Creative Business Forum: Gareth Evans - Veckta

On this episode of The Creative Business Forum, we welcome Gareth Evans — Founder and CEO of VECKTA Corporation — a game-changer in the energy space.

VECKTA’s claim, which they shout from the rooftops: "The power grid of the last century is failing you" — we discuss why.

VECKTA is the energy transition platform that delivers actionable onsite energy insights and access to vetted suppliers.

We cover quite a lot of talking points around an inherently heated topic: energy — its utilization, energy cost structures, an aged and decrepit infrastructure, and an overwhelming lack of awareness of consumers and businesses alike regarding what options they have available. VECKTA is an innovative and proactive solution to empower consumers and provide an alternative to status quo of energy usage and management.

You can learn more about Veckta by visiting their website: https://www.veckta.com and also please follow our guest, Gareth Evans, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-evans-41015726/

More About VECKTA:

VECKTA is your guide through the energy transition

Navigating the energy transition alone is overwhelming. The path is different for every business.

Getting it right means finding and selecting the right energy partners, and verifying that your business is getting the value it needs over time. VECKTA allows business leaders to avoid expensive, slow, and biased traditional approaches. We put you in charge. Empowering you to deploy the optimal energy solution for your business.

The Creative Business Forum is produced by TAVO Media Group and is intended as a forum to highlight, spotlight and showcase cross-industry leaders and innovators with a story to tell. We share and celebrate their journey and encourage our listeners and followers to engage with our guests, support their brands and share their stories. We're building our community and want you to be a part of it!

To learn more about TAVO's agency services, please visit our website: TAVOMediaGroup.com

Transcript

Creative Business Forum
S2, E2 — Gareth Evans

INTRO

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening in to the Creative Business Forum.

I'm Bryant Walker with Table Media Group. I am joined today by an exciting guest. He's actually a colleague of mine in our VISTAGE group, which we are gigan out with and growing at the moment.

None of them, Gareth Evans, CEO and founder of VECTA. That's V-E-C-K-T-A. And they support businesses to access more sustainable and profitable energy needs.

Gareth, thank you for hopping on. I appreciate you being on the Creative Business Forum today.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

All right.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Are you in the intro? So let's, I appreciate it. Working title, working intro. Let's just go ahead and dive in and just dive into our chat.

Let's, um, you just share a bit about you, about you, about VECKTA and what you do for business leaders.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

I'm Gareth, born and bred in Liverpool, England, and probably didn't expect to be here when I was sleeping on a friend's floor at the age of 22 in Canada having traveled around the world and run out of money.

I just finished the stint training with the Shaolin Monks. I had an environmental science degree and I didn't have a clue where that was going to lead me.

But I've had a super adventurous lifestyle. I always believe in mixing work and pleasure and adventure as much as is potentially possible.

So done crazy things like 36 hour adventure races. I've flown with the Royal Air Force of flown planes. And I've done extensive travel around the world.

I worked in Iraq, Australia, Dubai, Canada and the US. And all of that culminated in me launching vector in 2019. I'm going to... The best factor is the energy transition platform, and we support business leaders to really unravel the complexity that surrounds the energy transition.

So whereas the business consuming and using energy today, what's their emission profile? What are their business needs? Do they want to reduce costs, emissions, or do they want to increase their energy security?

Then we help them configure the optimal solution and then connect with the right suppliers in the market to build it.

So really smart, advisory, automation at the front end, and then broker marketplace on the back end.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Love it. I'm going to rename this episode to the overachiever hour with Gareth Evans. It was an great intro.

So that's awesome. So let's dive into sort of your ideal client. So we touched on solving what is now an ever-changing landscape with energy, not necessarily just now, but really what's playing out now has been building up for the last 50 years.

And now the major business leaders and different industries are trying to find more creative ways to access energy. And I'm probably doing a piss poor job of summarizing that, summarizing that.

But, you know, what, what are people coming to you for? What are some of their, their problems that bring into you and your team?

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Now you are spot on, I think ultimately the energy transition has become a buzzword, but it really boils down to three things that we think about.

So, all perfect customers, someone who's experiencing escalating costs, which is almost all customers today, they've either got power outage issues.

So, whether you're in California and when there's wildfires or heat waves and the power shuts off, or whether you're in Texas or Florida experiencing hurricanes, cold weather snaps, these all impact the security of the grid.

So, if you're experiencing power outages that are impacting the business and, or you have set carbon reduction commitment targets that you're trying to achieve, that's where vector comes in.

So, we specialize in supporting commercial and industrial business. leaders. So businesses who have a fairly significant energy use need and are impacted by one of those three things.

