122: Top 20 Countdown

Top 20 Countdown: Week 2

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s episode is the second of several highlight shows where we are taking a look back at our top 20 favorite interviews and conversations of all time. Today’s featured guest is Alejandro Burgana, President & CEO of Brickell Energy and Co-Founder of OBE Power. Alejandro is an entrepreneur working to build up the commercial electric vehicle charging infrastructure in South Florida.

Some key points from Alejandro at Brickell Energy:

• Building a new business model for electric vehicles
• Teaching businesses about the value of charging stations but running into the sticking point of cost versus small target audience
• aFLoat Programs: installing charging stations at various businesses at very low cost
• Sharing profits with aFLoat clients
• Why aFLoat charging stations are a perfect community solution
• aFLoat programs notify owners and valets when vehicles are fully charged and need to be moved
• The market for electric vehicles is growing 30-40% each year
• The acceleration and power of an electric engine; a better driving experience
• No regular maintenance for electric vehicles
• The difference between gassing up and charging up: Charge while you’re parked, and never stopping at a gas station again
• Meeting profitability targets and satisfying investors
• The importance of ‘impact’ investors
• The importance of working together with other charging companies
• Charging stations are the new WiFi
• Listen or watch Alejandro’s full episode here