Hello and happy spooky season! We are here with another special, this time speaking with Vanessa Branco, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Sunbolt. On this episode, Vanessa shares a bit about herself, her 20 years of experience, marketing tips,advice for designers, and a bit about the Sunbolt company. Sunbolt, a company founded after Hurricane Sandy, creates solar workstations and charging solutions. For more information, the website can be found at https://gosunbolt.com.
As always, please enjoy the show!
TRANSCRIPT:
It’s time for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink.
20 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, &, Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So, I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Hello again everyone, and I hope you are all having a wonderful and happy spooky season! Today we are sneaking a Special before our big 50th episode coming out on Halloween. Today’s episode is an Interview with Vanessa Branco, as we discuss her career, design, and her work at her current company, Sunbolt. Before we dive into the interview, I am going to take a moment to introduce Vanessa and a bit more about Sunbolt. While she is currently the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, she currently has over 20 years of experience in Marketing and Advertising. She was educated at Adelphi University, and has worked with companies such as MIVA, Medifast, and her own company, and eventually joined up with the Sunbolt team. She is the Director of Carlo’s Legacy, which supports homeless veterans.
Now, many of you asked for me to also start including a little intro to the companies themselves, so let’s take a moment to talk about Sunbolt. As Vanessa will discuss later on in the episode, Sunbolt was created in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Jim Innes and Ian Jones saw the need for a renewable and off-grid energy source, as so many people lost power and were unable to call for help in the aftermath of the storm- something we are seeing again in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Coming together, they created what would become Sunbolt, an outdoor solar charging station incorporated in furniture. I have several images included on the site, like always, along with the link, that I have also included in the show notes. But with that, I am excited to welcome Vanessa onto the show.
INTERVIEW BEGINS
Hollywood
Hello and welcome to the show. First, as with all my interviews, I want to take a second and just introduce you to my listeners. Could you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your journey to your current role?
Ms. Branco
Sure. Thank you for having me. I’m Vanessa Branco. I currently am the chief sales and marketing officer at Sunbolt. Prior to joining Sunbolt in 2018, I was always in the marketing and advertising world. I started out at a company called was MIVA, but it was originally the section I was in was screensavers.com. So very early on, when people actually downloaded screen savers, we were the company that created them and design screen savers. So, speaking of design, this was designing screensavers and then, so I was in the digital advertising space pretty much the entirety of my career so far, and then I moved on to a weight loss category through an agency. So, I was handling publicly traded weight loss company there and then moved on to a baby mattress company, Newton Baby. They were one of my clients and I had a consulting company in the middle of this whole thing where I was helping brands expand their businesses online, but also startups who didn’t know the first thing about how they’re going to get started. So, I would either connect them to the right people, the right, you know, e-mail companies and you know. Everything from designers to developers and advertising mediums, then I am here at Sunbolt. Which is a completely different space for me. It’s renewable energy, we manufacture solar charging stations, and I’m sure we’ll get more into that, but that’s what I’m doing now. I love it. I’m managing the sales, the advertising, marketing, you know, anything kind of like from the frontline and then moving on to you know, creating and helping develop new products and pretty much wearing… any hat needed to get the job done and keep things moving forward.
Hollywood
Well then, since you’ve already segued so nicely, do you want to go ahead and introduce Sunbolt to everybody as well?
Ms. Branco
Well. Absolutely. So Sunbolt was created during the aftermath of Super Storm or Hurricane Sandy. So, we’re celebrating our 10-year anniversary this year, but we really were created based on a need that our founders saw. They saw the need. It was a very simple need, when there’s a natural disaster and the power is not there after a week or two, people need to go back to work at some point, right? The job the company still opened, and they saw the struggle that they were having to not only work- but connect with their loved ones, you know they had maybe cell phone coverage, but they didn’t have a place to charge their devices, and they were already in the solar business. So, they said we can create an extremely durable structure that will withstand hurricanes – that when the grid fails, there is something. That we’ll be able to charge laptops. Mobile devices have some lighting, but it was really just as simple a concept as that, and they created. One of the products that we still sell, which is our top seller of the CampusXL, and it became a business because the University of California Riverside wound up buying… what, they now have 22 of them. So, they knew that they had something there. From then on, they’ve continued to grow. Now we have 4 lines of product in the. And I came on in 2018 to, you know, increase their marketing efforts and we’re in 35 States and… then we’re well, in maybe 36 now, I forget if we have one state that we added, but we’re in Mexico, we’re in the US embassy in a country in Africa, Canada, Puerto Rico, Hawaii. So, you know, we’ve expanded our territory quite a bit.
