This week on what it takes, an interview with one of Salon.com's 2007 picks for Sexiest Man.

I'm not joking. Oh, and he happened to build the biggest rooftop solar loan company too.

A conversation on how Billy Parish went from Hart-Throb climate

activist to cool collected solar businessman coming up. But first, a shout-out to

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Welcome to another edition of What It Takes, an interview series produced by Powerhouse in partnership with Green Tech Media.

In this series we hear from Clean Tech founders about what it takes to build a successful company

in this ridiculously hard market.

This week Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Billy Parish, the co-founder and CEO of Mosaic.

They'll talk about his journey from dropout to activist written about in Rolling Stone and Salon,

to CEO of America's leading rooftop solar lender.

The conversation was recorded live in Oakland, California at Powerhouse's headquarters.

Shail Khan sets the stage and that Emily Kirsch takes over. So I would like to think that I'm pretty serious about my commitment to combating climate change.

I've dedicated much of my career to the energy transition.

I apparently say the word or the phrase to the

phrase renewable energy penetration so much that my wife has banned it in our house.

I think I also bought some carbon offsets at one point,

but I don't hold a candle to Billy Parish.

...