We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vanessa Branco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vanessa below.

Hi Vanessa , thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Sunbolt’s mission is to ensure that companies can have highly-durable outdoor solar charging stations that provide a source of power for laptops and mobile devices when the grid fails.

Sunbolt has six lines of solar charging products. All of our products are meant to charge mobile devices and some also charge laptops and other devices. The solar workstations are the reason we have a business today. We created these units during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy as a way for individuals to power up devices and connect with loved ones following the hurricane. We also offer solar carousels, solar stand-ups, umbrellas, and solar kits such as the backyarder (wall-mounted) solar kit and DIY kits which are great for those who want to build something on their own, such as students and STEM school programs.

What we’re most proud of at Sunbolt is helping during disaster relief and hearing such positive feedback from our customers.

I’ve personally found a calling to align myself with products that make a difference, so I’m extremely proud and honored to be apart of the Sunbolt team.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born and raised in New York and still reside there today. I was going to be in finance, had a job as a financial advisor lined up out of college, and went on one last interview because it seemed intriguing to me. I had no idea this would pivot my first job from finance to advertising, but it did! I was just blown away by the atmosphere, I mean, there was a pool table and a huge Britney Spears poster on the wall, some lady walking around in slippers and a gumball machine in the office. Very different from the office environment I was going to go into in finance! I loved every second of the digital advertising industry and then started handling sales and marketing. Now I handle the divisions for the sales, marketing and business development. I love connecting, making partnerships, growing the company, and communicating with all different types of people every day.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The pandemic was an extremely hard time for all of us as businesses shut down and people were encouraged to stay at home. Knowing that so many businesses were suffering and most were in a temporary shut down, we found the decision quite difficult to continue to advertise or to pause during the pandemic. I chose to continue to market our products because I knew we had a solution that could help businesses and schools open up safely.

During the shutdown we were able to help businesses and schools open up safely by providing a place to work, study, and conduct a classroom outside by incorporating plexiglass into our design, allowing colleagues and students to social distance appropriately. For any businesses that could not have employees working together inside an office, this was a way to get them back to work together – but also enjoy the weather outside. Libraries really started purchasing our units during this time as well, and continue to do so today.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

On the topic of the pandemic, we stopped any research and development to focus on helping businesses provide a way to make others feel comfortable while also providing a way for people to gather together. We did this by adding hand sanitizing dispensers to units, and added plexiglass partitions to workstation units so schools, libraries and businesses who needed them could conduct outdoor gatherings and be together in person while still safely social distancing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gosunbolt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gosunbolt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gosunbolt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sunbolt/
• Twitter: https://x.com/gosunbolt

Image Credits

Images courtesy of Sunbolt