Latest / Deep Tech Germany – AI, Robotics & Frontier Innovation by Startuprad.io™ / Grid Storage from Second-Life EV Batteries: Inside Voltfang
Transcript
- WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:03.880 Hey guys, what if the key of Europe's energy future is 2 00:00:03.880 --> 00:00:07.280 sitting in the trunk of yesterday's electric car? Today on 3 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:10.960 StartupRaid IO, we're talking to David Odansia, 4 00:00:11.120 --> 00:00:14.800 CEO of Voltfang, the startup that turns EV batteries 5 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:18.440 into grid stabilizing green powerhouses. We'll 6 00:00:18.440 --> 00:00:22.160 ask how did a broken camper battery lead to a 7 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.760 15 million US dollar raise? What's behind Europe's 8 00:00:26.090 --> 00:00:29.850 biggest second life battery factory? And how do you pitch 9 00:00:29.850 --> 00:00:33.210 a vision bold enough to replace coal? 10 00:00:33.450 --> 00:00:35.930 You don't want to miss this. Stay tuned. 11 00:00:42.010 --> 00:00:45.050 Welcome to Startuprad IO, 12 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:49.170 your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German 13 00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:52.650 startup scene with news, interviews and 14 00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:54.170 live events. 15 00:00:56.780 --> 00:01:00.620 David Usanti is the CEO and co founder of Voltfang, a 16 00:01:00.620 --> 00:01:04.260 German climate tech startup that transforms used electric 17 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:07.180 car batteries into cutting edge stationary 18 00:01:07.740 --> 00:01:11.140 energy storage systems. With a background in 19 00:01:11.140 --> 00:01:14.900 industrial engineering from rvthen 20 00:01:14.900 --> 00:01:18.700 R wth Aachen, David leads one 21 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:22.320 of Europe's most ambitious second life battery 22 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:25.920 initiatives. A company that just raised 15 million 23 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:29.200 euros, opened the continent's largest second 24 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:33.000 life battery factory and secured projects with 25 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:36.160 partners like Stuttgart Airport and grid operators. 26 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:40.440 WorldFunk's technology is not only reducing 27 00:01:40.440 --> 00:01:44.160 CO2, but also decentralizing energy security 28 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:47.440 across Europe. David, welcome to the show. 29 00:01:48.710 --> 00:01:52.470 Thanks for having me. Totally my pleasure. We. We already made some 30 00:01:52.470 --> 00:01:55.270 jokes before we started, so we both pretty relaxed. 31 00:01:57.670 --> 00:02:01.270 Take us back to the camper trip that sparked 32 00:02:01.430 --> 00:02:05.270 world fun. When did you realize there was a business 33 00:02:05.430 --> 00:02:08.950 behind repurposing EV batteries? And are you still 34 00:02:08.950 --> 00:02:12.710 camping? I wish. I 35 00:02:12.710 --> 00:02:16.480 actually wish I was still camping. It's. It's a 36 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:19.920 long time ago when I. When we were camping the last time. 37 00:02:20.160 --> 00:02:23.960 But to start the story, I'm David, co founder and CEO 38 00:02:23.960 --> 00:02:27.520 of Vol. I'm originally from Cologne, so in Germany we say 39 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:31.200 Kung. Then I moved to Aachen because of my studies 10 years 40 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:34.920 ago, roughly 11, where I also met my two co founders, 41 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:38.240 Afin and Roman. So we. We started studying 42 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.180 together at the rwth. And if you 43 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:45.900 are studying there, you always want to escape 44 00:02:46.540 --> 00:02:49.980 when the exams, the exam phase is over. 45 00:02:50.140 --> 00:02:53.860 So what we did, we bought a camper van together. And the 46 00:02:53.860 --> 00:02:57.500 reason was just to get out, to get to the Netherlands, to the Belgium, 47 00:02:57.580 --> 00:03:01.180 to every kind of party, festival or vacation 48 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:04.940 we could to get some freedom back. And that's what we did. 49 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:08.860 We bought a camper van, an old time of year Ducato, 50 00:03:08.940 --> 00:03:12.620 which we lovely called Mia. 51 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:17.340 And with Mia we did everything. And the 52 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:20.540 problem was just that Mia is an old timer 53 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:24.420 with not such a huge motorization and the batteries 54 00:03:24.420 --> 00:03:28.100 was as old as MIA. And in Germany you need to be 30 55 00:03:28.100 --> 00:03:31.780 years or plus years old to be an old timer. Therefore you know 56 00:03:31.780 --> 00:03:35.260 how degraded the battery was. So our idea was to 57 00:03:35.260 --> 00:03:38.950 change first of all the battery storage system inside of 58 00:03:38.950 --> 00:03:42.550 it and also to integrate a solar panel on the roof. Because 59 00:03:42.870 --> 00:03:46.390 if anybody, everybody wants to charge their phones, then the battery gets 60 00:03:46.790 --> 00:03:50.550 empty extremely quickly. So we decided to do that. Roman 61 00:03:50.710 --> 00:03:54.309 just jumped on the roof and put a solar panel 62 00:03:54.309 --> 00:03:57.590 from ebay Klein inside, inside of it or on top of it. 63 00:03:57.910 --> 00:04:01.190 And then the idea was, which kind of battery shall we take? And 64 00:04:02.390 --> 00:04:05.510 we found out that you could buy Tesla batteries 65 00:04:05.910 --> 00:04:09.190 just out of the Eber Kleinenzeigen. And 66 00:04:09.430 --> 00:04:13.070 therefore we said, why shouldn't we take them? Easy 67 00:04:13.070 --> 00:04:16.710 answer, way too heavy. And the motorization is so bad we just 68 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:20.630 go downhill if we want to get up a hill. Therefore 69 00:04:20.630 --> 00:04:22.630 we decided not to do that and 70 00:04:24.550 --> 00:04:28.270 we bought another battery storage and then we put it 71 00:04:28.270 --> 00:04:31.670 inside. Everything was fine. But a few weeks later, 72 00:04:31.990 --> 00:04:35.830 Roman's father just asked him why, whether he knows where to buy 73 00:04:35.830 --> 00:04:39.630 a storage system for his workshop. So he has a 74 00:04:39.630 --> 00:04:43.430 solar panel on the roof and he wants to consume as much solar 75 00:04:43.430 --> 00:04:47.070 as possible. And we engineers are really 76 00:04:47.070 --> 00:04:50.910 naive and we think we can do everything. Therefore Rohan just said, 77 00:04:51.150 --> 00:04:54.350 we can build you one. And that's what we actually did. 78 00:04:55.390 --> 00:04:58.590 We just closed the doors behind ourselves 79 00:04:58.910 --> 00:05:02.580 for we anticipated three days. In the end it was two weeks 80 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:06.740 to build a storage system with these kind of Tesla modules, everything 81 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:10.500 based on open source. And after two weeks and a 82 00:05:10.500 --> 00:05:14.180 lot of, no, not a lot really less sleep, 83 00:05:14.420 --> 00:05:17.060 we were able to actually run the system. 84 00:05:17.940 --> 00:05:21.460 And then we thought, look, we are at the end of our 85 00:05:21.460 --> 00:05:25.020 studies, we don't want to just end up in a corporate, we want to do 86 00:05:25.020 --> 00:05:28.660 something which matters. And actually we want to be free also in our work. 87 00:05:28.900 --> 00:05:32.570 Therefore we said, look, let's just sell it from the 88 00:05:32.970 --> 00:05:36.690 neighbor to the next neighbor and maybe to five other neighbors. So that 89 00:05:36.690 --> 00:05:40.450 was the idea, just to sell one by another. And we 90 00:05:40.450 --> 00:05:44.210 didn't even thought about VC startup and raising 91 00:05:44.210 --> 00:05:47.930 a lot of money and so on, so forth. We just thought, maybe that's a 92 00:05:47.930 --> 00:05:51.730 solid business. And after the university, when you 93 00:05:51.730 --> 00:05:55.530 don't do it after university, when shall you do it then? And