“How Michael Thooft Has Built A 7 Figure Business In The Renewable Energy Sector” - CEO Weekly
Phoenix AZ, March 10, 2023
“Born in Rhode Island and raised in Arizona, Michael Thooft is the CEO and Co-founder of Tycho Energy, a leading renewable energy solutions company. Early in life, Michael wanted to become a doctor and that’s what he set out to do. He attended ASU full-time and needed to pay the bills while he studied, so he made his start in the service industry. Thooft quickly rose to a leadership position due to his high level of professionalism and passion for providing best-in-class customer service. While working as a bartender & eventually restaurant manager, he met his best friend, now business partner Erik Lindgren. The two immediately connected and found that they worked well together. That professional relationship seeded a strong friendship that blossomed into the business partnership that’s helped thousands of AZ homeowners save money on their electric bills since 2017.
While in school, Michael developed a passion for sales and helping others. That passion grew to the point that he decided to change his major. He continued his education and eventually graduated with a business degree & magna cum laude. Degree in hand, Michael continued his work at the top of the ladder as Head Of Bartending for a major corporation here in the US. “I loved what I did, and I made good money but at the same time, I knew I wanted to do more for the world, for my family, and for myself.” In 2016 Michael started exploring renewable energy and absolutely loved the technology.
“As I started to look into it more and learn about the products and their delivery, I realized that renewable energy didn’t just benefit the environment, but it really benefited people financially. We don’t rent our cars, it’d be way too expensive to do that year-round. As people mature, they stop renting an apartment and buy a house because it’s not nearly as expensive by the square foot and you’re gaining an appreciating asset. I realized that residential renewable energy systems were just the same, but since the technology is new, people just haven’t been able to see the benefit. Most homeowners rent their power from a utility company where they pay for power by the kWh, pay delivery fees, production fees and dozens of other surcharges. After you’ve converted your home to renewable energy, you’re producing the power on-site. You don’t pay for your power by the kWh, you pay for the system. Your bill doesn’t skyrocket in the summer, it stays the same. The way we do things now, our average homeowner saves between 15-50% on their total monthly cost of electricity.”
Business degree in hand, in 2017, Thooft set out on a new journey by starting Tycho Energy with his co-worker, best friend and business partner, Erik Lindgren. Early on, the duo decided that they’d take what they’d learned in the service industry and apply it to the business. That meant building the right offer. Through creative financing and installation partnerships, the two developed a program that homeowners could apply for that would allow homeowners to convert their home’s power source from conventional to renewable energy without having to come out of pocket thousands of dollars up front. “We didn’t just want to sell a product, we wanted to help people.” says Thooft. To share this offer with the world and earn new business, the two went straight to the market themselves by knocking on doors. Luckily, the two had built up quite an inclination for talking with strangers and quickly met their first customers. In the first year, Tycho Energy achieved 2.3 million in sales, earning them the funds to invest in and grow the business as well as concrete proof that the business model would work on a larger scale.
Where many would buy a fancy new car or blow the money on a few good times, Thooft and Lindgren unanimously decided to invest the money back into the business. By 2020, they were able to bring on 10 full-time employees which allowed them to drastically increase their sales. Thooft and his partner used the rest of the money to acquire an improved office space and start seeking mentorship from leaders in the renewable energy sector. “I learned quickly that running a business was completely different from working at one; there’s just a lot more to it. Your business will be entirely void of structure and systems until you develop them. We had two choices, spend the next 20 years learning by experience, or pay someone else to teach us what they’d learned with their own lifetime of experience.
In 2022, Thooft met sales mentor Taylor McCarthy, co-founder of Knockstar University. Knockstar’s sales training platforms helped Tycho streamline the process of training new company representatives. That training also helped those representatives grow from salesmen to Renewable Energy Sales Professionals. Being an experienced leader, Thooft knew that the only way to grow as a company is to lead from the front. Thooft entered Knockstar’s immersive training program “The 6 Week Bootcamp” where he studied training materials night & day and entered a national sales competition among the best of the best in his industry. Due to Thooft’s dedication to his craft he graduated top of his class and placed first in the competition.
As of 2022, the company’s efforts thus far have successfully offset 3175.2 metric tons of carbon emissions effectively doing the work of 14.8 million trees. Last November, Thooft shared a stage with his mentors Taylor McCarthy and Tom Hopkins among other leaders in the renewable energy sector as a keynote speaker. Since 2020, Tycho Energy has grown from a bootstrapped team of 2 to a thriving team of 30. This year, the company is on pace to achieve 75 million in sales. Aside from their work’s environmental impact, Thooft and his team have become involved in dozens of charities and raised thousands of dollars for causes that handle problems ranging from world hunger to medical research. Throughout his time in business, Thooft’s company has maintained an unblemished record with the Better Business Bureau and earned a perfect 5-star rating on Google.”
