YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
When Vroom Solar MO Inc. co-founder Luke Phelps saw a need, he thought outside the grid to help create a solution. Field-based workers needed an affordable, user-friendly power source for use on the job – and the Vroom 3000 delivered. It offers solar power free of a battery or grid connection. Following a pilot year for the product, the company is expecting 2026 revenue to reach $3 million.
SBJ: How does the Vroom 3000 work?
Luke Phelps, co-founder and CEO: The Vroom 3000 is the first solar inverter that manages direct solar energy without a battery or grid connection. It does this through buffering the power availability with software controls versus buffering it through a battery or grid connection.
SBJ: How does the Vroom 3000 compare to traditional solar options in terms of cost, convenience and performance?
Phelps: The Vroom 3000 lowers [obstacles to] the access [of] solar availability by almost 50%. It makes it far easier to install, eliminating the need for specialized electricians and labor to perform the install, and makes the whole system solar plug-and-play with just being able to plug connectors together and flip the system on for full access to sunlight.
SBJ: What types of industries or customers benefit the most from the Vroom 3000?
Phelps: The first industry that we are going after is remote job sites – (electric vehicles), lawn care, contractors and farmers. We find that these markets pay the most for power access, and our solution fits their needs perfectly because they’re working during daylight hours, [which] is when we have power availability to provide them. After we get into that market, we already have plans to fully enter the residential market with our solution, too.
SBJ: What does installation look like?
Phelps: Most of the time, installation will be performed by the customer if they want to tackle it themselves and save the money. Our solution makes that plug-and-play, DIY possible – not having to mess with the net metering permits or expensive wiring costs. But if you want to pay someone to install it, it would be fairly reasonable – probably in the ballpark of a couple hundred bucks.
SBJ: You’ve said keeping the supply chain close to home is a key part of your model. What benefits does that create – for the company and for your customers?
Phelps: The benefit for our company is it’s just easier to regulate. Once you start crossing the ocean, it gets hard to keep everything in order, if you will, or just aligned. So, we want to make sure that we have access to build a good foundation in the United States before we start going overseas with our product. The customer gets the benefit of much better customer service and the foundation of knowing that their product was built in the USA by people who truly care about where we’re going first.
SBJ: How do you find and build relationships with dealers and distributors?
Phelps: A lot of the dealerships have actually been coming to us. We’ve just been using LinkedIn and some light Facebook ads to put out in the marketplace what we’ve developed. So, we’ve already gotten a tremendous amount of traction from that. This year, we’ll be hitting a lot more trade shows and doing more public advertising, too.
A trio of brothers own Southway Storage LLC, which opened Oct. 7 and has 289 units to serve customers in Ozark, Nixa, Springfield and elsewhere in southwest Missouri.
