We got an e-mail in late last week from the staff at the Museum of Modern Art in New York - they will start carrying our SL-2 lights shortly and we will be featured in their catalog and store.  They wanted us to know about something they had just heard - we will be featured in the October-November issue of the AARP magazine, with a link to the MoMA catalog.  This is the most widely circulated magazine in the world - 30 million plus subscribers and a demographic which will mean wonderful exposure, and hopefully considerable sales, for SunNight Solar.  MoMA wanted to make sure we were preparing for this event by building up inventory.  If I was not already in China working on strengthening production and inventory, I would no doubt getting on an airplane.  Busy next few weeks as we work to prepare for this great media exposure.  

Best  -  Mark

I am pleased to announce that we have been approached by the folks at the Clinton Global Initiative to provide our SL-1 lights as part of their gift bags at this year’s annual meeting, September 23-26, in New York city.  I am excited about the potential of this give-away, as the conference has all of the top people attending in the areas where we are focusing - lighting, clean water for the developing world, health- we are looking at solar powered malaria devices with Innocentive and phototherapy for jaundice in newborns, food production via solar power and hydroponics, etc.  Great exposure.  The former President carried one of our SL-2 lights during his just completed trip to Africa, and I have been told by his staff that he was very impressed with the functionality and design.

Quick story - Mrs. Clinton visited Tunisia on an official trip when I was assigned to the US Embassy as a diplomat in 1999.  I worked with the Secret Service and her staff for a week or so and it was an interesting experience.  Her last stop on the trip was the city of Monastir, where she was set to depart for onward travel to Morocco.  I got my wife and eldest daughter a pass to the airport tarmac, so they could at least experience part of the excitement and chaos which is common in such visits.  It also happened to be my daughter’s 8th birthday, something I had mentioned to one of the First Lady’s aides.  The motorcade pulled up with local police escort, sirens screaming,  Secret Service staff deployed and Mrs. Clinton exited the limousine.  She walked with her entourage toward the airplane, then looked around, saw my daughter, walked over by herself and had a great conversation, wishing her a happy birthday, asking about her school and plans for her future and telling her a little about living in the White House. 

I am staying out of politics and political discussions, but I was always so impressed with the warmth and kindness Mrs. Clinton showed that day toward my daughter and wife.  I was a second secretary in the economics section, not anyone of overwhelming importance in the Embassy, but she treated my family like they were the most important people in the world - she is a nice person and I wish her the very best.

Mark

It is not a surprise, if you have ordered SL-2 SuperBoGos from us over the past months, that we have not made our production/delivery deadlines.  While we now have 2000 in Houston (all sold) waiting for final Customs clearance, and 6000 lights left our factory last Thursday,  the fact is I failed to get you lights when I told you I would, which is unacceptable. 

In light of the above, I have moved to China, taken over 100% direct operational control over my production, and here I will remain until every last detail and process is as close to perfect as I can make it.  I have my New Zealand engineer arriving on Monday, I have started personally meeting with the suppliers of my ABS plastic molds, batteries, printed circuit boards, etc.  Prior to departing Houston, I met with the two top LED suppliers in the world - Japanese based Nichia and North Carolina based Cree, and in the coming days, as prototypes and illumination tests are completed, we will switch to one of these outstanding companies, for all of our lights.

Failure is not an option and I will get this right.  The SL-2 is a great product and one I am very proud of and I will do whatever it takes to get steady, high quality, high volume dependable production.  

Once again, my apologies to everyone.  The production delays were/are all surmountable, the design has been checked, re-checked by external sceintists and enginners; we do not have a design nor any functionality issues - it is just a little more complicated then both I and my local factory team imagined, but all of the obstacles can be overcome and my presence here puts full direct pressure and attention on our last remaining choke-points.   

