Last month I wrote about Hawaii’s 100 percent renewable energy goal and the history behind it through stories told by Maurice Kaya. In my conversation with the man who led the Hawaii State Energy Office from 1988 to 2008, he mentioned innovation and how important it is to Hawaii reaching its energy goals. “When you are pushing toward that type of a target (100 percent renewable energy by 2045), you are deploying a new set of assets. You’re breaking new ground, and it is going to create problems. … That is why we have the need for innovators and entrepreneurs.” Ask almost any CEO and executive in Hawaii’s energy space and they will say the same thing.
But, despite how critical innovation is, saying it’s hard is an understatement. I’d like to introduce you to Bryan Ho. Ho is a 2002 graduate of ‘Iolani School and is the co-founder and former CEO of an energy storage startup called Ballast Energy. I say former CEO because he decided to wind down the company’s operations at the end of 2015.
Two weeks ago he took the stage at a gathering of Silicon Valley investors known as X: The Moonshot Factory, a source of innovation for Google, at Energy Excelerator Interactive. While each Energy Excelerator company stood up and gave a one- to two-minute presentation with the intent to gain investors’ interest, Ho took the stage with a different agenda.
He stood in front of 150 of the biggest investors in Silicon Valley (everyone from GE to Apple) and told the following story.
Act 1: When desire trumps doubt
Ballast Energy started as an idea rolling around in Ho’s head as he completed his doctorate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2009 he and his co-founder, Bryan Ng, raised their seed round of funding and opened their lab space in Berkeley, Calif.
“For the first year and a half, neither of us took a salary,” Ho said. “There were times where we questioned if this is sustainable. But, you have the freedom to pursue what you want; you have the challenge of difficult problems. There’s just overwhelming excitement. There’s probably a personality trait that leads people to start their own companies. You can call it megalomania, but it’s more the desire to be part of a team and see your impact.”
Along the way they had help from Joyce Chung, managing partner at Garage Technology Ventures (a Silicon Valley venture firm founded by Guy Kawasaki), and Aina Haina Elementary and Punahou School alumni.
“The thing that differentiates good business people from great entrepreneurs is belief and leadership qualities,” Chung said. “As an investor, I want to find someone whose commitment level is much greater than my commitment.”
Act 2: A profound lesson learned
I asked Ho a question I’m sure he had thought a lot about since he closed the doors on Ballast five months ago: If there was one thing you could have done differently, what would it have been? He returned to the fundamental tension that exists as a startup founder.
“You need to be unrealistically optimistic because this world is trying to crush you,” Ho said. “But at the same time, you have to be an incredibly cynical person. You need to want to kill your own idea. You have to want to poke holes in it. Where you can’t poke holes in it is where you get validation. We erred on the side of being too optimistic.”
Act 3: Not all companies succeed
“There’s a whole variety of reasons companies fail,” Chung said. “When you look at an investment, you’re looking at people, markets and technology. Sometimes the problem is timing, sometimes it’s technology and sometimes it’s people.”
For Ballast Energy it was the second of the three.
“We were too wedded to our technology,” Ho said. “It was our baby and we wanted it to succeed. Therefore we weren’t critical enough in the early days. … Subconsciously, we were afraid of what we would find if we dug into it.”
Act 4: The next chapter
As Bryan stood on stage telling this story, the audience of 150 investors, who are well versed in the success and failure rate of startups, leaned forward in their chairs. This was not a pitch and there was no investment opportunity, just a smart human being with a desire to make an impact.
“I went into it knowing that I wouldn’t have any regrets, and I was right,” Ho said.
The audience erupted in applause. Chung, sitting in the front row, gave Ho a big hug.
Lauren Tonokawa is head of the communications team at the Energy Excelerator. She’s a graduate of the University of Hawaii. Reach her at laurentonokawa@gmail.com.
