CEO's You Should Know x Okovate

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs you should Know.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Let's meet Miles Braxton.

Speaker 3 (00:06):
He is the co founder and CEO for Okavates Sustainable Energy,
which develops and deploys agro voltaic systems, which are solar
projects built on farmland allow for both crop and production
and electricity generation. They focus on creating sustainable and community
focused projects that benefit farmers and rural communities, aiming to
optimize land use and generate clean energy. Now, before we

(00:29):
talk more about Miles and his incredible company, I first
asked him to talk a little bit about himself, where
he's from and his origin story.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I kind of grew up half between here in the
Maryland area. My mom lives in Buie, PG County, so
went to elementary school in PG County, but half grew
up in Richmond, Virginia as well, where my dad and
stepmom live. After doing high school there, I went to
Thomas Jefferson High School and in Richmond, Virginia, and then

(00:57):
went on to Thomas Jeffersons Universe at University of Virginia
and Charlottesville.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
All right, well, listen, let's talk about all the things
that you've done before okavade because we are going to
talk about that. I'm not going to bury the lead.
But you've done some things before that. But I'm always
curious about people, especially entrepreneurs that start really cool companies,
about what you wanted to do coming out of school,
What turned you on, what was fun? What did you
think you were going to do.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
So I got an academic scholarship to go to UVA
to study electrical engineering. I specifically wanted to go there.
The father of photonics, who both wrote the book basically
of Light to Energy, doctor Mulgupta, had been doing some
research at the university, got a couple grants from the
DoD and some other organizations, and he was building more

(01:47):
efficient solar cells in a lab and I was like, Hey,
this is what I want to do. I thought I
wanted to work in a lab my whole career. I
probably did that for four months, and it was one
of the most boring things I've ever done. It was
literally just sitting, even for an engineer, just sitting around
looking at, you know, a piece of metal.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, but but if I could infer the idea of
the future excited you though.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
The idea of the future, and I knew I wanted
to do something with clean energy, just from the combination
of you know, hey, this is uh something that's you know, sustainable,
This is something I know I could be happy doing.
You know, I'm not going to an investment bank every day,
you know, investing in some sketchy company. You know, I'm
you know actually you know feel like I'm I'm doing

(02:36):
my part in the world and feel like that was
part of my calling and purpose.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Well, listen, you've done a lot of things before starting
this company, So tell us about the working world, about
you know, what you were going to do, what you
did do, and then we'll start to talk about the
invention of this company in Okavad. But coming out of
school and now being in the workforce, what were you doing?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
Yeah, I need, I needed all all of those experiences
to end up at Okavad and understand where the gaps were.
So my first job, I you know, was trying to
get a full time job somewhere I couldn't just the
job market was crazy, but I was. I had a
post grad fellowship at a company called Itility, who had

(03:18):
just started a renewable energy division. They won a contract
from the Maryland Energy Administration to convert two hundred twenty
tons of chicken manure into electricity through anaerobic digestion. So,
you know, some of my time was spent like doing
the energy mass balances and a lot of like chemistry
one on one stuff to really figure out how many
grams of methane or poop we needed to net a

(03:40):
certain amount of grams of methane that would then burn
and create electricity on these chicken farms. So seventy five
percent of my time was spent at a desk, you know,
doing kind of those calculations, and another twenty five percent
of those times were spent at chicken farms. So really
kind of starting to know like how farmers operate, you know,
what are kind of their bottom lines. Part of the

(04:01):
solution was that this anaerobic digestion would not only kind
of be able to convert energy and there's some load
for additional energy uses on site, but also one of
the outputs of that is a custom fertilizer that the
Maryland Energy Administration, the MIA was interested in because it

(04:22):
was preventing certain nutrients like phos phosphates and nitrates leeching
back into the Chesapeake Bay. So what a lot of
farmers were doing is just hey, throwing some some chicken
poop on there, you know, across their fields, you know,
and that being their fertilization process. But a lot of
times it was have a lot of heavy, heavy metals

(04:43):
and nutrients that leach back into the soil and leach
back into the water table. But without getting into many
specifics there, I didn't stay there long. I got a
shifted to solar solar development. Worked at a local company
called Solar Systems based in DC, very fortunate for that experience.
Spent two years there and that's really where I kind

(05:06):
of built the toolkit of learning how to do solar designs,
learning how a project financial model works, knowing how to
wrap all of those outputs into some proposal that someone
can understand, and you know, really you know, providing those
key elements of the project.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Hey, Miles, could you do me a favor second and
indulgent in this because this has come up a lot,
and you're still relatively a young person that has its
own business now, and it's really incredible what you and Savannah,
your your co founder, are doing. But I do want
there's a lot of young people that are entrepreneurs like
you that are probably facing the same pitfalls of doors
being closed or not the opportunities out there. I'd love

