Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com. And now it is time for the BusinessMakers Flashback. Earlier this week John Pacini was having an updated conversation with Mark Bent, the founder and CEO of SunNight Solar, the company that invented the BoGo light and is out to light up the world in an affordable way. Check this out.

John: Welcome back Mark.

Mark: Thanks, it's really great to be here.

John: That's fantastic. So you were on the show back in 2006 and introducing Russ and John to your business and the great work you were doing in both the commercial and charitable space. Why don't you give us an update and tell us a bit about the company these days.

Mark: Sure. Last time I came on the company just started here in Texas and I started this company after 20 years working for the U.S. government as a foreign service officer in Africa, a diplomat. At the time when we started this that was my primary goal was to provide lights for Africa. Over the last four years, totally without even trying, we kind of developed the world's best flashlight. So now we're being approached by a number of different organizations and commercial entities here in the United States to produce our light for them because we're so much better than a regular flashlight.

John: That's fantastic. So it is the solar light.

Mark: It's solar powered; yeah. Most flashlights are what I would consider to be pretty much a disposable technology. It's planned obsolescence. You buy the product and 20 or 30 hours later that flashlight is no good and you have to go back and buy batteries. That's why most of the big battery manufacturers are also flashlight manufacturers. They don't really want a flashlight to last 4,000 hours on 1 battery like ours does. So our product has a solar panel on it and it has light emitting diodes and it has rechargeable batteries. The fascinating part about that is all three of those technologies are doing exactly the same thing. They're all getting better performance and reliability and going down on cost. So what I could make four years ago when I came on the program was a great product. What I'm making now is absolutely technological disruption. It's so much better than the status quo.

John: And for those that are not watching this, you can go to the BusinessMakers.com and see the video of this. We actually have one in the studio here and this is a fantastic looking flashlight, looks very rugged. I remember you saying in the 2006 interview that you were working to make them waterproof and ruggedized. Now you were saying a moment ago that you were telling me that this is now Mill Speck or better.

Mark: Yeah. I was in Afghanistan in October or November of last year meeting with the U.S. Department of Defense, US AID, Agency for National Development and my former colleagues at U.S. State Department. As you're aware the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is probably one of the most critical foreign policy initiatives the U.S. government has to deal with. One of the Afghan cabinet ministers pointed out that a light in every kitchen would be the most transformational thing for Afghanistan. So we have these in Afghanistan for two reasons: one for our own troops because one of the biggest problems they have is resupply and every time a truck leaves a base they're always worried about an IED, improvised explosive device. The other thing is we're giving them out to the population winning hearts and minds because less than 90 percent of the population has access to electricity in Afghanistan. So for many people in the developing world this is energy. This is electricity.

John: Right. How long can one of these run on a charge? Can it run for several hours in the evening?

Mark: Sure. This particular model is my mini-bogo. It's made as you said to mill speck to a seed mill speck. It provides six hours of illumination every single night. What happens is there's a mono-crystal and solar cell which is encapsulated in high tech plastic. Ya' know how everybody complains about plastic not deteriorating? Well it doesn't. So we encapsulate our solar cell in this high tech plastic. We have a one watt LED made by Nichia Corporation in Japan and we have a magnetic reed switch that doesn't have any bushings to it so it never wears out. So it'll give six hours of illumination every single night and then it will give that for over two years before you need to change the battery out. The battery's an AA rechargeable battery. You can buy them at CVS or Walgreen's.

John: That's easy to do. Well so tell us. So tell us why light is so important in these parts of the world in Africa and Afghanistan.

Mark: Sure. It's one of those things you really don't think about 'cause we take it for granted. You walk over to a wall switch and voila, you have light.

John: It's just magic, right?

Mark: It is, but it's still stunning to me that there are two billion people off the grid around the world that rely on kerosene, candles and regular flashlights for illumination. They spend 20 to 30 percent of their disposable income on kerosene. That's a terrible economic burden. To give you an example, here in the United States we spend maybe 17 percent of our energy bill on electricity. So we spend very little really on lighting. In the developing world they spend a lot, but it impacts things like health. Afghanistan, other than Sierra Leone has the world's worst childhood mortality rate. I have four children. I can't imagine what my wife would have gone through giving birth in darkness. We were obviously in sophisticated hospitals, but Afghanistan has the worst childhood mortality rate other than Sierra Leone. So it's a huge, huge problem.

