Billy Hinners



HELD C-LEVEL POSITIONS AT:

STRATAFUSION ALUMNI


Technology Entrepreneur, Technology Product Direction, Technology Management, Interim CIO and CTO


Billy’s recent success comes from defining digital strategy as VP of Technology for a nationwide residential solar startup, Sunrun. Billy’s Sunrun experience resulted in multiple patents, a DOE SunShot award and Sunrun’s rapid rise to IPO in 2015. 

Billy is an expert in automation, modeling and solar, with a deep technology background in engineering. He has a wide view of technology from work at start-ups to industry leaders. 

Billy served in a number of leadership roles at Autodesk. He joined the company through the acquisition of his first startup, Cadetron, one of the earliest PC-based solids modeling applications. In his time at Autodesk, he worked in a variety of software engineering roles global locations from the Bay Area to Switzerland and Australia, as well leading engineering for the Autodesk supply-chain automation spinoff, RedSpark. While leading the AutoCAD line of products, he shortened the release cycle by 50 percent while also improving customer focus and product quality. He then became Chief Information Officer where he spearheaded several $10M+ global implementations, which dramatically boosted sales automation and efficiency.

In 2010, he co-founded Lightmile, a company that automated and optimized the design of photovoltaic systems. Sunrun, a nationwide residential solar startup, acquired Lightmile in 2010. During that time the company grew from an 80-person startup to a public company with more than $3B in assets. Billy’s Sunrun experience resulted in multiple patents, a DOE SunShot award and Sunrun’s rapid rise to IPO in 2015. 

Since leaving Sunrun in 2016, Billy has focused on founding his own stealth-mode startups and occasionally advising other technology startups.

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