Semper Fi - Mark

I found out today that a friend was killed last May in a bomb attack on a mini-bus in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.  Hezy Shoshani, a dual American and Israeli citizen and a visiting professor at the local university, was a world renowned expert on elephants and someone I grew to greatly admire and respect when we both lived in Eritrea, from 2001 through 2005.  When I lived in Asmara, I had a small motorglider I flew for pleasure, and Hezy asked me to help track down a herd of elephants which traveled between Ethiopia and Eritrea.  No westerner had seen them for years due to the war between the two countries and he was intensely curious about their status.  We took off, found the herd and it was the best flight of my life  - the elephants are Africa’s most northern herd and are possibly a unique hybrid - the British Victorian army invaded Abyssinia in 1878 with Indian war elephants and these might be the descendants of Asian and African savanna elephants.  The story of the flight and some photos of the elephants and Hezy and I can be found at http://www.mcp.com.au/sinus/newsletters/newsletter-11/newsletter-11.html.

This has nothing to do with lights, but I wanted everyone to know what a great man Hezy was and how he enriched my life and the people around him.   You take care Hezy - I hope you are strolling with your elephants with the sun on your face, the wind at your back and your soul is at peace.  You are greatly missed.  Mark

I am pleased to advise that yesterday we turned over 10,000 of our SL1 lights to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR); which they had purchased for their Darfur operations in Sudan.  We have worked closely with the UNHCR in other countries, (Ethiopia, Kenya and elsewhere), however, this is the first shipment of our lights to Sudan for UNHCR operations.  We are pleased and honored to support their efforts to bring relief to the people of Western Sudan.

Best  -  Mark

Please read an email I recently received from a US Navy Corpsman, preparing for his second combat tour, asking us for a solar light:

A Corpsman is essentially a combat medic, but we do so much more, we are attached to Marine units and provide any and all medical advice/treatment that is required by our Marines. Anything our guys need I will be doing, be it counseling, stitches or even someone to drag them out of the line of fire, I can do it. Now Iraq/Afghanistan does not always have the best lighting available and injuries do not always happen at the most convenient times, so an artificial light of some sort is an absolute necessity. Batteries are often hard to come (okay nearly impossible) in the battlefield setting, so an alternative would be an absolute God send. As I try to get as many of our boys back home as possible, anything to help my cause is appreciated, thank you for your time and consideration.

I need some help from the American public.  More than anything else, the best term I have developed for what my company does is this - we serve as a bridge, a conduit or facilitator - we spend our time and efforts developing products which change lives, and you, the American public, finance my efforts and together, we directly impact lives, changing them forever.   We make lights, you buy them in one of our social programs and via our joint efforts, we change the world.  It is a new way of doing business - social entrepreneurship is the buzz word/phrase, but I like bridge better, as we link people together and I greatly appreciate your support over the past eighteen months, as we have worked together side by side to get many, many thousands of lights out to Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.   I receive the feedback here, which is humbling in it’s sincerity and honesty on changes brought about by our lights, but without the support of the people of America, my company can do nothing

Africa and it’s people are a continuing passion for me.   Seeing the vast problems and doing nothing is impossible and we will continue to focus our efforts to improve people’s lives, one light at a time. 

However, my deepest passion, other than God and my family, is reserved for the Marine Corps.  I enlisted in 1980, and the Corps changed me forever, sending me to University and then commissioning me as an officer in 1984, which was the beginning of a twenty-one year career with the US government.  The intensity of the experience is impossible to convey, unless you have also worn the uniform, and as a Marine General officer told me a couple of years ago, the Corps and it’s passion and values have been seared into my soul.  I weep when I see photos of Marines at Arlington, a widow taking a flag from an officer in his dress blues, and I also look at the news photos of the faces of the young Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I mouth a silent prayer that they all come home.  

I had the honor and privilege of serving my Country in five areas of international conflict - I was in Mogadishu in 1993 and 1994, I served in Sarajevo during the fighting, I lived in Iraq with the Kurds and I lived and reported on wars in Angola and Liberia as a member of the US Diplomatic Corps.  Like all who have been to war, I hate it and hate the killing, the brutality, the waste and the tragedy.  I hate what it does to all sides, the damage to the civilian population, the loss of everything which is good and right.  There is little I can do anymore to change the overall strategy of American involvement, but I can do something for our men and women at war and this is where I need your help.

