Anderson Barkow, VP of Finance at BoxPower, on Off-Grid Energy Solutions
Hello wonderful readers,
Welcome to another edition of PIE! In this issue we’re talking with Anderson Barkow, VP of Finance at BoxPower. BoxPower makes rugged, rapidly deployable energy solutions inside shipping containers for energy resiliency and off-grid energy generation. They launched commercially in May of this year.
1. How did BoxPower come to be?
The original impetus was the 2010 Haiti earthquake. During the relief effort, the diesel supply chain broke down, so emergency responders couldn’t power their essential equipment. Two Princeton CEE professors, Catherine Peters and Elie Bou-Zeid, wanted to design a portable power source that could provide electricity without a reliance on diesel. Our founder Angelo Campus worked on this project with them as part of a course called “Engineering Projects in Community Service.” He took the idea to some competitions, won some awards, including the Princeton Tiger Entrepreneur Award in 2017, and then he founded BoxPower right after graduation.
2. What were some of your biggest challenges?
One of the biggest challenges is finding the right team: finding people with complementary skillsets that are excited and willing to stop whatever they’re doing and join us instead. We lost a former Princeton co-founder, Aaron Schwartz, about a year ago, which isn’t atypical for a startup, but further emphasizes the difficulties of finding a strong team.
Also, cleantech hardware is definitely not the most “sexy” thing in terms of getting funding. We try to show investors that the value of our product is in the design: the integration with the container, the convenience of having something that can be set up in a day, and a software component. That makes us less risky to investors compared to a company creating brand-new technology.
We’re getting market signals from all over the world, and deciding which areas to focus on has been a challenge. Currently, we’re focused on locations in the US with high energy prices and rural locations, but we’re looking to go international next year with Indonesia, the Philippines, and Nigeria. Our strategy is to focus on generator fleet managers, micro-grid developers, companies working with rural utilities, etc.
3. Was there a specific moment when you realized that BoxPower was going to be a success?
There are ups and downs, people get you excited, people bring you down. It’s been a process to manage that emotionally. There are definitely moments where you feel like “A-ha!” and then the next moment you realize there’s a lot more ahead. Aside from the sale of our first unit, reaching the $500,000 in revenue mark this month is huge for us as it validates the need for a product like this and indicates BoxPower’s ability to execute the sales process.
4. How has the Princeton community influenced BoxPower?
We were at the Princeton Founders Summit a few weeks ago, and one thing that was apparent there is that the network is really important. Three of our advisers all went to Princeton, and they’re all very experienced in this space. At the founder summit, we got to talk to others working through the same challenges as us, and we were able to connect with some of the heavy-hitters in the field.
5. What advice do you have for aspiring Princeton entrepreneurs?
I think a positive attitude, flexibility, and willingness to adapt is important. You won’t be working the typical 9-to-5, and there will be more ups and downs emotionally. That can be overlooked sometimes. Separate of that, Angelo’s had a ton of perseverance. It took a lot of work and effort to get here. From my perspective, as someone who joined the team later, it just comes down to figuring out what you like, looking for cool companies, and not being afraid to reach out cold to them. A lot of times people don’t reach out enough/don’t network enough with people doing interesting things.
—
That’s all for this issue! BoxPower is looking to hire interns in Marketing, Engineering, and Strategy. For more info, reach out to anderson@boxpower.io.
As always, if you are involved with entrepreneurship in any way, role, shape, or form (VC, engineer, founder, etc.), or want to contribute to PIE, we’d love to talk to you :)
