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The Grid of the Future: Matt Plante, President & Co-Founder of Voltus

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Kelly Yazdani

Voltus President and Co-founder, Matt Plante, joins Julia Bunte-Mein from The Seeds to discuss the electric grid of the future, the DER technology and policy to get us there, lessons learned from the Texas and California blackouts, and what makes Voltus special.

 

 

Read more about The Seeds and its creator, Julia Bunte-Mein, here. Learn more about becoming a Voltan here. More questions? Email info@voltus.co.

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Thriving (despite COVID) in 2020 – Seven Elements of Voltus Success

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Author: Matt Plante, President & Co-founder

On Monday, March 9th, 2020, during Veritas (our weekly all-hands call), we hired our 67th employee (Lauren Stenstream, Indomitable Controller), we named Luke “Snakeman” Talltree the Voltan of the Week (Luke installed our technology at seven new customer sites that week), and we celebrated International Women’s Day. Oh yes, and we announced that we were moving our first ever customer conference, scheduled to be held in Times Square on April 1st, to a virtual meeting. On March 9th, 2020, the world had changed. 

We’ve now been living in that changed world for over a full year. 8760+ hours. It’s a year – for obvious reasons, for many reasons, for countless virtual conference reasons – that we don’t ever want to repeat.

Yet today, we hired our 104th employee (Jesus Martinez, Production Technician), we were publicly lauded by one of the world’s largest companies for helping them manage February’s Texas energy crisis, and we closed a deal with an important partner. Oh yes, and we hired Jon Wellinghoff, the former FERC Chairman (since you’re reading an energy blog, I suppose that last clause was unnecessary). 

2020 threw haymaker after haymaker…and we came out stronger. The following seven reasons help explain why, and we hope they will help others lead through times of adversity as well. 

  1. We share. We share family photos from weekend adventures, thorny problems we’re struggling to solve, successes that help others succeed, and dog pictures. Lots and lots of dog pictures. Sharing leads to trust, and trust leads to winning as a team.  
  2. We support. Especially this year, we support. COVID has been long. People go through COVID troughs at different times. Especially this year, we pick up and support our teammates. 
  3. We make mistakes. Because our final work product is of such high quality, we sometimes feel like we can’t make mistakes. We actually have to coach people to make mistakes, so that we continue to take appropriate chances and stretch our capabilities.
  4. We innovate. We value nimbleness, creativity, and finding a better way. We understand that the antiquated electric grid, lack of customer choice, and less renewable energy than is possible are simply unacceptable.  
  5. We get after it. We are working on urgent problems that demand hard work. Work hard, succeed. 
  6. We celebrate. Celebrate the little victories, celebrate the big wins. You have to have fun at work, c’mon!  
  7. We love. We say aloud to every Voltan that we want Voltus to be the best professional experience of their lives. Making that happen is a two-way street. For our part, we think very deliberately about creating an atmosphere in which people can do their absolute best work. Part of leadership compensation is tied to a quarterly “Happiness and Productivity” three-question survey taken by every Voltan.

We did something else today: we booked an actual, physical, in-person location for VoltusFest, our semi-annual company-wide off-site. We’ll be in Austin, where we’ll share, support, make mistakes, innovate, get after it, celebrate, and, yes, love. We can’t wait. We cannot wait. 

We’re hiring. View all open positions at www.voltus.co/join-us

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The Wo(man) in the Arena – A Guide to Leadership at Voltus

Posted on March 5, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Voltus is growing fast, super duper fast. When we took in $25 Million in Series B funding a little over four months ago, I had about 70 teammates. Today, as I look at our #general Slack channel, the number sits at 119. That’s a lot of new Voltans.

As a culture-first organization, our top priority is vetting and cultivating talent. This process starts when you first interview (Co-founders Matt and Gregg still interview every prospective Voltan before an offer is extended) and continues through a carefully crafted cadence of feedback and training as you progress in your career.

There’s a very good reason for this level of care: we love promoting from within. The direct reports of today are quite literally the leaders of tomorrow. In fact, over the last year, 13% of our current employees moved from individual contributor to manager roles. There’s also plenty of room for external talent. We currently have open management roles with new positions popping up all the time.

Whether you are a preexisting or could-be Voltan, there are four elements of Voltus culture you need to internalize if you aspire to lead.

  • Servant Leadership

Every leader at Voltus is a player coach. Not only are they responsible for the goals and development of their particular piece of the business, but they are expected to be in the arena with their team, directly contributing toward those goals. Leading through example provides leaders with more insight into the actual issues and challenges their team faces and results in more targeted feedback. It also builds respect and camaraderie. Matt and Gregg still routinely cold call prospective customers in support of the Inside Sales team. 