I have provided below some comments I recently received from Marines, Soldiers, Air Force and Navy personnel who are serving on active duty in areas of conflict.  You can see from them the value they place on our lights.  We also just sent 1000 lights to the children of Afghanistan - working with the Provisional Reconstruction Teams to help rebuild the country and win the hearts and minds of the people.

So - I want you to help me help them, but now it is not Africa, but our men and women in uniform, and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, who will benefit.  We have developed a new program - WarLights - http://www.warlights.com/.  This is a direct program - you buy a light and we send it off to our men and women in Iraq or Afghanistan.  It is $20.00 per light - this covers the cost of the light and the not inconsiderable cost of getting into the war zones.  There is also the opportunity to provide more funding, but if I can get enough single donors to come forward, individual purchases will make a difference, if we can mobilize the American people. 

So - I respectfully request you cut and paste this request to your e-mail account and send it out - asking for your friends and colleagues to participate and asking them in turn to pass it on.  Together, we can make a difference.

My name is Capt M.  I’m currently deployed to southern Afghanistan. I have over 70 Marines under my command.  We’re roughing it, some of my guys haven’t had a shower in over 30 days. The Solar Powered flash light is now being used as maintenance light for vehicle repair during the dark hours of the day.  Thanks again. God Bless America!

Semper Fi

Mark,

I am have been a Corpsman in the US Navy for 5 years now, have done one combat tour and am in the process of training for another as we speak. A Corpsman is essentially a combat medic, but we do so much more, we are attached to Marine units and provide any and all medical advice/treatment that is required by our Marines. Anything our guys need I will be doing, be it counseling, stitches or even someone to drag them out of the line of fire, I can do it. Now Iraq/Afghanistan does not always have the best lighting available and injuries do not always happen at the most convenient times, so an artificial light of some sort is an absolute necessity. Batteries are often hard to come (okay nearly impossible) in the battlefield setting, so an alternative would be an absolute god send. As I try to get as many of our boys back home as possible, anything to help my cause is appreciated, thank you for your time and consideration.

To the Visionaries at SunNight Solar.

Dear Mark,

As you can see from my e-mail address I am with the United States Marine Corps. I have spent 11 months in Iraq and am currently on my 4th year of a 5 year contract. Now I am not going to try and guilt you in to giving me a flashlight because I’ve gone off to war or whatever. I am simply going to relay a story to you that I think might be interesting and I think also justifies why I should receive one of your fine products.

One of the most difficult things to do in Iraq is not what you think it would be. It’s not the 125 degree heat, it’s not being away from your family, and it’s not constant layer of sand that is on everything. One of the most difficult things is trying to find decent indoor plumbing. Now we all have this natural urge to find the nicest bathroom we can whenever we have to go “number 2″. Even if we have to walk three floors down and bribe a guard we will always seek out the nicest facilities available to do the deed in. Well in Iraq you really don’t have many options. Unfortunately one of the best options you have is the port-a-john. You wouldn’t think that a typical port-a-john would be that nice until you find out that they spray these things down at least 3 times a day. That means that at any given time you have a great shot at having a clean port-a-john to use. Even if the port-a-john is hot and smelly, at least it’s clean, and that’s more than you can say for a lot of the other facilities around Camp Fallujah.

Now you might be wondering what all of this has to do with a flashlight. Well when was the last time you saw a light bulb hanging up in the top of a port-a-john? Never right? Well that is truly the main downfall of the port-a-john. Because at night you are out luck if you don’t have a good flashlight on you. Without that flashlight you don’t know what you are about to sit on or even if the storage area below might be a little too full to accept your pending deposit.

So gentlemen, I hope you have seen why I deserve a gratis flashlight. Because everybody poops and the least stressful port-a-john experience is a clean one and a well lit one. And next time I am sent over there (which is inevitable unfortunately) I hope to be holding one of your fine products late at night when I’m praying to the god of the blue water. Thank you for your time.

