 

Highlights from this Episode:

Daniel brings a unique background of professional experience including; financial analysis, business operations and complex B2B sales success to the leadership team of Sona Energy Solutions LLC.

Immediately following graduating UMass Dartmouth (and turning around a small tennis organization), Dan obtained a financial support position with one of the world’s oldest organizations; Christie’s Inc. (NYC).

In 2005 Daniel was hired by a former colleague at Codiam Inc. to help manage a recently started joint venture with Tiffany & Co (and helped start a second JV within the same partnership). Dan worked in this organization for the following 9 years and through the economic downturn of 2008/9. Dan managed finance and operations for the two multinational (Johannesburg & Gaborone) JV’s. Codiam’s end goal was to sell both JV’s to TCo and this was accomplished in 2012 ($50M+). Sales relationships were maintained until Dan’s departure in 2013.

In 2013 Daniel & his family relocated back to Greater Boston and started a sales role with an electrical contractor (Aetna Corp.). Daniel successfully surpassed sales goals annually by growing relationships and expanding product and service knowledge until his departure almost 6 years later.

In early 2019 Daniel left his National Accounts Sales position and helped launch Sona Energy Solutions LLC. Sona Energy partners with utility companies, mechanical equipment manufacturers and skilled labor companies to provide large scale commercial energy efficiency projects to North American end use customers and property owners.

BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENCY PODCAST: EPISODE 42

Jim: Hey, what’s up everybody. Welcome back to the Building energy efficiency Podcast presented by Nenni & Associates. I’m your host, Jim Schafer. Now, if this is your first time tuning in, Nenni & Associates is an executive search firm focused on the building energy efficiency industry. Hence why we name the podcast the way that we did. Simply put, we help our clients find the right talent. Each week we sit down with leaders from the industry to discuss their backgrounds, how they got started and where they see the industry heading. We also get to know our guests and find out what drives them to be successful. On today’s episode, episode 42, we sit down with Dan Cohen, who is a principal at Sona Energy Solutions. This was just a cool episode, always loved talking with entrepreneurs and hearing about their journeys and what prompted them to start their companies initially.

That’s what Dan and I had the privilege to get into today. We also cover new areas that Sona Energy is exploring as it relates to solar and EV charging. I think that’s a major trend that we’ve been noticing in the industry, and that’s something that Dan and I spent some time on. Of course, we unpack these daily non-negotiables, simple, but not always easy to implement. Now, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe to our channel and consider downloading this episode and future episodes. This really is the only way that we could track how many people are listening. So if you’re one of those people who are streaming the episodes, I urge you to consider hitting that download button instead. And you enjoy this episode, please share it and leave a five star review. And we think you’re really going to enjoy this conversation between Dan and I, so let’s drop in.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Building energy efficiency Podcast. Today we’re sitting down with Dan Cohen, who is the principal at Sona Energy Solutions. Dan, welcome to the show.

Dan: Hey Jim, thanks for having me. It’s an honor.

Jim: Oh, an honor. That’s just, you’re giving me too much credit here. But I am glad we made this happen and carved out some time in both of our schedules. So before we get into Sona Energy Solutions and how you guys are plotting to take over the industry, let’s take a step back. Let’s talk about Dan, where you grew up and kind of how you got started in the industry.

Dan: Sure. So I grew up in a town called Chelmsford, Massachusetts, and I couldn’t wait to leave. So I went away to uni at UMass Dartmouth, not too far. Then as soon as that was finished, I ended up in New York City, took a job. The first job that was offered to me from Christie’s fine art auction house. I worked in the finance department there, followed the controller to a diamond wholesale manufacturer. They had a couple joint ventures that I helped manage and run with Tiffany & Company. Fast forward, eight years later, I was expecting and had a second child with my wonderful wife. We decided to start cutting costs and moving out of New York City was the low hanging fruit, take an industry term. So we relocated back up to Chelmsford. So as soon as I wanted to leave I’m back.

Jim: So it’s pretty expensive in New York then, is that what you’re saying?

Dan: Yeah. I had no clue going in and found out rather quickly that that was the case.

Jim: All right. So your background, it sounds like, so I heard diamonds and I heard finance. So how did you get into energy or lighting?