John: And providing light going through that process...

Mark: Oh, it's huge.

John: ...is obviously critical to that. So Haiti obviously is one of the focuses of the company these days. It's something that you guys have looked at in your charitable endeavors. Tell me a little bit about that and then I'd like to look at the commercial side of the business a little bit.

Mark: We work very closely with President Clinton, the Clinton Foundation. The President has just done a fantastic job. He's very fond of saying when he was in government he attended a lot of meetings and very little got done. So he wants to make sure things get done. So he's a very action orientated person. The week after the earthquake in January the President threw in with 600 of my lights and passed them out. I met him in Florida right afterwards in Ft. Lauderdale. He's totally a fan of what's going on. In Haiti, US AID buys my lights. A number of non-profit organizations buy my lights. One of the big things in the tent camps is safety and security. Women have a terrible problem with sexual violence at night when they go to the toilets, when they go to latrines 'cause they're vulnerable then. It's in darkness. So they use my lights and they can use the latrine. US AID in Haiti says that my product will impact ten people's lives every night. It's designed to last for 20 years so we'll just say 10 years. President Clinton I gave a wholesale price to of $10.00 a piece. So for $10.00 10 people for 10 years. There's nothing in the U.S. government's foreign policy toolkit that does that kind of thing for that kind of an impact.

John: Well that's incredibly rewarding obviously and that must make you feel so good at the end of the day when you've done your work.

Mark: It's a real honor to be part of this. Every day, I got an e-mail in today from a lady in Rwanda who'd come back and she'd given lights out. She said the people either did one of two things. Either they just literally laughed with joy or they cried with satisfaction. It really transforms lives.

John: There's two sides. There's the charitable side or the side that is the give one for the light of the bogo, buy one get one and there's the commercial side that's driving the business, growing the business. Tell me a little bit about that. I know you have some great updates on the commercial growth of the business.

Mark: Right. We've been talking with a lot of the big box retailers here in the United States. We're in deep talks with Home Depot right now. Phillips, the big lighting company, they're talking to us. I just attended a lighting Africa conference in Nairobi in May and Phillips was there and they don't have anything like my light. So they said that in some cases it's better for them to go ahead and buy into a private company and private label products. So those are some of the big ones we have going on. The Army and Air Force Exchange is talking to us. Best Buy is speaking with us. I met last Friday with Academy. So all these people are talking to us. So it's a very exciting time. I'm talking to four different investment banks. We're seeking investment and I think we're on the very edge of rapid growth.

John: Have you been able to grow thus far? Obviously there's been a recession. Have you been able to grow via just cash flow or have you taken on outside funding?

Mark: We haven't taken on outside funding since last time we spoke and right now we're still generating our own sales revenue of [Inaudible] online. We work with a lot of faith groups, a lot of church groups when they go off to mission trips and south and Central America, Mexico, Africa. They buy our products. We also sell a lot of lights to the Department of Defense. Different military units will buy them and -

John: So soon we could see these flashlights in Home Depot and -

Mark: Yes.

John: Academy and places like that and if somebody buys one how much are they for the lights?

Mark: On the retail they're $20.00.

John: That's great. So you guys have a website that people can go and -

Mark: Yeah; Bogolight.com.

John: B-O-G-O Light?

Mark: Yeah; Light.com.

John: dot com.

Mark: That's correct.

John: That's fantastic. They can learn more about that and hopefully we'll see these products in the store so people can buy them and help you guys fund your great work.

Mark: Be great.

John: Look forward to talking to you again soon and staying in touch.

Mark: Thank you very much. It was great being here.

John: Great. Thank you, Mark.

Russ: That wraps up this mornings BusinessMakers Flashback. Stay tuned in for our interview with Morrie Shechtman, founder and chairman of Fifth Wave Leadership, the firm specializing in the development of human capital. This is the BusinessMakers Show, heard here and seen online at thebusinessmakers.com.