As the daughter of a serial founder in the Silicon Valley, I hated technology.
- Mar 21
- 2 min read
As the daughter of a serial founder in Silicon Valley, I hated technology. Vintage clothes, mostly pulled from the free box at my co-op. I wrote all my first drafts long-hand. I was the kid who rolled her eyes at dinner-table talk about disruption and hockey sticks. I wanted nothing to do with any of it.
What Changed
What changed wasn't my opinion of tech culture. That's still complicated. What changed was my understanding of what technology can be when it's pointed at the right problem by people motivated by something other than the exit. I came to Bright Saver because of the mission — clean energy access for people who've been left out of the transition: renters, apartment dwellers, homeowners without the perfect roof or the right credit score. That's a values problem before it's a technology problem. The technology just happens to be the tool that can solve it right now.
What I Bring to This Work
I'm a co-founder at Bright Saver, and my role is shaped by the things I care about: community, trust, access, and what it actually takes to reach people who are skeptical of anything that comes from Silicon Valley. Because I was one of those people. The families we're trying to serve aren't waiting for a tech nonprofit to save them. They're making real financial decisions every month about how to keep the lights on. If we want to reach them, we have to show up with honesty, a product that genuinely works, and a price point that makes sense for their budget.
Why I Believe in Plug-In Solar Specifically
Here's what I've come to love about plug-in solar: it's radically simple. Four panels. A standard outlet. Forty-five minutes. No contractor, no electrician, no financing arrangement. The Bright Saver NEM GO kit costs $1,499 and pays back through electricity savings. I grew up watching technology get complicated for the sake of being impressive. Plug-in solar is the opposite. It's technology that gets out of the way and just works. That's the kind of technology I can get behind.
Visit brightsaver.org to see what we're building.