Rajeeva Lahri: Waited 30 Years To Do His Startup
By kamla bhatt • May 29th, 2008Category: Business & Tech, Diaspora, Ideas, San Francisco/Silicon Valley
What does it feel to be pregnant with a startup idea for 30 years? Meet Dr. Rajeeva Lahri, co-founder and CEO of Signet Solar, Menlo-Park based cleantech company, who knows all about the long wait.
Rajeeva waited 30 years before he could do his startup and earlier this week his company completed their first important milestone. The company announced the fabrication of the industry’s first ever silicon thin film solar PV module at its new factory near Dresden, Germany. Understandably Rajeeva is very excited about the progress his startup has made thus far. The company recently announced its plan to expand its operations in the Southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. Signet Solar has raised funding through a friends and family round.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s Rajeeva thought of starting a solar company, but by the time he completed his PhD the interest level in alternative energy had faded. He started his professional career in Silicon Valley working in the semi-conductor industry sector. He has been a senior executive at Fairchild/National Semiconductor, VLSI, Tessera, Philips Semiconductor, and Intersil, where he was CTO and VP of world-wide operations.
Passion, right timing and right people were the ingredients that led to the birth of Signet Solar.
Tune in to find out what Rajeeva has to say about cleantech, future of cleantech and running a startup.
Technorati Tags: Rajeeva Lahir,Signet Solar,Cleantech,Alternate Energy,Greentech,Solar Energy,Silicon Valley,Startups,Technology,India,Idea,entrepreneur
Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
very nice interview … what ARE these incentives that Germany is giving? A question to ask next time you visit the solar panels on his house in ‘009!
Very good interview.
India needs NRIs like Dr. Rajeeva Lahri to resolve the acute problem of Power in India.
We wish him all the best for his projects in India.
ALOK SRIVASTAVA,
1821, Sector - 16, FARIDABAD, Haryana, INDIA.
Anon:
Thanks for your suggestions…I will make sure to include those questions the next time I do an interview with Rajeeva. Great point to remember.
Alok:
Thanks for your feedback and for listening to the interview.
Cheers!
kamla
Kamla:
It was wonderful to listen to Dr. Lahiri. As we are aware that India is facing an acute power shortage, I guess it would be worth pursuing the case (solar/clean technology) with the Indian government. Also tie-ups could be made with smaller companies (as with the one in Sahibabad, U.P., where Rajeev himself worked for a while) to promote/support the idea. Would you ask him if efforts are being made in this direction? I look forward to a day when we would be self-relient in our energy needs.
Kind Regards,
Shad
Alberta, Canada