A Girl After My Own Heart

Vanessa Stewart is the scion of an old-line Dallas family (great-grandfather: Henry Exall; grandfather: Peter Stewart; parents: Alan and Kathy Stewart), but there’s nothing old-line about her. While at Yale business school, she and a classmate came up with a nutty idea: how to provide solar energy on a widespread, cost-efficient basis.  By 2005 she had the first round of financing, and Soltage was born. Sundance ran a feature in May, and NBC is doing a profile. I love this story not only because Vanessa is obviously a very cool person, but because I, too, formulated my business plan (for D Magazine) while at business school, at Cox. So to all you B-school types: there are a billion good ideas out there. Get going!