I started and am the CEO of Nanosolar, a leader in solar power innovation.

Prior to creating one of the first successful greentech companies, I was among the first generation of entrepreneurs to pioneer the commercial Internet, involved in three companies:

• eGroups, the "mother of all social networking sites"; acquired by Yahoo in 2000 for $450 million; service used by more than 50 million people today. I was the founding CEO, with funding from Sequoia Capital; eGroups was the world's second-largest email hub just behind AOL.

• TradingDynamics (enterprise-class trading software); acquired by Ariba in 1999 for $720 million; co-founder.

• FindLaw (most popular legal website); bootstrapped while I was at Stanford; acquired by Thomson's West Group.

• Doctorate in engineering from Stanford University; master's degree from Munich Technical University

• Austrian citizen born in Munich, Germany

• Came to Silicon Valley through internship at Xerox PARC (when I was still a teenager)