Joel Jean, CEO of Swift Solar, on how coaching helped him scale as CEO
Joel spent years proving Swift Solar's technology in the lab. Now he's building his first large scale US factory. He needed to become a manufacturing CEO, and he explains how his coach is helping him become one.
What I really appreciate about my coach is that he's able to be super hard-ass, really, and tell me the straight truth the way he sees it.
Joel wrote about his experience working with a Titan Coach on LinkedIn
See it on LinkedIn →The founder and the company
Who is Joel Jean?
Joel Jean is the co-founder and CEO of Swift Solar, which builds perovskite tandem solar cells. He holds a PhD from MIT and a BS from Stanford, and co-authored MIT's 2015 Future of Solar Energy study. Before Swift he ran the Tata-MIT GridEdge Solar research program. Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list for energy in 2019.
Who founded Swift Solar?
Swift Solar was founded in 2017 by Joel Jean, Kevin Bush, Giles Eperon, Tomas Leijtens, Max Hoerantner and Sam Stranks, researchers from MIT, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge. Joel Jean is the CEO. The company is based in San Carlos, California.
What is Swift Solar?
Swift Solar develops perovskite tandem solar cells and panels. They stack a perovskite layer on silicon to convert more sunlight than conventional panels, and are built for manufacturing in the United States. The company holds more than 40 patents and American Tower is evaluating its panels for its US tower sites.
How much funding has Swift Solar raised?
Swift Solar has raised more than $60 million in venture, strategic and government funding. Eni Next and Fontinalis Partners co-led the $27 million Series A in June 2024. More than $16 million came as grants from the US Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Science Foundation.
Does Joel Jean work with an executive coach?
Yes. Joel Jean works with an executive coach from Titan, which matches Series A to C founders with coaches who have built or coached companies at scale. In his Titan interview he says he values a coach who tells him the straight truth as Swift Solar scales from lab to factory.
From the conversation
Why did you start looking for a coach?
As we're moving from R&D into production, there's definitely a lot of personal changes that I've had to painfully make. To make Swift realize its full potential, I need to grow into a manufacturing CEO, not a technology development CEO.
What had stopped you before?
I started thinking about getting a coach many years ago. One of the things that held me back was the activation barrier of finding a coach, and Titan is reducing that to near zero.
What do you bring to the sessions?
We meet weekly and we just talk through a number of topics that are on my mind, fundraising, a pitch deck, a customer challenge, pricing strategy, a management challenge, a personnel issue, a hiring question. Anything is on the table.
What do you value most in him?
What I really appreciate about my coach is that he's able to be super hard-ass, really, and tell me the straight truth the way he sees it.
What has changed since?
Since starting coaching, I've been able to make decisions with more confidence behind them. It feels amazing to have a coach who really wants to see the company succeed and is emotionally invested in the company, and in me.
Full transcript
Joel Jean, Co-Founder and CEO of Swift Solar, in conversation with Titan. Lightly edited for clarity.
What Swift Solar is building
I'm Joel. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Swift Solar, and we're building the future of solar energy in the U.S. Solar is, bar none, the largest energy source we have in the solar system, and it's going to be the future of energy on Earth and beyond Earth.
How Swift reached a step change
In the very early days of Swift, we didn't know what the hell we were doing. We spent a lot of time wandering in the dark. In a way, it's very slow growth until you prove things out and it's ready, and then it's a step change. What's both exciting and scary right now is that we just made that step change. So as we're moving from R&D into production, there's definitely a lot of personal changes that I've had to painfully make.
How he learned to communicate vision
As a scientist, you want to talk about expectation value. You want to be, "OK, here's the median outcome of this company." And what I've had to learn is that by communicating my vision of what that 99 percentile outcome can be, I can shift the median of that curve to be at that 99 percentile outcome. And that's really powerful.
Why he chose a Titan coach
I started thinking about getting a coach many years ago. I think one of the things that held me back was the sort of activation barrier of finding a coach, and Titan is reducing that to near zero.
What I really appreciate about my coach is that he's able to be super hard-ass, really, and tell me the straight truth the way he sees it. We meet weekly and we just talk through a number of topics that are on my mind. So whether that's fundraising, a pitch deck, a customer challenge, pricing strategy, a management challenge, some personnel issue or a hiring question, anything is on the table.
Since starting coaching, I've been able to make decisions with more confidence behind them. It feels amazing to have a coach who really, really wants to see this succeed and is emotionally invested in the company and in me.
How coaching supports the next stage
Today, Swift is not just an R&D organization. We are now actually planning out our first U.S. factory, which will be producing proven bankable solar technology at gigawatt scale within two years.
There's no more important time to be building Swift Solar because we're in the middle of the U.S. separating from China. AI data centers driving unprecedented electricity demand growth and needing a ton of energy and space. All of these things point towards more energy made here in the U.S., and that is Swift Solar's mission.
To make Swift realize its full potential, I need to grow into a manufacturing CEO, not a technology development CEO. And that's something that my coach is going to be a critical part of helping me evolve into.
Joel Jean and Swift Solar: quick facts
| Role | Co-founder and CEO, Swift Solar |
|---|---|
| Company founded | 2017; based in San Carlos, California |
| Co-founders | Kevin Bush, Giles Eperon, Tomas Leijtens, Max Hoerantner, Sam Stranks |
| Education | PhD in electrical engineering and computer science (2017) and SM (2013), MIT; BS in electrical engineering, Stanford |
| Previously | Executive director, Tata-MIT GridEdge Solar; co-author, MIT Future of Solar Energy study (2015) |
| Recognition | Forbes 30 Under 30, energy (2019) |
| Total funding | More than $60 million, including more than $16 million in grants |
| Latest round | $27 million Series A (June 2024) |
| Investors | Eni Next, Fontinalis Partners, Safar Partners |
| Links | LinkedIn · joeljean.com · swiftsolar.com · Crunchbase |