WATT’s in a name?
Truth be told, I love being part of a team. I proudly sport gear and hats for my kids’ colleges, youth sports teams and my local basketball team (Go ‘Gate, UVA and East High School).
At my first startup, MainStreet Power, I helped create the name, culture and logo. It was a fun and creative process. We white boarded themes and colors - all to convey the impression we wanted our business to invoke. We were bringing solar to the masses and wanted our brand to be accessible and authentic and so the name MainStreet was born. I made T-shirts, hats, and golf shirts. We created street signs, trade show booths and collectively, we built a brand I was tremendously proud of.
At other solar companies after this, I was frustrated by their names, colors, brand and logos and found it was challenging to make those brands fit and build energy around a nebulous brand promise.
In 2017 when I was searching for my next project, I met Dr. Dan Rivers, a semi-retired business executive who had founded a stationary battery storage company called Nikola Power. Instantly, I knew instantly that was the name I wanted. Dr. Dan and I worked out a deal, I bought the company, patents and name.
As an early EV adopter of electric cars and Tesla, I loved the innovation and the inspiration in the name Nikola Tesla - an Iconic, misunderstood genius that battled Edison, Westinghouse and JP Morgan in the early part of the 20th Century. Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor and visionary. And in 2017, Nikola Power was re-born!
Our mission was simple. We set out to build a new kind of tech company to not only scale the burgeoning energy storage industry but more importantly, make a real tangible impact on climate change. We sparked attention almost immediately. We raised a $1.5 M seed round from my dining room table, we were accepted into the Techstars Sustainability program, we won two State of Colorado Advanced Industry Grants, we came in second place in the 2017 Denver Startup competition and in 2019, we were nominated for the top 100 Startup of the year award and won the LG Chem Global Battery Challenge for our groundbreaking software.
Simultaneously, a small unknown trucking and dune buggy company launched under the name Nikola Motors. My lawyers were concerned; however, we were confident we had first move status with Dr. Rivers' work dating back to 2014.
While we were working to complete our initial EMS beta, Nikola Motors was raising millions of dollars for their electric/hydrogen trucks from General Motors and others. Then in late 2019, we were running out of money, options and ideas for how to keep going.
When I would proudly wear my Nikola Power gear, I cannot tell you how many friends, reporters, and random people would say something about the Nikola Motors truck company. But like many stubborn entrepreneurs, I loved the name and our logo, and continued to feel we still had first mover status.
Fast forward to our survival story. Despite being bootstrapped for funds, we re-built the company, kept our team focused on our cutting edge software and worked our way to Series A. There was only one stipulation - one of our key investors mandated we name change before closing and so we agreed the time was right.
This time the process was less fun because it felt like we were saying goodbye to an old friend. I loved the Nikola Power name and the subtle super power persona our mark brought forward, but with Nikola Motors facing allegations of fraud, similar to Thernos and We Work, we were motivated to move forward. And WATTMORE was born.
The name represents the full essence of who we are and want to be. The “WATT” pays homage to electricity (and Mr. Tesla) and also plays off of the word “want” while the MORE encapsulates everything we want to bring to market - to be more than just another software company, but an organization committed to making a real difference in the battle against climate change.
With so many new solar, storage, and clean energy companies being created, the months-long process this time was really hard. I got punchy at one point and even seriously considered the Greek word for brown trout as a possibility.
My hat goes off to my SVP of Marketing & Strategy Margaret-Ann Leavitt who throughout it all stayed calm and continued a professional and formal approach to the rebranding process starting with a thorough competitive analysis through creative brainstorming and due diligence. In the end, after an exhaustive six month effort, we found a name we knew could fully represent the leadership and the magic we want to bring to the world - WATTMORE.
So, WATT’s in our name …
MORE - clean energy
MORE - intelligent energy
MORE - flexibility
MORE - control
MORE - innovation
MORE - markets
MORE - savings
MORE - emission reductions
MORE - scale
MORE - investor return
MORE - impact
MORE - Intelligent Energy Now
Visit our website to learn more about our mission, innovative products and relentless commitment to a fossil fuel free future. We are committed to our collective team - Team Earth - and will continue to massively scale energy storage intelligently today and long into the future.
Thanks,
JW Postal - Founder/ CEO, WATTMORE
