Society believes that success can be attained through education, but notable figures have proven that it isn’t always the case over time. For entrepreneur Alexander Herschel Smith, education undoubtedly played a role in the road to success, but experience remained the best teacher. While he graduated from FSU, it was experience that allowed him to thrive in his career and become the owner of one of the fastest-rising companies in the solar industry, Spartan Solar.
Alexander Smith triple majored in Finance, Professional Sales, and Marketing at Florida State University. Shortly after graduating in 2016, Smith took a commission-based job selling solar door-to-door for Sungrade Solar in California. He borrowed $4,000 from his grandmother to start his career, which was just enough to ship his car to California and pay the security deposit at his apartment. Without money in the bank to cover next month’s rent and having locked into a 12-month lease, Smith “burned all his ships” and put his head down to focus. For the next 90 days, he deleted all distractions from his life and “blitzed”. In four months, Smith became a manager at Sungrade Solar, and was quickly promoted to Regional Manager.
In May of 2020, Smith was the Regional Manager for KOTA Energy Group when he moved back to Florida to open a new KOTA office. There he started to learn a new market and decided to stay in Florida. Having spent so many years in the industry, in March of 2021, Smith decided it was time to strike out independently.
Utilizing his knowledge and expertise, Smith started Spartan Solar from scratch with co-founder and FSU colleague Matthew Lent. Spartan Solar started with a small team working out of Smith’s living room, where they would run meetings for the next three months. Smith and Lent worked hard to kick-start Spartan Solar’s success to where they were ready to move into an office space in Winter Park, Florida. The Spartan Solar team quickly grew to 40+ exceptional sales reps in the first ten months of business.
Smith recognizes teamwork to be a key part of Spartan Solar’s success and growth. Among his stellar team are three exceptional leaders Zach Crotty, Julian Gomez, and Will Donovan, who Smith recently promoted to Assistant District Managers for their hard work, discipline, and mentorship to other sales reps. Smith states, “The leaders we have here at Spartan Solar are incredible. They are able to give new reps inspiration and help them see success in a very short period of time. I couldn’t do it without them. They are just as big a part of Spartan Solar as I am. Their ability to sell, train, & recruit at a high level is critical to our growth as we continue to scale rapidly.”
“We’re pacing to clear $30 million of sales in our first ten months in business,” shared Smith. “We are uniquely positioned in the marketplace because we are able to use multiple installers to offer our clients the lowest monthly investment with the highest quality materials.” Spartan Solar also provides energy efficiency for clients using state-of-the-art HVACs and hybrid water heaters, among other utilities, to allow customers to add solar while upgrading their entire homes, and spend zero dollars out of pocket to get started.
Alexander Smith is optimistic about bringing Spartan Solar’s service throughout the country with how quickly the company is growing. Zach Crotty & Will Donovan will be opening Spartan Solars next office in Tampa in March of 2022, as Julian Gomez & Matthew Lent continue to grow the Orlando office.
Learn more about Alexander Smith and Spartan Solar by visiting their official website.