Hollywood
Well, that’s really awesome. It sounds like you have such a diverse career- when you were stepping into this current role with this new product and everything, did you feel like it really prepared you in unexpected ways or did you, -do you feel like, you know, every like every moment was building up to it in your current position? I’m not sure if I asked that correctly.
Ms. Branco
I think I understand. I think you did. So basically, I- if you’re, if you love what you do, which – and by that I mean the advertising, marketing, creative aspect of it, seeing things flourish, if you will. I believe, that if you have a good product, it’s gonna sell, it’s gonna, it’s gonna sell itself. But you need that person to make sure people know it even existing in order for it to sell itself, right? And I knew that this was a very big challenge because at the time, renewable energy, solar, they were talking about it but it wasn’t as big, right? And when you see competition, it means that you’re doing something right, but there was really maybe one or two players that came out. So it was a big challenge, but it wasn’t a hard transition for me because there was a mutual connection. My former boss that I worked with for probably 15 years at that time was the one who recommended me for the position.
Hollywood
MHM.
Ms. Branco
He had worked with the CEO of Sunbelt at the time in a different area. So, when the Sunbolt CEO asked my former boss, ‘hey, do you know someone who can really take us to the next level?’ He recommended me, and that for me was like it. I trust everything he said and did. So, I was like, alright, I’m gonna sure I never heard of this in my life -completely new- but sure. I’ll look at it and see if there’s anything I can do. And I looked at it and I think when I started, I had no idea what I was marketing. I was just trying to like figure it out and market it at the same time. And I hope that did answer the question that I’m believing you answered.
Hollywood
Yes.
Ms. Branco
Yeah. So, it wasn’t. It was definitely challenging, but that challenge made me excited.
Hollywood
OK. No, thank you, that definitely answers my question. Your career sounds so amazing and diverse like all the different aspects that you’ve covered, especially you know just in design as a whole because it’s an aspect of design. I think as architects, we don’t really spend a lot of time in school learning about how to. You know how to market things, how to sell things like that’s not anything that architects work on at all. I mean, I only graduated two years ago, so I’m not an architect yet, but that wasn’t something that we covered until I got into a firm, and I was like, oh, wow, there’s suddenly so much more that you have to do.
Would you recommend anything for young designers? Is there any sort of-how would you encourage them to maybe not be like me and not know a lot about marketing? Before exiting the fields- exiting school. I’m sorry.
Ms. Branco
Yeah. So, it’s interesting you asked that question and I think I’m gonna go back to something. Just recently said in one of my meetings. We work with- he’s a he’s a designer, but he’s more on the developer side, right? He designed but he he’s more behind the scenes a bit and I love working with him because he knows how to. He understands the marketing side of it as well. Sometimes it’s very it’s very easy to get into the product part of it where you’re designing something. And in your opinion and whatever you’re designing you, you’re looking at it from, like a siloed standpoint. Like this looks great. You know, we we’re gonna make this green. I think this curved edge is gonna go this net, but without doing any market research or without understanding how this is going to be promoted. Like it looks great, but from a marketing standpoint, how is this going to be shared? Who’s the audience? What? What is the creative aspect going to look like? Is it going to fit well in other advertisements? You know, are the colors going to match or are they going to look like they’re just blending into another page, and no one pays attention to it? From a digital marketing stand.
