Most of us know that running heavy appliances overnight will save you more money than doing so during the day. But what if you could track your home or office’s energy usage at any hour without running outside with a flashlight and a magnifying glass? That’s Silver Spring Networks’ mission. The decade-old Redwood City company is creating energy metering and control systems for utilities, homes and offices that allow real-time monitoring over the Internet so conservation-minded users institutions and individuals can develop better habits using electricity, gas and water. Silver Spring filed for an IPO in July 2011.
THE QUICK BIO
Michael Dillon didn’t make the decision to become a lawyer from early childhood. He got the idea from a random conversation with a fellow traveler he met during a cycling vacation to New Zealand after graduating from UC-San Diego in 1980. “We were drinking beer one night and I met this guy who had just graduated from law school. I don’t think I had ever met a lawyer before that night and I started thinking about it,” said Dillon, 53, a communications/sociology major and the son of a Navy pilot who had lived “a dozen places” before college.