(05:46):
you to talk about your passion for something, because that
always comes up when we talk to our leaders about
having a passion, and that gets you part way through
the door. But also, you know, you talked about doing
a lot of different jobs and learning that craft really
well well, something that I talked to my daughter about,
who's in her early twenty she's in the film industry
working in Brooklyn as a filmmaker, and one of the

(06:07):
things not knowing the industry really well, say, just do
everything on set because whatever you want to be, whether
it's a dper directory, if you know what everybody else
is doing, you get the education about that and that
will just make you a better leader. And we'll talk
about leadership a little bit later on, but can you
talk about just how hard it is to find a
gig because there's a lot of frustrated people out there,
and it's a wacky rold right now with everybody losing

(06:28):
their gigs. But also, you know, really learning everything on
the job to make sure whatever you want to do
someday you've got those tools in your chest as well.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Can you kind of expound on those absolutely? You know,
I'd say you hit the nail on the head. It's
half passion, you know, find what you're passionate about, find
out do everything to find out what you don't like doing,
so you can cater your career to things that you
like to do. But it's also half initiative. And you know,
showing up every day being the person that you know,

(07:00):
a set producer can point to and be like, oh,
you know, I know, you know this person's going to
be here at this time every day exactly how I
can give them, you know, this extra work that I
need help with because I can count on them, and
really creating that level of accountability I think is really important.
And you know, being a student every day something I

(07:20):
learned from from UVA. You know, we call it we're pretentious.
We call ourselves like first year, second years, third years,
fourth years instead of you know, junior seniors. And part
of that is because Thomas Jefferson said, you're your senior
year of college. Your fourth year of college is not
your senior year of learning. Like you are a constant learner,
you know, and you know, if you're sixty years old,

(07:40):
starting a new job, or even doing what you've always
been doing, you know, even even you doing something, you know,
something like this. I'm sure there's something that you're learning
every single implementing that which is fun, by the.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
Way, and it's always new for us too. You know,
we're always talking to a new person, or there's new news,
or there's a new sports score out there, and I
always love the real time of what I do.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, that's fun for me.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
So I always love to hear about origin stories of
starting companies from entrepreneurs because there's ten million stories out there.
And I want to ask you about the name because
it's unusual to call my attention. Yeah, sure, so I
wanted to hear about that, and then we'll talk about
mission and vision and about exactly what you do. But
as you were in the solar industry and you were
learning everything, what made you say, Hey, listen, I'm going

(08:21):
to take a leap of faith because while I like
working here and you said it was a great experience,
I want to start my own company. You must have
saw a hole in the industry.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Also, you want to be your own boss.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
But there's ten million reasons why you want to start
your own company as well.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
So tell me about that gap.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
You're at a company and now you're thinking of starting
your own biz. Tell us about how that origin kind
of worked itself out.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Sure. So over the last five years, the last two
roles that I was part of was director of risk management,
both at Goldman Sachs Renewable Power where I was based
in Bocovitone, Florida, and then up here move back up
here a couple of years ago to Summit Ridge Energy
where I was doing a lot of risk management assessment

(09:02):
and really one of the biggest risks that you know,
we saw with our solar development portfolios was the amount
that we were spending on development interconnection before we got
certain approvals. So there are you know, cases where we
would spend three hundred four hundred thousand dollars on a
project and it not get approved at a town hall

(09:22):
meeting and it's like, okay, well that was a waste
of money.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
Okay. So you're already seeing a red flag in the industry.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, okay, So I'm seeing these red flags pop up,
and it's part of my job to understand, you know,
all of these capital risks. As the director of risk
management at those at those shops. So you know, that
was one element it was already really difficult to develop
projects on farmland. And then I think really the you know,
one of the big data points that we had when

(09:48):
the Inflation Reduction Act passed in twenty twenty two, the
American Farmland Trust came out with the statistic that said,
in order to develop you know, the amount of solar
that you know, we need per this bill to hit
our kind of alternative fuel energy procurement sources, we eighty
over eighty three percent of solar will need to go

(10:10):
on farmland. And that's an extraordinary number of self, that's
it's crazy. Yeah, and it's like, okay, well, we know
we need more energy as a country, we farmland should
not have to be sacrificed in order to meet that goal.
And one one thing that we were already seeing that
was really successful in Europe and Asia was this concept

(10:31):
of acrovoltaics, a colocation of agriculture and uh in solar
energy and not from just a standpoint of oh, this
is just the more sustainable thing to do, but you know,
we really spent time in understanding, you know, what is
this value proposition to you know, potential project buyers to farmers,
to landowners, to communities, to counties, different stakeholders. How does

(10:54):
this all work? And you know, I think we were
able to build that value proposition in business model by
understanding that you know, these projects are also you know,
not only more valuable to someone who would come in
and own them long term and buy them, but we're
able to vitalize revitalize you know, farming communities without them