  • Full Transparency

Every Monday afternoon, the entire Voltus team gathers for a company-wide meeting called Veritas. In addition to sharing the QWERTY (Quote We Enthusiastically Relay to You), featuring the Voltans of the Week, and voting “yay” or “nay” on the week’s proposed Voppelganger (apparently we have teammates that bear a striking resemblance to Donald Sutherland and Sophie Turner), Veritas, true to its name, provides a forum for the leadership team to provide transparency into the internal workings of the business. After each quarter’s Board meeting, for example, the Board meeting deck is reviewed in full on Veritas. In fact, during VoltusFest (our thrice annual company offsite) San Francisco, our entire team actually attended a Board meeting.

  • Radical Candor

At Voltus, we practice the idea of radical candor – providing direct, honest, and frequent feedback in a caring and compassionate way. As a result, Voltans have a clear understanding of where they stand relative to their individual and collective goals. Managers are expected to deliver this feedback formally during bi-annual performance reviews and during weekly one-on-one meetings with their direct reports. Feedback is always two ways, and every Voltan is encouraged to speak truth to power. As a result, change at Voltus is most often driven by the team and not by leadership. 

  • Happiness and Productivity

Leaders are judged not solely on performance, but on the happiness and productivity of their direct reports. Each quarter, we conduct a company-wide assessment of happiness and productivity. Both are measured on a 1-5 scale, (our goal is 4+ in both categories), and the results are reviewed on Veritas. Comments, both negative and positive, are addressed directly and anonymously. The data are used to coach managers and influence human resource strategy.

As Voltus charges at full speed toward our mission of being the distributed energy platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition, nothing is more important than developing our talented team of bright, gritty, and good Voltans into the leaders of tomorrow. We have over 30 open positions. Who wants to join us?

Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
kyazdani@voltus.co

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The 4 Horsemen Of Distributed Energy Resources

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Voltus CEO, Gregg Dixon, and Suncast’s Nico Johnson are back to talk about the 4 Horsemen of Distributed Energy Resources

  • Energy Efficiency
  • Demand Response
  • Distributed Generation
  • Energy Storage

The interview is also available on Suncast’s website: https://mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/325. You can subscribe to Suncast via iTunes.

Interested in becoming a Voltan? View all open positions at https://www.voltus.co/join-us/

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Culture-Centric Tech Startup Raises $25m For Demand Response, Gregg Dixon Of Voltus Inc.

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Voltus CEO, Gregg Dixon, joined Nico Johnson to talk leadership, building a business, the challenges of growth, the importance of culture, and the future of distributed energy resources.

The interview is also available on Suncast’s website: http://www.mysuncast.com/suncast-episodes/316. You can subscribe to Suncast via iTunes.

Interested in becoming a Voltan? View all open positions at https://www.voltus.co/join-us/

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Gregg Dixon featured on THE TORCH with Chris Wedding

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -Teddy Roosevelt

Gregg Dixon sat down with Chris Wedding of ENTREPRENEURS for IMPACT to talk DERs, COVID, hiring, and the personal habits that contribute toward success. Read the entire interview here.

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Speaking Truth to Power

Posted on April 10, 2018 by Voltus

“Can you give me an example of when you’ve ‘spoken truth to power’ either in your professional or personal life and what that experience was like?” That’s the final question Matt and I ask any candidate wanting to be part of the Voltus team. If you’re asked that question, you’re an incredibly strong candidate. Answer it well and you receive an offer. Answer it poorly and – despite whatever other credentials you have – we are forced to pass.

Why is it so important to us? There are four reasons:

  1. We want to hire people who are more bright, more gritty, and more good than us. That’s really hard to know unless they’re the kind of person willing to tell the CEO and President what they’re really thinking: about our good ideas, our half-baked ideas, or our bad ideas. And, boy, can we come up with some bad ideas! Those willing to speak truth to power are bright – they bring a solution and not just a problem – they are gritty – they have an inner drive to champion a better way – and they are good – they speak truth to power (understanding that we must all bring out each other’s best) especially to those with a responsibility to lead.
  2. The only way we get better as a team is by coaching each other constantly and bringing a better solution to the table every day. We built a company around a strong vision, a strong set of values, and a strong offer for customers. Yet, we know all of it is flawed, much like an artist might cringe at their painting despite countless hours toiling over the final brush strokes of its completion. At the risk of parodying ourselves a la this week’s episode of “Silicon Valley,” we embrace the concept of radical candor (challenging directly, caring personally) because it is consistent with our values of love and compassion. When you meet a person who is willing to put their own neck on the line to help you be better, that’s a special someone.
  3. Our product, demand response, is a product that speaks truth to power. It is the demand side of a supply/demand market equation that has traditionally and heavily favored supply resources – large central power plants (e.g., nuclear, coal) that also have an outsized voice in energy markets and regulatory arenas. These forces run deep at regional transmission operator (RTO) forums, within state PUCs/PSCs, and at the federal level where incumbent resources are often propped up despite being obsolete. We are the folks who spearheaded and won the FERC 745 battle at the Supreme Court of the United States. The grit and determination, the willingness to speak truth to power, that it took to wage a battle with odds of winning being less than 1% (knowing it was the right battle to fight) is what we look for in a Voltan.
  4. Our prospective customers are generally of two types: never heard of demand response or they’ve been doing it for years. Those who have never heard of it require us to be vocal proponents of doing something differently that delivers cash to their bottom line. Those who have been doing it for years often think they’re getting the most dollars from their participation. In both instances, we need our team to stick their toe in the door to evangelize why that customer should work with Voltus before that door is shut in their face. People who shy away from rejection or conflict don’t last long in that environment. They’re willing to challenge conventional thinking or experiences.