Dear Mr. Bent,

Dear Sir,

I am in the US Air Force, and as a pilot, I’ve become somewhat of a connoisseur of flashlights.  There’s always one in my bag and on my uniform.  I have been deployed to the middle east twice already, and I will be going back several more times during my military commitment.  Flashlights are absolutely necessary to pilots for both everyday and emergency uses.  Beyond that, I also travel to locations where batteries are not always available.

I will be honored to receive one of your solar-flashlights, and would surely put it to good use.

Dear Mark,

I am currently deployed in Afghanistan, where on many of the smaller Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) there is a policy against having mass lighting to better hide the base at night.  This leaves soldiers using flashlights to get from sleeping areas to the bathroom during the night.  This situation is an excellent opportunity to serve two goals:  provide much needed light and to do so without the use of batteries which can be hard to obtain in this location.  Your consideration of this email is greatly appreciated.

Mr. Bent,

Myself and my team are currently stationed in Iraq on a forward operating base that does not have street lamps or significant illumination.  It is pointedly called the “Dark Side” of FOB Warrior.  We have to use flashlights for everything (especially bathroom… portajohns have spiders and scorpions).  It’s a real pain burning through all the batteries too.  Such a waste when we get 12 hours of blazing sunshine everyday!  (I haven’t seen clouds in months!)

There are more notes, but the above is a sample.  Please help me get lights to our Troops.

Semper FI,

Mark

I would like to provide an update on when our SL1 and SL2 lights will be in stock here in the US.  First, we received 3000 SL1 lights last week - we sent out all of our internet backorders and filled outstanding orders for Zoos, eco-focused retail shops we support and sent lights to non-profits who had accumulated ‘give’ lights from the BoGo program.  We have a couple hundred of the SL1 lights remaining in stock at the present time.

Our first shipment of the SL2 lights is set to arrive in Long Beach on 31 July, with anticipated arrival in Houston on 7 August.   This consists of 1500 orange SL2 lights, which will be used 100 percent to fill backorders - we have circa 1700 lights on backorder at present, and the lights will be sent out, oldest orders filled first.   We also have 500 of the blue lights - for the give away promotion noted below, arriving with this shipment as well, and we will send the winners lights as soon as possible.  This promotion was conceived months ago and I apologize again for not having enough stock on hand to fill orders – initial production, and some component supply problems, while now mostly resolved, have put us behind where I wanted to be at this point.

We are anticipating an arrival of 20,000 NiMH batteries at our factory on 6 August; at three batteries per light, we will have another 6000 SL2 ready for shipment.  The battery manufacture has NiCADs available; however, due to the environmental and human costs of the NiCad’s, we made the decision to delay the shipment, waiting for the NiMH.  We ask and appreciate your understanding on the benefits of waiting.  With transit time of three weeks, plus one week of Customs clearance, we will have a substantial number of lights available for sale in early September.  With the SL2 lights, we will also send additional SL1 lights; therefore, our backorder status should be resolved within the next five/six weeks. 

Thanks to everyone who has supported us and thanks also for the thousands of people who have sent e-mails asking for a free light – an interesting and eclectic group, which will be the topic of a future blog.

Best regards,

Mark

My business plan did not take into account the meltdown in the US financial markets, which while understandable, is of little solace, right now as I try to raise funds from commercial lenders for substantial inventory purchases to meet present and future demand.  We are cash flow positive – had over one million in sales first year, and are up to $750,000.00 plus this year to date and this is without our new light, which is really a superb piece of technology.  We also have no debt and more then enough cash to carry us forward at our present level of sales, but, I cannot do as much as I want right now, fast enough, and a ‘nice to have’ would be cash to get sufficient quantities of lights to our warehouse, so I avoid the dreaded backorder problem.  We have 10,000 SL2 lights set to arrive within the next month, staggered deliveries, and 6000 SL1 lights either here or on the way and all of these have been paid for; like I said, we will do just fine without a cash infusion, but we will do better/faster with one.