(11:16):
having to sacrifice their farmland. You know, we work with
a lot of farmers, especially here in central Maryland, eastern Shore,
central Virginia.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes, folks are farms here. Yeah, there's a lot actually.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Hundreds of thousands of acres, millions of acres of farmland.
We work with a lot of farmers and landowners that
are land rich and just looking for ways to monetize
their land. But at the same time, you know, that
farm has been in their family for one hundred plus years,
you know, and that's not something that they you know,
are you know, want to want to give away too
too easily? Right? Yeah, you know, our narrative is you

(11:52):
don't have to stop farming, right, you know what, you
know what part of what we promote as well as
you know, agricultural enhancement, you know, kind of with the
micro climate that's created under the panels, is a safe
haven for for crops, crops or you know, certain crops
are protected and even have boosts. Boosts are able.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
To Wow, I did not know that, which is really cool.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Because of the impacts from direct sunlight.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
All right, so we're gonna talk more about the business.
But what I want to do is I want to
talk about the introduction, because there's one thing to start
your own company. But with Savannah Whitfield, who's your CEO
and your co founder, that's right, you came together as
a partnership. How were you too introduced? I imagine she
shares the love and the passion that you do. But
how did it all come again to having you guys
get together?

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (12:37):
Great, great question, and meant to go there. So thank you.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
For for your walk. That's why I'm here.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, there we go. Keep me in line here. So
Savannah and I met at a at a at R
E plus. It's a large solar conference. It's the biggest
one in.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
The credit's a nerd out for the solar industry. Okay, exactly. Yeah,
so we probably met five or six years ago. She
had originally started the Society of Black Solar Professionals and
you know, we had met over LinkedIn. I had my
own nonprofit Black Oat Collective that had been operating for
a couple of years. She me up like, hey, would

(13:15):
you know, would you be interested in serving a board seat?
You know, you know, could use some help on getting
this off the ground and you know, just the some
of the leadership portions and putting the right team together
all this stuff. So worked on that with her for
about a year. I always feel bad because when we
were supposed to be talking about SBSP is the name
of the organization, the acronym, we would just geek out

(13:37):
over Agrivoltaics the whole time. So it began, you know,
we would catch up every month, you know maybe for
an hour. Okay, would you learn new in Agrivoltaics this month?
You know, just share notes. Then it began.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Then kind of the next phase of that was every
two weeks we're talking and now we're bringing on different
third parties. We're talking to developers. Oh, like, you know,
how'd you get that data point? You said that this
costs more? Why, you know, and just kind of debunking
some myths, and now we're talking every week and talking
to racking suppliers and different manufacturers and understanding you know, really,

(14:12):
you know, some of the key monetary elements.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
And what's happening here is organically, you guys are starting
a business. In your head's just chatting, learning about and
getting better in the industry exactly.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
So after maybe six months of that, I was like,
what the hell are we doing? Yeah, and I'm like,
let's let's start an LLC at least while we figure
out Yeah, we're trying to do and once we're actually
able to put some value, to understand the value proposition, Like,
while we're figuring this out, let's just start something.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
I love it, man, I think it's great. Well, listen,
tell me about the name about okavate because it's unusual.
I tried to look it up and said, what does
okavate means? And I'm not sure if I got the
tell us what exactly means to you are?

Speaker 2 (14:51):
So that was yeah, that was a team effort. So
okavate combines oco and bait. Right, So oko is actually
a word for farm in a lot of different African languages,
but oco is also the EUROBA Deity of Agriculture in

(15:13):
West Africa, known for spreading abundance to unfertile lands, right,
and that's part of what we're doing. We want to
spread economic abundance, agricultural abundance to land that you know
didn't previously have that about.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think it's great.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
I always talk to people to start companies and listen,
there's a bountyful of really bad names out there that
nobody cares about their dual. But you guys thought that
out really well, which means a lot to me, just
because if anybody who starts a business when they're passionate
about it, puts a lot into the name about what
it means and what we are.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
So I appreciate you sharing that, and I think it's
a cool name too.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Well, let's do this before we find out about what
you exactly do in Layman's terms for our listeners that
are learning all about Okavate, what's the mission and the
vision miles?

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, So we want to create economic opportunity and abundance
for local farm so that you know, they can they
can leverage you know a lot of this opportunity with
you know, the current energy landscape be able to you know,
host a solar farm without sacrificing their farmland. You know,

(16:15):
we want to empower farmers. We want to empower communities
to not only produce their own electricity, but also grow
their own food. And it's part of our business model.
Our farmers are actually required to donate a very small
portion of the crops they produce to either a local
nonprofit or a local organization such as a school system

(16:38):
or you know, anything along those.

