About Us
Solar is growing up.
Most commercial real estate owners think of solar as a building improvement, or a way to reduce utility costs. Energy311 was created to let solar be managed just like any other business asset.
That means utility-grade billing from day one — actual rate schedules, no estimates, no true-ups. It means integrating directly into the systems you already run your business on, instead of adding a new one. And it means giving owners real visibility into what the investment is actually producing, with AI that helps you understand the data and find ways to improve it.
“I spent a half million dollars on solar last year and I have no idea if it's making any money.”
— A client before Energy311
That's what we're fixing. We're treating solar like a business.
Memberships
Why us?
Best-in-class
We maintain a data accuracy program to check that we're offering bills that are as close to perfect as possible. Our team is made up of expert rate analysts, and we have over 40 years of dynamic data experience to support our reliable electricity data reporting.
Patent pending
Our algorithm takes rate schedule data, current or historical, for any public utility in the country, and combines it with 15m interval data collected from smart meters provided by the local utility company, SolarEdge®, Enphase®, AlsoEnergy®, EKMMeter®, AccuEnergy® and others to produce "to the penny" accurate bills, that mimic the local utility company's look 'n feel.
Customer first
Above all, Energy311 is committed to customer success. We've automated the details of bill production and collection. Our web portal stores past bills and tracks payments, accepting ACH payments, credit cards, etc. We replace the reviled local utility customer service with a "white-glove" customer experience. We are available to answer bill and payment related questions from both property owners and tenants.
How was Energy311 founded?
Alex Shah had already built and sold three technology companies before Energy311 — BlueTitan (enterprise software, Series A from DFJ, sold to SOA.com), Facedouble (facial recognition, sold to Avigilon), and GardenAnswers (plant identification, sold to GardensAlive). He holds a master's degree in Biochemistry from UCLA and 19 awarded patents.
Energy311 started with two conversations.
A friend mentioned, almost in passing, that he was giving away electricity. He'd put solar on a rental property, then moved out and rented the house to a group of students. The panels were producing power every day. He had no way to charge for it.
A few weeks later, another friend mentioned Chiquita's solar installation in California — a 1.3 MW rooftop system, one of the largest of its kind, built by Harry Ross Industries. Alex called to ask how they were billing their tenant. The answer: one person, building the bill by hand every month in a spreadsheet and a Word document.
Alex asked two questions. Was it accurate? Would it scale?
Energy311 was built to answer both. The concept was proven as part of the Covid Cohort at Blue Startups, Hawaii's startup accelerator, on the Big Island. Chiquita became Energy311's first customer — and they're still with us today, now generating $305K in annual NOI and a $5M increase in building value from the same installation that started it all.
Alex built Energy311 from Hawaiʻi Island, where the culture of transparency, trust, and long-term relationships shaped how the company operates. That's the origin of Aloha Transparency™ — not a tagline, but the way the business was actually built.
Our team
Alex Shah
Founder & CEOAlex has over 20 years of software leadership experience and 15+ awarded patents. Prior to Energy311, Alex founded GardenAnswers, a plant recognition app, which sold to GardensAlive in 2019, Facedouble, a face recognition technology, which sold to Avigilon in 2015, and BlueTitan which sold to SOA.com in 2005.
Sam Cho
Co-Founder / Business development and PartnershipsSam is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience in a wide range of industries. He has a proven track record of success in launching and raising investments for new businesses in Advertising, Marketing, Multimedia, e-Commerce, Finance and Clean Energy technologies. In his previous life, he moonlighted as a cancer biologist with innovations in early gene therapy at UCSD and the first antibody-based cancer therapy, Rituxan, with Idec Pharmaceuticals.
Our advisors
Through the guidance and expertise of our advisors, we are able to tap into a wealth of knowledge from a variety of disciplines.
Jason Pang
Jason Pang is a technology entrepreneur and executive with over 20 years experience with venture funded companies in FinTech, eCommerce, digital media, enterprise software, consumer software, and data analytics from early inception to post IPO. Jason has raised venture capital, defined corporate strategies, executed organizational growth, and planned marketing strategies for corporate growth, monetization, and acquisition.
Dennis Becker
Dennis has more than 20 years of experience building, financing, and acquiring enterprises redefining the way technology and business interact.
John Dokes
John Dokes is a media, technology, and AI transformation executive with over 20 years of leadership experience, including senior roles at Google, Meta (Facebook), AccuWeather, and Marvel Entertainment/Disney. He most recently served as Managing Director on Google's Large Customer Sales team, overseeing over $4 billion in annual advertising revenue for financial services clients.
Reach out to our team.
See what your solar investment could be producing.