So, we are seeking $300K, perhaps up to $500K in a commercially structured loan, from either an institution or from a private lender, with interest and secured with insured inventory.  So, I am tossing this out to determine if there is some interest in this proposal – send me an e-mail at markbent@sunnightsolar.com – and thanks for reading my blog.

Mark

Being a different kind of company – focusing on people, the planet and then profits – we are set to launch our new SL2 (SunLight2) or SuperBoGo, solar powered flashlight in a different way as well – we are going to give them away.

There are no charges, nothing to buy and we will send them to you at our cost, from our warehouse in Houston, when they arrive in mid-August.  Each is individually numbered – 1/500 and they are in blue ABS plastic and on the side, laser etched – it says “Changing the World – Limited Edition” May 2008.

We welcome requests from people who want a free light, and please send us an e-mail at info@sunnightsolar.com with the reason why we should send you a light.  We will decide who gets a light – and obviously, people who are in a position to either blog to a large audience, put out a media article, buy lots of lights in the future, are heavily involved in environmental or humanitarian work, work for FEMA, the upper management of Red Cross or Greenpeace, in charge of the US Senate’s oversight committee on incredibly large sums of money for foreign aid and really huge contracts for small businesses, the Governors of any the Gulf Coast states, the Pope, Al Gore or Angelina Jolie – all of these people are probably going to get a light and Bill Gates can have two; if they send us a request.   If you just want a free light, just because you like to get free things, or you like to camp or don’t like spending money on single use battery flashlights  - I can certainly sympathize, but you are probably not going to make the cut. 

But, we will also just send some to people with really good stories.  Peace Corps volunteers getting ready to go abroad are high on this list, people set to trek alone across large parts of the globe, people working in remote places, American men and women heading to war, or people with just really good stories – I am interested in getting feedback from and supporting the rebels among us, so send us your story.

Rules – we make up all of them and no one is promised nor guaranteed a light and we reserve the right to change or withdraw this offer at any time.  We will probably not send lights internationally – it is just too costly, and with two billion people in the developing world needing light, 500 will not make a splash.  And we reserve the right to post where we send the lights and post any of your follow-up responses to our web site.  One light per person/family/organization please.

These are our new lights – two modes – task and room lighting and are really great.  They use nine LEDs – three for room, six for task and have high/medium and low settings.  They will provide 4/5 hours on high, 7/8 on medium and 10/12 on low – all on one day’s charge.  I just took one to Congo – see my previous blog, and they are great.  

We will have 1500 arrive (in addition to the 500) in mid-August for sale, and another 4000 will ship at the end of July, arrive to our warehouse in mid-August.  These are our first two shipments – we are on backorder right now.

Hope you like our giveaway contest –

Best - Mark 

 I have now been in the Congo for a week, traveling with students from Awty International school in Houston and NBA Rockets star Dikembe Mutombo www.dmf.org/ we have been passing out lights and the students have also been visiting orphanages, working at Dikembe’s hospital and getting a very good crash course in how large parts of humanity lives - it will be an experience which will change their lives and they are writing a blog for the Houston Chronicle and making plans on what to do when they get home to initiate programs and start up US based web endeavors to get more hands-on aid to the people of Kinshasa and the DRC.

I thought I had seen pretty much all Africa had in the way of sadness, tragedy and poverty in my twenty plus years on the continent, but this place has also had a very strong impact on me.  I have not lost sight of the value of the lights since I started this company three years ago, but a week here has energized me a great deal and I am more determined than ever to get more lights, more options, more models and do more then I was a week ago, and I thought I was pretty motivated before I left the US.  I was wrong and I am now so determined to do more, do it faster and better and I have been writing e-mails and getting things accomplished at a furious rate, when I get back to the hotel late at night.