Speaker 3 (16:39):
I love that and I bet they're happy to do
that too.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
Yeah, yeah, you know, that's never that's never a question.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
One of the things that people don't know about farmers
are the many things that we're going to learn today,
is that they're very generous. That's always I've been and
they're not just from Middle America, but they're just a generous,
kind of hard working, blue collar kind of person.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
So great to hear. All right, let's do this.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Sure, if you were to give a.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Thirty thousand foot view miles about what exactly you would
do to all the lamb in there listening about, Okay,
what would.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
You tell me you exactly do?

Speaker 2 (17:07):
What would I exactly do?

Speaker 4 (17:09):
What?

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okaby does? What do you do?

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yes? We develop community solar arrays that integrate agriculture and
provide lease opportunities for farmers and landowners.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Let's talk about the net because you talked a little
bit about this area and the DMV and Maryland farmers.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
I imagine that you've got big plans, but I know
that sometimes as a new company you have to take
baby steps. So you're from this region, so you know
it well, which I think is a benefit to you.
You know the landscape really well. But as you start
to cast your net out, how are you working with
farmers beside this region and would you like to go
completely domestically and is there ever a chance of going international?

(17:51):
What are the plans and where are you at right now?

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, So we have two sides of the business at Okava,
one development where we're self originating and self developing these projects,
working directly with the landowner and farmer, and then we
also consult with other developers asset owners to help them
understand how would you bring this acrovoltaic system to life.

(18:13):
We do that all across the all over the country
right now, working with different you know, utility districts, different
developers and different types and sizes of projects from fifty
kilowatts to or maybe like you know, half an acre
to you know, ten thousand acres of you know what
these projects could look like. You know, kind of going

(18:34):
forward with our development side, we definitely want to expand that.
I think we we we're always strategic and where we're
expanding with recent legislature, there's an area that you know,
we just have to be strategic about. You know what
that expansion looks like. You know, I know that you know,
we're still looking closely into into other markets, but right

(18:55):
now our focused uh Central Virginia, Central Maryland, Eastern Shore
Maryland and really helping kind of create those local opportunities
and being able to point to you know, an operating
system and say, hey, we did that, this is what
you can do on your farm. And you know, we
know that. You know, farmers, you know they want to
they want to be there to see and touch you know,
what you have to offer, right and you know, we're

(19:17):
working like hell to get that first system up up
and running so that you know, we can we can
show that as a hub of hey, this is what
we've done in the community and really expanding those local
opportunities before you know, approaching you know, a brand new
market where we have to create brand new resources in.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, I want to follow up on something and that's
the education. And as our listeners and myself are being
educated about what you do when you offer up, I
imagine that farmers have to be educated. And there's another
misnomer out there that people like me lives in an
urban area that thinks that, you know, farmers are all
hicks and they have no idea.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
It's just not the case folks today.

Speaker 3 (19:56):
If you ever watch a farmer being interviewed, especially about voting,
about what they do, they are brilliant people, especially what
they do. With that said, though you know, I know
solar has been around for a while, but with that said,
once again, it's still probably new technology about especially if
it's going to take over several acreages of their farm
depending on what they do and they produce. With that said,

(20:18):
when you reach out to somebody or they reach out
to you, talk about the education and the process about
where it goes depending on their knowledge of it and
what you know and how you guys come together as partners.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yeah, and everybody wins.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Sure. Yeah, I'll start with farmers are some of the smartest,
most innovative group of people in this country. We would
not be able to operate every day as a society
without farmers. And because of those qualities, it's not difficult
to present a new innovative idea.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
They're always looking to get better, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
They're always looking for the upper hand, you know, or
like it's competitive exactly exactly, or you know, being able
to boast, you know, to their neighbor that hey, I
got this thing that's that's helping me do do X,
Y and z. But you know, one I think, you know,
just also with the I think one of the more

(21:16):
attractive things with you know, some of the just low
margins that comes with commodity you know, commodity crop farming.
When you look at the average soybean, corn wheat rotation,
you know, typically you know, from a profit standpoint, maybe
you can get fifty to one hundred and fifty dollars
an acre from that. You know, when we come in

(21:38):
and we're able to offer around a fifteen hundred dollars
per acre you know, lease rate, it just becomes very attractive.
Where now you know, we phrase that in a in
terms of you know, this is not only going to
age your agriculture. But now you know, you have thirty
five forty thousand dollars a year for the next forty
years where you can invest back into your farm. You

(21:59):
can you know, pay off that tractor that you you know,
put a loan on five years ago. You know, you
can buy some new equipment that's going to help you
farm in a different way. That's you know, now you're
less worried about you know what that margin looks like
and you can't do something more innovative. You know, we
we try to solve farmer problems and really ask the

(22:20):
questions and not fit our solution into every farm. You know,
there's an instance where, you know, we were talking to
a farmer and you know, they were really the one
thing they needed that was going to get us over
the hunt. They're like, hey, we we need irrigation install
but we can't afford it right now. Well, you know
we're going to be digging up some dirt during construction,

(22:41):
and part of that is also kind of our irrigation assessment,
kind of working hand in hand with the farmer there
to understand what that agricultural plan is going to look
like under the system. And you know what's what's going
to be the need, the water needs, the resource needs,
the fertilizer needs, all of that. And if it comes
out that hey, like you know, what we're proposing is

(23:02):
going to need a certain element and maybe that's irrigation. Okay, Yeah,
we can install drip irrigation while we're doing all this
other stuff in construction, and it's not really that much
of a burden to us. And that's you know, free
of cost to them. You know, we're not asking farmers
to pay a dollar of anything. Even when we're negotiating leases.

