Anytime Data Room

This fall is shaping up to be super exciting for product updates at Conductor. We have a couple of big ones coming in a few weeks. To kick off this season here’s a nice addition to the marketplace: data rooms for projects at any stage.

Most people see data rooms as a place to share files, but they can be so much more. We’re making data rooms sexy. That’s right, you never thought you’d hear it, but it’s true. And as a key foundation for any solar deal, a good data room is more important than most people realize.

A big problem with data rooms is that each party has their own file structure and naming conventions. But in this industry we don’t all speak the same language. Misalignments on file structures and file naming are silent killers of solar deals, and that’s a sad sad thing.

We’ve pulled from years of slogging through diligence on billions of dollars of transactions with dozens of counterparties to create something specific to the solar industry: a consistent file structure and naming convention for every deal in your pipeline. And we’ve added tools to make sure that nothing is lost in translation, like automatic remaining of files for all parties.

Our estimate is that deals using our data rooms close 10% faster and 1-2 weeks sooner, saving over 50 person-hours across the deal. Developers and investors doing deals on Conductor love these features, but up until now they could only access them after a bid was accepted. Now developers can use data rooms for all of their projects, even before getting bids.

What We Heard
It’s pretty common for investors to ask developers for project documents before bidding. Knowing certain details or having confidence in certain aspects of a project can impact their pricing. We noticed this behavior a few months ago, and quickly added a lightweight version of document sharing in the app. But everyone asked for more. A doc or two isn't hard to manage with a simple drag and drop, but unique and complex deals benefit from more structure.

Developers also asked for a way to organize documents for their own teams. Long before they engage with investors, developers manage project documents. Wouldn’t it be great if they could use the same data room that an investor uses later on? Bingo.

What We’ve Built
Worst kept secret: this is not a new feature! We had most of this functionality in the app already. We had just been hiding it until a bid was accepted in the marketplace. Shame on us.

We had to tweak a couple of things in the data room to make it work earlier in the deal, like who does what when. Developers can now set up their own data room while they’re drafting a project or getting bids. They can decide who sees the data room and when. Once a bid is accepted and the project moves into diligence, everything that the developer sets up becomes a great starting point for the investor. An investor can modify the list of documents and manage document approvals, with the added benefit of already having some docs in place.

So, one developer wants to use the data room internally until they select an investor - all good, that's the default. Another wants to share docs with an investor after signing an NDA - easy. Another wants to share a few docs with all active bidding investors - simple. What about just sharing one doc with one investor? We’ve got that too. Until a bid is accepted, developers have full control over who sees their docs and when.

Consistent across these timelines and all of these scenarios is our file structure, automatic document renaming, and the flexibility to select common documents and add custom documents. And we make it easy to see a status snapshot at-a-glance:

What Comes Next
So much to say here! Our data rooms will only continue to improve, and we really appreciate the feedback we’ve received so far. We’ll keep adding features and functionality and make data rooms sexier than anyone could have ever imagined.

In a few weeks, we’ll be sharing more product updates. Conductor supports a huge variety of solar projects, from a 50kWdc rooftop to portfolios of 5MWac community solar ground mounts with and without battery storage and all across the country. We’ve managed pretty well so far fitting all of these things into one platform. We’re about to make it easier to manage for everyone.