And really, we help people understand, you know, how can I modulate those levers to create the most sustainable and profitable outcomes?

I think often people think profitability needs to be sacrificed for sustainability, but that's not the case. And really, there's kind of three core things businesses should be thinking about when they're going on this journey is how do they reduce their energy consumption as much as possible or do more with less.

That comes into the energy efficiency play. How can I then generate and store energy at my asset power purchase agreements can come in for businesses.

So there's a few levers to pull. We help customers is really understand what the optimal path is for their needs.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

You're fairly industry agnostic in looking at some of the projects and the clients that you've worked with it ranges from cornado brewing and dominoes pizza to general electric, west coast, Siemens, Kiela Sarah, is there sort of a preferred vertical or industry for you?

Or do you like being able to kind of jump around and be more agnostic industry wise?

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Yeah, in terms of the product and what we've built from a software perspective is industry agnostic from a sales and marketing perspective.

We focus primarily on manufacturing, food and beverage, mining, and they all have very critical business drivers. So on the food and beverage side, the consumer facing, so a lot of pressure to reduce emissions.

They've got perishable products, which they can't afford to lose power for, and they typically operate on lean margins, so they want to be able to manage their costs.

So that's where the brews The grocery stores, the logistics firms who transport, they come into that. On the manufacturing, they're massive energy users.

And we're working with one customer last week, who has the ability to offset, reduce their energy costs by up to 400 grand a year, and reduce their emissions by like 50%.

So you can see that the magnitude of benefits that they can see, and particularly those now in the energy transition supply chain, whether they're producing electric vehicles or batteries, or parts for other industries that are also trying to be greener, the pressures kind of come in downhill, so they all need to start thinking about it.

And then on the mining side, the energy transition isn't possible without a resource transition. So how do we extract these minerals and metals in the most sustainable way possible?

And a lot of this has really been driven by the capital markets as well. You know, capital drives everything ultimately, and a lot of people are now realizing to access sources of capital to need to have a plan for...how they can do. Run that business, smarter and greener.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Is there some sort of industry report that you from a sales and prospecting standpoint are looking at, how do I phrase this, like loss leaders in the carbon space, or as they're not anywhere near carbon neutral, they're the biggest contributors to carbon emissions.

And I'm just hitting one segment of your target. But how do you go about prospecting and looking for new opportunities?

Because I gather there's probably a lot like you said, it's capital markets driven and they're not getting access to certain things if they're not on the greener side of business.

So they're probably being a bit reactive and reaching out to you. But for others that you're going after, what are some of the indicators you seek out that makes for a good client?

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Yeah, it's interesting. Most people wouldn't dig into this, but we actually built a really powerful tool at the front end of our product called Kinetic, which gives us the ability to actually...

give insights to a business leader without having to get any data from them. So where are they located? What's their industry type?

And then we take the square footage of that business. And with just those three metrics, we can actually give them his potential cost savings, his admission save.

So they can get an immediate insight into, should I even consider this? Is it worth me investing anytime? And energy because we don't on the industry chasing bad projects.

We believe let's kill bad projects early. So that's what we use from a marketing and sales perspective to prospect customers is being able to go in with a preliminary, are you interested in achieving X?

Here's the potential. And then obviously then taking them on that journey of going into the paid services. So quite an exciting product that we're built to use internally, but now other people in industry are saying, would it be possible for us to use that?

Because we're also trying to pursue. Yeah, exactly.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

No, that's cool. Yeah, it's always nice when there is the additional. use cases for a product that you designed for yourself.

Yeah. But then you, you want, you run the risk of like, why don't I, it is our secret sauce.

I don't want to give it exactly. Yeah.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

I think the nice thing about this industry though, is you look at, literally you look at your window and any building is a potential customer.

It's almost overwhelming to some degree because, yeah, everyone's facing the same challenges and particularly escalating energy costs. And so, yeah, how do you help prioritize?

Where is the industry, the market, society going to get the greatest return on investment? So that's kind of critical right now is helping.

Cook through all the noise and focus on the high quality opportunities.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Do you go after, I guess on a smaller scale, going after like property management companies would be a good get, right?

Like maybe larger ones or regionally larger ones like Irvine Company. Or does that create more challenges? I guess if somebody, the different layers involved.

I guess I understand the balance between, is it worth your. effort or is it a lot of work for very little payoff or companies like that?

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Reets are a really interesting model for us because the actual property owner themselves, they typically roll like their tenants pay the energy costs and things like that.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

So they're less concerned about that.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

But what they are concerned about is something called scope three emissions. So people are measured on what, what they consume, what they produce and then what their supply chain produces, which is scope three emissions.

