# Dan Yates

> Dan Yates is the CEO and Chairman of Dandelion Energy, the largest residential geothermal company in the United States, a startup spun out of Google X that drills backyard boreholes to heat and cool homes with the steady temperature of the earth. Before geothermal, he co-founded Opower, the energy-efficiency software company he took public in a billion-dollar-plus 2014 IPO and sold to Oracle in 2016. A Harvard computer scientist turned climate operator, Yates describes his own superpower as being 'a terrible loser' and is doggedly betting that 'lukewarm' geothermal becomes a mainstream pillar of the clean-energy transition.

- **Role:** CEO and Chairman at Dandelion Energy
- **Organizations:** Dandelion Energy, Opower, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), The Spice House
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in Computer Science, summa cum laude, Harvard University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and led Opower through a $1 billion+ IPO in 2014 and sale to Oracle in 2016., Opower helped consumers conserve tens of terawatt-hours of energy, becoming one of the largest residential clean-energy companies of its era., Built Dandelion Energy into the largest and fastest-growing residential geothermal company in the US.

## Career timeline

- **Late 1990s** — Graduates Harvard with a computer science degree during the dot-com boom; moves to the Bay Area to co-found an educational software company, later acquired by Houghton Mifflin.
- **Mid-2000s** — Drives the full Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego with his wife over nearly a year, witnessing environmental degradation that reshapes his career focus.
- **2007** — Co-founds Opower, an energy-efficiency software company based in Arlington, Virginia.
- **2014** — Leads Opower to a $1 billion+ IPO on the NYSE (ticker: OPWR).
- **2016** — Opower is acquired by Oracle.
- **2017** — Joins Dandelion Energy's board as an early investor after the company spins out of Google X.
- **2018** — Becomes Executive Chairman of Dandelion Energy, acting as a de facto 'third cofounder.'
- **2023** — Named CEO of Dandelion Energy (effective July 31, 2023).
- **2024** — Closes a $40M Series C round led by Google Ventures to scale residential geothermal.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and led Opower through a $1 billion+ IPO in 2014 and sale to Oracle in 2016.
- Opower helped consumers conserve tens of terawatt-hours of energy, becoming one of the largest residential clean-energy companies of its era.
- Built Dandelion Energy into the largest and fastest-growing residential geothermal company in the US.
- Raised a $40M Series C led by Google Ventures in 2024.
- Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
- Fortune 40 Under 40.
- Washingtonian Tech Titan.
- Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

## Latest updates

- **2024-09** — Dandelion Energy closed a $40 million Series C round led by Google Ventures to accelerate residential geothermal deployment.
- **2025** — Yates publicly argued geothermal heating and cooling can thrive regardless of shifting political winds, citing bipartisan interest in baseload geothermal and ground-source heat pump technology.

## Links

- Website: https://dandelionenergy.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danjyates
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/DandelionEnergy
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/DandelionHomeEnergy/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dan-yates
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-14