The FORT Podcast: Naman Trivedi
In Episode 12, Chris sits down with Naman Trivedi, CEO and founder of Wattbuy. They discuss renewable energy, the future of electricity, resilience of entrepreneurs and more.
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02:11 — Naman’s Background
06:24 — Has renewable energy always been something you were passionate about?
07:17 — Was your first start-up, Grid Potential, the pivot that got you into Wattbuy?
11:06 — How are you thinking about getting your product out to the masses?
14:03 — Are we going to see more de-regulation among previously regulated states?
16:15 — How do you know what the right data is?
18:25 — What constant feedback or data are you getting from your customers?
21:57 — Where are we in the story of solar? What do the next five years look like?
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26:10 — What is something super interesting that you are working on?
28:40 — For the utility companies that sign up with you, is the network effect at play?
30:18 — How does the electric company that is feeding the line into my house know whose electricity it is?
32:30 — Why would one utility provider be able to charge more than the other?
33:52 — What has been your experience in building a start-up?
37:28 — When you are hiring, do the early employees buy into the transparency and vision?
38:28 — What has your experience been raising capital?
40:30 — Would you recommend to anyone starting a start-up to go through an accelerator program?
42:21 — Was there one moment that changed the course of Wattbuy?
44:50 — What is the best book you have ever read and why?
45:27 — What is the best advice you have ever received?
46:12 — When do you take time to think?
48:16 — Is the sprint a short-term goal that needs to get done quickly?
49:18 — When you are building something new for the first time, is it difficult to communicate what you want?
MORE ABOUT NAMAN
Naman Trivedi is the CEO and Co-Founder of WattBuy, an energy insights and intelligence company. His experience lies at the intersection of technology, business development and public policy. Prior to WattBuy he worked at Google and Box in Silicon Valley. He’s worked on California’s energy policy pushing for Community Choice Aggregation, a system to allow aggregate buying power of individuals to purchase renewable energy supply contracts. Naman spent two years at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (Obama Administration) working on renewables and grand prizes. He also spent time working at the United States Trade Representative on international trade issues. Naman has also worked on renewable and energy finance projects in Haiti and Paraguay. Naman holds a BS in International Economics from Georgetown University, where he focused on energy economics and was also the Executive Director of a $1.5M million social investment fund.