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Keith Marett describes the past three years as a whirlwind of fast-paced growth and "amazing product launches" that are taking the clean energy market by storm. And today, he's here to share the fast-paced journey he's been on since Generac Power Systems acquired his former company, Neurio Technology.
Founded in a Wisconsin barn more than 60 years ago, Generac is a global leader in designing and manufacturing residential, commercial and industrial power generation equipment. Generac practically created the market for home standby generators and still commands an impressive market share in that category. Now it's fueling its transition to the renewable energy reality through an acquisition spree in clean energy products and services.
Take Neurio, a Vancouver, British Columbia-based energy data company. Founded in 2005, Neurio focused on metering technology and analytics to optimize home or business energy use. Generac bought it in 2019 to accelerate its efforts around connectivity and remote monitoring — what it described as "critical parts of its 'Powering Our Future' strategy."
Keith Marett was CEO of Neurio at the time of the acquisition. He said combining Neurio's intelligent energy management technology with Generac's products, distribution, and market creation capabilities created tremendous energy use and management opportunities. And that was only the beginning.
Keith is now the president of Generac's Clean Energy Services, its fastest-growing division. He expects homeowners to become increasingly aware they can track and control their energy use through various technologies that allow them to decide who they pay and how much they pay for electricity.
"Generac is very focused on delivering resiliency and peace of mind to homeowners," Keith said. The company is also aware of the potential issues of a business built around generators using fossil-fuel-powered internal combustion engines.
"The climate is changing, and the regulations will be speeding up regarding how fast we have to deprecate internal engines. And so their plan is leveraging clean energy to continue their mission," Keith explained.
In addition to Neurio, Generac acquired numerous other clean tech companies over the past few years, including Chilicon Power, Apricity Code Corp., Pika Energy, Enbala Power Technologies and Toronto-based smart home thermostat startup Ecobee.
Keith navigated a circuitous career path through advertising, marketing, telecom and a security business before veering into the clean energy space. "I felt my soul needed a little reprieve, and I needed to get into something that would benefit my kids going forward," he explained.
He talks about his own childhood as a source of business inspiration. "They say your family shapes who you are. In my particular case, it wasn't my immediate family, and it included my grandparents. I had an amazing, endearing grandma who was this quasi-local famous artist," he said. "She's the one that instilled the creative spirit within me. And I think that's driven me through where I am today. It's incredibly important in a market, especially today's solar market, to have that creative mindset to solve problems."
Keith said he tempered his grandmother's artistic legacy with his father's pragmatism. "I had to put down my paintbrush and go towards a business school," he recalled. But he never lost touch with his creativity or curiosity.
After university, he joined Grey Group, one of the top global advertising agencies. "It was a perfect meshing of my creative mind and my dad's business mandate," he said. After five years at Grey, Keith took a job at Bell Mobility. Six years later, he moved on to Avigilon, a provider of security cameras. He started at Neurio as VP of Marketing in 2014 and was promoted to CEO in 2017.
"I have never asked specifically for a job or job promotion. I've never been the one to try to climb the corporate ladder for the sake of climbing the corporate ladder. That's never been my play. My play has always been to do well, perform well, give 110% of what you have, and things will go well for you," he said.
In today's podcast, Keith talks about what he thinks helped him succeed — and what he looks for in others when hiring. He explains that he's "a perpetual entrepreneur" who's "got to try new things" and what it's like to be at the helm of nonstop strategic acquisitions.
"What we're seeing worldwide in the last six months is definitely a change in the capital structure. And it's driven a lot to do with how the supply chain has driven up inflation. And now there are talks of us moving into recession.
"We're not going to slow down our acquisition path. But we'll probably be more on the hunt for key pieces to the equation than we were looking at doing," he said.
Want to hear more? I invite you to tune in for the full podcast. I think Keith did a phenomenal job. He provides insight and inspiration about the inevitable electrification of the home, the grid services and programs that are required, and the exciting ways that companies like Generac are looking at the long-term strategy and reality that we've got to deliver resilience and peace of mind to homeowners.
And it's fascinating to see inside the structure of such a significant player building a collaborative ecosystem like Generac. So I hope you have a chance to listen.
TIMESTAMPS:
(04:44) What table conversation was for Keith growing up
(06:19) Why Keith's dad made him attend business school
(10:08) Skillsets Keith achieved at Grey and Bell
(12:28) How Keith attracted trust from leadership
(14:13) Elements Keith uses to discover great talents
(15:43) Keith's move from Bell to Avigilon
(18:09) Early days constraints for Avigilon
(19:20) Similarities Avigilon shares with Generac
(22:36) Why Keith's decision to step away from Bell
(24:25) How Keith met Energy Aware founders
(25:42) How Keith followed Cleantech trends back in 2013
(26:33) Energy Aware revenue source in the early days
(32:11) How Generac reached out to Keith
(33:59) Why Generac matters to the Energy Industry
(37:47) What to expect from strategics
(45:00) How Generac sells solution alongside products
(46:16) The exciting Ecobee acquisition
(47:34) Generac Competition
(49:40) Why Enphase did not acquired Ecobee
(51:12) What sets Generac apart
(54:56) Keith's perspective on the current M&A trend
(57:43) Book recommendation
(58:34) Keith's favorite bookmarks
(59:23) Where to find Keith
(1:00:23) Keith's bold prediction
(1:01:42) Wrap up
NOTEWORTHY QUOTE:
“Try. Try whatever is handed your way. Do your best to succeed, and you might surprise yourself.”
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ABOUT THE HOST OF SUNCAST:
Nico Johnson is the creator and host of SunCast, consistently rated a top solar podcast in the clean energy sector. The content of the show is geared towards listeners looking for insights on where the markets are headed, how to position themselves or their companies, and what today's market leaders do to stay ahead of the pack.
Nico is an Investor, Executive Coach, and 16-year veteran of the solar industry, having led development in the US and Latin America for global companies like Trina Solar and Conergy.
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