So we've been having conversations with REITs to say, how do you empower all your tenants to do, you know, go on this journey?

And so using them almost as a channel partner to access that kind of many to own relationship because the property owner ultimately has to bless the opportunity and have to support solar being put on the roof or in the car park.

But at the same time, they may not want to front the money. And so the tech. tenants may be in there for 10, 15, 20 years.

And so it makes a lot of sense for them to do it. So there is an extra level of management to deal with, but I think the opportunity is quite significant.

And some of these reach some massive and their portfolios and significance.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

You guys don't go that deeper level, though. You basically give them the roadmap, and then it's on the land owner, property owner to then implement that or enforce it, or is it part of your partnership to monitor that in perpetuity or throughout the time of the partnership?

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Yeah. So our platform will help them design a strategy, then it helps them configure the right combination of technologies to meet their needs.

So we look at solar storage, wind, gas, these are electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells. So that's the biggest part of the complexity today is customers know they want to do something, but the default is let's just throw some solar panels on the roof.

But the benefits of that are decreasing all the time. So what combination of technologies will meet their needs? And then we help them configure a request that goes into a marketplace and then supplies in the market, then see that bid on it. And then the customer is now in control.

So instead of being passively sold to by these suppliers, now they're controlling the process. They're saying, here's what I want to buy, quote me, they can compare their options and then award the work.

And then to your point, we then monitor and verify that they're getting what they were promised and paid for.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Got it. Okay. And they don't even have to finance these solutions.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

I think that's what's exciting is, there are people in the market who want to come in and actually finance them, build them, operate them and just sell you the business leader energy on a monthly basis that's typically less than what you pay the utility.

So it becomes a win-win.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

That's fantastic. Do you see, is there like a, I feel like what you're offering in this solution is, it's very unique, right?

I mean, do you have other competitors? I know that you do. But how do you go against other competitors in the space and like, what is sort of your...

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

unique value proposition that is kind of a claim to fame for lack of a better phrase. Yeah. So I'd say there are no direct peer competitors in the market because it's a new market, it's a new product, it's a new approach to doing this type of work.

So you're really more competing against, I'm sorry to wrap, but just to clarify, it's my question that should be reframed.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

You're more competing against lack of awareness or what can be done in the layers of complexity that your insights and your platform can really help shed some light on.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

That's right. I'd say there's two real things. One is there's the traditional kind of consulting and or a solar provider wants to come and sell you Bryant, panels, buy my panels, someone else, buy my battery.

How do you cut through that noise? So that's business as usual. It's very uncoordinated, very confusing, very complex for the energy consumer.

And that's how you cut through that noise. or they go to the consulting route and they page, you know, mega premium dollars, but really they get a report and they don't know how to then execute it.

I'd say one of the biggest challenges like you've alluded to is education. You know, a lot of business leaders just don't know what's possible, who to turn to, where to begin, do I even have options beyond my utility?

For a lot of people, it's just the powers come on when they wanted it and they've never ever had to worry about it, it's been a line item in their budget.

And now it's becoming an increasing focus. And so, yeah, the opportunity and also the challenges always how do you educate people, how do you take them on the journey, how do you get them comfortable with walking away from the status quo that has been a functioning grid, but we're now relying on a grid that was built in some cases 100 years ago.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

And that's why.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Increasingly, yeah, it's wild, like literally you and I would be getting power in some cases from equipment. a house that could have been, could be 70 years old.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Well, and what's crazy about it is that, I mean, that just keeps that everyone seems to be okay with that.

I mean, not necessarily okay with it, but we're somehow surprised when what happened in Texas a year or two ago or two winters ago was such a shocker like, oh my God, how did the grid fail?

Like, how did it not fail sooner? Really is the better question.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Yeah. Yeah, like, energy is kind of a magical thing. I think a lot of us take it for granted, but today we're generating energy hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

It's been sent down a massive series of power lines and then distributed to every house and business. And like, you can't touch it, you can't feel it.

Like it's just, it's like this magical thing. It really empowers our entire lives. And so we're realizing that that's kind of the old way doing things that centralized infrastructure.

It's vulnerable, it's aging. It's expensive to maintain. Now these days with a kind of nimby approach, not in my backyard, people don't want transmission lines and distribution.

So why aren't we generating and storing energy right where we use it? So a lot of people have done that on the residential side and that side of the business is kind of fairly mature now.

But there's that massive commercial industrial business owner gap in the middle between that and the utility scale that it's a bit more complex.

It's not as easy to figure out. So how do we bring simplicity to that path of the market?