Dan: Yeah, it’s a good question. So in my relocation, I reached out through my network, which is really the first time that I had had done so on LinkedIn. And a really good friend of mine from university, JC Everett, was constantly posting job openings that his father was in HR and looking for help. And I just asked him if he knew anything that was available and he said, “Yeah, I’m hiring actually, kind of a regional, Eastern Mass salesperson. You want to have a crack at it?” And that was for really a lighting maintenance electrical contractor. Somewhat super regional, but really focused on the northeast. So that was where I first entered the market selling to facility managers in the northeast.

Jim: Shout out to JC Everett. I’m sure he’s going to be listening to this one. I know he’s a big fan of the show.

Dan: He is, he is.

Jim: Yeah. All right. So you were there, and how long did you work with JC?

Dan: So I was at it for just under six years. He was a great steward of really helping me learn how to sell. You mentioned finance and diamonds really. I didn’t ever want to sell, at least that’s what I told myself. I think what it really came down to was, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I didn’t know how to sell myself. And JC really helped me figure out a lot less so what I want to do, and I really enjoyed the industry and what I was doing, what I am doing now. But he helped me kind of find a public speaking voice, how to prepare myself. And selling’s really not that difficult at the end of the day, when it’s something that you believe in. When I was in the diamond industry, when I was hanging out with my friends, I used to always say, I don’t believe in the product that we’re selling, but I know that it will provide me with a job as long as I need it to.

Jim: Yeah. For anyone who’s successful in life or business, it seems like all roads lead back to sales. You got to be able to sell, right?

Dan: Yeah, and harking back to my childhood, my father’s been in sales and kind of marketing sales, sells corrugated packaging to all kinds of industries, food and healthcare, and most of his friends were his customers. And I really just didn’t, I didn’t want that to be the case, but it’s the case now, and it’s who I enjoy spending time with and hanging out with and shooting texts back and forth with. So it’s not as bad as I thought it was.

Jim: Now, since your dad came from this profession, did he have a vision for you to get into sales? Because very few parents expect or hope their kids are going to get into sales, right? That’s usually not the pipeline that you follow.

Dan: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. He wanted me to sell corrugated packaging just like him. That’s probably one of the reasons why I wanted to get out of Massachusetts and Chelmsford so bad. But yeah, actually I worked for his plants doing some dye cuts for the foam inserts that would protect whatever package or whatever product would go into the packaging, for a couple summers and quickly realized that was not for me.

Jim: Yeah. That’s the good part about part-time gigs or internships, is you find out what you don’t want to do, right?

Dan: Yeah.

Jim: Cool. All right. So six years of Aetna, you had a good run there, but it was time to take on a new challenge and start something different. So walk us through kind of your thought process. This is why I love having entrepreneurs on, to kind of hear about why they started their companies and how it all happened. So walk us through the genesis of Sona and what you guys are up to today.

Dan: Yeah. So we really started, my partner, Dave McSweeney and I started Sona out of need. The need for me was that I needed a job. I was let go from Aetna and I needed to provide for my, it was two children, now it’s three children, and wife who does not work. So the need was there for me. Dave was also looking for a change. And the biggest need was that I had a really good customer base, national account customer base who needed projects to be installed. That’s kind of where we all started with. So the first year we were really young and baby speak. We were only 23 months old. Not even 23 months old. Next month we’ll be, next month on the 19^th we’ll mark the anniversary when we formally formed our LLC. So the customer needs really trumped just about everything else.

Not that I didn’t need to get a job, but I really wanted to be able to perform for the customer base. And I knew that what I was working on was viable, and I just wanted to continue that work. It’s great to be an eco-warrior. In theory, it’s even better to actually be able to execute on some of that stuff.

Jim: So I’m curious, you mentioned that you formed the company, because hey, I needed a job. Well, for someone like you, I’m sure there’s a lot of jobs out there. So why go the entrepreneurial path? Just to dig a little bit deeper here. Versus could be a salesperson for another company in the industry.

