Episode Transcript

Cortney Piper: Welcome to Energizing Tennessee, powered by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council. We’re your number-one podcast for news about Tennessee’s advanced energy sector. I’m your host, Cortney Piper.

Welcome to another episode of Energizing Tennessee. Today we’re diving into a topic that’s at the heart of innovation, fostering the growth of advanced energy technologies and startups right here in Tennessee. At TAEBC, one of our core commitments is to help entrepreneurs thrive. We want to see startups stay, grow, and leverage the incredible resources and partnerships available in our state.

From the energy network to exciting events that connect founders with potential partners, we’re all about paving the way for clean tech and hard tech success. And in this episode, we’re showcasing just that we’ll be talking to both sides of a startup journey, the entrepreneurs who are making waves and the organizations and powering them to reach the next level.

First, we’ll sit down with the CEO of CO.LAB, a Chattanooga-based organization that’s driving innovation through programs like the Sustainable Mobility Accelerator. Then we’ll hear from Moduly, a Canadian startup that found a new home in Tennessee, thanks to CO.LAB’s Accelerator program. Together, we’ll unpack the challenges of launching an energy or hard tech business, explore Moduly’s innovative approach to energy resilience, and get a sneak peek at what’s next for both CO.LAB and Moduly.

Get ready for an inspiring conversation about entrepreneurship, innovation, and the future of clean energy. Let’s dive in. And as always, if you like what you hear, subscribe to our channel and leave a rating or review. It helps us reach a wider audience and champion Tennessee’s advanced energy sector.

We’re beginning our episode today with Tasia Malakasis, CEO of The Company Lab or CO.LAB for short. Tasia is a tech industry veteran, serial entrepreneur, and former head of an award winning company. She’s the second female CEO in CO.LAB’s 11-year existence. Tasia, thanks for taking time to talk with me today.

Tasia Malakasis: Absolutely, Cortney. Thanks for having me. 

Cortney Piper: All right. CO.LAB is a valued member of TAEBC, but for our listeners who might not be familiar with who you are and what you all do, tell us about CO.LAB. 

Tasia Malakasis: Yeah, absolutely. So CO.LAB is a place based entrepreneurial support organization, 501c3, that was formed to generate and stimulate economic development in Chattanooga. So when we talk about play space, the place that we find ourselves is in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and we happen to have quite a competitive advantage, Cortney, and an industry that we are calling sustainable mobility and the way we define that is the future forward movement of people, goods, energy and data, and we formed an accelerator around that industry, sustainable mobility, and are working within those four brackets with our corporate partners here in Chattanooga to recruit amazing startups that are solving problems for our partners and that will benefit our community.

Cortney Piper: And the Sustainable Mobility Accelerator taps right into the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council’s mission. So can you talk a little bit more about that program, its purpose, and just how it came about? 

Tasia Malakasis: It’s really rather new, Cortney, so we’ve just completed our first year of cohorts. So we ran two accelerator programs in 2024.

A spring program and a fall program. And I’ll tell you a little bit more about how that works, but we put the program together just because of the amazing resources that exist, not just in Chattanooga, but also across Tennessee that you well know about, certainly with TAEBC, but we are partnered with and supported by TVA and EPB which is our local power company who happens to be quite innovative. I didn’t actually know that much about innovative utility companies, but created, we have, in Chattanooga, the fastest internet in the world, still. And that was started here by EPB laying that fiber. And also just recently have announced the first, commercially available quantum network, in addition to Volkswagen being here working on their electric vehicles with Novonix with battery science and tech, and we happen to have a very large and thriving freight and supply chain industry that exists here.

So, we put this program together to leverage those resources and also to support those resources in terms of their innovation challenges. And what better way to do that by bringing in startups that are solving some of the world’s most critical problems, that are happening in the energy space and in the goods and people movement space, so we opened up applications in 2023 for our first cohort and we had 145 applications from roughly 30 different countries, it is a concierge program. So we only accept the maximum of the five teams in a cohort. They last for 12 weeks. Those teams come to Chattanooga and spend time with us and spend time with our corporate partners.

