and I'm the cofounder and CEO of Solstice.

Sandhya: And I am Sandhya Murali,

cofounder and chief operating officer at Solstice.

And we are reshaping access to clean energy.

Steph: We live in a world right now

where solar is cheaper than fossil fuels,

and if people could just get access to it,

they could save on their utility bills.

Most Americans cannot actually put solar

on their own home.

And community solar is this idea

that you can buy a portion

of a neighborhood-shared solar farm

and switch to solar that way.

Sandhya: The biggest preconceived notions that people have

about going solar is that it's way too expensive

or it's way too complicated.

And what we're trying to do at Solstice

is tackle both of those misconceptions.

Steph: More than half the country

doesn't have that high credit score,

which means that we are locking them out

of the clean energy market.

So we created the EnergyScore.

There was a paper published last year

that showed that our energy score

is more accurate at predicting

whether people will pay their utility bills on time

and it's more inclusive of low-to-moderate income Americans.

Sandhya: The product that we've built

makes signing up for community solar incredibly simple.

And by doing this, you're helping to support

more local clean energy, helping to decarbonize our grid,

and you get to put a little money back in your pockets.

But one of our most exciting partnerships

was with a small town in upstate New York.

We've enrolled their residents

into a local community solar garden,

and through our community wealth-building program,

the town was able to raise enough money

to invest in motion-powered solar lights.

Steph: Good technology is crucial for our work lives

because we run a software company.

Sandhya: As the nature of our work changes

and people are operating more remotely,

we need to make sure we have the most portable tools

in order for our team to be successful and productive.

I personally really love the touch screen on the X1 Fold

and the fact that it can fold into a very portable device.

Steph: In my job, I'm traveling a lot.

And so it's really useful to have a computer

that can either be a tiny laptop or a big screen.

Sandhya:So I think we have actually very similar work styles

and we follow similar approaches

with the rest of our team.

Steph: In startups there's an overemphasis on the founders

and there's an overemphasis on financial capital,

but there's not enough of an emphasis on social capital

and building your network around your mission.

And so a lot of what we were trying to do

is put the community in community solar.