We have done a lot – let me give you some snapshots –

We passed out 1700 lights to a refugee camp outside of Kinshasa the other evening, in a camp with over 7000 people and no electricity.  We had six SUVs, police as security and on the way out we got stuck a number of times in the sand – it is the dry season and the sand is deep, so we got there late, just as dusk fell.  It was something almost biblical – the multitudes of people poured over the hilltop, waiting patiently in the fading light.  Dikembe and the Minister of Social Welfare stood on the back of a pickup truck – at 7’2” Dikembe stands out and is known and loved by everyone here, and he talked for a minute and then called me up to stand with them.  Trust me, it is a humbling and deeply emotional feeling to stand in front of thousands of people, all forced to spend their nights in darkness, and have Dikembe tell them the lights they would be given would shine every night and change their lives and I was the guy who designed and produced them.  I won’t ever forget the look in their eyes, like I said, a real overwhelming experience and a sensory and emotional impact that was hard to evaluate and assimilate, even now; I am still coming to grips with it on some levels.

We have been coming in late some nights and passing through some slums on the outskirts of the city, one area has three million people living in shacks, cinder block huts and under plastic sheets; the city of Kinshasa, with the sister city of Brazzaville across the Congo river, has a combined population of over nine million.  The acrid smoke from burning trash heaps fills the air, shapes of people moving about in the darkness can be seen, dark silhouettes only slightly visible in the smoky darkness, an occasional tin with a lighted wick, fed by kerosene, are the only illumination for block after block of slums and the headlights occasionally catch the glimpse of children, their faces caught in the beams, frozen and temporarily blinded by the light.  Dante imagined this in his descriptions of hell and I have never seen anything like it; I cannot imagine anyone seeing what we saw and remaining unchanged – it was really that powerful and I wish I could capture the despair and make people understand how bad it is, and how good we have in the West.  I would be able to provide them with millions of lights, if people only knew how terrible our fellow men, women and children are forced to live.  Like I said, I am now more motivated then ever.

Dikembe, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite human beings, has used his fame, and NBA salary, to build a hospital here for the people, and he also just started a small farm outside the city, to supply the patients with fresh vegetables.  We visited the nearby village and met with the Chief and all of the people in the area.  It is a startling difference from the city – the children are all well fed, the land is fertile and the village, with the dirt swept clean for our arrival, was the kind of place you imagine when you think of African rural areas.  We gave them lights and I wonder about the impact – they have never had light before, except for the kerosene lamps, and now, they all have light to share – it was a good feeling and I question how they now view the coming of nightfall, from before, and how the lights have changed their behavior patterns.  Something we take for granted - lighting, and now, they have it too, but to them, they went from darkness to light in one day – an amazing and abrupt transition.  Dikembe is going to keep me informed of the changes light brings in the village.

I was lucky enough to have worked previously, after I left government service, for a European oil exploration firm, Perenco.  When Dikembe, and his staff, told me they needed water wells dug at the hospital for water and in the village, for the people (they now have to walk eight kilometers to the nearest water) and to irrigate the vegetables, I contacted my previous employer and asked for help – they have an oil concession here with the government.  In less then an hour, I started getting answers back from senior management, from offices in Paris, London and here – they all wanted to help, they want to give back the community and they will do what they can to assist.  Again, a great experience for me and I was so pleased I could make the connection.

Last story – we are staying at one of the western hotels here in Kinshasa – nice place, quite expensive, and busy.  The front desk staff are professional, but they were a little aloof – although I speak French, they see a lot of foreigners coming in and out and I made little impression.  However, this morning, on my way to breakfast, I passed through the lobby, and everyone on duty looked my way, nudged each other and broke into smiles and greetings.  I actually turned around and looked for Dikembe, I thought they he must have been behind me.  He was not, so I turned back around and they motioned me over.  Turns out the local TV station filmed one of our light giveaways, and the staff had seen me passing out lights to children last night during the broadcast and my role in all of this.  I am now suddenly greeted by all the staff at the hotel with smiles, handshakes and affection.

Must run to dinner with the group, but wanted to close with the full acknowledgement that I am not the good guy everyone here thinks I am, I am only doing what I believe God has called me to do as a Christian, in loving one another, and totally seriously, this is all a big surprise and adventure to me; I sure am not the cause and instigator of all of this, He is.

Best to all,

Mark