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My first interview with Zach Dell & Justin Lopas, the Co-Founders of Base Power Company.
Zach Dell and Justin Lopas, co-founders of Base Power Company, discuss their strategy to build the fastest-growing energy startup through vertical integration, aggressive execution, and a cost-structure competitive advantage. They've scaled from 40 to 240 employees in 10-12 months while maintaining a flat, metrics-driven culture focused on lowering electricity costs through distributed battery systems. Their approach emphasizes hiring exceptional leaders early, staying close to customers and operations, and building a flywheel where lower costs drive higher demand and scale.
Base Power's competitive advantage centers on vertical integration and technology to achieve the lowest cost structure in electricity delivery. Their flywheel: lower costs → higher asset returns → lower customer prices → more demand → more scale → lower costs. As a commodity market, the cheapest, most reliable electrons win.
The company operates at 'base pace' - as fast as reasonably possible without breaking too much. They minimize time the ball is in their court during interactions, maintain extreme bias toward action, and use visible metrics on screens throughout the office to make problems obvious. Teams own their metrics with green/yellow/red indicators.
Base Power scaled 6x in headcount by hiring exceptional leaders in the first 20 people (especially first 5), building a strong talent network, and accepting that things will break. Their leadership team had experience managing large teams at companies like SpaceX, enabling rapid scaling without teaching basic management skills.
Justin identifies holding onto the Gen 2 (white-labeled custom) product too long as their biggest mistake, costing 6 months. They should have 'burned the boats' and jumped directly to Gen 3 (fully custom, in-house manufactured) hardware instead of the stair-step approach.
Production challenges aren't one big problem but the summation of many small-to-medium issues: machine lead times, hiring, real estate deals, permitting, interconnections, and electrician availability. Deployment at customer sites is their current version of 'production hell' with operational challenges in every aspect.
Texas allows retail choice where Base can directly access wholesale markets, but most states don't. They're working on 12-24 month timeline to open market access in other states and have utility partnership models working in non-retail-choice areas of Texas.
Leadership growth happens through aggressive feedback-seeking, asking specific questions like 'behaviors to see more/less of,' and tailoring leadership style to each individual. They emphasize that feedback is a skill requiring intentional practice and specific framing.
To pull in schedules, they focus on descoping (deleting unnecessary work) rather than just working harder, since hours are already maxed. They parallel path tasks instead of serializing them and set specific dates (not quarters) to drive urgency.
Everyone can articulate the mission (affordable, reliable power). They maintain alignment through monthly all-hands with North Star goals, detailed monthly company updates, and quarterly 'Engine of Success' presentations explaining their winning playbook.
Started by outsourcing everything (white-labeled product, third-party installers, logistics) to learn the trade. Once they understood what good looks like, they brought functions in-house. First installation was with a Craigslist electrician to learn before hiring their own team.
Founders maintain direct customer contact through emails, phone calls, door-knocking, and casual conversations. They eat lunch with employees daily, send team members to installations regularly, and practice 'Gemba walks' (Toyota concept of going to see actual work).
Highly decentralized organization where group leads make decisions in their domain. Hiring manager has final call even if founders disagree. Leaders are better at their decisions than founders, so founders don't micromanage - they set North Stars and ensure right people in right seats.
Extremely flat organization with no private offices - CEO desk looks like intern desk. Open calendars, catered meals twice daily, group lunches and dinners. Direct feedback culture where they respectfully call out bad meetings or misaligned decisions immediately.
After 3-4 years, their relationship has improved significantly despite being very different people. They've learned each other's idiosyncrasies, built deep trust through repeated success, and embrace healthy daily conflict that makes each other better. Both knew it would be painful and enjoy grinding together.
Competing to Build the Fastest-Growing Energy Startup Ever | Base Power, Zach Dell & Justin Lopas
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