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In your words, what is FreeWire?
FreeWire is innovative, agile, and fast. In just over a year we went from an idea about mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging to production-ready units called Mobis. We talked to our customers, identified their pain points, and created a solution designed specifically to address them. Mobis allow us to perform Charging as a Service, where chargers are brought to the vehicles instead vehicles being brought to the chargers. Blocked stations, range anxiety, and charge rage are all things of the past with FreeWire. Mobis also eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming infrastructure projects that ultimately result in underutilized assets. FreeWire is the future of EV charging: easy, scalable, and upgradeable.
What was your inspiration for starting FreeWire?
I’ve had a passion for all things automotive since I was a kid, doing my first brake job at 7 and engine swap at 11. I developed a passion for entrepreneurship about the same time. When I entered Steve Blank’s Lean Launchpad class at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, in an age defined by powerhouse software companies, I knew I wanted to start a company that made a physical product. California was in the throes of a burgeoning EV market and issues with insufficient charging infrastructure were starting to crop up. Leveraging my experience with the automotive industry and my co-founder’s engineering expertise seemed like a perfect combination to address these issues.
What did you do before FreeWire?
I spent the last five years in finance doing emerging market analysis and modeling for a large hedge fund based out of Boston. Before that I was a SQL developer for an accounting software company. I’ve consulted, worked on requirements-gathering, and even started a company selling modified exhausts for BMW M3s. I like to cast a wide net.
What are the best and most difficult parts of running a startup company?
The best parts are the good days. When you get great feedback from investors, strong pull from customers, and good publicity. The worst parts are the bad days, when you question whether there’s anyone who actually wants what you’re selling.
What motivates you to keep at it?
FreeWire is my baby. I dedicate more time, money, and effort than I should, it sometimes kicks me in the shins, and yet I love it unconditionally. Even after a streak of bad days, the rush you get after nailing a pitch and making someone else get as excited as you are makes it all worthwhile.
Where are you from originally? What brought you to LA/ California?
I was born in Russia, but I spent most of my life in Boston. After graduating from Boston University and working in the area for a few years I decided to go back to school for my MBA. I was ready for a break from the Boston winters and had a love for California from the first time I visited. Being accepted to Berkeley’s Haas School of Business sealed the deal, and I headed for the west coast.
The company being founded out of Berkeley’s Haas school, could you tell the readers a little about that process?
One of the classes I took at Haas was Lean Launchpad taught by Steve Blank, who is the father of the lean startup methodology. His philosophy is all about customer discovery, that you shouldn’t spend a dollar on product until you’ve talked to your customers. So that’s exactly what we did. We spent three months traveling all around the Bay Area talking to stakeholders, from EV drivers and facilities managers to politicians and utilities. This was crucial to FreeWire’s pivot from wireless charging to mobile charging. We hypothesized that plugging in was a major pain point which needed to be addressed, but our customers helped us realize that it doesn’t help with the real problems: boring into concrete, laying conduit, permitting, and all the other hassles associated with major construction projects.
Why did you apply to be a portfolio company at LACI?
For the network and support. LACI is the premier cleantech incubator in the United States and is an organization that we absolutely wanted to be aligned with.
How has LACI helped your company?
LACI has made introductions to dozens of potential investors and has provided great advice on a number of our key business decisions. They’ve also generated several leads on the business development side to help us penetrate the LA market. We’ve even entered into a business relationship with another LACI portfolio company, Hive Lighting, to distribute our products for the entertainment industry.
What are the best parts of your relationship with LACI?
I have a fantastic relationship with our Executive in Residence; we’ve kept up with our weekly calls since joining LACI, and amazingly each one is still valuable. Another member of LACI invested in our company personally, so there’s never been a moment to question LACI’s commitment to our success.
Tell us about some of the milestones you’ve reached as a company so far
A lot in short amount of time:
• Idea
• Customer Discovery
• Refined Idea
• Prototype
• Angel Round
• Pre-Production Units
• Production Units
What are some of your short and long-term goals for FreeWire?
Short-term: promote EV adoption using our Mobi Charger and reduce reliance on diesel generators using our Mobi Gen. We have commercial-ready products that earn revenue today and be used to fund our long-term goals.
Long-term: create an ecosystem for second-life EV batteries and be the preferred partner for OEMs. We have the creativity to find innovative solutions to the problems people are currently facing plus the business and engineering skills to execute our ideas. The OEMs are sitting on a valuable asset and we can be the ones to help them unlock it.
How do you see your company having an impact on society at large- environmentally, economically, socially or in other ways?
FreeWire’s contributions to the environment are obvious:
• Reducing reliance on fossil fuels through increased EV adoption, facilitated by increased charging capacity.
• Reducing reliance on fossil fuels by replacing diesel generators with battery-based alternatives.
• Stabilizing the grid by pulling energy at off-peak times and delivering it at peak times.
But there are several social components as well:
• Reduce range anxiety (people being worried about driving an EV because they don’t know if it will have enough range to get home) by providing more charging in more locations, including EV rescue charging.
• Reduce charge rage (people unplugging each other, sitting in EV charging spots all day even if they only need to charge for an hour) that stem from limited charging capacity.
We’re working to make EV charging as much of an afterthought as filling a car with gas.
Learn more about FreeWire
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