therefore 94 00:05:55.530 --> 00:05:57.450 we started World Fund. 95 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:05.100 Interesting story. I have to admit. Taking it 96 00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:08.260 from there, what was your first major 97 00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:12.340 challenge like tech regulation or team that 98 00:06:12.340 --> 00:06:16.020 made you doubt that your idea may work? 99 00:06:17.860 --> 00:06:21.540 So in the end we just started, 100 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.300 we had the tech, we had a prototype running, 101 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:30.430 we didn't have so much knowledge about batteries. Therefore the tech was one of the 102 00:06:30.430 --> 00:06:34.070 biggest things, we actually didn't care about regulation so much. We just said, 103 00:06:34.070 --> 00:06:37.630 okay, they have pilot projects, we just start and try. And 104 00:06:37.630 --> 00:06:41.470 therefore we didn't, we didn't think so much about regulation 105 00:06:41.710 --> 00:06:45.550 and the team, since we three are friends 106 00:06:46.110 --> 00:06:49.950 and long time friends, we didn't care about the team 107 00:06:49.950 --> 00:06:52.910 either. And also the RWTH has a lot of 108 00:06:53.150 --> 00:06:56.910 engineers who are like minded, therefore that was also not 109 00:06:56.910 --> 00:07:00.630 an issue. So tech was the biggest thing and selling our storage 110 00:07:00.630 --> 00:07:04.470 systems with the limited amount of capital we had 111 00:07:04.470 --> 00:07:08.230 in the beginning. So we just said, look, how could we develop 112 00:07:08.310 --> 00:07:12.030 something with so much so less money? And 113 00:07:12.030 --> 00:07:15.710 then we tried to sell something which we didn't even have and it 114 00:07:15.710 --> 00:07:19.350 was actually really hard. And 115 00:07:19.510 --> 00:07:23.110 then like after a half a year, one year, we still was 116 00:07:23.190 --> 00:07:27.030 wasn't able to sell one. But that was also the time 117 00:07:27.410 --> 00:07:31.170 we thought shall we do that? Maybe it doesn't work out, and so on, 118 00:07:31.170 --> 00:07:34.690 so forth. But since we started, since we said 119 00:07:34.770 --> 00:07:38.450 why it should work, because it's logic 120 00:07:38.450 --> 00:07:42.290 that we need something like this. If you have solar, you need to store it 121 00:07:42.290 --> 00:07:46.010 somewhere either or you will put everything into 122 00:07:46.010 --> 00:07:49.730 the grid and destabilize it. So we said, look, we just do it 123 00:07:49.730 --> 00:07:53.500 for one, two years and if it doesn't work out, we try something 124 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:56.220 different. But actually it worked out. 125 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:04.940 I see, so at one point 126 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:08.779 you realized it works out. I was wondering when you 127 00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:11.180 were a student in Aachen, 128 00:08:13.260 --> 00:08:16.780 now you're cleantech founder, helping to rewire your 129 00:08:16.860 --> 00:08:20.540 script, did that also change your self image? 130 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.320 Totally. To be completely honest, it 131 00:08:25.320 --> 00:08:28.640 changed it totally. I in the university, 132 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:33.720 if you are at the RWTH and you are not the smartest person on earth, 133 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:37.320 you will be average or below average. And therefore I always had the 134 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:41.040 feeling of not fitting because all the others 135 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:44.800 were way better engineers. For example, Afshin, which is one of the brightest minds 136 00:08:44.800 --> 00:08:48.520 I know, Roman as well. And therefore I always had 137 00:08:48.520 --> 00:08:52.250 the feeling of not being being able to do what the engineers are doing. 