But I like when designers have some sense of, you know, OK, we have this now what? That now what piece I work better with obviously with designers that will understand that. But understanding where I’m gonna come from in the sense that I’m gonna ask you you know, questions that are marketing related and if I’m talking to a designer that doesn’t know any of that. It’s kind of a different language. So I think just like even just brushing up on the latest trends in marketing. Or you don’t have to be a marketing expert by any stretch of the imagination. But it makes the job easier working together when a designer does have a little bit of marketing knowledge and there’s so many books out there. You had someone on recently on a on one of your podcasts in marketing, you know. So, there’s like even just little tips on other or on your podcasts, you know, and just listening to people talking about it just makes it easier communication wise. And not wasting your time designing something that isn’t gonna go anywhere, right? So. It’s like you have to get it to to be seen as well though.
Hollywood
MHM. No, that makes perfect sense. Thank you so much. I’m going to shift a little bit – how within your current role do you get to experience design? Or a better way to ask: that is, how does design speak to you within your current position?
Ms. Branco
So, how I get to work with design and how it speaks to me. So, the way that I get to work with design is I actually manage the industrial designers in the company. And getting back to your question about marketing and tying into design, all of the information that we get from the customers from. The marketing aspect, the comments and things are sent to our designers. So, I work very closely with the design I’m instrumental in, how they are going to design new furniture. So, for example, we had a lot of customers coming in saying we love this product. Do you just have the top part of this product? We have everything else. We have existing furniture; we just need this. And I brought that back, and our designer created what we call the Eclipse. And she’s creating other products based on the feedback and the questions that we get from our customers.
So, we’re very big on listening to what our customers have to say, how the design speaks to me in, in, in the case of Sunbolt, the ones that speak to me the most are the workstations because they are not something that you’ll see in other landscapes. They screened sustainability. It’s not something I was ever familiar with, you know, you see solar panels on roofs and things. But I never got to see them as eye level as I do with our workstation line, and they speak to me because they definitely make a statement on every, you know, landscape architect plans and campuses that I’ve seen them on. So, I think it goes both ways, but I really work very closely with the design, they ask me my opinions and my feedback for pretty much every step of the way because we have all that knowledge from the marketing and on the sales side of it.
Hollywood
Yeah. So I I’ve actually I think I’ve seen a couple of them. You have a couple up the road for me. You have, I think, three of them or so. But what was really interesting to me is it wasn’t, I feel like when you say solar power, some people are worried that it’s gonna be this huge, bulky, massive structure. What I was struck by is that they were actually very small and they kind of fit into the landscape very, very well. And you mentioned landscape as well. And what’s so interesting about the product is we’re covering landscape. But we’re also covering furniture design all in one product, which is something that I think my show hasn’t gotten the chance to really talk about in-depth. Umm, could you speak on the ways it impacts the landscape and landscape architecture?
Ms. Branco
Yeah. So some of our work seems so. There’s a bit of site prep involved, right? So, we look for areas that if it’s a very small piece of land, our workstations are probably not going to cover right because we want like a 10 by 10 space. You know it’s a huge, massive structure when it comes to our workstation lines. So, let’s take college campuses, for example they might have a wide-open space, wide open green space that you can’t connect electrical to it. Or you could, but it would be very costly to have to run wiring that far right? So, our units create an area that you can sit. You can have a coffee, whatever, you can study. You can read a book. You can relax, charge your devices, since everybody is on your phone. You can charge your laptops. You can have lighting if it’s dark out and you need to study and you don’t want to be cooped up inside. So, they do create that – no brainer, you know, place that you can sit outside and study. From a sustainability aspect on the landscape side, not only can you see them from the 3rd or 4th floor of the building, you know the university center wherever you are, but you can also know right away that this campus is – or looks like- a green campus. That they’re big on renewable energy.
They’re forward thinking they are, you know, considering the environment. And from a from one of our other things, is like outside patios and you know, restaurants, if they have dining areas on campus, we have a line that a lot of people like our solar carousels. Where they create a very pretty environment where you know the round table and attach seating. You can color them to, you know, you can color all of our units to match the school. You know the colors of the school. You can add graphics that will have the school logo or mascot. You can add signage if there is. You know, a schedule of ball games coming up or if you know, there’s events happening or the dining menus. So, it really enhances it in a multitude of ways.
