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Dec 20, 2021 · 19m · top-founders

100 Solar Panel Firms Pay $83k/mo To Manage $1.5b in Projects on Enact

Deep Chakraborty · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 6m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this episode of Conversations with Nathan Latka, Enact CEO Deep Chakraborty discusses scaling his solar SaaS management platform to a $1 million ARR run rate while debating capital efficiency, funding history, and lean global operations.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 38.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 6.2 Guest teaching 3.2 Guest disagreement 3.7 Nathan pushing back 5.2
05100:0010:000:45–3:12 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Introducing Deep Chakraborty and Enact's Platform Scale Nathan presses Deep on what his global leadership claims mean in concrete terms, while Deep defines their platform volume and lifecycle software scope across 23 countries.3:12–5:35 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Pricing Models, Revenue Splits, and ARR Growth Nathan calculates Enact's monthly run rate based on customer tier pricing and gets Deep to disclose their 40% growth rate, leading into Deep's contested claim of being bootstrapped.5:35–8:53 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Equity Structure, Public Grants, and Crowdfunding Campaigns Nathan pushes back against Deep's fundraising timeline after noticing discrepancies between Deep's statements and public Crunchbase listings, leading Deep to deflect to email follow-ups.8:55–14:51 · Nathan as informed peer 8/10 Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Data Onboarding with Flatfile Following the Flatfile sponsor read, Nathan directly confronts Deep on claiming to be bootstrapped while raising over $4 million with sub-par growth for institutional venture capital. Deep forcefully pushes back, arguing their platform build and consumer app justify the trajectory.14:51–17:13 · Nathan as informed peer 7/10 Engineering Team Distribution and Cap Table Dilution Nathan analyzes Enact's engineering heavy team and models out cap table dilution across founders and investors, while Deep defends giving up equity to fuel long-term platform scale.17:14–19:24 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Inside Sales Execution and Digital Customer Acquisition Deep outlines their three-person inside sales distribution model before transitioning into a friendly, rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up.0:45–3:12 · Guest teaching 4/10 Introducing Deep Chakraborty and Enact's Platform Scale Nathan presses Deep on what his global leadership claims mean in concrete terms, while Deep defines their platform volume and lifecycle software scope across 23 countries.3:12–5:35 · Guest teaching 3/10 Pricing Models, Revenue Splits, and ARR Growth Nathan calculates Enact's monthly run rate based on customer tier pricing and gets Deep to disclose their 40% growth rate, leading into Deep's contested claim of being bootstrapped.5:35–8:53 · Guest teaching 3/10 Equity Structure, Public Grants, and Crowdfunding Campaigns Nathan pushes back against Deep's fundraising timeline after noticing discrepancies between Deep's statements and public Crunchbase listings, leading Deep to deflect to email follow-ups.8:55–14:51 · Guest teaching 4/10 Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Data Onboarding with Flatfile Following the Flatfile sponsor read, Nathan directly confronts Deep on claiming to be bootstrapped while raising over $4 million with sub-par growth for institutional venture capital. Deep forcefully pushes back, arguing their platform build and consumer app justify the trajectory.14:51–17:13 · Guest teaching 3/10 Engineering Team Distribution and Cap Table Dilution Nathan analyzes Enact's engineering heavy team and models out cap table dilution across founders and investors, while Deep defends giving up equity to fuel long-term platform scale.17:14–19:24 · Guest teaching 2/10 Inside Sales Execution and Digital Customer Acquisition Deep outlines their three-person inside sales distribution model before transitioning into a