The Beginnings of Leaf
As ThinkEnergy fellows at the Great Lakes Energy Institute, Leaf's founders learned from experts about trends and opportunities in the energy industry.
A feature article explores the beginnings of Leaf and how we got started on this journey.
As ThinkEnergy fellows at the Great Lakes Energy Institute, our founders learned from experts about trends and opportunities in the energy industry. The fellowship program taught us how to confront the challenges facing the clean energy transition.
Through our experience, we identified a significant bottleneck: the engineering documentation process. Every renewable energy project requires extensive drawings, schematics, and permit packages—work that is critical but incredibly time-consuming. Despite advances in technology across many industries, engineering teams were still relying on manual drafting processes that hadn't fundamentally changed in decades.
What started as observations during our fellowship evolved into a mission: build technology that automates the tedious parts of engineering work, freeing engineers to focus on design and problem-solving.
The Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University played a crucial role in our development. Their programs and support network helped us understand the energy industry deeply and identify where technology could make the biggest impact.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey so far.