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Is there an angle for Vecta to partner with municipalities and districts or regions, which is, I would assume probably more macro and maybe a massive headache.

But I feel like there's a tremendous value at least in the bigger picture of decentralizing energy usage and storage.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Is that an angle for you guys? It definitely will be. OK. I think you've alluded to it. It's always challenging working with public entities and government entities.

There's very bureaucratic systems in place and checks and balances. It makes kind of speed to market a challenge and especially as a startup you want speed to market and speed to result.

So we like working with the direct end users but you spot on, you know, ultimately these organizations also have their own infrastructure wastewater treatment plans.

They have a lot of infrastructure that they've got to power and they'll also be feeling the pinch of change in prices and resilience issues.

So how do they go on the journey? Really I think the power of what we've built is that transparency in the marketplace.

How do you ensure you're getting the best deal possible? While being a non-technical buyer, you know, you're a CFO, you're a plant manager, you've never thought about energy.

So what questions do you ask? How do you ask it? How do you compare the responses back? That's really what we...five people on that journey. Yeah.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

That's cool. I mean, it seems like to be overly cliche, the sky is the limit for what you guys can offer and the different layers of support for different industries, different types of businesses and different positions within those businesses and industries.

Yeah, I went down to kind of a weird train of thought and just it's part of why I paused because it is on the municipality side, part of the value add could be that level transparency, like as a taxpayer, I'd love to see with the city of San Diego or Los Angeles or wherever is doing with our energy usage or at least to offset my bill.

I mean, the latest, the latest of many outrages, at least for us and other places around California, is people's gas bills have been skyrocketing with very little to no explanation as to why.

It'd be very interesting. And I would argue a tremendous value add for a politician as a bureaucrat. I don't know if they may be to be able to showcase, oh, look, look what we're doing.

Look at this shiny object called Vecta, the reason to, I know I'm putting more work on your plate, but it comes with a good exciting.

It's, I know you're early on in the journey, but it's really cool to see what you've built and a relative short amount of time with, you know, I would assume plenty of barriers to entry.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Plenty of barriers, throwing COVID and recession retalks. And it's definitely been a spicy ride.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

Yeah.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Yeah, but yeah, you're absolutely right. And I think in the energy sector, the commercial structure, first of all, is broken.

You know, we've got these utilities who they're incentivized to use. The way they make money is through a percentage of the capital they deploy.

So the more capital they spend, they roll out towards the ratepayers. So there's no incentive to, how do I be more efficient?

Because less money they spend, the less they want. And so, first of all, that needs to be changed.

And then the analogy that kind of came to mind as you were speaking was the Today for a business leader thinking about this, it'd be like walking into a car showroom and all the parts being scattered on the floor and saying, pick, build your car from the ground up, then go and find a manufacturer to build it and then figure out who's gonna pay for it.

And what we want to be able to allow people to do is to walk into that showroom floor, compare three models that really suit their needs and be pre-qualified for financing and walk out the same day.

That's really kinda where we're today and where we need to get to.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

That's a really good analogy and really helps demystify all the unknowns and all the variables that are involved cause I mean, you're more aware of it cause you're in the space, but I'm assuming hundreds if not thousands of variables that in this case, car parts, you can't drive off the lot if everything is literally just all over the place.

You can't power your business efficiently unless all those little pieces are fine-tuned and operational and ready to roll off the...

assembly line. So I'm mixing metaphors. I need to eat lunch. What let's, uh, but just to wrap it up and make sure that people know about you and Vecta and how they can better connect with you and learn more about your platform.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

What do you want people to know and how can they get in touch with you or your team? Yeah.

If you're a business leader who is confused, but has a pain point that they want to address, please reach out.

I'm most active on LinkedIn. So Gareth Evans and Vecta, we're all over LinkedIn. So V E C K T A.

Veckta.com is the best place to kind of get up to speed on what we do and how we do it.

Um, but yeah, you can find me on most channels, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. So we just hang out and happy to support you on your journey.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

I have to say speaking to my own ignorance when I first met you and you said your company name, I just assumed it was Vecta and it was your accent that was making it sound polished, but.

It is V E C K T A.com. Just right. Yes.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

And it is a play on, I think it is a play on Vector because Vector is the bring magnitude direction scale.

So we want to bring that to the energy industry.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

I dig it. That's awesome. Well, I really appreciate your time, Garrett. Thanks for being on the creative business forum and look forward to chatting with you again.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

I'd love to have you on the show again once we have some new growth to talk about with the business.

Bryant Walker (TAVO Media Group)

That'd be awesome. Thanks for the chat.

Gareth VECKTA (VECKTA)

Awesome. Cheers, Bryant.