For a virtual case study in the power of GSM networking, look no further than Octus Energy. Davis-based Octus specializes in reducing energy use for its clients by applying an array of tools and approaches, from lighting and HVAC retrofits to smart energy automation and creative project financing. “We try to cut a building’s utility bill in half,” says alumnus Chris Soderquist ’98, CEO and president of Octus. The company recently licensed Wickool, a passive evaporative cooling technology from UC Davis that promises to pay for itself in three years through energy savings. Within five months of the first napkin sketch, Wal-Mart was trying it out atop a West Sacramento store and it’s now installed on a Target retail store’s roof-top air conditioners. “It wouldn’t have happened without the UC Davis Western Cooling Efficiency Center and without the GSM,” says Soderquist. The company has a distinct Davis flavor to it. “We have five GSM grads out of seven people at the company… because of our networks.” On top of that, several of the GSM connections also have been—or still are—involved in other local start-ups that grew out of the Big Bang! or other university programs. “The greatest
untapped asset the GSM has is its alumni and their networks,” Soderquist says. Also on the Octus team is GSM alumnus John Argo ’04, who is director of energy projects. He entered the Big Bang! competition in January 2005, teaming with UC Davis Professor Pieter Stroeve and researcher Ruxandra Vidu. They took second place with their development of ultra-efficient solar power panels based on nanotechnology. The resulting West Sacramento company, known as Q1 NanoSystems and later as Bloo Solar, has an exclusive license for the UC Davis technology and is working with a partner to commercialize it. “Our first invitation from venture capitalists [to discuss financing] came as a result of Big Bang!,” Argo says. At the beginning he “didn’t have any of the contacts that were necessary to succeed in an entrepreneurial enterprise.… By mid-summer [2005] I had a complete network.” Another Octus team member, who also worked with Argo at Bloo, is Mananya Chansanchai, a 2009 GSM graduate. She was an emerging venture analyst at the EEC and worked with engineering Professor Bassam Younis, Elisabetta Lambertini, Yong Kim and James Bui on a wastewater treatment system using ultraviolet light. The team won the 2009 Big Bang! Business Plan
Team Octus: Atop the UC Davis Western Cooling Center with a small-scale example of Wickool—a passive evaporative cooling technology for commercial rooftop HVAC units licensed from the university—are members of Davis-based start-up Octus Energy. Several are GSM alumni: (from left) George Ecker, CFO and director; John Walter ‘92, senior manager, smart energy products; John Argo ‘04, director, energy projects and finance; Mananya Chansanchai ‘09, energy services program manager; and Chris Soderquist ‘98, president, CEO and director. “We try to cut a building’s utility bill in half,” Soderquist says of the company’s approach, which includes energy-efficient lighting, HVAC retrofits, smart-energy automation and creative project financing.
Competition and formed UltraV, which is working to license the technology and develop a prototype to test at the UC Davis wastewater treatment plant. “The whole point of the Big Bang! is to get technology out into the market,” Chansanchai says. Soderquist sees UC Davis as rich in the expertise, technologies, networks and relationships needed to become a hotbed for clean tech. And Dean Currall notes that a reputation for world-class science and connections with government will attract more financial and social capital to seed start-ups. “It would be difficult to argue,” Soderquist says, “that there’s a better place to build a company in the cleantech area… than Davis.” U C D av i s G raduat e S chool of M anag e m e nt • 5