From a sustainability design, our workstations are fully assembled when they are delivered, so from a site prep standpoint, it’s really just making sure that the foundation can hold that extremely durable unit, because they’re close to 2000 pounds, 1500 to 2000 lbs. Our carousels and our stand ups, we recommend placing them on like concrete. So, if an area is all grass, we recommend a concrete slab to be placed before we put them on. But other than that, it’s pretty. It’s pretty easy, honestly, to get the units onto a site we have units. When I said small or large areas -we also have the stand ups, our Sprint and Dash, that fit into those smaller areas or hiking trails, things like that. But it enhances an architect’s plan to create a place where people can just, enjoy the outdoors and continue to stay charged. You know? And we know that everyone wants to stay charged. So that’s just, that’s just it’s not going to go away, you know?
Hollywood
Yeah, that is an aspect, I don’t think I realized how big of an impact [it would have]. Like, when I was really young and, you know, dial up was still a thing – you really didn’t think about like the impact of cell phones then versus the impact now like I couldn’t imagine not existing without my phone, which probably says a lot about me that I should get help with. When you’re designing, I do have to ask. Do you guys have BIM and Revit models? And things like that CAD.
Ms. Branco
Yeah. Yeah, Yep, Yep. We have the CAD and I’m frequently asked from architects to send them over 3D drawings. We also create renders, so if they want to send us the high-res photo of an area or we’ll use Google Earth and things and we’ll create mocks for them of how our units would look to scale. So, oh yeah, we work very closely with architects. We actually just came back, one of the conferences that I was at last week was ASLA. UM. So we were there. Uh, we exhibited in Washington, DC and we had a lot of architects coming to the booth and talking to us, and we made a little model. Of a park that had our 3D prints of some of our units to scale to show what it would look like…
Hollywood
Mm-hmm.
Ms. Branco
So we we yeah, we do all of that.
Hollywood
So you must get a lot of travel time then across the country and seeing all fun and exciting places or…?
Ms. Branco
Prior to this, I did actually a lot more. It’s starting. It’s we’re starting to exhibit more in trade shows and things we’ve. We did ASLA prior to when I started in 2018, and it wasn’t. It didn’t sound like it was the right time and now we have a new team in place. We have, you know, renewable energy and solar is, is a hot topic now it’s no longer just like ‘ummmm… What is exactly?’ You know, it’s like this is it. There’s a lot of funding out there and people are talking about it. Unfortunately, with the Hurricanes that had happened pretty much overlapping with ASLA. You know, there was a lot of talk about that, and our units were created because of a hurricane. We didn’t want or know that that was going to be why we actually became a business, right. But it’s why we became a business. So, with Hurricane Helene when it started. We. We started talk about ways to help, so we contacted our customers, although we haven’t heard back from some of them, I’m hoping they’re OK, but we have like disaster relief and solar kits and things like that that we are trying to, you know, distribute to those who need like just a quick solar panel and stuff. And I know I went off on a tangent. We’re talking about it at ASLA a lot. So, it’s top of my mind, but umm yeah, we deal a lot with architects and we handle a lot of the stuff for them.
Hollywood
Well, thank you very much for all your work towards disaster relief. Just as somebody in Tennessee, it’s very appreciate it, so thank you. What advice can you provide, especially for students looking to build their own furniture brands or create a product to fulfill the need?
Ms. Branco
Oh, absolutely. Sure. Biggest thing is research. OK, biggest thing is research. If it’s already out there, don’t even worry about it. That means that there’s a market for it, right? Create something better. Create something a little more unique. There’s from that point, there’s a million different pairs of jeans out there. Brands, right? And they all pretty much do well, so. Don’t let that deter you from what you want to do. If you believe in it, that’s it.
