ABSTRACT
The major difficulty in accomplishing the opening of Solarex was that we had problems renting a small space of 3500 sq. ft. (325 m2). The problem was that landlords did not want to rent space to a company that was just starting and there was no assurance that it would be in business a month later. I decided that if a bank would give us a line of credit, the landlords would take our company more seriously. Therefore, I started to obtain a line of credit for a company, the address of which was Dr. Lindmayer’s home address, had no assets, had at that time no employees, and had only cash. The first bank I tried was the bank in which our lawyer was the Chairman of the Board. They turned us down, as the Chairman probably did not believe that a company involved in solar energy would survive. Our only trump card was that we had at that point a sizable amount of cash from the stocks we sold. I realized that banks prefer to give loans to people who have money and do not need the line of credit, which the bank for various reasons could terminate at any time. After several banks would not even consider our request for a line of credit, I visited the First American Bank in Silver
Spring, MD, and met its president Bob Burke. He was interested in the potential of solar energy and said he would provide us a $100,000 line of credit, but Joseph and I had to guarantee it. I finally talked him out of that idea and walked out with the line of credit. The line of credit from a sizable local bank impressed the landlord and he rented the space for Solarex.