(23:23):
You know, we're typically covering some of the legal fees
that you know, a farmer wouldn't take there.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
So I'd also like to think two justs in general terms, Miles,
that the way the industry is right now and the
world is right now in twenty twenty five, the most
farmers are very open to a lot of new ideas
and not necessarily specifically working with you in Savannah, but
what your industry offers, because they do have.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
To get better. But it's hard out there right now.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
And whether you're a white a black farmer, and by
the way, there's a ton of black farmers out there
in Middle America, believe it or not, folks or where
there really are. They have their own coalition. It's a
big deal. Miles and Savannah know all about this. But my
point is is that it is really difficult out there
right now, and there we see a lot of people
losing farms. Yeah, and I imagine that when you watch it,
it's just got to be a freaking Greek tragedy.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
What's happening right now?

Speaker 3 (24:14):
But I know you're there to help, but maybe just
go into that the openness of farmers looking for anything
not only to save their farm, but to get better
and make some money too.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah. Yeah, And that's that's spot on most conversations we
have with farmers. Are you know, Hey, I'm I'm land rich.
I have you know, one hundred plus acres in this county.
You know I can make you know, I have these relationships.
I can make things shake. But you know this this
uh you know, housing development, Uh just just called me

(24:45):
for for some acreage and you know, I'm that's that's
a really attractive offer. And they're a competing interests, right
and in order to keep our farms active, there has
to be, you know, an incentive and value proposition for
those farmers a lot of times because now kind of
what you know, they're being offered by several different industries.

(25:05):
You know, to do anything on the farm just for
the land access is more profitable than actually farming there.
So how do you use the irony of it?

Speaker 3 (25:13):
All?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Right?

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Right?

Speaker 1 (25:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:15):
So how do you combine continued farming with increased economic opportunity?
For that for that farmer and for us it looks
like agrivoltaics and you know, deploying solar spacing out the
rows a little more so you can still continue to
produce agriculture and you know it's not at risk of

(25:35):
erosion from other forms of development.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
A couple of things I want to talk about. I
want to hear a great story. I know that the
company is fairly new, a year and a half in everything,
but I'm sure you've got a handful of really great
game changing stories. And this is kind of why we
get up every day to change lives out there. So
I didn't want to talk about that, but I always
tell people that when you're in an exciting business, whatever
you're doing, it's not always unicorns and rainbows all the time.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
When you own a business, And.

Speaker 3 (26:01):
With that said, you know the industry, I don't know
a lot about it, you do, But what kind of
challenges are presenting themselves right now? And I realize I
want prefaces that every time I talk to somebody like you,
I know, things hinge on a new an administration and
how the government rolls that way. But overall, there are
some things that stay the same. There's always been a
challenge for farmers for hundreds of years going back about

(26:23):
just developing the crops, getting them out there and getting
paid properly. But as you see in your business right now,
what kind of challenges are presenting you and your clients
directly right now.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah, that's a great question. That's a great question. There
are obviously, you know there there's the political kind of climate.
Sure that is cyclical, right there, it is, you know,
so you know, some days we're we're up, some days
we're we're down right kind of like life like life,

(26:56):
like life, But you know, it's it's pretty pretty net
even at the end of the day. You know, I'd say,
I'd say one of the challenges is, you know, communicating
the why and the how this is going to work.
You know, this is a little more complex operational, This
has a little more operational complexities in a traditional solar project.

(27:17):
You have more stakeholders. You have a farmer inside of
the fence line of an electric elect uh an electrical
producing system, electricity producing system. Typically financiers who are you know,
putting in the construction capital and the tax equity. They
don't want to invest in a project that is going

(27:40):
to have additional liabilities with another party. So being really
careful about, you know, how we're defining this agricultural plan,
making sure that our financing partners, these asset owners are
on board with all of that, on understanding hey, how
this can really seamlessly work for you know, thirty plus years,

(28:03):
and also ensuring that hey there's a there's a distribution
market for those crops that are going to be grown
under that array. A lot of times we will work
with a farmer who is historically farmed soybean, hay corn,
you know one example of and we can we can

(28:24):
get to that. But typically typically we look at farming
different types of crops in that system and sometimes bringing
in our own tenant farmer to do that, so which
who would be local, so things that work really well
with these systems. Berries raspberries, blackberries, strawberries. A lot of

(28:44):
berry farmers are putting up you know, really expensive trellises
for shade, and it's like, hey, we'll pay you for
the shade and you keep doing your operation and we'll
design around, you know, any equipment you have, and you
know how tall your trellis is? Would you know whatever
that looks like? But gords as well, pumpkin squash, zucchini, cucumbers,

(29:07):
you know, soybeans even worked. Well.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I know you're just hitting the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
But your learning curve for the farming industry what farmers
actually produce, must have.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Just blown you away.

