It’s that time of year again. The time where houses start getting shiny and big meals are served. The time when holiday music is played at the malls and people travel to be close to friends and family. This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and keeping with tradition, we here at Uprise Energy would like to take a moment to acknowledge some of the things we are thankful for.

In the words of Uprise Energy’s CTO and co-founder John Knight:

It’s the time of year to remember what we are thankful for. And the list is long.
Being alive and healthy
Being with family and friends
Being a citizen of the USA, and living in San Diego
Working on an exciting project with an amazing team
Working on a project that will have a positive impact on millions of people around the world

On the top of the list is how great it is to be working in the renewable energy world right here and right now. We have traveled all over the world over the last few years, and this has opened our eyes to how much of the rest of the world lives. We are grateful to be key players in an industry that promotes humanitarian relief efforts.

We are grateful to the city of San Diego for providing us with access to park lands for us to set up and test our wind turbines.

We are lucky to share shop space with our friends at Naturescape.

We are thankful to other innovative tech companies who create the new technology we use to build our turbines. The technology that we leveraged to create our proprietary Dancing With the Wind was not even available until very recently. We would not have been able to build our turbines even a few years ago.

For a business like ours, exposure and recognition for our contribution to cleantech are so very important. There are some organizations which provided us with the opportunity to spread our message to a larger audience. We are thankful for these opportunities provided by:

Connect San Diego puts on the annual Most Innovative Product Award. This year Uprise energy was voted a finalist in the Cleantech category. This allows us to share the spotlight with other like minded companies to get the word out about how innovation is driving positive change the world.

Uprise Energy was also the recipient of a grant as part of the 2019 CASCADE subgrants from Connect w/ SDVG.
The San Diego Innovation Council put on the annual SDIC Innovation Showcase, and this year we had the opportunity to present our portable wind turbine product to a panel of international panel of investors and entrepreneurs. The event took place at Jlabs on November 7th.
In January, we were selected as one of the Top 10 companies shaping the Future of Energy and invited to participate in the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Our CEO Jonathan Knight made his presentation and made connections with people from around the world.
In March of 2019 we were guests of the PowurUp Podcast, part of the Powur Up series that features “Impactpreneurs.” We had a great time and got to spread the message about the importance of renewable energy to the world.
In early 2018, Uprise Energy was selected as part of Startupbootcamp 2018 Energy Australia cohort. Of 450 global applications, 11 companies in the smart energy industry were chosen to be part of a three month long event culminating with a “Demo Day” event where we were able to present to over 150 people at the world famous MCG.
We are a member of the Southern California Energy Innovation Network (SCEIN), a startup incubator for local cleantech companies developed by Cleantech San Diego. Marty and Alyssa with Cleantech San Diego have been great friends to Uprise Energy and have provided support to us in a number of different ways.
Uprise Energy was selected as a West Coast Finalist in the 2019 Entrepreneurship World Cup. The EWC is a “global platform for entrepreneurs to grow their business and to take it to the next stage through a continuous focus on training, tools and resources, advice and networking opportunities.” You can see our pitch here.
For the last two years we have been part of the Start Up Energy Transition SET 100. This is an award presented by German Energy Agency (dena) in cooperation with the World Energy Council. This provided us with the opportunity to go back to Abu Dhabi in September to make a presentation in the 24th annual World Energy Congress.
San Diego Startup Week is an annual event put on by Startup San Diego. We were invited to participate in the “Ask a Cleantech Entrepreneur” panel in May of this year.
EvoNexus is the premier cleantech incubator in southern California. Uprise Energy was part of the 2017 incubator program which provided us with access to mentors, industry experts, and investors. We also participated in the 2017 EvoNexus Demo Days competition where we were voted the winner.

Additionally, we are extremely thankful for the amazing people we have working for us. We have an exceptional team comprised of industry experts and master craftsmen, who also happen to be fun to hang out with. The pride they take in their work and their professional work ethic is evident in every turbine we produce.

We strive to cultivate a culture which encourages people to be their best. An environment where people enjoy coming to work every day and are motivated by the desire to make a difference in the world. Our core principles are those of integrity and fairness, and when this comes from a genuine place it becomes infectious. We couldn’t ask for a better team.

The friends and family of our team who support us in our efforts are very important to us as well. We would not be where we are today without them.

A message from Uprise Energy co founder and CEO Jonathan Knight:

Coming to work everyday is a pleasure; I’m surrounded by passionate people that are incredibly talented and we’re all driven by a higher purpose of making the world a better place. To be a part of such an important project that is positioned to make such a positive impact more than justifies the blood, sweat and tears that it took to get here. I’m also incredibly grateful to have such a smart, fair and creative business partner that also happens to be my dad. Add to that the support I receive from my amazing wife and a son who’s on a fast-track to be the next leader of the company, I couldn’t be more proud of what we have collectively created.

We also would like to pay respect to everyone who believed in us and supported us with financial assistance over the years. We appreciate the sacrifice and would not have made it this far without you. Please know that your generosity will make an impact in the world.

To finish up, a special shout out to our littlest team member: Taco – our “shop pup!”

We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable beginning of the holiday season!