Local Talent On A Global Scale: HR Strategies For Sustainability
An Open Letter from d.light Founders Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun
Sam Goldman
CEO, D.light Design
Dear d.light team,
We, along with Xian and our two other founders, created d.light to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people living without electricity. We have been blessed with all of you, who work tirelessly with us towards this vision and who have brought us from an idea and prototype at Stanford to a company serving millions of people in over 40 countries around the world. Since the beginning, we have been clear with our board and investors that at some point we would ask for a seasoned CEO to ensure that we meet d.light’s ambitious goals. That time has come, and the board has supported our request.
As a result, we are extremely excited to introduce you to our new CEO, Mr. Donn Tice. Donn is certainly no stranger to d.light; he has been a core part of the d.light senior team for many years. He was an advisor and mentor to the founding team back in early 2008 when we were based out of Mountain View, California, USA. Donn continued to be involved with d.light throughout our fundraising rounds and first product launches, and was officially elected as a board member in November 2008. He worked in partnership with the two of us to raise over $11M USD and grow from a team of 5 to 60 dedicated employees across four offices. Our partnership has increased over the years, along with Donn’s role and active participation in d.light. Donn became Chairman of the Board in 2010 and he will now serve as the Chairman and CEO.
Donn’s track record is formidable. He has led companies as an entrepreneur and CEO/COO for the past 15 years, creating $100+ million businesses and raising nearly $100 million in equity and debt capital. Donn founded Sustainable Solutions in 2006 to accelerate the growth of greentech portfolio companies; served as CEO of Nano-Tex from 2003-2006, at which he built a stain-resistant fabric technology into one of the first successful consumer nanotech businesses; and was CEO of Winterland from 1997-2002, growing sales from $30 million to $110 million.
Both of us look forward to working with Donn daily to scale d.light into a truly global company and undisputed world leader in the off-grid space, with a passion for serving base-of-the-pyramid customers through high-impact products and best-in-class operations, distribution, and marketing. The timing is just right. Last month, we hit an important milestone together: three million people globally are now experiencing the life-changing benefits of our products.
Our results are growing exponentially. It took us just over two years to reach our first one million lives impacted, eight months to hit the next, and in the last four months we hit anther million. We are looking forward to growing substantially this year. (Let me know if you have great ideas for a celebration at 5M!) All of you deserve to be recognized for making this happen. I hope you will find the time to congratulate and thank your families, partners, suppliers, distributors, and the entire extended d.light family, who have all worked so hard for this result.
As we celebrate, we also need to prepare for the future. The category is still immature, but the market is expanding extremely fast. We need to continue to work hard and focus on what matters. We want to deliver better and higher quality products on a more timely schedule to our distributors; we want to increase the range of solutions we can offer to our customers at increasingly lower price points; and we want to expand our distribution reach into new geographies and regions.
This focus will come through a strong leadership team, which has now been put into place. The two of us will continue to have seats on the board and will work together with Donn to guide the strategic direction of the company and drive the company to new heights. As the CEO, Donn will have direct reports for all functional areas and regions. Ned will report to Donn and will remain President & Founder, continuing in his role as d.light’s acting CFO and Rest of World sales & marketing manager. Sam will be in the innovative role of Chief Customer Officer, also reporting to Donn. Sam’s role will involve ensuring that customers remain active in co-developing d.light’s products, and that our customers’ views, values, and experiences are at the heart of the company. We are really proud that d.light is such a customer-centric company.
We end with a story of how our lights change lives. Our Human Centered Research Specialist, Ti el Attar, was recently in Nigeria speaking with a customer, Mr. Hassan Said. Mr. Said lives with his 22 children and 3 wives in Northern Nigeria. He is a civil servant and chicken farmer. Mr. Said initially bought two lamps for his chicken farm, then shortly purchased another three lamps for each of his three wives and one for himself. His 700-hen chicken farm has boosted its productivity by 300%. Giving his chickens light at night has caused them to eat more and lay more eggs. He used to earn $1.50 – $2/day selling eggs, and now earns $2.50 -$4/day, almost doubling his daily income. He also saves $1/day on kerosene and battery costs, and is putting the savings towards starting a small fish farm. There is certainly a brighter future for endeavoring entrepreneurs like Mr. Said!
Team, we are entering a new transition period not many social enterprises have ever reached. We strongly believe that this team is ready for this exciting change in leadership and major expansion in sales & distribution. We wish everyone in the company a great start to this new and exciting period.
Onwards,
Sam & Ned