138 00:08:52.730 --> 00:08:55.130 And therefore I 139 00:08:56.410 --> 00:09:00.090 didn't knew what in the future I actually 140 00:09:00.170 --> 00:09:03.130 will be bringing value of. 141 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:07.690 And that was something I had in the beginning. Now I know actually somebody 142 00:09:07.690 --> 00:09:11.170 who can, who is not the inventor, but who can 143 00:09:11.170 --> 00:09:14.690 explain what we have invented to people in 144 00:09:14.690 --> 00:09:18.350 easy words is. Is also something necessary and therefore 145 00:09:18.350 --> 00:09:22.190 it changed completely. My confidence boosted. 146 00:09:24.510 --> 00:09:27.950 We hold ourselves humble all the time. But still 147 00:09:28.430 --> 00:09:32.190 after five years, after building up a not 148 00:09:32.190 --> 00:09:35.070 small company anymore, rather a big company, 149 00:09:35.870 --> 00:09:39.510 you have some self confidence in your decisions, in the 150 00:09:39.510 --> 00:09:43.020 skills you have, and therefore it changed. 151 00:09:47.580 --> 00:09:51.420 I see. From our audience, I 152 00:09:51.420 --> 00:09:54.980 would like to Know what made you believe in your 153 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.300 startup, share in the comments and or tag us 154 00:09:58.780 --> 00:10:02.340 wherever you're sharing this. We are on LinkedIn, we are an 155 00:10:02.340 --> 00:10:05.500 ax, we're in blue sky threads and so on and so forth. 156 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:10.520 From a very good spot. Let's take us 157 00:10:10.520 --> 00:10:14.240 to your darkest day. There must have been a day when 158 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:18.000 a pilot failed a route, a funding round almost fell 159 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.360 through. What kept you from giving up? 160 00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:26.120 So the most important thing in the whole 161 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:29.840 journey is Roman and Afcin the team. 162 00:10:30.400 --> 00:10:34.080 Since we we had always like a customer 163 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.890 said I want to have the storage system, huge deal. Then they dropped. 164 00:10:38.050 --> 00:10:40.690 We had funding rounds where we had really, 165 00:10:41.810 --> 00:10:44.930 really less time actually to pay everybody. 166 00:10:45.330 --> 00:10:49.090 And always we always kept each other's back. 167 00:10:49.090 --> 00:10:52.890 That was incredibly important. If something doesn't 168 00:10:52.890 --> 00:10:56.490 work out, it was not like I told you so. It was like how can 169 00:10:56.490 --> 00:11:00.210 I help? Let's keep on doing it, otherwise we do something different 170 00:11:00.210 --> 00:11:03.650 and we will be successful either way. And this kind of 171 00:11:03.650 --> 00:11:07.300 mindset helped us through a lot of. A lot of 172 00:11:07.300 --> 00:11:10.980 phases which weren't good and but we 173 00:11:10.980 --> 00:11:14.820 still keep on doing it because we said what shall we 174 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:18.500 lose? What have we. What can we lose? And 175 00:11:18.500 --> 00:11:22.140 therefore we just keep on going. The friendship 176 00:11:22.140 --> 00:11:25.820 just grew and actually these 177 00:11:25.820 --> 00:11:29.420 things together were like the resilience we needed to overcome this kind 178 00:11:29.420 --> 00:11:32.990 of. Yeah. Darker times. 179 00:11:33.390 --> 00:11:37.030 I actually plan to put right here some questions about your co 180 00:11:37.030 --> 00:11:40.830 founder and team dynamics. That works really well. You've lived and worked 181 00:11:40.830 --> 00:11:44.590 with your co founders for years. What is the biggest I do. 182 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:48.910 What is the biggest people lesson you had to learn the hard 183 00:11:48.910 --> 00:11:52.110 way there? Actually my two confidants and I, 184 00:11:52.990 --> 00:11:55.790 we still are living together and 185 00:11:57.230 --> 00:12:01.000 we share a dog and we do a lot of 186 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:04.560 things together, sometimes also on vacation and things like this. Therefore 187 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:09.200 one thing I learned which is really important is having 188 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.000 people around you you can trust who have the same values and who 189 