friendly, rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up.0:45–3:12 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Introducing Deep Chakraborty and Enact's Platform Scale Nathan presses Deep on what his global leadership claims mean in concrete terms, while Deep defines their platform volume and lifecycle software scope across 23 countries.3:12–5:35 · Guest disagreement 3/10 Pricing Models, Revenue Splits, and ARR Growth Nathan calculates Enact's monthly run rate based on customer tier pricing and gets Deep to disclose their 40% growth rate, leading into Deep's contested claim of being bootstrapped.5:35–8:53 · Guest disagreement 5/10 Equity Structure, Public Grants, and Crowdfunding Campaigns Nathan pushes back against Deep's fundraising timeline after noticing discrepancies between Deep's statements and public Crunchbase listings, leading Deep to deflect to email follow-ups.8:55–14:51 · Guest disagreement 7/10 Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Data Onboarding with Flatfile Following the Flatfile sponsor read, Nathan directly confronts Deep on claiming to be bootstrapped while raising over $4 million with sub-par growth for institutional venture capital. Deep forcefully pushes back, arguing their platform build and consumer app justify the trajectory.14:51–17:13 · Guest disagreement 4/10 Engineering Team Distribution and Cap Table Dilution Nathan analyzes Enact's engineering heavy team and models out cap table dilution across founders and investors, while Deep defends giving up equity to fuel long-term platform scale.17:14–19:24 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Inside Sales Execution and Digital Customer Acquisition Deep outlines their three-person inside sales distribution model before transitioning into a friendly, rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up.0:45–3:12 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 Introducing Deep Chakraborty and Enact's Platform Scale Nathan presses Deep on what his global leadership claims mean in concrete terms, while Deep defines their platform volume and lifecycle software scope across 23 countries.3:12–5:35 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Pricing Models, Revenue Splits, and ARR Growth Nathan calculates Enact's monthly run rate based on customer tier pricing and gets Deep to disclose their 40% growth rate, leading into Deep's contested claim of being bootstrapped.5:35–8:53 · Nathan pushing back 7/10 Equity Structure, Public Grants, and Crowdfunding Campaigns Nathan pushes back against Deep's fundraising timeline after noticing discrepancies between Deep's statements and public Crunchbase listings, leading Deep to deflect to email follow-ups.8:55–14:51 · Nathan pushing back 9/10 Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Data Onboarding with Flatfile Following the Flatfile sponsor read, Nathan directly confronts Deep on claiming to be bootstrapped while raising over $4 million with sub-par growth for institutional venture capital. Deep forcefully pushes back, arguing their platform build and consumer app justify the trajectory.14:51–17:13 · Nathan pushing back 6/10 Engineering Team Distribution and Cap Table Dilution Nathan analyzes Enact's engineering heavy team and models out cap table dilution across founders and investors, while Deep defends giving up equity to fuel long-term platform scale.17:14–19:24 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Inside Sales Execution and Digital Customer Acquisition Deep outlines their three-person inside sales distribution model before transitioning into a friendly, rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 37.1% · guest 62.9%0:00 · Nathan 37.1% · guest 62.9%3:00 · Nathan 22.3% · guest 77.7%3:00 · Nathan 22.3% · guest 77.7%6:00 · Nathan 25.9% · guest 74.1%6:00 · Nathan 25.9% · guest 74.1%9:00 · Nathan 69.9% · guest 30.1%9:00 · Nathan 69.9% · guest 30.1%12:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%12:00 · Nathan 37.6% · guest 62.4%15:00 · Nathan 29.6% · guest 70.4%15:00 · Nathan 29.6% · guest 70.4%18:00 · Nathan 59.1% · guest 40.9%18:00 · Nathan 59.1% · guest 40.9%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 12:33 Rejecting slow-growth critique

