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I co-founded two EV startups in Australia in 2019 and 2020 that failed at their mission of installing more EV chargers in this emerging market (less than 1% of

I co-founded two EV startups in Australia in 2019 and 2020 that failed at their mission of installing more EV chargers in this emerging market (less than 1% of new car sales are EVs compared to 5% in the US and 10%+ in Europe) and didn't install a single charger. I did however, learn a fair bit about EV charging - the software that runs them, choosing locations, the electrical needs, how to install chargers, etc. - that someone else with a bit more business sense and access to capital might find useful.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
insomniacity 4y ago
Thanks for the interesting info. As you didn’t want to go into the failure there, would you be willing to explain more here? You mentioned some missed out on the government grants - was that the main cause?
- decryption 4y ago
  With EV Up it was a rotten co-founder that didn’t follow through on their contract. It poisoned the well, destroyed the trust between us and the remaining co-founders (me and one other person) left. That business still exists and is operating to this day - under new management. For Park N Plug, missing out on the grant from ARENA was a big kick in the balls as we had investment depending on receiving the grant. When the grant didn’t happen we had no capital. To make things worse, we were relying on the R&D tax incentive to come through on our software platform, but the tax department said it wasn’t eligible despite earlier guidance it was. That left us out of pocket on developer costs and deflated from the setback. We probably should keep at the software stuff and pivot the business, but my co-founder and I have other businesses we are busy with so the energy hasn’t been there. This blog post and the reaction to it has been quite positive, so who knows, maybe I’ll try a third time to get something EV charger relate going.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

insomniacity 4y ago

Thanks for the interesting info. As you didn’t want to go into the failure there, would you be willing to explain more here? You mentioned some missed out on the government grants - was that the main cause?

decryption 4y ago
With EV Up it was a rotten co-founder that didn’t follow through on their contract. It poisoned the well, destroyed the trust between us and the remaining co-founders (me and one other person) left. That business still exists and is operating to this day - under new management. For Park N Plug, missing out on the grant from ARENA was a big kick in the balls as we had investment depending on receiving the grant. When the grant didn’t happen we had no capital. To make things worse, we were relying on the R&D tax incentive to come through on our software platform, but the tax department said it wasn’t eligible despite earlier guidance it was. That left us out of pocket on developer costs and deflated from the setback. We probably should keep at the software stuff and pivot the business, but my co-founder and I have other businesses we are busy with so the energy hasn’t been there. This blog post and the reaction to it has been quite positive, so who knows, maybe I’ll try a third time to get something EV charger relate going.