Imagine doing what excites you!
My insights into working @OrxaEnergies, a high performance EV start-up
I always had a fascination towards cars. Probably came from my grandfather, an avid car lover himself, who would challenge me to identify cars on the road during our evening walks. There wasn’t a reward for this as such, but it did spark a certain curiosity in a five year old me.
This fascination grew towards bikes, planes and strangely even buses and trucks. To this day, an unfulfilled dream of mine remains to experience driving a farm tractor (which I am going to do very soon!).
My Curiosity Took Me from Bangalore to Spain and Back — via Vagator.
Change is inevitable and the world around us is doing just that. There is scope for improvement everywhere! This holds true even for one of most significant invention of humanity - the incandescent lamps. In less than two centuries, we have moved to CFL and now LEDs, which light our homes today for one-fourth the energy; acting less as heaters than more like light sources. Why should the same not apply to internal combustion engines? The answer to this question led me to my master’s in Sustainable transportation in Europe, the epicenter of vehicle engineering.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Two years in Europe taught me a great deal about the workings of EVs. It was a pleasure to spend time in various countries and universities known for their strengths in specific domains, be it design, simulations or engineering. I had the opportunity to work in the Formula Student team of the University of Nottingham which concluded with a visit to the Silverstone International circuit, a dream for any motorsport enthusiast. This was followed by a visit to Monaco. It was an ineffable emotion to walk on the same roads where F1 engines had roared during the Monaco Grand Prix the week before. All my learnings culminated to a project at Bianchi, the world’s oldest surviving bicycle manufacturer. The aim was to demonstrate an innovative drive-train which would enhance safety and performance of e-bikes.
This fondness towards machines that move, comes to good use while working at a start-up that wants to build fast electric bikes. For me, my fondness is my motivation. And motivation is something everyone needs to get the best out of oneself.
I would like to think that I will forever be as excited as I was when I restarted my professional journey at Orxa Energies. It was early 2020 (Yes, that dreaded year we all want to forget) when I interacted closely with our amazing team; the first interaction with them was during IBW 2019.
India Bike Week — Asia’s Largest Biking Festival!
India Bike Week (IBW) is a festival to celebrate our common love for motorbikes, engage and enjoy with fellow bike lovers (20,000 of them!) in the winters of Goa. I say winters, but in no world would winters be 35°C!
Unprepared as I was for this Goan reality, the environment at IBW was lively. You would find your favorite manufacturers here. But what stood out to me was the result of hundreds of hours of effort put in by the super-talented custom bike builders. Bikes came in all shapes and sizes, including ones that would typically hang on a designer’s wall.
My First Impression of The Mantis
The ‘Mantis’, a high performance electric motorbike from Orxa Energies was a part of this unconventional category. This technologically advanced product was engineered by a young and dynamic team led by the trio — Prajwal, Ranjita and Amrudesh. I had some great conversations and got key insights from them. I left Goa feeling positive about the days to come, as is usually the case with Goa. Just one of the reasons to keep planning your trips to Goa until you succeed ;)
If you are at IBW 2020, drop by to chat about the Mantis and why we think it is a milestone in the Indian automotive industry.
Working at a start-up is a tough test
It’s widely regarded that working at a start-up is a tough test and requires you to juggle with various tasks. Having heard this, it was time to experience it first-hand. For a long time, I wanted to work in such an environment and it totally lived up to my expectations.
“However tight things are, you still need to have the big picture at the forefront of your mind” — Richard Branson.
As an organization growing in a fast evolving market, you have to keep up with the pace while balancing between short-term targets and long-term goals. This dynamic resulted in me working on a number of different projects in a short span of time, swiftly learning quite a bit along the way. My task started off by sourcing an electronics system for the Mantis which moved to building our own due to the increased flexibility it offered. This gave me the opportunity to dive deep into a number of topics like magnetic design and cooling. A part of my time was spent on design improvements to our BMS system to make it more flexible and robust. I worked briefly on the Mantis’s electronics sub system. Did I mention about the high performance power-train of the Mantis? Yes, that will blow your mind!
I could go on, but you get my point. Supporting what’s said by Richard Branson, I have believed in being open to diversifying my skills (says the guy who has a specialized engineering degree) in order to achieve my goals.
You do find yourself in a spot when you have constraints in resources, but what can make it smoother is the support from your peers. Though, I confess that one would be a lone worker for the most part, you will always find people obliging to you. This was best experienced during the lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a new entrant to any organization, you have to get up to speed quickly. A challenging task compounded by working remotely. This, along with working on new designs. With so much going on, it was important to have an additional pair of eyes to ensure vital points were not missed out. This called for time-intensive detailed reviews to be carried out which greatly improved our designs.
During my time at Orxa Energies, we have almost doubled in size, yet the considerate approach towards others hasn’t changed. This synergy stimulates inquisitiveness in every member of the team and excites us.
If I Had To Sum Up Orxa Energies In 3 Paragraphs…
We, at Orxa Energies are a group of passionate people working on finding solutions to some challenging problems in the energy and mobility space. Apart from building fast electric bikes, we are using our learnings and understanding to help our customers in their journey towards electrification by providing tailor-made solutions.
The first thing that is instantly established from the time you speak to anybody at Orxa Energies is their ‘CAN DO!’ attitude. We believe that anything can be done if we put in the efforts. This attitude gives one a lot of opportunities to work on some very interesting projects. So, don’t be surprised when you find out about the huge number of things we have developed in-house. However, this can result in situations where it is easy to succumb to pressure and take short-cuts. We follow some unwritten rules about integrity and maintain our status using clear communication.
A lot of an organization’s principles stem from its leaders. The leadership at Orxa Energies consists of a bunch of tech bandits who are passionate to make a difference in the EV landscape of India. With an open mind and a desire to contribute towards solving complex challenges, one will find the environment here providing a free flow of thoughts and plenty of opportunities to leverage their diverse set of skills.
Like we lose track of time while binge watching an exhilarating series, it’s only now, as I write this, that I realize that six months have already gone by. And the best thing is - this show will go on!
- Read the cover article of this series here: You need unstoppable people in your team
- Read Akshay’s story here
- Read Shahzer’s journey from BAJA to the Mantis here
Do you want to help Tarun and us build crazy, high-end electric motorcycles and rapidly electrify all transport? Join us by dropping a mail at careers@orxaenergies.com, or browse:
..and check which JD fits you the best!
We are excitedly looking forward to having more crazy enthusiasts on the team! Don’t make us wait!
Orxa Energies’ mission is to rapidly electrify all transport. We build performance Electric Vehicles & the associated Energy Ecosystem. We believe that battery swap will rapidly electrify shared & fleet mobility.
Our first vehicle is the Mantis — a fully-electric performance motorcycle, designed to fit seamlessly into your lifestyle.
We also build powerful Battery Packs that manage the specific challenges of performance vehicles — longevity, thermals, weight, and volume. Our battery packs are already in pilots with our customers.
We previously wrote about the issues faced by hardware startups in a software-obsessed startup ecosystem (link), and about our survival guide for other hardware startups getting into this space (link)
