On Wednesday night, DC Inno hosted its latest State of Innovation event with a packed house full of local up-and-coming entrepreneurs, startup supporters and young professionals from the District innovation community. Thank you to What's Working in Washington for partnering with us on the event, and host Marymount University for supplying a stellar space in Arlington.
The night was centered around a conversation between Kate Henningsen, COO of Arcadia Power, and Jonathan Aberman, dean of Marymount's School of Business and Technology. The two explored what it's like for Arcadia to have grown as quickly as it did in D.C., the perks and challenges of a mission-driven corporation and the best ways to innovate within a startup.
Henningsen was Arcadia's fifth employee – brought on after sending a cold email to its CEO – and led the company's growth to more than 100 employees and 350,000 U.S. customers. Here are some the top takeaways from her Q&A:
As a former lawyer, Henningsen knows how to take measured risks in heavily regulated markets, but she thinks energy policy is more of a benefit than an obstacle.
"There aren’t many competitors in the direct-to-consumer sustainable energy industry," she said. "That can be something you can think of as an opportunity for competitive advantage."
As it works with utilities while shifting consumer energy usage to sustainable sources, Arcadia is having no trouble finding customers through what it calls "conscious capitalism," Henningsen explained.
"Because we're aggregating [energy] demand, we make it a simple process for them to turn that demand into increased supply. Because of aggregation we're actually saving people money, so we’re able to win the climate argument and the savings argument."
On the topic of the climate argument, she said it's important Arcadia keeps tabs on the political climate.
"It's something we talk about and weigh, but we're ultimately thinking of ourselves as a nationwide product that could touch 150 million people, so that naturally makes us focus on the product and the clean energy we deliver, without politicizing it."
This month, Arcadia moved into its fourth office in four years – a sure sign of fast growth – and it's hiring across the board, especially in its engineering and data science departments.
"We're lucky we’re mission-driven," Henningsen said. "Because we know that everyone we hire is focused on that mission."
