Legends Solar | Online solar investing

@rrhoover Great question. We are working with a number of finance partners to identify solar facilities to sell onto Legends Solar. We are also deciding on the financial structure of the investment. We want it to be simple an intuitive, and most of all transparent - just like our brand and UI. Unlike Robinhood or other brokerage apps, we actually design everything from the UI and experience to the structure of the security itself. My background is in product design and I bring that ethic to everything we do. I think a lot of fintech products start with the flawed assumption that their users want to be like little mini hedge funds. We know better. A number of factors could effect the return, and the ROI might be slightly different for different projects. For example, a solar farm that sold to a utility grid would earn only a few cents per KwH generated. But a farm that sold power to a factory or hospital could charge significantly more. The rub is that the utility grid is much lower risk than the private commercial power customer. In the future, we might get into origination, meaning that Legends Solar investors would put up cash for new projects that have not yet been built. In that case, the investor will take on some construction risk but potentially experience a stronger return. 7.3% is a benchmark that I think is a reasonable target for our first offering, it is intended for context, and should not be mistaken for a promise. Once our first product is ready for launch, we'll include a detailed pro forma with information on risk profile and a more formal estimation of projected ROI.

@lassor_feasley appreciate the detailed response! Once you get to that point, I think it would be helpful to provide more details on the model and success stories to give potential investors more confidence. I've looked at several alt investing opportunities and hesitate to participate for those exact reasons. It's hard to trust marketing copy. :)

@rrhoover Totally... we are about half a year into building this, and earning trust and credibility is top of mind. We actually took a trip down to DC to interview one of our accredited solar panel investors last Thursday so that we could feature him on our blog.

@sowmya_iyer1 Thanks Sowmya - part of what inspired me to start taking this concept seriously is that more and more people are conscientious about the way they invest. They wanna know what is behind their savings and if the businesses they own through them are in accord with their values. No matter what your politics are, you'll always know exactly what you own on Legends Solar.

@muccy It probably will be! It depends on a few technical details. We are currently selling tax advantaged panels to accredited investors - you'll have to have US income to take advantage of that, but it's possible. I don't see a reason why our non-tax advantaged 'retail' product would not be available internationally, but I will have to work with out attorneys to know for certain.

@muccy @lassor_feasley Hope to hear more about allowing the international community to invest in this. This is great! Thanks.

@elias_vandeputte For sure, Product Hunt has a fairly international audience, and the interest from abroad has opened our eyes to the possibility of going global sooner than we thought!

@adam_blumenthal We plan to be up and running within a few quarters. You'll be able to buy a single panel, or a whole rooftop's worth!

@juhaszhenderson 🌕🌕🌕