Trip to Digital Lumens

During the summer we (meaning LGOs) have made a few trips to local companies in the area. One of the companies that we visited was ENERNOC (see my classmate Maxine's post on the trip http://yangtothemax.blogspot.com/2013/08/enernoc-plant-tour.html).

We also went on a trip to visit Digital Lumens (DL) before the end of the summer semester (see http://www.digitallumens.com/). Joe (a former MIT Sloan MBA and the product manager at Digital Lumens) hosted us for our trip to DL. We learned about the founding of the company from one of the founders of DL. The founders came from Color Kinetics after the company was acquired by Philips. The first niche that the company found itself serving was in cold storage. DL's main product is a system of LEDs that are smartly controlled for industrial applications. In cold storage the lower heat out-put of the lights plus the smarter control of the lights led to a double savings for these customers.

In addition to a presentation by one of the founders, we had the opportunity to speak with their VP of sales and marketing. He told us that one of his biggest challenges was in defining his target customers. The titles of their customers ranged greatly from representatives, distributors, architects, facilities directors, etc... This is an interesting marketing and sales problem because DL really needs to reach customers that have budgetary authority in their companies. Often-times lighting and electricity use is not something that companies think through, so DL not only has to educate them about their products but also why these products would work for their particular use.

Lastly, we had a final session with Joe and a colleague of his that graduated from Cornell's MBA program. We had a chance to talk about careers in cleantech and startups. Working for a startup seems very worthwhile but it can be risky because jobs are not secure until right before graduation (at least for MBAs). They also gave us advice to network continually because we never knew where our next job would come from. As MBAs at Sloan we were humbled by the amount of time and attention the senior employees at DL provided for us. Thanks again DL!

Picture of Joe showing us one of DL's products. 

Another picture of Joe (Thanks Albert for taking the pictures!)