It was the summer of 2018 and I was the listing agent on a property that was to me reminiscent of Southfork on the eighties TV series Dallas.

The 7437 square feet home on 2.5 acres features eight beds, nine baths, a five car garage and a barn and is located in Reno. It was listed for about a month when an offer was accepted. While in escrow, the buyer asked me to meet him at the home - he wanted to show it to his boss,

The buyer, Adam Kramer, was a Vice President at a high tech data storage company named Switch. His Boss was the founder of Switch named Rob Roy, who has a great smile and looks a bit like Tom Cruise.

Switch builds data centers and leases space and equipment to its clients.

Over a decade ago Rob Roy, the founder of Switch, recognized the potential for growth in the data center industry and developed the patented Switch WDMD® program with over 700 issued and pending patent claims. Many of the data center concepts and practices used by the industry today were pioneered by Rob Roy.

After going public in one of the biggest IPOs in Nevada history, Switch received a market value of $4.2 billion, according to Reuters. A nearly 18 percent stake in the company puts his worth above $700 million. People close to Roy say other investments put his worth above $1 billion.

Roy says he got much of his inspiration from his father, who became a quadriplegic when Roy was 12 and thereafter earned a computer science degree. "He couldn't type. I was the oldest. We had a terminal to the university and he got his computer science degree over four years from the time I was 13 to 17," Roy says. "I typed every single thing for that degree. Of course, I didn't have a computer science degree at 17. But pretty close."

Roy has spent over a decade avoiding press coverage. "My fiduciary responsibility is to my shareholders," he says. "How much marketing have you ever seen me do? None. We don't do any."

Adam Kramer left Switch and created his own high tech start-up nZero.

In 2022. nZero was chosen by TIME as an honoree in the Sustainability category due to the technology's unique and impactful contributions to carbon management, being a platform that measures emissions data with unmatched accuracy.

The platform utilizes a carbon emissions data model to provide 24/7 analysis, capable of capturing changes hour-by-hour and providing actionable insights to help customers reach sustainability goals. With this powerful information, nZero clients are equipped to identify blind spots in emissions management and make more cost-effective, data-driven choices in an effort to reach near zero emissions.

Recently, nZero received a vote of confidence from a major venture capital firm. It’s a vote of confidence worth $16 million, which is how much global venture capital firm Fifth Wall is investing in the Reno technology company,

If you’re thinking of reaching net zero by 2050, you need to start today. Obviously, there’s a huge level of urgency here. For nZero, that is good news.

Adam Kramer noted the large jump in nZero’s number of employees as a sign of the rising demand for carbon accounting. The company has also expanded with several offices in the United States and Europe.



“A year ago, we had eight employees,” Kramer said. “Today we have about 100 employees.”

“You have large demand from investors, from customers, from businesses and from organizations to decarbonize and they need tools to understand their footprint.”

Adam Kramer is not a billionaire yet - but, he is working on it . . . and he lives in a very nice house.