But research research, research, research is my biggest thing. I I have come across times where I would work with designers that had this great idea and I’m like I just spoke with a company that does that and they had no idea. So, you know, it’s very important to gather as much as you can. Surveys, asking you know focus groups, putting it out there, asking people what they would like, thinking about everything from color to shape. To you know, if it’s furniture, accessibility, branding, are you gonna put your logo somewhere that everyone can see? Are you going to put it underneath the table? You know, all those things are important. But comfortability right? You don’t want to design something that only works for someone who’s 6 foot five and doesn’t work for someone who’s 5 foot four. I mean, all of those things come into play. And it depends on what kind of furniture you know, is it going to be outdoor furniture, indoor furniture. But really it comes down to research and asking as much as you can to get the answers that you need and come up with something.
And if it doesn’t work the first time, you know, send that out as a survey and ask them what they would do differently, you know, and listen to the audience. But yeah, that that would be the one, the one thing I would start with, because I I’ve learned so much so many times. I could be wrong, right? And there’s so many times, especially from the marketing standpoint that you’re that you’re wrong. You know, you think it’s going to work in this sector, but then it works in a different one. The same thing holds true for design. You could think it looks amazing – but no one wants it, right? Because it’s just it’s just not functional for them. So, I just think if you believe in it, just do your research and make the best that you can.
Hollywood
OK, so really a lot more people skills, I feel like is an overall like…
Ms. Branco
I think so. Yeah, I think so. Although I mean there are there are designs that I’ve seen that I’m like, I don’t know how that’s being sold. But OK, I don’t know what it does or what it is. You know, it’s like. So. I mean, there are those things, those anomalies. But no, I think I’m very much a believer in just really doing the research and really just making it the best you can and putting the best step forward that you can when it comes to design.
Hollywood
Well, thank you. So on to a broader question. Is there any sort of general advice you would have, especially for young designers, dreamers and DIY enthusiasts. Just as a whole starting their career?
Ms. Branco
Same I’m going to be redundant. I think it’s just, you know, find a mentor, you know, look at what they’ve done. And if you can get in touch with them via LinkedIn or e-mail or, you know, following what they do, I think. For me, I am learning as you go, you know, diving into it. Don’t be afraid to take risks. Don’t be afraid. If you if you believe in it and you love what you do. Then just do it right. Wake up in the morning and get to work and do it. But from a DIY standpoint, I think now there’s so many different resources out there, they have these free online courses. They have ones that aren’t very expensive at all. They have so many different resources out there. But you know, it’s there’s a lot of times were you’re gonna come up with something, and it’s not gonna be good, you know, or, you know, it’s not gonna sell. It’s just gonna be a flunk. It’s gonna be a failure, and you’re gonna learn from that because every single time, as they say, like every time you’re learning from those failures and eventually there’s going to be a win, it’s going to be a success. So don’t give up. Just keep at it. You know, keep at it. But yet if someone can take you under their wing and you can learn from them it it’s that’s one of the best things I’ve had. I had that growing up in my career, I had a mentor that really just believed in me, when I didn’t even believe in myself. I didn’t even know what I was doing half the time in advertising. I was really just right out of college, and he just didn’t care what question I asked or anything. He just taught me everything and learned things that aren’t even about design, you know. If, if, if there’s something that’s complementary to it and. You, you know, you think that it’s going to enhance in some way you find interest in it, learn it because it can tie into whatever you’re designing in the future too, you know, so. Be a sponge and you know be a sponge and don’t get discouraged.
Hollywood
Awesome. Well, thank you. That’s great advice. I appreciate that. So, since you as you mentioned you guys were talking during the conference about the Hurricanes and everything, I did want to kind of follow up on what do you think is going to be next for Sunbolt and yourself, like where do you think you’re going? Do you think the Hurricanes are gonna impact how you guys move forwards or?
Ms. Branco
So unfortunately, we. Unfortunately, because we don’t want people to be in this situation this terrible situation all around, but we do have, we do have ways to help. When they can’t charge their phones, when they can’t see because it’s dark. When, you know, they have dirty supplies of things that they need for survival. So. So we’re helping, and I can’t really say too much on certain things.
Hollywood
Totally understand.
