David Arfin: Innovating Finance for Triple-Digit Growth
David Arfin had “the bug” to do something great from the very beginning. Since graduating with degrees in Political Science from UCLA, a Masters in Public Policy from Claremont Graduate University and an MBA from Stanford, he immediately went the entrepreneurial route, starting CLE Group with money borrowed from family. While CLE was a decent success for a bootstapped startup and David’s entrepreneurial bug took over. , His next moving, a new start-up called Flywheel Communications, a web-based platform serving the practice of law. Here he successfully helped raise $10 Million in VC funds, and success during those go-go days of the internet seemed imminent.
Long story short, Flywheel was ultimately not to be, but again David maintained his resolve. His next venture, GlooLabs was quite successful, and ultimately was acquired by none other than Cisco Systems giving him another notch in his succss belt. And we was just warming up. Shortly after exiting to Cisco and living the high-life for a few months, David asked a local solar installer to stop by his home and give him a quote for a PV installation. He had always been interested in renewable energy, and believed that successful people should lead the movement toward cleaner, more sustainable energy sources. He was excited by the prospect of being a “do-er” rather than just a supporter.
Well, the pitch he got from the installer was nothing to write home about. He told David that it would take 33 years for the system to “pay him back” and that was not a very compelling value – to David or anyone of sound mind. What it did do however, was give David an idea…
Still feeling the Entrepreneurial “bug”, David founded yet another start-up, this one focused on providing compelling financing solutions to solar installers in California. He had done his homework, and discovered that if installers had the means to provide a monthly payment for solar systems, rather than asking for the full payment out of pocket, the economics became much more compelling to the buyers, and they could sell more solar – making a killing and saving the planet in the process.
It didn’t take long for David to draw a lot of attention – shortly after launching, he attracted the attention of Lyndon Rive, and none other than Elon Musk, founder of breakthrough companies SpaceX and Tesla Motors. They asked David to join them, offering the financial capacity to scale his leasing model faster than he ever thought imaginable. He agreed, and SolarCity is now one of the fastest growing companies in the solar industry. Tripling sales and doubling headcount for each of the past two years.
Think David Arfin is the kind of guy you could work for? Good news, SolarCity is hiring!
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