Speaker 3 (29:16):
How much you had to take in informationally.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Oh man, Like I knew nothing about agriculture before really
starting starting this thing. And you know what makes us
unique is we've had to be half of our team
are agricultural science.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Is that right? Yeah? Yeah, well smart I get it.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
We have a chief agricultural officer who's worked on a
ton of these projects in Europe who I met through
a program at Yale named You're who uh you know
literally has a master's and plants Masters of Science and
plant science from getting Beginnegan University, which is the largest
agricultural institute in the world, so just you know, having

(29:54):
someone that has that level of knowledge. You know, we're
working with the contractor now, Jeff Sanchez, who's just been amazing.
He's doing a lot of acrobatic studies at Purdue doing
his PhD there. And then our business development manager, Max Is.
You know, he has a master's degree in agribusiness, you know,
and has sold you know, residential systems and understands solar

(30:18):
as well.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
So you know, your storytelling about your staff and people
you work with is a great example something we learned
in this series. I always hear from entrepreneurs and CEOs
and people their own companies usually tell me I'm not
the smartest person in the room. Oh I'm and I
hire smart people to do things that I have no
clue about so we can succeed. And this is a

(30:40):
great example of hiring people that specialize in something and
that are brilliant at him and that's how you put
a team together that we'll talk a little bit more
about leadership, but it's the same familiar story that you know,
I hire great people so we can succeed.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, yeah, Yeah, We've been really fortunate with the early
hires we've made, especially since we're such a small team
and everybody has a huge impact, right yeah, even I
mean we even have an intern from from Yale this summer,
and I'm like, I am officially the dumbest person on
this call.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
That's okay, I get exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Everybody's got their strength. So I want to talk about
a great story, and I think you were going to
allude to one. I know it's only been a short
time with the company being around, but I imagine that
there already been some lives that have been changed in
a very positive way. You don't have to give any names,
any specifics, but is there a story And I kind
of alluded to it's that this is why we get
up every morning, kind of story about it was life changing.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Can you share something with us?

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Sure? So you know one of our projects that's most
advanced without kind of saying any names or you know,
dropping any things, but it's in Richmond, Virginia, one maybe
two miles three miles away from where I grew up,
and it's just something that really hits close to home,
where you know, we're able to work with a local

(31:58):
farmer work with you know, not only a black landowner
and black family, but also you know, a black farmer
who has his own botanicals business, has his own agricultural plan.
You know what he wants to do under the array,
and you know we've you know, worked with him back
and forth to help him look at okay, you know,
project out potential yields and other things about how crops

(32:21):
will work in those environments. But it's just, you know,
it is a full circle moment for me, you know,
being able to you know, do a project that's so
close to home and also you know, help a historically
black owned farm. Back in the nineteen forties, this farm
was an area for i won't say delinquent, but kids

(32:47):
that that would get in trouble. Often they were taken
to the farm to learn how to you know, ride horses,
how to farm, how to you know, do different styles
of cultivation, how to maintain the land. And so this
farm has been around for you know, almost a century
and for us to extend that legacy, you know, with

(33:08):
a type of system like this that the landowners are
really bought in, bought in on and you know, we
have a plan in place for it and there's you know,
community support, county support. It's just a really full circle moment.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (33:20):
I can tell it means a lot too, and I
think it's great. That's something I want to ask you about.
And you know, in the years I've been working in television, radio, sports,
I have talked to celebrities and sports stars and da
dah da da da da da. And every time I
ask them and think about what I'm asking them about
them being them, they're inside a looking glass and they
don't see the world like I do. I saying, oh,

(33:42):
you're cool, you're a quarterback of an NFL team, or
cool you're been in a rock band for thirty years.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
What's that like?

