Women in Tech: Entrepreneurship and Renewable Energy
Jordan Brompton is the CoFounder and CMO of myenergi, a British designer and manufacturer of renewable energy products for eco-smart home management. She talked to us about her path towards entrepreneurship, the myenergi success story and her hunger for more.
“I get bored easily but there’s no time to be bored at myenergi. Every day’s different. A big part of my role is business development. I spend a lot of time talking to new people and building new relationships within the industry and trying to spot good business ideas. That’s my favorite part. The business side of it” ponders Jordan Brompton, CoFounder and CMO of myenergi.
Co-Founded in 2016, myenergi is now one of the fastest-growing tech and manufacturing businesses in the UK. With over 150,000 myenergi devices out in the world, and 50,000 myenergi homes in the UK, they are leaders in the space for eco-smart home management solutions.
“Every three months feels like a year at myenergi because so much happens. We have to level up fast to be able to keep up with this crazy growth” Jordan smiles happily.
A job serving your soul
Jordan has always been a bit of an entrepreneur. She worked from 13 years old. On the local Sunday market selling scooters, or a paper round, ice cream parlor, at the gym. “From the youngest age, I would do anything because I wanted my own independence. I’ve tried different things because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I’ve always just progressed”.
She worked for the local University, recruiting students from overseas. “I try to find careers that are going to suit the lifestyle that I want to live” explains Jordan. At that time it was traveling and mingling with people her own age, so it worked. Then she went around traveling for a year. Was a Zumba instructor.
And between all of that, she had some admin roles. That’s where she’s met Lee Sutton. It was in the renewable energy sector, and Jordan quickly realized that she had a real passion for it. She wanted to do more than just admin, and started bringing in some of their biggest accounts.
When the renewable market crashed in the UK (because back then it was heavily subsidized), Jordan moved on to cycling. With a passionate French friend, they created Spitfire. Very soon, with Jordan’s transferable skills, they were the exclusive report from 5 or 6 brands from France into the UK.
“It was a nice business, nice money, it felt good” Jordan looks back. “But it didn’t serve my soul as renewable energy did. It was a nice challenge, I wanted to know if I could do it, I got it off the ground. But then Lee tapped me on the shoulder and said that I had such a passion for the industry, he offered to join forces. The rest is history”.
The high of business creation
Right from the start, Jordan felt like she had to throw herself into the project. She had no many ideas left from their previous experience in the renewable energy sector. Lots of branding ideas.
“I looked at the industry and I thought, it’s very boring, even car charger at the time. Very stagnant. And I thought it’s such an emerging cool market, I love renewable energy. I guess I wanted to bring that mentality into our age group, into the millennials, the Gen Z, the mainstream market. I just wanted to set myself that challenge to create a really cool brand within the tech space”.
Jordan jumped with her whole heart and soul into the business, and they hit the ground running, one milestone after the other.
“Me and Lee are both problem solvers. You’ve got to be pretty scrappy to set up a business like myenergi. The manufacturing business is not without its challenges. We’ve always been up for it. Fight for it” smiles brightly Jordan.
myenergi: an electric car charger powered directly by solar panel
The idea of myenergi was kickstarted with the idea for this electrical car charger that would power the car’s battery directly from a solar panel of the customer’s roof.
They developed the product, spent a year plowing their own money and resources into just getting it working. Then for the hard part: getting the product to the manufacturing stage. “The next biggest hurdle takes a lot of finance and risks. But we decided to do it because we had faith in the product and in my ability to sell, in our years of experience. We hired more and more”.
They started with 5 people, Jordan and Lee, and a handful of engineers to help Lee develop the product.
Then was the crowdfunding campaign to test the water, build up a profile. The money from that was used for the manufacturing equipment to build the next batch. And the money from that to hire more people.
Then was finding the right kind of investors, not just the ones attracted by the strong order book and the nice patent. In the space of a year, 1.8 million pounds were invested in the business. They just got catapulted to the next stage.
“That is the most difficult thing to do. To scale the business” reflects Jordan. They went from manufacturing 60 000 units to 150 000 a year.
“We created this opportunity with myenergi, such a nice brand that it would be a shame not to see where we can take it now” reflects peacefully yet determinedly Jordan.
Doubts are part of the process, and of the success
The success story is dizzying with victories and speed. And yet, the way was not an easy one, paved with complications and doubts. It still is.
“Every day I feel out of my depth, every day I feel insecure. As a mom, I feel like I’m not doing enough. In my career, I feel like I need to be doing more. We, women, beat ourselves up no matter how well we’re doing or how together we seem on the surface. There’s always that internal battle, and I’m just trying my best to overcome it. I have my moments when I wobble, but never enough to stop me”.
Jordan is grateful for being in a good place, doing what she loves and surrounded by good people. It allows her to see the high pressure of a big business as a challenge. She wouldn’t want to be anything else. “And that’s what I remind myself when things get tough”.
For her, the biggest obstacle she encountered so far was people. In the sense that she wants the best for everyone around her, and sometimes that hurts.
“I just want the happiest team in the world, the happiest company. I want to do whatever I can for the staff. But growing from a small business to a big business fast, you’re never going to please everybody, no matter what you do. And it hurts when we lose any staff member, whether it is because there’s just moving on, or because they’re not happy in the workplace. We don’t have a high turnover, we still have the staff from the beginning, but every time somebody leaves it hurts. I just want to do well by people” explains Jordan.
The biggest accomplishments deserve a dance
But Jordan also remembers the big wins and the happy battles. When asked about what she felt was her biggest accomplishment so far, she smiles brightly before beginning the story.
“At one point me and Lee were having a lot of investment meetings. And finally, we’d found the one we truly wanted. One the way over, I remember, I was so concentrated, I was listening to Eminem, “you’ve only got one shot, one opportunity, this is my moment” Jordan laughs.
It all went very well, they got the investment: “We were in the lift after the meeting. The lift doors closed and we just started to dance! In the lift, like “oh my god!!!! Now we can do this and this”. And it was just the most amazing feeling thinking, I nailed that pitch. That was the pitch of a lifetime. That was one of the really big things for me”.
Heart pumping and bright future
Jordan is as excited for the present as she is for the future. They’ll be home-focused, with the smart home app, showing the flow of energy around the home. “I would like to achieve a little more ease to buy into our brand. We’ve got more products coming out; another car charger. More home products in development”.
They are also opening subsidiaries abroad. Teams in Germany, Benelux, Ireland, and they are about to open in Australia. “It’s going to be really interesting trying to figure out how I’ll manage the brand globally and work with partners on the ground in each area. To keep my myenergi authenticity, but also adapt it to different cultures. Because that’s what I feel needs to happen”.
Jordan is in her element. She performs well under pressure. She likes making big decisions, taking risks.
The business side of her job is her favorite part. “It gets your heart pumping. I like thoroughly going through the process, go through every outcome in my mind. I feel like I can read people pretty well, and that gives me strength”.
As parting advice, Jordan doesn’t hesitate: “Invest in yourself. You’ve got control over that, and you can push yourself. If you’re prepared to be scrappy and push yourself, you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve. Have faith in your own abilities”.
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