And we play in essence, Cortney, a role where we’re matchmaking. We’re searching for companies that fit our corporate partners, innovation challenges, and bring them here and put them together to work together towards a really fantastic solution, hopefully and if I don’t wear out my welcome with this question, I’ve got one quick little anecdote for that, but EPB recently and building the quantum network that I mentioned partnered with a Silicon Valley based startup called Qubitekk. They opened offices here, built the network together, built a demonstration center, and 2 years later, they have just announced that they’re being acquired by INQ. That, from my perspective, is the absolute perfect example of what we’re trying to do here, support the startup, support our corporate partners and support the industry at large and again, our community and making our community more competitive.

Cortney Piper: Tasia, that is amazing. And you’re right. That’s what it’s all about. You talked about placemaking. And when I think about the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council on a statewide scale, we see our assets as TVA, Oak Ridge National Lab and the University of Tennessee all within a 30 mile distance, And when you take that down to a more local level, Chattanooga has that all at the local level with EPB and with Volkswagen and with Novonix.

And you will really lean into your local strengths and just light that on fire. In a good way, and I really like the focus on mobility because our governor has committed to make Tennessee the number one state in the country for the electric vehicle supply chain for the EV supply chain and Chattanooga has all of those local pieces and you all seem to be doing it right, where the entire state could learn from it. 

So I don’t know, do you have any thoughts or comments about this larger state goal of making Tennessee the number one state in the country for the EV supply chain and how Chattanooga is doing it and what the rest of the state can learn from Chattanooga and CO.LAB? 

Tasia Malakasis: I appreciate your kind words.

I don’t know, Cortney, that we’re doing it right, but we are doing it and we’re learning as we go and we’re acting as we should as a startup ourselves and trying to figure out where do we pivot? Where do we lean in further? Where can we improve and so forth? So we are just getting started, but we’re absolutely loving the work that we’re doing and loving some of these outcomes even early on. But I will say that in terms of the statewide goal, it’s fascinating to me how much Tennessee, how many resources there are here. And I’m absolutely behind that mission and statement from the governor. And I think that we could almost not do one better, but we do have this in my mind and the vision that I’d like to see is that if there’s an innovator in any of those four brackets in that sustainable mobility definition that I put out there, that, future for a movement of people, goods, energy, and data, that the state of Tennessee is the first place that comes to mind.

So like, when you think of startups, there’s a city that comes to mind for you and that’s Silicon Valley. And the goal and the vision for this is that we become the number one, or at least in the top three to five places in the world that you would think of coming if you’re innovating in this area. 

And so the EV supply chain. That is absolutely expansive. And then you think about all of the pieces in terms of even the data piece and the energy piece. That’s a huge part of that. It’s really an exciting place to be, Cortney, I think right now, not just in Chattanooga, but the state of Tennessee at large.

And I’ve been talking about this lately. What a unique opportunity the state has when you think about all of the activities that are happening from Memphis to Knoxville and everywhere in between. I’m of the ilk that we should, we should really put this on steroids and advertise to the world what we have, because I don’t know that I don’t know that everybody knows what resources we have.

And when they think of mobility, we’re still pointing ourselves to Detroit, right? And in a lot of ways, but I think the future will be in Tennessee. 

Cortney Piper: I agree. Let’s do it. Me and you. All right, later in this episode, we are actually speaking with one of your 2024 cohort companies, Moduly.

Tell us a little bit about the latest cohort and just what your thoughts are on Moduly. Give us the goods. What did you think about when they came in and as they came out? 

Tasia Malakasis: Moduly’s, just a perfect example of the cohort, this one and the ones before, just some really great teams with really amazing founders, the kinds of teams that we’re looking for.

Let me back up and tell you that in terms of the accelerator, we’re looking for teams that are pre-seed stage, meaning they’ve raised some capital, they are post revenue or a very clear and eminent path to revenue. And they are pilot ready. So they have an MVP, a minimal viable product that they can be ready for pilot.

And when we look at them, we want to be able to bring them to Chattanooga to be able to pilot their solution with our partners. And I’m happy to report that Moduly is in conversations with both TVA and EPB for some pilot opportunities and exercises in this region and potentially even beyond that.

Moduly is what I’ve witnessed is quite a bit of transformation through the program, but it’s less necessarily on their hardware and their tech. They are getting feedback from our partners on that, but really just watching them mature as a company. And so what we’re trying to do, Cortney, in this program is to get there.