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.720 are loyal. This is such a relief in your 190 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.920 whole life and who actually keep on 191 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.520 want to to. You want to compete with them, you want to be better. You 192 00:12:24.520 --> 00:12:28.360 the best of yourself. Therefore this 193 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:32.160 is something which is really good. But on 194 00:12:32.160 --> 00:12:35.880 the hard way. The most important thing is 195 00:12:36.040 --> 00:12:39.600 sales people can sell themselves really 196 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:43.359 good. Therefore if you think you 197 00:12:43.359 --> 00:12:47.120 have the best salesperson on earth, you 198 00:12:47.120 --> 00:12:50.880 can be completely wrong. And that's something we learned on 199 00:12:50.880 --> 00:12:52.600 a hardware. A lot of times. 200 00:12:55.410 --> 00:12:59.130 You and your two co founders still live together. Just between you 201 00:12:59.130 --> 00:13:02.690 and me and something like 50,000 listeners, who's the one who doesn't do the 202 00:13:02.690 --> 00:13:06.410 dishes? All three are not so good 203 00:13:06.410 --> 00:13:10.250 at this. Therefore let's Call 204 00:13:10.250 --> 00:13:13.890 it all of us. I see, that's fine 205 00:13:13.890 --> 00:13:16.610 but we don't. Do so much dishes anyways because 206 00:13:17.570 --> 00:13:21.190 we are always late at work. But, but to be, to be fair, 207 00:13:21.910 --> 00:13:25.630 we have really strict things who is 208 00:13:25.630 --> 00:13:28.790 doing what. So for example, Roman is most of the times 209 00:13:30.070 --> 00:13:33.790 like getting the groceries. Afin is the one of the best 210 00:13:33.790 --> 00:13:35.990 cooks and I do the rest. 211 00:13:38.230 --> 00:13:41.750 Okay, I see going a little bit into 212 00:13:41.830 --> 00:13:45.430 a potential emotional toll here you are operating at the heart 213 00:13:45.430 --> 00:13:49.150 of energy, climate and impact. What's 214 00:13:49.150 --> 00:13:52.990 been a personal toll of building this climate 215 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:56.750 tech rocket ship. So if you don't want to 216 00:13:56.750 --> 00:14:00.310 make it your living or your your life, 217 00:14:01.430 --> 00:14:04.630 then you will probably have a hard time to be 218 00:14:04.630 --> 00:14:07.670 successful. What I heard from my family 219 00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:12.310 in the last few months, a lot of times you are, 220 00:14:12.970 --> 00:14:16.650 you haven't been around at the weekends and so much 221 00:14:16.730 --> 00:14:20.290 you weren't available over the last five years. So much. 222 00:14:20.290 --> 00:14:23.890 Because I actually had a lot of things to 223 00:14:23.890 --> 00:14:27.050 do and if I'm not doing that, I'm 224 00:14:27.690 --> 00:14:31.530 trying to take my time and calm down. So 225 00:14:31.690 --> 00:14:35.290 it needs also a lot of self discipline, 226 00:14:36.250 --> 00:14:39.910 a lot of time and also a lot of focus on 227 00:14:40.470 --> 00:14:43.590 yourself to be the best you can for the company, 228 00:14:44.070 --> 00:14:47.910 for the team and for the growth. So you, 229 00:14:48.070 --> 00:14:51.830 you for sure you have your time with your family, your friends, but it's 230 00:14:52.230 --> 00:14:55.750 lesser than before. Plus 231 00:14:55.990 --> 00:14:59.790 I also do feel the value of just sitting 232 00:14:59.790 --> 00:15:03.430 in the evening outside on our covered porch here. Just 233 00:15:03.430 --> 00:15:07.230 be by yourself, do something you enjoy, for example, listening to an 234 00:15:07.230 --> 00:15:10.890 audiobook and just have to do nothing. No, to do that gets 235 00:15:10.890 --> 00:15:14.690 a very much higher value over time. Totally. Having a 236 00:15:14.690 --> 00:15:18.210 book, reading it and being completely by yourself 237 00:15:18.210 --> 00:15:21.850 is incredibly helpful for calming down. Talking about 238 00:15:21.850 --> 00:15:25.410 breaks here. We will be back after our short ad break 239 00:15:25.410 --> 00:15:28.530 here. Then we talk about make or break moments, founder 240 00:15:28.530 --> 00:15:31.930 misconceptions and vulnerability to value. 