Naming a company is a hard thing. It is difficult enough to come up with a name that captures the essence of your vision, but it’s even harder when you need to find a name with a .com domain available. Nate and I had explored many avenues. Pretty much any word in the dictionary (even most foreign words) is taken. We started doing “mash-ups” by taking two words and putting them together. We tried to use words that expressed some aspect of our vision. We focused on ideas like “green”, “environment”, “connected”, “smart”, “energy”, etc. We tried mashing up English words, foreign words, Latin words, but nothing sounded good and had the domain available.

Finally, Nate came up with something we both liked which had an available .com domain. So we plan to name our company:

Aptility

The basis for the name was the Latin word “aptus”. It can mean both connected as well as suitable. It is the root of the English word “apt”, which also has multiple meanings including “smart”. Of course the suffix for the name is “utility”. So Aptility is sort of smart/connected utility. Once we decided on the name, I immediately registered the .com, .net, and .org domains. For the moment there’s nothing on the page except a “Under Construction” notice on ZoneEdit (where it is currently parked). Next up is a logo design…

Technorati Profile

After exchanging a few emails, I met up with Nathan at a Starbucks in Oakland. It turns out he’s been looking for someone with experience in developing electronic devices and software. We seems to hit it off. It was interesting to find out we not only both attended the same university for undergrad (Carnegie Mellon), but we both played rugby there as well! What a small world. We’re planning to get together again next week to continue our discussion.

I have been interested in the green/clean technology market for quite a while, but I was not sure how to get involved. The problem I was facing was that my work experience did not seem to lend itself to any of the typical green tech disciplines: biofuels, fuel cells, solar cells, etc. I just wasn’t sure what I could do. Then I heard about the California Clean Tech Open (CCTO). It’s a business plan competition focused on green/clean tech related business ideas. It sounded like the perfect thing for me, but I still didn’t know what to do.

It turns out the CCTO was sponsoring a Technology and Entrepreneur Matching Event. The idea was a bunch of people interested in starting green businesses would meet up with a bunch of researchers with green technologies. The event was held at SRI in Menlo Park on June 4, 2007. It sounded like a perfect opportunity for me to find something to work on.

I was disappointed with the event for the most part. I guess I was expecting a bunch of guys showing of their cool, green technologies trying to connect with an entrepreneur partner. It turned out to be mostly research institutes (SRI, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, PARC, Sandia, EPRI, UC Davis and Stanford) talking about all the technologies they had to license and a bunch of entrepreneurs looking for money. There must have been at least 10 guys there from calcars.org promoting their plan to take their plug-in hybrid non-profit into the commercial sector.

I had almost given up hope, then I met one guy, Nathan, who was talking about his research project from UC Berkeley. He was using wireless sensor networks to improve the home thermostat by making it more efficient while at the same time improving comfort. I had been thinking about using wireless networks to monitor electrical consumption in the home, but this application could provide real financial value by saving the user money on their electric and gas bills. I chatted with the guy for a bit, but then I was shoved aside by the more aggressive entrepreneurs in the crowd.

I went home disappointed.

I am continuing my investigation into green technologies and potential related careers. There are many different technologies in areas such as monitoring and conservation, alternative fuels, power generation, power storage, transportation, etc. Many of these areas require completely different experience from my career in semiconductors and consumer electronics. Most of my hardware experience in ASIC and logic design falls short of the device level physics and materials knowledge required in some of these areas. A lot of the fuel and transportation technologies center more around chemical and mechanical engineering. There are a few opportunities with embedded control systems and more general project management. This is my current focus for now.

There are more and more venture capital funds focusing on green technology, clean energy, etc. There are even some non-profit entities such as the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) receiving funds from the likes of PG&E. One of the biggest hurdles seems to be the federal governments close ties to the fossil fuel and transportation industries. Without a strong commitment from the US government, I’m afraid the industry will not move as quickly as it could. In the mean time countries like Germany have enacted Renewable Energies Laws which have stimulated huge growth in their solar industry. At least some states are starting to take action such as California’s Green California program. How do we get the federal government to follow suit?

In the mean time, the San Jose peregrine falcons are doing well. It is fun to watch Jose and Clara feeding and protecting their three chicks on the webcam. They seem to be doing a pretty good job. The chicks are getting bigger each day. They are starting to look like baby birds rather than boneless lumps of white fluff. I haven’t had a chance to spot the falcons during my visits to downtown, but I hope to do so. I’ll be especially interested watching them when the chicks start to fledge.

Lately I’ve become more and more interested in the environment and green living. I have been interested in nature for many years (at least since I moved to Northern California in the early 1990’s). I am also very interested in wildlife (as demonstrated by my wildlife photo gallery). As such, I guess I consider myself green at heart, but it’s not always easy to live green. I often have trouble reconciling my greenness with my desire to live well. On the one hand I would donate to charities such as the World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and National Parks and Conservation Association, but on the other hand I would drive an SUV (Ford Explorer), use halogen lights and leave the faucet running when I brush my teeth.

I have already been trying to live my life a bit greener over the past couple years. I try to be diligent about recycling. I’m more mindful about the amount of water I use. I drink tap water instead of bottled. I even traded in my Explorer for a Ford Escape Hybrid (pictured on right, more pictures here). I know it’s not the most efficient hybrid but it’s a start! Of course there’s still a lot more I can do, and I’m spending more time thinking about what those things might be. I guess that’s why I’ve started this blog: to help myself think about how I can increase my greenness. And who knows, maybe I’ll spark an interest in someone else (as if anyone reads my blogs).

Earth Day is only a couple days away. I guess I haven’t really thought much about it before. Maybe this year I’ll do something different. I’m not sure what that will be, but here’s a site from WWF with some ideas:
One big change I have been toying with is the possibility of changing my career to something in the “Green Technology” field. I’ve started to look into various Silicon Valley greentech companies to see if any have opening that I might fit. I think I’ve even sent my resume to one company called Bloom Energy. I say “I think” because their website is pretty blank, but I submitted my resume for a job posting on the site of one of their investors which I hope is for Bloom Energy. The only reason I ever heard of the company was from the April 16, 2007 issue of Newsweek. In it, the CEO of Bloom Energy, K. R. Sridhar, said the following with regards to the climate crisis:

“I’m not against conservation, but the idea that we can conserve our way out of this problem will not hold. If we want to tell the generation that comes after us that they’ll be better off than we are, they will need to consume more energy and not less. And the country that figures out how to make that happen will be the leading economic power in the 21st century.” [more]

I believe in this. We need to find better ways to do things, not just do less. This realization helped fuel my current interest in a career change. Unfortunately I have not heard anything back from Bloom Energy so far and as it turns out my experience in consumer electronics and EDA don’t help a whole lot in most greentech fields like solar energy, biomass and fuel cells. I’ll keep looking and I do have some ideas of my own.

By the way, while I was looking for a new career, I may have found my next car, the Tesla Roadster:
This car is totally cool and totally electric! Click on the banner below for more info:
Now if only I can find a green tech job that pays me enough to afford it…