Dan: Well, that’s how you and I first connected. It was January 2^nd of 2019. It was a Monday as cliché as it could be. Either a Monday or Tuesday, but I put my foot down and I said, “Gosh, darn it, I’m going to go find another job. I need a change.” And you had done a great job and hooked me up with some really good interviews, and I was told that I was the right candidate, but it was going to be, for one company in particular, it was going to be six to 12 months before they could onboard me due to some, how project based work is, you don’t exactly know when funding’s going to come through. So let’s see, that was right around March 15^th, was when I got let go. And I put a post up on LinkedIn and that kind of forced their hand in fast tracking it, but I was pretty set at that point on going the entrepreneurial route.

Jim: There you go. All right. Now, two years later, Sona Energy. Talk to us about some of the types of projects. I know you guys do a lot of lighting, but walk us through some of the vertical markets or types of projects that you guys are pursuing today.

Dan: The lighting space on the national account retail side definitely seems to be turning into a commodity faster than I think most people would like it to be. Which drives down profits, kind of allows more competition, which can be good. It’s also, it’s forcing other types of verticals to be sought after. In the first year, we wanted to just prove that we could go to market. That was the first nine months. Our first fiscal is lined up with the calendar year. So our first year, we did enough to make a living and I think we surprised some of our customers. And then in the last year, we were really focused on and just growing and proving that we can provide a rollout on a larger scale, and we did so. So it was great. In terms of some of the other markets we’re touching, we’ve worked on EV installs in the past.

We are trying to work on, trying to roll through a 1.5 Meg solar project at a commercial space. It’s slow, but I think that’s expected on a project that large, especially this being the first time that we’ve done solar period. So it’s certainly a learning process. But yeah, in terms of different verticals, I mean, I think our goal is similar to a lot of ESCOs, which is you want to really widen your offerings with each customer. And I think each customer, once they have a good sales [inaudible 00:11:59] is confidant. So say they’re going to look to them for solutions. And I don’t see, lighting’s great, but it’s, like I said, it’s becoming much, much more commoditized. So anything electrified and in the efficiency kind of realm is where we want to position ourselves and continue to move in that direction.

Jim: Yeah, and that lines up with what we’re hearing in the market too. A lot of companies out there that maybe they traditionally have done lighting in the past, like, hey, we got to diversify, we got to do something a little bit different, and we are hearing more and more EV charging and solar, and it’s a natural play. It’s electrical, it’s going to tie into the trade personnel that you have on site anyway. So that absolutely makes sense and that’d be a good way to transition to, if you project out and look into the future, you mentioned EV, mentioned solar, but 5, 10, 15 years from now, where do you see the industry heading?

Dan: That’s a good question.

Jim: No easy questions on the Building energy efficiency Podcast. I’m going to make you think.

Dan: Yeah, well I know you gave me the warm up questions, but I thought more so about the five year plan, less the 10 and 15 years.

Jim: Yeah, sure. Answer it from five.

Dan: Yeah. Again, I think the five year plan ties into my last answer, just the kind of moving more vertical and, or is it the opposite? I don’t know if it’s widening is less vertical, but just…

Jim: Horizontal.

Dan: Sure. Parallel I guess, or perpendicular. But just the need for ESCOs to provide service offerings outside of where they typically lie. I see everybody, I’ve been hearing for, living in Massachusetts, I’ve heard since I started in the industry that lighting rebates are going to continually drop. And every year it’s kind of been the case, but it hasn’t necessarily been the case. And I think that depending on the regions of where you live and where you’re doing projects, it may shift in terms of what your offerings need to be and what your customers are looking for from a service standpoint. But yeah, I mean, HVAC, everybody’s saying HVAC is the next thing. But again, that’s something I’ve been hearing for eight years. I know COVID is certainly moving the needle there.

The Mass Save program, I sat in on their annual webinar. Well, it’s usually an in person, but due to COVID it was a webinar this year. They pointed to the fact that HVAC is about 50 to 60 percent of a building’s energy usage. So where lighting has been the low hanging fruit, it’s hard to look past something that takes up 50 to 60 percent of energy in their single space.

Jim: Yeah, and that’s another theme on the show here. So for especially the last few months and even dating back to last year, indoor air quality, as it relates to HVAC, I think that’s going to continue to be a major trend here. So good. All right. So I mentioned at the early part of the show, you guys are plotting to take over the industry here. So it sounds like you’re well on your way. Now let’s, what I to do here is just transition to the last part of the show. Last four questions that I ask to every guest who comes on. Wanted to start off here and ask you, what are your daily non-negotiables?