They’ve already gotten through their ideation and their business creation, and now they’re looking to scale. So how do we help them on the scale piece? And that, by and large, is first customer opportunities and these pilot opportunities, and they’re moving quite rapidly through that with us here.

Cortney Piper: That is wonderful. That is the purpose of these accelerators. That’s what we want to see, and it’s what we want to accomplish with placemaking. So Tasia, thank you very much for talking with me today. Tell our listeners where they can learn more about you, CO.LAB, and the Sustainable Mobility Accelerator.

Tasia Malakasis: Absolutely. Would love to have anyone visit our website at thecompanylab.org. And on that site, there’s also the application. If you’re interested in applying to the accelerator, if you want to learn more, please reach out. 

Cortney Piper: Wonderful. Thank you, Tasia. 

Tasia Malakasis: Absolutely. Thank you, Cortney.

Cortney Piper: Today I’m speaking with Moduly CEO and Co-founder Jonathan Lamer and Chief Technology Officer Alvaro Macias. Moduly is a Montreal-based startup that’s bringing an innovative consumer focused solution to one of Tennessee’s biggest challenges, energy resilience. Jonathan and Alvaro, thank you for joining me today on the show.

Jonathan Lamer: Thank you so much for inviting us to the podcast. We are super excited to be here today. 

Cortney Piper: First, I want to get to know you two a little bit better. What was life like before Moduly? And Jonathan, if you’ll start us off, tell us about your background leading up to Moduly. 

Jonathan Lamer: Yeah. First I’ll start by saying that I’m a French Canadian.

So if you find my accent weird, I’m just from Quebec, Montreal. I moved a couple of years ago in Birmingham before moving in Florida for my part, and I’m a self made entrepreneur. My father was an entrepreneur in the manufacturing and that inspired me a lot to become an entrepreneur myself. Since my younger age, I started doing small businesses and flip the business change a little bit, the model and increase and make a small exit in 2014 to then restart something in the energy field for the first time was small battery pack and small solar, a portable solar panel and things like this that was distributing across North America.

And. Slowly these ideas come through the idea of Moduly. That was not exactly what we do right now but overall the idea changed and that become Moduly that we know today. 

Cortney Piper: Okay. And Alvaro, tell us about you. You are the CTO of Moduly, but tell us about your background and your career before Moduly.

Alvaro Macias: I have a background in mechatronic engineering done in Mexico. After that, I moved here to Canada to continue my Master and PhD in the focus of electrical storage systems and energy management strategies. For me, it was a perfect fit to join Moduly since I am already involved in these kind of technologies and I wanted to implement all the things that I have learned during my postgraduate studies to some real solutions. 

Cortney Piper: Energy resilience is a big challenge for the entire globe, let alone North America. So Jonathan, give me your elevator pitch for Moduly. Tell us what it is. 

Jonathan Lamer: Yeah. Moduly is I would say plug and play energy, Optimization platform. So basically what we want is to help homeowners and businesses to take control of their own energy use, reduce their costs, help them also to contribute with the more resilience energy grid.

So basically we can serve the end user itself, but also power utilities on the other side. And at the end, all this technology is managed from the integration and we’ll manage from the integration of our own plug in batteries. Solar optimization, IoT integration, and also providing management tools for utilities for their on demand response program.

Cortney Piper: Now, where did the vision for Moduly come from? What was the motivation or the thing that sparked the idea for Moduly? Where did this vision come from? 

Jonathan Lamer: Yeah, I think it came from the consumer so I think customers sometimes would pay more for something less at some point, it’s easy to find expensive technology in this market and for us it was clear.

We want to create something more affordable, more accessible for any kind of budget, but also any kind of dwelling. So if you’re in a small apartment, you can find something for you to solve the same problem. So that was the initial ID and slowly year after year, we just. Of course, made some adjustments to fit with the energy market itself, but it’s exactly what we are doing now.

Cortney Piper: All right. Now, Alvaro, you are the CTO. So I want you to walk me through the technology powering Moduly. 

Alvaro Macias: Sure. Moduly is an energy system for residential sector. As Jonathan mentioned, the system is composed of software and hardware. So what we’re doing is to integrate in a single ecosystem, what is production, consumption, and storage.