241 00:15:32.090 --> 00:15:33.370 Hope to have you back soon. 242 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:41.940 Hey guys, welcome back to the interview with David 243 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:45.660 from Voltfang. We've been talking about a lot 244 00:15:45.660 --> 00:15:49.460 already and now I want to dig a little bit deeper. The make 245 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:53.180 or break moment you've transitioned from a startup 246 00:15:53.180 --> 00:15:56.260 to scale up. Was there point 247 00:15:57.060 --> 00:16:00.860 when you had to pivot hard or double down? Yes, a 248 00:16:00.860 --> 00:16:02.960 lot of times. So in the beginning 249 00:16:04.640 --> 00:16:08.480 we started as a residual storage 250 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:12.080 provider. So for the home storage we figured out 251 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.840 that's not the best way to grow. Therefore we decided 252 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.600 to pivot into commercial industrial. We did a 253 00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:23.280 lot of things by ourselves which we said no, we need to 254 00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:26.800 focus and focus and focus. Therefore 255 00:16:27.760 --> 00:16:31.280 we needed to pivot from home storage to 256 00:16:31.520 --> 00:16:35.360 commercial industrial storage system. We needed to Also 257 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:38.640 change sometimes the business plan, the strategy, 258 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:41.520 so on, so forth. So yes, a lot of times 259 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:47.200 you need to always evolve yourself. You need to, you 260 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:50.240 have a lot of evolutions within yourself as 261 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.160 the company leader, but also the company as itself. 262 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:58.640 I was wondering, is there like one moment that extremely, 263 00:16:58.800 --> 00:17:02.500 extremely has been sticking to your mind for that. When 264 00:17:02.500 --> 00:17:06.220 we started, we wanted to give the people 265 00:17:07.020 --> 00:17:09.340 the opportunity to actually 266 00:17:10.940 --> 00:17:14.620 produce and own their own energy. So if you 267 00:17:14.620 --> 00:17:18.340 have, if you own a home or you are living in a home, then the 268 00:17:18.340 --> 00:17:21.980 solar energy, the storage system, you can be 269 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.900 as self sufficient as possible. Giving away this 270 00:17:25.900 --> 00:17:28.300 kind of dream of being able to 271 00:17:29.580 --> 00:17:33.380 help everybody to decentralize the energy, that was a 272 00:17:33.380 --> 00:17:36.860 hard moment. So what I mean is 273 00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:40.460 the pivot from home storage to commercial industrial was 274 00:17:40.620 --> 00:17:44.460 hard times. You misconception. I'm very sure 275 00:17:44.460 --> 00:17:48.140 not everything worked out the way it should be. 276 00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:51.740 But what were you completely 277 00:17:51.740 --> 00:17:55.340 wrong about when you launched like tech readiness, market 278 00:17:55.340 --> 00:17:58.700 demand, or was this something else? And how did you fix it? 279 00:17:59.510 --> 00:18:03.230 Yeah, the misconception is really in the 280 00:18:03.230 --> 00:18:06.870 DNA of an engineer to be able to do everything 281 00:18:06.950 --> 00:18:10.710 by yourself. So we started to, to develop and testing 282 00:18:10.710 --> 00:18:14.230 facility, we, we wanted to develop 283 00:18:14.230 --> 00:18:18.070 and certify a Bennett battery management system, the whole 284 00:18:19.110 --> 00:18:22.870 system by itself, then the energy management system. So we 285 00:18:22.870 --> 00:18:26.610 wanted to do everything on the horizontal 286 00:18:26.770 --> 00:18:30.450 to actually on the tech side because we thought, okay, Tesla can do 287 00:18:30.450 --> 00:18:34.170 it, why shouldn't we do it? And there was 288 00:18:34.170 --> 00:18:37.490 actually one of the biggest mixed misconceptions we, 289 00:18:38.370 --> 00:18:42.090 we had since you need 290 00:18:42.090 --> 00:18:45.810 to focus, you need to focus, focus. And again, you need to 291 00:18:45.810 --> 00:18:49.450 focus to be able to grow fast. And that's 292 00:18:49.450 --> 00:18:53.130 something we figured out rather sooner. But 293 00:18:53.290 --> 00:18:56.890 for us it was late after two years or three years. 