Entrepreneurs for Impact #182: John de Souza, President of Ample — $270M of Investment for EV Battery Swapping. 15% Cheaper Than Gas. Five Minutes to Charge. 5x Cheaper Than Fast Charging. Deployed in a City in Weeks.
Ample is a new energy delivery solution for electric vehicles. It uses Modular Battery Swapping to deliver 100% charge to any EV in a few minutes. They’re supported with $270M of investment from Shell, Moore Strategic Ventures, and strategic partners in Singapore and Thailand.
John is a serial founder and executive in health, tech, and energy with multiple exits to Fortune 500 companies.
In this episode, you’ll learn these four important takeaways and much more.
- How to get to “yes” with customers by converting a harder capital expense to an easier operating expense
- Why their EV battery solution can be deployed in a whole city within a few weeks at far lower costs than EV fast chargers
- The benefits of saying yes more than no to grow from uncomfortable experiences
- Which two books keep him grounded and mindful as a leader
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🔗 PODCAST SHOW LINKS:
John de Souza - https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndesouza1
Ample - https://ample.com
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals - https://shorturl.at/negpn
The Abundance of Less: Lessons in Simple Living from Rural Japan - https://shorturl.at/nBK7W
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World - https://shorturl.at/EStK5
Beginner’s mind ("shoshin" in Japanese) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin
🤔 PODCAST HOST:
Dr. Chris Wedding is the founder of EFI (climate CEO peer groups), cofounder of Terraset (carbon removal), Senior Advisor at Javelin Capital (investment banking), Board member at World Tree (regenerative forestry), Board Advisor at DG Matrix (next-gen power electronics), Duke & UNC professor, ex-private equity investor, ex-investment banker, occasional monk, father of three, 2x ax-throwing champ (huh?), Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006 (Google it), and super humble guy (as evidenced by this long bio).