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A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill Gross is on the verge of a breakthrough that can make solar energy as affordable as fossil fuel-generated energy. His eSolar has a full operation factory in California that produces enough energy to power some 4,000 homes.

A system of 24,000 mirrors moving slowly to capture blazing sun rays is produced efficiently with robot-made fabricated parts rather than customized components that brings down costs significantly. And, since eSolar requires intense sunlight, its power plants are built in underutilized, arid areas that are generally deserted.

Bill Gross has always tinkered with technology and innovation, improving existing ideas and developing new ones. The commercial aspect of his inventions has come naturally as other recognized their value. In 1996, Gross started IdeaLab as an umbrella company for his hundreds of projects and startups.

The failure of many companies comes from stretching its resources, taking on too many things and eventually losing focus, Gross says. IdeaLab has given him the opportunity to develop his various projects by creating dozens of startups within the company each focusing on one idea.

Gross’ success has come at the cost of many failed attempts – his ventures were destroyed in the dot com  crash. But he lived through it, and took these million-dollars failures as very expensive classes in entrepreneurship he learned a great deal from.

We sat down with Bill Gross to find out what these crucial lessons are, and understand more about how eSolar works.

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