294 00:18:56.890 --> 00:19:00.610 And therefore we burned a lot of money and 295 00:19:00.610 --> 00:19:03.530 time by following different 296 00:19:04.410 --> 00:19:08.090 paths, which in the end we needed to cut and just 297 00:19:08.090 --> 00:19:10.170 focus on the main things we need to do. 298 00:19:14.730 --> 00:19:18.350 You've shared openly about building in a 299 00:19:18.350 --> 00:19:22.190 tough space, what part of yourself felt like a 300 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:24.630 liability, but turned out to be an asset. 301 00:19:26.870 --> 00:19:30.470 So as I mentioned, when I was studying, 302 00:19:31.270 --> 00:19:34.630 I always had the feeling that not being able to actually 303 00:19:35.190 --> 00:19:38.910 get to be able to invent something new 304 00:19:38.910 --> 00:19:42.150 is a huge liability. To not be able to 305 00:19:42.470 --> 00:19:45.800 understand everything on point in the first second 306 00:19:47.080 --> 00:19:50.840 when you were in mechanics or physics or something like this. That 307 00:19:50.840 --> 00:19:54.400 was in my opinion always a bad liability for 308 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:57.840 myself. But this 309 00:19:57.840 --> 00:20:01.160 turned to be something my biggest asset 310 00:20:01.320 --> 00:20:05.080 where because I believe being able to understand them and 311 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:08.680 after a while and then being able to also 312 00:20:10.530 --> 00:20:14.290 explain it to everybody was extremely important. If you 313 00:20:14.290 --> 00:20:17.410 are in a team of really true engineers. 314 00:20:17.970 --> 00:20:21.090 And therefore this is something I believe 315 00:20:21.730 --> 00:20:24.370 which is from liability to assets. 316 00:20:26.610 --> 00:20:30.290 For our audience. Guys, what's 317 00:20:30.290 --> 00:20:34.130 one founder trait you've turned from a liability in a 318 00:20:34.130 --> 00:20:37.010 powerhouse? Let us know on threads or LinkedIn. 319 00:20:39.800 --> 00:20:42.440 There are always surprises when you're an entrepreneur. 320 00:20:44.040 --> 00:20:47.720 What was the most unexpected insight you've 321 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:51.160 learned from a customer? Supermarkets, airports or grid 322 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:54.440 operators? So 323 00:20:55.560 --> 00:20:59.080 what we actually found out 324 00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:02.520 was that all of the companies didn't have so much 325 00:21:03.860 --> 00:21:07.580 knowledge about their energy space. They didn't knew how 326 00:21:07.580 --> 00:21:11.260 much they are actually consuming and how much they're producing, how much 327 00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:14.980 they need, what they can actually avoid 328 00:21:15.060 --> 00:21:18.819 on cost of the energy. Therefore that was 329 00:21:18.819 --> 00:21:22.540 something we actually figured out really quickly that 330 00:21:22.540 --> 00:21:25.300 we can, we need to show 331 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:29.140 everybody what they are capable of. And 332 00:21:29.380 --> 00:21:32.280 this is something we didn't expect. But 333 00:21:32.840 --> 00:21:36.600 that's actually also something which helps us a lot to grow because 334 00:21:36.840 --> 00:21:40.520 there are so many potentials we with 335 00:21:40.520 --> 00:21:44.320 our battery storage system can take for any kind of 336 00:21:44.320 --> 00:21:48.040 customer. Therefore that was amazing to figure out. If you are a huge 337 00:21:48.040 --> 00:21:51.400 company like Bayer or something, then you know everything about your energy. 