Robert Sharp
Robert Sharp does not consider himself to be a Top 100 Innovator, but we do! While he may not be a “brilliant minded technologist” (he’d like to reserve that title for the brilliant people who develop the technologies that he deploys), one glance at his emerging business and investment portfolio tells the story of an innovative entrepreneur who operates at the “tip of the spear” when it comes to new and emerging technologies. Robert’s vision in supporting those technologies as an investor, operator, and ambassador, put him at the forefront of what’s next in the ever-changing world of high-tech efficiency and clean technology. We believe that Robert’s ability to identify and combine these technologies into one offering places him squarely into the Top 100 Innovators and Entrepreneurs of 2023.
Robert is the founder, president, and CEO of Sharper Energy Partners (SEP), an IoT-driven clean tech company that measures and monitors commercial energy consumption and waste. “Wasted energy accounts for more than 40% of all energy created on earth. Less than 10% of all energy created is actually put to needed use. Capturing that waste is the first and most important step to carbon reduction and supply shortages. Energy efficiency is the cleanest, most abundant, and inexpensive energy source on earth, and we are making that waste visible and manageable by converting it into data, we are a big data company first,” proclaims Sharp. His company also delivers energy solutions in the form of demand control ventilation, solar installation projects, building level wind turbine installation, LED lighting retrofits, “Cooling Unit Energy Savings” technology, and more. Collectively, SEP has the capacity to not only save his clients significant energy costs, but also consult them on their journey to becoming a net-zero operation. With SEP, Robert says he’s “building something that has never been built before. Sharper Energy Partners is a multi-hybrid company that is one part hardware and software, one part big data, one part energy conservation and management consulting, and one part integrated facilities management, because somebody also has to install all of this technology, and we also do that.”
Creating Solutions: The Path to Net-Zero
Eniscope, the Best.Energy created flagship IoT hub offered by SEP in the U.S., converts buildings into smart buildings, saving electricity and money. SEP goes beyond the initial installation of hardware, however, and walks clients through the entire process of achieving net-zero. Using the SEP IoT hub, owners can monitor their energy usage from anywhere, while seeing exactly how much energy is used and/or wasted, and where. “Our partners at Best.Energy in London do an outstanding job of supporting our efforts and the efforts of our partners around the world. We wouldn’t exist without the brilliance of what those guys have created, they are the real innovators—I’m just here to help.”
Robert is also the founder and CIO of Sharper Holdings, LLC, which owns Sharper Energy Partners and invests in a number of the technologies that are offered by SEP. In his portfolio are companies like Flower Turbines, Stellaris, Sazmining, Doroni Aerospace, AEV Charging, Aquipor Technologies, Rayton, and Next Bolt. He brings to SEP and Sharper Holdings a unique skill set, derived from his diverse professional experiences. He previously owned Finex-Agency, a New York-based executive search firm, which specialized in hiring senior financial executives in the capital markets space. In 2010, Robert was on the team at the software company, Sliderocket, when they were acquired by the world leader in virtualization software, VMware. He was then an enterprise sales manager in VMware’s EUC & Emerging Products Group, before moving to Houston with his wife and starting Sharper Holdings. Robert also holds an ambassador role for one of the more exciting clean-tech start-ups in the U.S., called SKYH2O, an atmospheric water generation company which is making significant inroads in the state of Texas and globally.
In addition to his work at Sharper Energy Partners, Robert is an experienced cryptocurrency investor, real estate investor, and also has stake in non-clean-tech ventures, Brushy Mountain Extractions, a CBD oil refinery, and Inherent Biosciences, an epigenetics-focused biomedical company.
Robert grew up in Traverse City, Michigan, before attending Eastern Michigan University as an athlete and Wayne State University. He has lived and worked in Detroit, New York City, Buenos Aires, and San Francisco. He and his wife, Lakshmi, now live in Houston with their 7-year-old son, Arjun, and their brand new puppy, Blue. Robert is an avid golfer, coaches Arjun’s little league baseball team, and is a lifelong Michigan Wolverines and Detroit sports fan.
Robert Sharp
Founder, President, & CEO — Sharper Energy Partners
Founder & Chief Investment Officer —Sharper Holdings LLC
Website: https://sharper.energy/