2 big takeaways from 4x25: The Experimental COO Project

4 months. 4 experiments. 2 big takeaways.

Oct 10, 2023

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This summer I asked four clever people to help me run 4 experiments in 4 months. The goal: Real-world tests of possible business models for my 2-year old company, My Next Electric. 3 months to explore. 1 to process what we learn.

Here’s what happened.

4 months, 4 experiments

Experimental Lab

Clever lead: Colin Davis, New Orleans, LA
What we did: Colin got a bench-version of our remote e-bike charge monitor working within a few weeks.
Very early bench version of remote battery monitor by Colin Davis
It would let anyone who uses an electric bike or other vehicle (~48V) monitor whether it’s charging or not. What started as a nice-to-have for me and Colin soon became a potential solution to a far more important use case: ebike battery fires.
What we learned: That the first prototype should have one function, not many. We’re stripping out some of the nice-to-haves so we can field test a simple working prototype this quarter. If you want to help, join us on discord!
Will I pursue this business model for My Next Electric? No.
Colin and I are psyched for all we’ve learned about micro-mobility, but until we see a market reaction, we’re not building anything big.

Agency

Clever lead: Malliron Hodge, St. Louis, MO
What we did: We wanted to see if helping business owners with personal appliances might help them electrify their businesses faster. Malliron hired the brilliant Tatyana Rashid to help business owners in Malliron’s Baddies with Business community do an audit of their personal appliances.
Tatyana Rashid at Aptera Motors HQ in San Diego, CA.
She then offered $400 investments for any Baddie willing to test electric alternatives. A few made immediate changes to their appliance mix; others are still exploring electrification at home and in their business.
What we learned: Anecdotal evidence is promising; we’ll have more results in spring 2024, when Baddies meet in person in New Orleans.
Will I pursue this business model for My Next Electric? Yes.
Malliron’s work with Baddies will continue; I can’t wait to see what happens. I’m going to pursue an agency model for My Next Electric — helping larger communities of drivers make the move to EVs faster (including what to do when their vehicles are plugged in).

Holding Company/Investment Fund

Clever lead: Pete Christensen, San Diego, CA
Pete’s clever Midjourney-assist proposal from the start of the summer.
What we did: Pete and I explored a bunch of areas for targeted investing and settled at the intersection of light vehicle electrification and the power grid.
What we learned: We’ll publish our one-page investment thesis, Batteries Included, later this month. I love this investing thesis. I don’t love being a solo investor.
Will I pursue this business model for My Next Electric? No.
I’m thrilled with the portfolio we’ve built so far and actively supporting this community of founders. If I can earn my way on to a cap table through the agency, I’ll do that, but for now, I’m holding off on writing checks. The Batteries Included investing thesis includes something called the EV Adoption Journey that will serve as the anchor of our training content with corporate clients.

School

Clever lead: Laurie McGinley, Minneapolis, MN
What we did: Laurie created a loaner fleet of portable induction stoves to start conversations with local contractors on the Inflation Reduction Act.
What we learned: We stopped a few weeks in when we realized contractors didn’t have time to learn something new if it meant losing summer business. But it’s all good; that’s why you run experiments. We’ll redeploy the stoves in our New Orleans loaner pool.
Will I pursue this business model for My Next Electric? No.
Teaching the trades is a tough, seasonal effort not for me right now. Teaching individual drivers is awesome, but there’s no business model here, yet. So I’m seeking larger communities of drivers to serve in the agency business model. I’ll limit myself to 5 hrs/week spent on free/super-cheap courses for individual drivers. This’ll probably be good for the agency, too.

Two big lessons

Most folks don’t get the chance to explore four business ideas all at once, without the pressure of having a business model to pay the bills for a quarter. I’m grateful for that opportunity, and hope this was a responsible use of time and money.

As this window closes and the pressure to find a working business model mounts, I’m making two decisions about where and how to go from here.

I need to focus: Vehicles are my jam.

When the summer started, My Next Electric was about all the things a person could electrify in their personal lives — from bikes and cars to appliances like water heaters, heat pumps, and induction stoves.

Vehicles are my passion, and where many of us are most emotionally engaged. New price volatility tied to current gas cars — from used and new car prices, to insurance to maintenance and fuel — make me want to help people here more than ever. Vehicles are where I’ve been for 17 years with Night Shift Bikes, and insights from B2U and elsewhere about connecting them to the grid make this an exciting spot to be.

I need community: People are my jam.

Pete and I’ve put a lot of thought into the Batteries Included thesis, and I’m excited to share it later this month. But investing is, for now, too lonely a game for me. I learned this summer that unless I can raise well north of $10M, I won’t have enough fee revenue to hire anyone to work alongside me.

And that’s not healthy for this extrovert. As much as I’ve enjoyed working with these five great people, I’m shriveling from spending too much time on my own. I do better, I work harder, I’m healthier — when I’m in community. Agency work promises that; I hope it plays out.

My Next Electric — The Agency

This 4x25 thing worked.

I’d tweak some stuff, sure: I wish I’d spent more time getting the six of us together to build community and learn from each other. I wish I’d checked in more often 1:1.

But I learned things about where and how to go forward I never would have learned on my own. 4x25 taught me that My Next Electric must have:

A business model. This we knew. If asset-light is our balance sheet reality, agency has more potential than a fund ($10M minimum), a lab (not sure, but ~6 figures to get into even a little production), or a school (financing could make it work, but five figures a vehicle adds up quick). Agency requires minimal startup capital relatively speaking. Hustle? Yes. Curiosity? Tons. Some tighter systems? Um, yeah.
Founder-business model fit. This was something I didn’t know how to articulate in the spring. I’ve talked founder-market fit with many founders, but I don’t think I really understood this particular fit until the needle on my own dial was deep in the red zone.

Only the agency business model checks both boxes for me right now.

So I’m all about it.

I’ve started reaching out to communities where I might be useful: car dealerships, utilities, schools, fleet managers.

Now I’m reaching out to you. Ideas? I’m here: matt@mynextelectric.com.

Thank You x 5

What a summer. What a group of clever, passionate people.

To Pete, Malliron, Tatyana, Laurie and Colin: Thank you.

You each chose to go on this odd journey with me, and it was delightful. You helped me explore a bunch of pathways for this small company, and I’m wiser for it. You’re each doing dope work from here, and I’m behind all of it. Good luck. Again, thank you.

Now somebody hold my pumpkin spice latte.