It started on stage. It was built in the field.
SkillFusion is where two remarkable careers meet. One founder spent four decades in the field, building the companies that keep solar and EV charging running. The other spent more than twenty years preparing workers for the technologies reshaping how we move and power our lives. Together, Rue Phillips and Elaina Farnsworth built the SkillFusion Smart Platform and TekSpeks, so every technician on every job has expertise within sight.
Before the Job Sites, There Were Arenas
Rue Phillips was a British guitarist and vocalist who crossed the Atlantic with ten thousand dollars and big ambitions. Within a few years he was performing with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne and recording with Sabbath drummer Bill Ward.
Electronics ran in his family. When he set the guitar down, he picked up the tools of a different stage.
In the 1990s, when EV charging and solar were hobbyist markets, Rue was installing EV chargers for Hollywood clients and learning, one site at a time, what breaks and why.
That curiosity became a career.
Forty Years of Fixing What Others Overlooked
Rue co-founded True South Renewables, the first and largest independent solar O&M company in the U.S. He co-founded EV Connect, led Solarrus as president and founded Pacific Renewables.
Then he built the highly successful 365 Pronto, a platform that matched cleantech asset owners with qualified local technicians. In 2021, Enphase Energy acquired it.
Along the way, Fortune 50 companies sought his counsel, and he helped shape the codes and standards the industry runs on.
Every chapter taught him the same lesson. Equipment will always fail. What matters is how fast the right knowledge reaches the person standing in front of it.
For ten years, Rue imagined expertise arriving right here.
A Decade in the Making
About ten years ago, Rue started chasing an idea he couldn’t shake: a technician who could see through the eyes of the best expert in the industry, live, on any job.
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The spark. Rue pictures an expert riding along in every technician’s field of view.
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The first attempt. He tests VR headsets, searching for a way to bring an expert into the technician’s view.
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The breakthrough. Smart glasses arrive. Lightweight, hands free, made for the field. The vision finally has a home.
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The proof. 365 Pronto shows that matching the right technician to the right job can run on software, nationwide.
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The build. TekSpeks, live expert connect in the field, becomes the heart of the SkillFusion Smart Platform, coupled with MicroTrax, the Vault, and DNA Matching to ensure the right technician is sent to the right asset, every time.
He knew the field. She knew how people learn.
Together, they saw the whole picture.
Elaina Farnsworth: Building the Workforce Before the Future Arrives
Elaina Farnsworth spent more than twenty years on a question the industry was only beginning to ask: who will keep tomorrow’s technology running?
She founded The NEXT Education with a clear mission: to develop agents of change who lead new mobility systems into the real world.
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Credentials for brand new careers. She helped build the Connected Vehicle Professional credential with the Connected Vehicle Trade Association and SAE International. She also served more than a decade as the association’s Director of Global Communications.
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Training for what comes next. Her programs upskilled workers in electrification, autonomy and automotive cybersecurity. In Oakland County, her work helped uncover a connected vehicle job category no one had defined yet.
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AI with a human purpose. Today she champions AI that makes learning adaptive and passes every technician’s hard-won experience to the next. Her honors include a Top 10 Influencer for North American Automotive Suppliers, the Rule Breaker Award and the Techweek100.
Where the Field Met the Future
In 2021, Rue and Elaina met through community workforce initiatives including Make Hope Happen Foundation, Uplift San Bernardino and Green Paradigm. Both were already opening doors into careers in EV, energy and infrastructure.
He brought forty years of knowing what fails in the field. She brought twenty years of knowing how people learn. Hands-on and high-tech.
They arrived at the right moment. EV charging is spreading across the country. Battery storage and home energy systems are multiplying. Technology is advancing faster than training can keep up, and AI is reshaping every industry it touches. The demand for skilled technicians keeps climbing.
So they fused their life’s work into one system. DNA Matching sends the right technician. TekSpeks puts a live ProTek expert in their line of sight. MicroTrax captures the service history. The Vault turns every repair into knowledge the whole workforce can use.
Rue’s vision gives expertise reach. Elaina’s training gives it roots. SkillFusion puts both in the hands of every technician, on every job.