If you want to be a Voltan, you need to be really good at speaking truth to power. You need to be a vocal champion for ideas worth spreading. You need to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves. You need to be the kind of person willing to punch a bully in the nose. You see your role in the world as an agent of positive change and you’re ready to get into the arena and go to battle for it.

Please share your experiences speaking truth to power in the comments below or send us an email with your thoughts on the topic.

Gregg and Matt

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The Search for “Good”

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Voltus

 Credit: Boston Red Sox, Facebook Credit: Boston Red Sox, Facebook

(Hint: It’s Easy to Find Bright and Gritty)

We’re off and running (or, in our case, saving our customers money) at Voltus, having just been awarded an opportunity to provide 50 MWs of demand response in connection with Pennsylvania Act 129. As such, we’re hiring. Hiring is the ultimate on-the-job training; you can’t learn how to hire in school. Gregg and I have directly hired hundreds of people over the last decade. Most succeeded. Many started their own company. Many more became CEOs, Chief Commercial Officers, VPs of Sales or Engineering, CMO’s, and product leaders at other successful companies. Of course, we made plenty of mistakes along the way, too, which has helped us refine our criteria for picking teammates. This post will explain who we look to hire, and why, with an emphasis on the element most difficult to spot: good. We know that if we follow our formula of hiring well, and provide a winning vision to the team, Voltus is guaranteed to be successful.

In short, we hire people who are bright, gritty, and good. We hire bright because energy markets are complicated and because you just can’t train for raw intelligence. We hire gritty because there’s no substitute for hard work, for passionate perseverance, for self-initiative, for commitment, for a need to finish the job. We hire good because we want to be surrounded by human beings who make us better people. Bright + gritty, without good, is a bad combination (think Enron, for example) and, what’s more, our culture loves to celebrate winning. Nobody likes celebrating with a jerk.

But what exactly is “good”? We provide the Voltus definition below. In addition, and importantly, we recognize that “good” people sometimes work for bad companies. We feel a deep responsibility to ensure that our “good” people at Voltus are supported, challenged, respected, and rewarded. We’ll explain how we’re doing our best to ensure that Voltus personifies good.

Defining Good

Future Hall of Famer Theo Epstein brought a World Series to Boston (after an 86 year drought) and may just do the same in Chicago (the Cubs’ drought extends back to 1908). Theo believes in “scouting the person more than the player.” We agree. Bright and gritty give us the player; good gives us the person. Think Big Papi vs. Manny.

Now, bright and gritty are objective. They’re easy to measure. They reveal themselves on resumes, they show up in interviews. But good? Good is subjective. My “good” can be different than your “good.” Said another way, if you’re not good, you’re not necessarily bad. You’re just not right for Voltus.

Compassionate, honest, respectful, customer-centric, fun, mission-driven, humble, followers of the Golden Rule, don’t-take-yourself-too-serious, team players. Those are all must-haves in our good, and they’re likely to be uncontroversial. Our good also includes direct, opinionated, evangelical, impatient, intense, loving people. That’s one special person. Which is exactly why it’s so important that we live up to the standard we seek in others.

Personifying Good

As leaders, we aim to help our teammates to be productive, to be happy, and to grow continually. That’s our charge to the Voltus team. To make that a reality, we commit to the following:

  • We make our values, strategy, and progress toward our goals crystal clear to everyone on the team – no hidden agendas
  • We ground everything in a business case, especially hiring. We will not over hire. Growth unsupported by long-term business prospects results in painful layoffs
  • We are inclusive and give every teammate an opportunity to bring solutions to the table every day – if you have a better way of doing things, bring it!
  • We prioritize the long-term, recognizing that this is sometimes easier said than done
  • We trust, since “trust leads to happy days,” per the Dalai Lama
  • We believe that people should live and work in a place they love. In other words, work from home with your dog by your side if you like
  • We encourage personal and professional development. A small, but symbolic, reward is that every teammate has an unlimited budget for reading material so long as it makes them a better person
  • We don’t ask our employees to sign non-competes. If you want to leave Voltus, we’re failing you, and you should leave
  • We allow unlimited paid time off. Go away for the month of August with your family to Hungary. But figure out how we’re going to hit goals – those won’t change
  • We encourage out-of-the-office passions and we highlight teammate achievements
  • We do what we say we’re going to do

I love the team we’ve built and we’re just getting warmed up. Our product is in demand, and we’re hiring. Come create some good with us.

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