338 00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:55.480 But everything below that there you don't have the capabilities 339 00:21:55.560 --> 00:21:59.210 of actually figuring out everything. And there that's something 340 00:21:59.210 --> 00:22:02.850 we want to help with. It's like almost 341 00:22:02.930 --> 00:22:06.650 my level. I know there's a power outlet, I plug it 342 00:22:06.650 --> 00:22:10.210 in and every year I go to the cheapest provider. So 343 00:22:10.210 --> 00:22:10.850 that's it. 344 00:22:13.810 --> 00:22:17.330 Thank you for the answer so far. Now I would like to look a little 345 00:22:17.330 --> 00:22:21.130 bit ahead five years maybe. What's your moonshot for 346 00:22:21.130 --> 00:22:24.450 Voltfang? A coal free grid. European energy independence. 347 00:22:26.310 --> 00:22:30.030 So we want to decentralize Europe. We 348 00:22:30.030 --> 00:22:33.750 want to give Europe the resilience of being able 349 00:22:33.910 --> 00:22:37.750 to protect their energy transition, energy grids, everything. 350 00:22:38.310 --> 00:22:41.990 And that's something where we believe as Volfang we 351 00:22:42.070 --> 00:22:45.270 can help by becoming one of the biggest 352 00:22:45.830 --> 00:22:49.270 energy providers in Europe. We want to put 353 00:22:49.510 --> 00:22:52.710 smaller and bigger storage system everywhere in the countries 354 00:22:53.190 --> 00:22:57.010 and then also connect them to a virtual power plant with who we 355 00:22:57.010 --> 00:23:00.530 then can for example, which is also our vision 356 00:23:00.850 --> 00:23:04.370 to shut down Weissweiler which has 1.6 357 00:23:04.370 --> 00:23:06.690 gigawatt. That's actually our 358 00:23:08.290 --> 00:23:11.570 our moonshot of Voltfang getting rid of 359 00:23:11.730 --> 00:23:15.170 coal as soon as possible with the resilient 360 00:23:15.810 --> 00:23:19.570 energy grid of Europe. As a last question, I 361 00:23:19.570 --> 00:23:22.930 would like you to reflect a little bit. If your 40 year old 362 00:23:22.930 --> 00:23:26.660 self could speak to you now, what would they say about this 363 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:30.260 moment in Voltfunk's journey? Good 364 00:23:30.260 --> 00:23:32.740 question. If a 40 years old 365 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:37.220 self would tell me or would look at the moment right now, 366 00:23:37.700 --> 00:23:41.220 they would probably say how The F 367 00:23:41.940 --> 00:23:45.740 did. How the F did you come so far and how did 368 00:23:45.740 --> 00:23:49.580 you manage to get over the next steps? Because right 369 00:23:49.580 --> 00:23:53.380 now we have so many things which are incredibly cool, 370 00:23:53.380 --> 00:23:57.210 which we are developing right now. Where two or 371 00:23:57.210 --> 00:24:00.850 three years ago it didn't. It was like slow growth. And now 372 00:24:00.850 --> 00:24:04.650 we can really show the hockey stick, which I always promised the investors. 373 00:24:04.970 --> 00:24:08.330 But now we are able to do that. Therefore, I believe 374 00:24:08.730 --> 00:24:11.610 they will. If you look into the retrospective, 375 00:24:12.730 --> 00:24:15.930 then you will figure out how much myself, 376 00:24:16.010 --> 00:24:19.730 Voltfang and the company grew within this short amount 377 00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:23.360 of time, within the last year to the next one or two 378 00:24:23.360 --> 00:24:27.120 years. I know that from some projects, looking 379 00:24:27.120 --> 00:24:30.960 at the presentation, then looking at the real thing and think, huh, that really 380 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:32.400 worked out. What a surprise. 381 00:24:35.360 --> 00:24:39.120 That's a. The funny thing is I'm. I never 382 00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:42.800 know how we got here, but I know where we'll go in the 383 00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:43.360 next years. 384 00:24:48.140 --> 00:24:50.860 Okay, we close with this indirect Heisenberg quote. 385 00:24:51.980 --> 00:24:55.780 David, with such a pleasure having you as guest. Best of luck and 386 00:24:55.780 --> 00:24:59.580 hope to have you back in a few years doing an update. I would 387 00:24:59.580 --> 00:25:02.700 love to. Thank you. Have a good day. Bye. Bye. 388 00:25:03.100 --> 00:25:03.580 Bye. 389 00:25:08.620 --> 00:25:12.140 That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, 390 00:25:12.300 --> 00:25:13.390 events and 391 00:25:13.390 --> 00:25:17.830 interviews@www.startuprad.IO. 392 00:25:18.150 --> 00:25:20.150 remember, sharing is car.