Ms. Branco
But we are constantly coming up with ways that- I said keep it 80% on-brand keep, you know solar and things. But if we have to add a little more because that’s what’s gonna help, then let’s do it, right. So, we are coming up with things for that. Our workstation line, that’s, for me, it’s the best, highest quality, most durable thing I’ve ever seen it. We had in Puerto Rico, after the hurricane, they bought more of our units because they said that they were just… We have pictures where there’s people standing underneath the canopy covering themselves from the rain. On you know it, because they’re the most durable structures that were in the middle of nowhere. They had no other way to seek coverage, which for me I have goosebumps even thinking about it.
Then even during the height, height, height of COVID when things were shut down and you couldn’t get to work. We were able to provide a way to open up safely because we had units that expanded the outdoor office, right, the expand the office outdoors. That expanded the classroom outdoors. And as we all know. It’s a lot better to be outside when there’s germs, right than cooped up in a in an area. So we had plexiglass, we had sanitizer like, attached to the units that we were offering for obviously no charge. And we do have some places, there’s a place in Hawaii, too, that has the units with the plexiglass and the sanitizing. So, we do come up with ways and for the future products of Sunbolt we are coming with other products in direct response to our customer needs. We don’t just create and going back to design, we’re not creating something just because we think it looks nice. We’re creating something that we know will help enhance people’s lives create, you know that kind of. Way for people to enjoy being outside. And not have to spend a crazy amount of money wiring electricity to the middle of a cornfield. Right? So, you know, in the middle of in the middle of nowhere, they can put a seating area and people can enjoy themselves. So, we do have some products coming out that will be announced some at point in 2025.
Hollywood
Well, awesome. Well, I wish you luck in that. Where can everybody find out more about Sunbolt or yourself or follow your career?
Ms. Branco
Sure. So, for Sunbolt, it is you can go to our website gosunbolt.com. We also have our handle which is @gosunbolt pretty much on all of our social media except LinkedIn. LinkedIn is just Sunbolt. for me you can find me at vanbranc, VAN And BRANC and that’s pretty much what I go off of for all of my social media. And then you can e-mail Sunbolt anytime at info@gosunbolt.com.
Hollywood
Awesome. Well, I do want to end on my fun question that I ask everybody that comes on to the show. So, if you had an unlimited budget and a client who was willing to give you free reigns over the scope and parameters, what would your dream project be?
Ms. Branco
I would stay where I am in this space, I think it’s extremely exciting. But I would…create I would create it in Montauk, NY. I would say I want to create an office in Montauk. That’s my favorite place ever. It’s out like all the way east on a Cliff, on the beach. And I would say I’m going to put install solar workstations and solar carousels in this entire area. So, I would stay where I am, but I would relocate from New York City to Montauk, NY and that would be it because I just love. I can’t imagine I really do love what I’m doing here. I just. I think I found my dream job here.
Hollywood
Well, I’m so glad to hear that. That’s awesome. Your dream office it sounds amazing. I’m not gonna lie. That’s…
Ms. Branco
That’s my dream office. If we had unlimited budget, I would say alright listen, let’s create it on a Cliff in Montauk. So hopefully my founder is listening to this. So, when we have it up and when we can, that’s what I want to do. Yeah, so…
Hollywood
Well, that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today and I appreciate you coming on and talking about yourself and the company and everything like that. So, thank you.
Ms. Branco
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
INTERVIEW ENDS
And with that, thank you once again for joining me. On a side note, I have posted a link on the Facebook page for Hurricane Helene Relief Efforts through the American Red Cross. If possible, please see how you can help.
As always- please rate, review, and subscribe everywhere you get your podcasts from. You can find me on Instagram at architecturecoffeeandink. Email the show at architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com or the blog at architecturecoffeeandink.com. Architecture, Coffee, & Ink is a Hollywood C. Studios, LLC production. I am excited to meet with all my designers, dreamers, and DIY enthusiasts next time, but in the meantime,
May your coffee mugs be full, and your inkwells never run dry.
60 secs end song re-looped.