Speaker 3 (33:48):
Right right, I'm geeking out. I'm a fan boy because
I can't do that. I look up to them. I'm
a big fan. Da da da da da. But I
imagine the same because I've talked to many people like you, Miles,
who have been a minority owner of a company and
done extraordinary things. And I'm going to make a constructive
guess that there are not a lot of people of
color in specifically your industry.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Of what you do.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
With that said, you just related a story talking about
a black farmer, and I imagine there was a lot
of synergy and I thought, I'm sure that farmer thought
that was cool too. But still, you know, there's going
to be a lot of people of color that are
looking up to you and Savannah saying, you know what,
I didn't know that that industry allowed me to do
that as a person of color. And I don't know
if you run into young people yet that are seeing

(34:30):
what you guys are doing some really incredible work out there.
But I got to tell you, man, it's got to
impress on people of color that you guys have started
this extraordinary life changing company. And I'm curious about you know,
when you hear people like me talk about it. I'm
an old white guy, but still I'm impressed.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
I think it's cool.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
There's got to be more opportunities, but you're starting something
is pretty special. So my question, does that impress upon you?

Speaker 1 (34:54):
And Savannah?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
We get that a lot. Yeah, I mean even Roseverse,
but you know what I'm talking about, Yeah, it's totally totally.
I came into iHeartRadio today and you know, you're talking
about partnerships with the commanders, getting the helmets and all
that stuff. I'm getting excited, you know, geeked out. Ye,
but that's just the day in the life for you guys.
But no, we we do get, We do get some

(35:16):
of that attention and some of that you know, have
folks reach out on LinkedIn and definitely encourage you know,
anybody who you know wants to learn more about our stories.
You know, we're happy to have a quick chat and
you know, help help you along the way. You know,
you're entrepreneurship journey. But you know, I I you know,
I extend I try to extend my hand as much

(35:38):
as possible. Tomorrow I'll be at uh middle school in
high school talking about you know, kind of entrepreneurship.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
That's great that you're doing that to young people out there,
once again, showing them that anybody can start by company,
whatever passion here is. I guess my point was, and
I can't put myself in their shoes. But for that
black farmer that was in the Richmond area when he
finally saw you, he said, all right, yeah, this is cool.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
As human beings, it doesn't matter. You know, we all
want to relate, you know, we want a simple acknowledgment.
Some acts of kindness, and we want to be able
to relate. And I've noticed that with anything, whether it's
my personal life, my professional life, we want to be
able to relate.

Speaker 1 (36:18):
And I just I think.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
It's cool what you and Savannah and your team are doing.
So that's why I want to bring that up and
talk about that. I do want to do this. We
are going to give the website and we're going to
talk about the future, but I do want to talk
about leadership. While the company is small, it's obviously you've
hired the best of the best and the brightest minds
that are on your team right now. When it comes

(36:39):
to leadership and running a company with you, Savannah and
your team, I realize your journey, Miles is specific to you,
but there's a lot of people in this series, especially
the young people we've been referring to, about maybe the
thought about starting a company one day and about how
do I lead it, how do I start it, how
do I execute things? And there's going to be failures
out there. I'm scared of that doors closing on me

(36:59):
for whatever for a reason. But when we talk about leadership,
we talk about team, we talk about culture, we talk
about passion, all things that you have talked about today,
and I'd like you to talk a little bit more
about leadership and what it means to you and not
only as a person, but also starting a company too.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Yeah, yeah, not only It's the probably the scariest thing
I've ever done, you know, leaving you know, something really stable,
to go venture off and try something new and now,
you know, having other people's livelihood be tied to your success.
You know, it's it's scary, but it's also one of

(37:37):
the most fulfilling things that I've done. It has allowed
me to be my full self every day, be able
to set the tone, you know, try to produce this
this culture and environment that's you know, supportive of our
team but allows us to move quickly and you know,
with agility as well. And it's been a learning process.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
You know.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Being an entrepreneur is so valuable because you will learn
at a rate that you never thought you could. I've
probably learned more in the last year that I than
i have in the last six years, just because it's
there is no department that does that for you. You
do it or it doesn't get done, you know, especially
when it was just me and Savannah for a year

(38:21):
before we had a team, right that that's a different
level of consistency and you know, kind of building the
infrastructure so that you can bring people on. Yeah, so
we've learned a lot about you know, what's you know,
what works for our leadership styles, what our leadership styles are.
You know, Savannah is a little more you know, reserved,

(38:44):
and she's you know, I would say she's a lot
more in tune with her emotions and you know, is
able to come to a meeting and you know be like, hey, Jim,
how are your kids? How's your family? And I'm the
one that's like, what are the numbers? Jim? You know,
this is this project going to work or no? But
you know what that'stful balance it is and.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
And that's with a relationship personally or even a working
relationship like you have with Savannah. It's about dividing in
concreting and going with your strengths. And also my other
takeaways you were kind of talking about leadership is that
you know, you said you were scared, and I've heard
that a lot in this series too, but you know what,
you took a leap of faith and you've got to
take chances. I every entrepreneur I've talked to without question

(39:27):
one hundred percent says I had to take a leap
of faith and you just have to go ahead and
run a play because if you don't, you're really going
to fail. But you're going to fail anyways, but you
got to keep on pressing ahead if you really believe
in whatever you're doing out there. So that's kind of
what you were talking.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
About exactly, and that bleeds to the team as well.
If they see your confidence and.

