Superstorm Sandy was an event Elisa Wood would never forget. The huge, destructive hurricane in 2012 left millions on the East Coast without power – but not everyone. “There were massive power outages everywhere, except for a few bright lights here and there, where universities and hospitals and airports had power,” Wood recalled.
How did those places keep the lights on? She discovered it’s because they were powered by microgrids: small-scale electrical networks that generate their own power and operate independently of the bigger power grid. They typically use solar power and/or natural gas generators.
Wood and two partners would go on to launch an online publication in this niche called Microgrid Knowledge. They were ahead of their time – maybe a little too ahead of their time.
In the site’s early days, the founders had to take on other paid work to make a living. Over and over, Wood found herself answering the same question: “What’s a microgrid?”
But eventually the microgrid market grew, with more customers and companies jumping on board, which meant more readers – and more sponsors – for their content brand.
By the time microgrids became a $30-billion-a-year industry, Wood and her partners sold Microgrid Knowledge to online publishing house Endeavor Business Media for 7 figures. Their decision to get in on the ground floor paid off, even if it was a bumpy ride along the way.
How ‘the lightbulb went off’ for Microgrid Knowledge
Before launching Microgrid Knowledge in 2014, the three founders – Wood, Kevin Normandeau and Lisa Cohn – were all working on a different online publication called Energy Efficiency Markets. “We were kind of struggling along and we started noticing that whenever we wrote about microgrids, the traffic just spiked,” Wood said. “So there seemed to be something there.”
One day, Normandeau asked Wood one more time: What’s a microgrid? The answer he got changed everything. “She explained it and I said, ‘Where can I learn more about microgrids?’ And she said, ‘Well, nobody really writes about them,’ and that’s when the light bulb went off.”
That conversation birthed Microgrid Knowledge, which publishes news and education, and promotes networking in the industry. The goal is to advance microgrid use as a form of alternative energy worldwide.
When they launched, Normandeau was publisher and Wood was editor-in-chief. It was a gamble, launching an online publication about microgrids before a robust market really even existed. “But we saw it coming because of Superstorm Sandy,” Wood said. Fortunately, a couple of energy tech companies agreed with them and came on board as early sponsors.
“The early days were hard. Downright painful,” Wood recalled. “There just weren’t that many companies working in the microgrid arena yet… so we were faced with the problem of not only building a publication/conference but also helping to build an industry to support it. In retrospect, we were a little crazy.”
To earn a living, the founders freelanced and consulted. In 2016, they launched an annual microgrid conference after having attended other microgrid conferences where the hosts turned out to know nothing about microgrids.
“Our early entry, while nail-biting, acted as a barrier to competitors,” Wood said. Business grew steadily, and eventually the New Hampshire-based company had four products:
- A profitable online magazine
- A successful annual industry conference
- A content creation service
- A government-focused advocacy group
“Our publication and conference became a focal point around which a community of microgrid supporters formed,” Wood said. “Many of those in the community competed against each other for business, but they knew it would take a ‘rising tide floats all boats’ approach to make this form of alternative energy catch on. This created a lot of brand loyalty for Microgrid Knowledge and distinguished us from the more typical publication/conference model.”
By the time they sold in April 2022, Microgrid Knowledge had more than 100 sponsors and had built up a 40,000-plus email list. It was earning 7 figures in revenue – nearly 8 figures. The website attracted 375,000 unique visitors per year, including large energy customers, energy project developers, utilities, and energy equipment vendors and suppliers.
How this niche content brand sold to Endeavor Business Media
It was a few years between the time they first started talking to potential acquirers and when they finally struck a deal with one of them. This was in part because the founders weren’t in agreement initially about selling the company.
In the end, selling was a bittersweet decision. “We all loved what we had built,” Wood said. But the publication had gotten too large and complex for their small team of three founders and a half-dozen contractors. “Weekends off had become a rarity,” she said.
Normandeau was also the publisher of a number of other online publications like Data Center Frontier and Inside Big Data, so he had a lot on his plate. “I was being pulled in all directions and getting spread too thin,” he said. Selling Microgrid Knowledge would take some of the pressure off.
“We were victims of our own success,” Wood said. “We had a choice. We either had to scale up and not be the kind of entrepreneurial company that we were familiar with running, or we needed to find an acquisition partner.”
They found selling to be a stressful process, though they benefited from having multiple interested buyers. “We had more than one bidder,” Wood said. “We not only wanted the best deal, but we also wanted to be sure the new owner had the capacity to drive the business forward in ways we could not.”
That new owner turned out to be Endeavor Business Media. Headquartered in Nashville, Endeavor was formed in 2017 to acquire and operate business media brands, events and marketing solutions.
Endeavor, which we track in our M&A data platform, has since grown to more than 90 media brands, 60 conferences and exhibitions, and 700 employees. It has made more than 20 strategic acquisitions – including many content brands with an event component – that position the company as the largest B2B media company in North America.
The acquisition of Microgrid Knowledge aligned with Endeavor’s energy brands, such as T&D World, EnergyTech and Utility Analytics Institute. “Led by a talented editorial team, Microgrid Knowledge is a valuable resource for energy businesses, organizations and policymakers who are on the forefront of the fast-growing energy arena,” Endeavor CEO Chris Ferrell said in a news release.
Why patience is a virtue for entrepreneurs
After the exit, Wood started an online community called Energy Changemakers. It’s a subscription for people who support local energy technologies like community solar, electric vehicles and virtual power plants.
Normandeau considers himself retired but is supporting Wood with Energy Changemakers, and he’s helping to found a nonprofit to teach financial literacy to teenagers aging out of the foster care system. And Cohn is self-employed, running a content site called Clean Energy Writers.
Wood’s advice for digital entrepreneurs? “I’d say be really patient at the beginning. All these things take time. The beginning is hard, and you’ve got to have a really strong ego. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other – and get a good partner. That’s really key.”