Dan: Yeah. Well, thanks for the vote of confidence and us taking the industry over. I appreciate that.

Jim: Well, once we get this podcast out there, then it’ll just exponentially grow this plan.

Dan: That’s what I’ve been told.

Jim: Yes.

Dan: And not by just you, by other people. Daily non-negotiables. I think I’ll keep it relatively simple, but it’s kind of the golden rule, do unto others. I’ve worked for some good organizations in the past but not always with leaders that I want to follow. So I want to make sure that I am doing right by really whoever I come across, whether it’s friend or faux, I want to be treated the way that… I want to treat people the way I want to be treated. That’s been something that’s been drilled into my head by my parents, and I’d like to continue that that kind of mantra and just do right by as many people as I can, if not everybody, and communication is key in that effort. So as long as there’s open communication, I think that should be an easy non-negotiable to accomplish.

Jim: The golden rule, simple, but doesn’t mean it’s easy, right? The best advice, the simplest to comprehend, but sometimes the most difficult to implement. Right?

Dan: Yeah, and you see that across well, large organizations. And I’ve worked with, Christie’s was a huge organization. Well, not huge, but 2000 people but scattered across the world. And somebody sitting in the desk next to you doesn’t do a good job communicating, then there can be major issues that lie behind that and some ill will potentially. So it’s like I said, that communication is key. And as long as you can do a good job of communicating to people, then you should be able, I should be able to live up to that daily non-negotiable.

Jim: Yeah. I think the other piece that you mentioned there that that caught my ear was, you mentioned leaders that you didn’t always want to follow. And I started thinking leaders need followers, so they’re probably not leaders if people don’t want to follow them. So I thought that was an interesting mention there. So let’s transition here. What advice would you give to your 22 year old self?

Dan: I would just reinforce, again bringing my parents back into it, what they taught me, which was really, make yourself invaluable to the organization. That really for me, it translated very early on, on the playground, I would be the umpire when kids were playing baseball because while I wanted to play short or second or center field, so did 45 other kids, but no one wanted to be the umpire. So I’d help the organization by stepping in and being a part of every rep, which was great. Similarly in soccer, no one wanted to play goalie, I’ll play goalie. Why not? So it’s transitioned, it stuck with me throughout my professional career. In 2008 when the economic downturn started to happen, the diamond company I was working for started to go through some transition. And we cut our staff from, it was a small org in New York, the New York office.

We went from 16 down to eight. I always kind of knew that I’d be okay because I would do what other people didn’t necessarily want to do. So I would just make sure that I would just reinforce that to my younger self.

Jim: Yeah, becoming indispensable, there’s a lot of value in that. Yeah, following the same theme here, what motivates you? What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Dan: Yeah, I mean, my family certainly first and foremost, and then again from a professional standpoint, just to be able to execute for our customers and our vendors. Then I think lastly, I want to make sure that I’m having fun on every day, which would also kind of tie into your daily non-negotiables.

Jim: Yeah. Again, really, really simple, but not always easy to implement, but that’s good advice there. So what do you want your lasting legacy to be?

Dan: My lasting legacy, again, I would like to be on the right side of history. I want to be, I’d like to be looked at as somebody who again did the right thing by the people that came across my path in life, whether that’s in sport, family, friends, in business. I think that’s, the most important thing to me is just to make sure that I’m the best that I can be.

Jim: For sure. I think that’s a great way to wrap up the show here. So Dan, thanks for the time. Thanks for coming on.

Dan: Thank you, Jim. I really appreciate it.

Jim: All right.

Jim: All right, there you have it. Episode 42 with Dan Cohen. I hope everyone enjoyed this episode as much as I did. If you did enjoy it, please be sure to subscribe to our channel wherever you enjoyed listening to your favorite podcast. Now, we hope you’re sharing this with your friends and colleagues as well. One last thing that I would add, if you have any future guests in mind from the industry, please reach out to me. We’d love to hear from you loyal listeners. Until next time, I’m Jim Schaffer and we’ll catch you on the next episode.