A personal note from Rupert Mayer, CFO

When I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010 and drove down Highway 101 for the first time, past all the billboards from the latest software companies, one of the last places in which I imagined myself another decade down the road was a machine shop.

I was always an engineer at heart. As a teenager, I built and repaired model trains, all sorts of radio-controlled vehicles, mopeds, and cars. I was a regular at the local hardware store and for years, my fingernails were constantly black from engine oil.

Then, after getting a master’s degree in industrial engineering, I ended up as a software entrepreneur and got absorbed in the world of business, finance, and law. All exciting and important, but also quite intangible.

By joining YouSolar, my career has come full circle – from my “down to earth” engineering roots through the abstract realm of software and now back to a world where real, tangible things are designed and made.

Rupert Mayer, CFO of YouSolar, on the factory floor in San Jose, CA

Visiting our local metalwork partner Group Manufacturing Services last week, I felt a sense of exhilaration at the sight and sound of CNC machines, lathes, presses, laser cutters and other heavy metal equipment that I had rarely seen in action since my Mechanical Lab days at university.

To build the all-renewable energy future, we have to move atoms, not bits. Lots of atoms. That’s what we do at YouSolar, proudly manufacturing and assembling our products in the heart of Silicon Valley.

I have found my new happy place.