Speaker 4 (39:49):
People can read you exactly, that's a small team like
yours exactly right right, if they if they see that, you.

Speaker 2 (39:55):
Know it's all going to work out in the end.
That alleviates any you know, any potential.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
I couldn't agree more with you miles of that.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
So it's really important that you know, leaders and organizations
have the same show up with the same you know,
consistent smile, show up with the same consistent messaging, and
are transparent throughout the process too. You know, we have
a small team. When things negatively impact the company, they
know about it. When things positively impact the company, they
know about it in the same timeframe and just you know,

(40:23):
creating that level of trusts where you know we're all
in this together. You know. We know we can't do
this alone. That's why we have a team, right I.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
You know, I'll leave people with one thing because I
always like to use my own experiences too. In the
thirty years I've been in radio and television sports is
that when I was a young manager, I said what
people thought they should hear, what they wanted to hear.
Learned very quickly mitigate a disaster because it always comes
back to bite you because you really don't mean you're
saying it to please them.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
I have learned over.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
The years, folks, to be appropriately candid and if you
can do that with some kindness, but also just tell
people the truth because in the end, as hard as
it is to hear, they just want you to be
appropriately candid so we can move on. It might be
a tough pill to swallow, but whether you're running a company,
whether you're a manager, you're talking with your workmate, be
appropriately candid and that will go so far with people.

(41:15):
And that's kind of what you were talking to you rather.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Be diagnosed with stage two or stage four exactly exactly. Yeah,
I can tell you now, and you know we can make.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
A yeah, quite well. Taken. Yeah, well, I'd like to
do this.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
I want to get some final thoughts from me and
let's give the website to everybody in just a second.
But let's recap what we've talked about, kind of capitalizing
the company. What you're doing now going forward miles the
floor of yours.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Yeah, you know, we're excited to expand this opportunity to
you know, co locate agriculture and solar across kind of
the d m V, you know, and the near term.
You know, we're working to develop these projects on eighteen
farms right now and are looking to expand that. You know,
we work with local agricultural communities, local ac office is

(42:01):
you know, ask your ask your local ag office if
they know of Okavate, if they heard of Okavate Okavate before,
you know, and we we just really want to continue
to create that rapport of farmers so you know, they
understand the landscape that when someone comes in and you know,
offers them a lease for solar development, they also know
that that's not the only option you have for solar

(42:23):
And I think that you know, is really just we
we want to extend this learning opportunity of you know,
what is possible for farms in this area for that,
you know, additional economic opportunity. So you know, we're we're
really excited to carry this thing forward, and you know
we have the right team in place to do that.

(42:44):
So yeah, it's huge shout out and thank you to
our partners that have been able to make this happen.
The Schmidt Family Foundation has been really supportive of our
work and allows us to uh kind of move a
lot of these projects forward as well as kind of
you know, we're really fortunate to have a good advisory

(43:04):
board as well. A lot of you know, one of
the example Soul Systems where I was at for a
couple of years before starting this thing. Uh, the CEO
there Uri Horo. It sits on our our board and
has been instrumental in kind of helping us with with strategy.
Jamani Ponder, uh, Carla Tully, you know those Gilbert Campbell,

(43:25):
those folks have been really essential to you know, helping
helping expand how we're thinking about this this solution. And
at the end of the day, you know, we want
to create opportunity, economic opportunity for farmers and empower U
farming communities standing and you know that's that's what we
planned it.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
It's a great message. You've got a beautiful website. Whoever
designed it, they did a great job. It's easy to navigate,
but it is beautiful. What's the u r L for everybody?

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Sure? Www dot okavate O k O V A te
uh like innovate dot com. So www dot okavight dot
com and shout out to Earthling Digital for creating our beautiful.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
Webs It's it's really quite nice. Listen.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
I you know, kudos to you, Savanna and your team.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Listen.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
I only know enough to be dangerous about your industry,
but I love tech and I always want to get better,
and especially in the United States. You know, I'm a
proud American, and uh, I know times of change, and
I know we're living in a bizarre climate right now.
But farmers are lifeblood and people don't know that they
need a giant wake up call because they're not only
feeding us, they're feeding the world. And it's a really

(44:36):
big deal out there, and it's hard for them right now.
There's a lot of farms being lost out there. So
you and Savannah and your team are just you know,
you're changing things for the more. The better, more positive.
It's gonna take a lot more education, and it's a
perseverance by you and your teammates, but I think you're
gonna get there. I'm just very excited for you guys,
and I really appreciate your valuable time and I'm really glad.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
We could feature you on CEOs you should Know. Continued success.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Thank you so much, appreciate the appreciate them.

Speaker 3 (45:02):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs you
should Know as part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive,
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.