management, micro-grid operations and
electric vehicle-charging with customers
and partners across North America,
Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Its
power electronics are used in advanced
battery operations and alternative energy,
with built-in smart functions for ancillary
services.
It also builds customized integrated
systems, and designs, commissions and
operates micro-grids, and, in Hammell’s
estimation, is already a fair bit ahead of the
industry’s Johnny-come-lately outfits.
“We’re two or three years ahead of
competition that’s out there,” Hammell
said. “We’re doing things that other people
are only talking about.”
It’s a lot to get accomplished in 13 years, but
if you ask the former Ivy Leaguer, he’ll tell
you the course was mapped out even in his
days as a humble undergrad in central New
Jersey.
“I knew I wanted to be involved,” he said,
“but I didn’t knowwhat thatmeant.”
In fact, Hammell was studying in the
engineering department in 2001 and signed
on for a high-tech entrepreneurship course
taught by popular Princeton professor Dr.
EdZschau.
Part of the final coursework included
composition of a business plan, and Zschau
wa s subsequent l y ins trumenta l in
establishing the corporate framework and
setting up a meeting with the man who
eventually become the company’s angel
investor, GregOlsen.
Energy was a hot topic of the day, so the
business got started with power-conversion
technology contract work with the U.S.
Army and Navy, mainly developing
prototypes and looking at where they could
be applied to save energy in the battlefield
andonwarships.
But not long afterward, the R&D focus
began to edge towardproduction.
The company transitioned into distributed
generation, renewable energy and energy
storage/battery products, which essentially
provided a commerce-driven re-launch for
an enterprise now aiming to sell its own
wares in a newly-emergingmarketplace.
136 | BusinessWorld |
July-August 2014