Deep directly tells Nathan he is absolutely wrong, asserting that Enact's multi-city expansion and product rollout represent an unheard-of rate of progress.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 11:15 Calling out false bootstrap claims

Nathan refuses to accept Deep's bootstrap framing, pointing out that raising nearly $5 million to build a $1 million business is the exact opposite of bootstrapped.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 13:23 Explaining the B2B foundation behind B2C

Deep educates Nathan on why their historical B2B enterprise software was a required backend prerequisite before launching the high-margin B2C consumer app.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 11:58 Dissecting standard SaaS growth benchmarks

Nathan demonstrates SaaS benchmarking expertise by showing that 30-50% growth at sub-$1 million ARR is poor performance for a venture-backed startup.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Deep Chakraborty and Enact's Platform Scale 5423 Nathan presses Deep on what his global leadership claims mean in concrete terms, while Deep defines their platform volume and lifecycle software scope across 23 countries.
Pricing Models, Revenue Splits, and ARR Growth 6334 Nathan calculates Enact's monthly run rate based on customer tier pricing and gets Deep to disclose their 40% growth rate, leading into Deep's contested claim of being bootstrapped.
Equity Structure, Public Grants, and Crowdfunding Campaigns 7357 Nathan pushes back against Deep's fundraising timeline after noticing discrepancies between Deep's statements and public Crunchbase listings, leading Deep to deflect to email follow-ups.
Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Data Onboarding with Flatfile 8479 Following the Flatfile sponsor read, Nathan directly confronts Deep on claiming to be bootstrapped while raising over $4 million with sub-par growth for institutional venture capital. Deep forcefully pushes back, arguing their platform build and consumer app justify the trajectory.
Engineering Team Distribution and Cap Table Dilution 7346 Nathan analyzes Enact's engineering heavy team and models out cap table dilution across founders and investors, while Deep defends giving up equity to fuel long-term platform scale.
Inside Sales Execution and Digital Customer Acquisition 4212 Deep outlines their three-person inside sales distribution model before transitioning into a friendly, rapid-fire Famous Five wrap-up.

Statements from this episode (14)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact manages over $1.5B in solar projects across 23 countries
“So next platform processes over one and a half billion dollars of projects now for solar and storage across the world in 23 countries. And we have deployed over three gigawatts of projects we always measure in terms of capacity.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 1:11
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact serves over 100 enterprise customers and 1,000 active users
“So we have over a hundred enterprises in 23 countries and thousand plus users, users meaning people who actually log in and do work on it.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 2:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact crossed 1,000 residential end-user homes in Q3 2021
“Yeah, we have crossed a thousand homes last quarter in Q three.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 4:14
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact hit a $1M annual revenue run rate in 2021
“I don't want to disclose our revenues, but I will say that we are right now around a million dollar a year run rates in revenue and it's growing rapidly, especially the last 18 months.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 4:52
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact grew revenue by approximately 40% in 2021
“We are much lower, probably like we've grown about 40% this year.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 5:10
Assertion Contradicted
Enact built its business without venture capital or institutional funding
“We're still bootstrapped. There's no venture investor on this. We are not institutionally funded.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 5:20
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Enact raised nearly $100K on StartEngine in two weeks
“I think we have already raised almost a hundred K on start engine in two weeks.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 8:40
Disclosure
Enact reached $4M in cumulative revenue on $3.5M in equity
“We have also generated four million dollars of revenue while we raised four million dollars of capital under, I want to correct you there. We have raised three point. Five is equity, and one million is grant.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 11:34
Assertion Supported
One of Enact's competitors raised $321M in venture capital
“One of our competitors has raised three hundred and twenty one million.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 11:50
Opinion
Latka: 50% YoY growth is terrible for a VC-backed SaaS startup
“At your stage, growing 50% year over year, And you're on the VC track. That's not a good growth rate. That's the, that's a really bad growth rate. Actually, you should be doubling or tripling year over year.”
Nathan Latka Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 12:06
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact operates with 18 employees across California and India
“We are only 18 employees, seven in California and 11 in India.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 14:55
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sixteen of Enact's 18 employees are engineers
“Of the, well, I would say of the 18, 16 are engineers.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 15:02
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact founders and employees own over 60% of the company
“But I will say that no, our founders and employees together, we are well above 60% total.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 16:50
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enact acquired over 100 enterprise customers with only three sales reps
“We have, you know, three people selling in the company, including me. One, of course, is myself. You're looking at him. One in the US and one in India. With three people, we have gotten over a hundred customers.”
Deep Chakraborty Dec 20, 2021 ▶ 17:42
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