In the storage part, we are providing a plug and play battery, that means you can just install it as a normal TV in the AC outlet in your house. From there, the system is able to recharge the battery that can come from the utility or it can come from your solar panels. And then, during peak hours, when the energy is more expensive, the system, it pushes back energy into the grid.

That means your consumption in the meter perspective is going to reduce. 

Cortney Piper: Okay, now you all found your way to Tennessee through CO.LAB. Moduly was one of five teams selected for the fall 2024 cohort of the Sustainable Mobility Accelerator powered by Generator and CO.LAB. We love CO.LAB over here.

We’re big CO.LAB fans. They are a valued TAEBC member and they are doing an incredible job supporting startups in the advanced mobility space. As a startup founded in Montreal with an operational office in Florida and a presence in Hong Kong. How did you all find yourselves in an Accelerator in Tennessee? Walk us through that journey how you found it and what was attractive about it? 

Jonathan Lamer: I think the process was pretty straightforward. We apply, they recruit us basically, and since the beginning, I think we found something really special with the team at CO.LAB. So I really love them. They are incredible. And it’s not like this. Most of Accelerator is masked.

So they want like a lot of startup all the time, 12 or 15. So when you’re there, you’re not privileged. You don’t feel like you’re top of their priority because you have 15 other startup, but now it was different, small group. So you can spend a lot of time to talk about your challenge and things like that.

So I think the model is. It’s just incredible. And the folks there, they are just amazing. The help we get from them, it’s we can’t imagine something better than that as a program now. 

Cortney Piper: What was your most valuable or beneficial experience as part of that program? Is there anything that stands out to you?

Jonathan Lamer: I would talk for myself, Alvaro you can potentially relate on some other aspect. For me, it’s one on one. You want to have the time to chat about your challenges, not just the one of others, but also have the chance to hear the challenge of others. Sometimes it’s nice because at some point we aren’t like at the place where we are scaling.

So it’s not the same problem as when you start without having any product. So now you hear other kind of story with others founders and now after that you can bring this help to your business, but also deliberation just one on one with the team there to solve this problem inside of the business. So I don’t know for you, Alvaro, if you feel the same.

Alvaro Macias: Yes, as well as what Jonathan mentioned, I think all the networking that CO.LAB provide is huge. Each week we were meeting around 10 people that can be investors, mentors, people that can help us, people that is interested in this kind of technology. So I think that’s huge. 

Cortney Piper: What do you want our listeners to know about energy resilience?

What are we not thinking about? What do we need to know that we’re not talking about and maybe how does Moduly help that discussion? 

Alvaro Macias: Sure. For resilience, I think something that is very important for all the people listening is that you need to understand which kind of residence you’re looking for, because in the market, the most popular one is a full combat code.

So yes, you can buy a traditional battery that is wired to your panel that can provide you full combat code, but it’s very expensive. You need to take time for those installations. You need to be on the line so the installer can come to your home. Moduly is providing a new, let’s say, focus of this kind of resilience.

So with a plug and play technology that can help you to reduce costs, make it faster, but that can also help you to gain this resilience and energy security. 

Jonathan Lamer: Yeah. And just based on our mission, we want to help utilities access their low income community. Or any small apartment and small single family houses.

So it’s not people that can afford a Tesla Powerwall potentially, or they don’t have the size of the apartment to receive a Tesla Powerwall, but they need resiliency. So we can provide this as added value for the end user and at the same time, play the game of peak demand hours management on the other side with the partial backup.

Cortney Piper: Excellent. We look forward to tracking your progress as the days go on for our listeners who want to learn more about you all where can they find out more about Moduly and how can they follow your journey? 

Jonathan Lamer: Of course, on Moduly.io, we have a couple of articles there on our website, if not LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

Cortney Piper: Alright, Jonathan and Alvaro, thank you very much for joining us on Energizing Tennessee. It was a pleasure learning more about Moduly, how we got you to Tennessee. Hopefully you all will stick around a little bit. And we look forward to staying in touch. 

Jonathan Lamer: Thank you. 

Cortney Piper: And that’s our show. Thanks for tuning into Energizing Tennessee, powered by the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council, your number-one podcast for news about Tennessee’s advanced energy sector. Subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you’d like what you heard, please share it with others or leave a rating and review.

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