Company: Galvin Electricity Initiative
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
Founded: 2005
Employees: 1
Revenue: N/A

The retired CEO of Motorola, Galvin launched the Galvin Electricity Initiative after a blackout across the Northeast in 2003 cost businesses more than $10 billion in downtime. Now, his team of 60 industry experts wants to replace the current power grid with interconnected micro-grids, an ambitious project he believes will attract small, innovative firms to fill in the technology gaps.