Welcome to The Fifth Fuel

Friends:

Welcome to my newest blog and parking lot for what's on my mind. Unlike previous blogging forays in which I've mused about topics such as family, living and working abroad and college football - this effort will be about my professional life, energy management, Software as a Service and entrepreneurship. Sound serious? Well, yeah, important topics all - but still expect lame jokes and sarcasm.

So at this point you are asking yourself, "Kent..." - which, unless your name is Kent, is a silly thing the ask yourself - "... what's with the goofy name for this blog? The Fifth Fuel? Pretty obscure and esoteric, don't you think?"

Although I've often considered myself an as yet undiscovered marketing whiz, I must admit that I did not come up with this provocative phrase. I in fact stole it from the marketing geniuses at my current company, Tendril Networks. Please read all about The Fifth Fuel at Tendril's Web site.

In case you actually made it this far without clicking on the above link and reading all about the The Fifth Fuel, let me cut to the chase and tell you that it's all about Energy Efficiency. With climate change well underway and carbon based fuel (fuel #1) prices reaching stratospheric levels folks of every stripe are now laser focused on creating solutions to the energy crisis. That's good, very good. And as a result, some very promising work is being done towards alternative forms of producing power - namely nuclear, wind and solar (fuels #2, 3 & 4). We must make progress on all of these fronts, and fast. However, the story does not end there. You see, solving the production end of the equation is only half the problem. The other half is all about reducing consumption via energy efficiency (fuel #5).

So that's what Tendril is all about. We want to help consumers to be informed and engaged in how and when they consume energy. We're building infrastructure, devices and software to enable just that. It's exciting and important. It's also fun.

I promise not to turn this blog into a Tendril marketing tool - it seems my peers have all of the tools they need. But I will talk about related topics and and the adventures of living the start-up dream. I hope some of you will come along for the ride.

Cheers,
Kent