Justin Lopas says Base Power is building grid infrastructure, not the consumer backup-power product the public often assumes it to be.
Lopas says he and Zach Dell launched Base Power after bonding over the shared traits of utilities and defense primes: cost-plus, heavily regulated and short on top talent.
Lopas argues supplier selection should not hinge on price alone, since hidden supply chain costs and supplier goodwill matter more than the lowest quote.
Base Power's cofounder takes SpaceX and Anduril lessons to utilities
Base Power applies lessons from SpaceX and Anduril to the electric grid. Utilities, like defense primes, are cost-plus, regulated and short on top talent, so Justin Lopas and Zach Dell bet that the same hiring and manufacturing discipline carries over. Selling to homeowners and through utilities lets the company work in both deregulated and regulated states.
Takeaways
Base Power builds grid infrastructure, not backup power. Lopas says the public misreads it as a consumer backup product. In deregulated Texas it sells to homeowners and bids into wholesale markets. In regulated markets it works through utilities such as Austin Energy. Roughly half the business sits in each.
Utilities and defense primes share the same flaws. Zach Dell met Lopas while doing diligence on Anduril for Thrive Capital. They saw both sectors as cost-plus, heavily regulated and short on top talent, and about nine months later quit their jobs to start Base Power.
Supplier relationships matter more than lowest price. Taking the lowest quote ignores hidden supply chain costs, and a supplier who dislikes the customer will not bend over backwards. About 75 percent of Base Power's supplier spend is in the US, and it pushes suppliers hard while helping them improve.
Talent density drives hiring, learned at SpaceX. Lopas looks for people who are smart, hardworking and good to work with. SpaceX hired for where people are going, while Anduril weighed past experience more, and he took the SpaceX approach to Base Power.
Regulation is mostly state-level and shapes the business. FERC handles some federal rules, but states set most electricity regulation. A chief legal officer leads legal and regulatory work. Base Power has helped pass a few bills and pursued permitting changes in several states, having done so in Texas.
Founders split roles and argue productively. Zach Dell owns mission, vision and strategy, and Lopas owns execution. They argue more than they do not, which Lopas calls healthy, and Zach makes the final call on strategy and financing.
Lopas's path to Base Power
Born near Detroit and raised partly in Evanston, Illinois, he competed in FIRST Robotics and Baja SAE. His father spent a career in the auto industry.
He interned at Rocket Mortgage, Baker Hughes, Timken and Apple, then chose SpaceX and took a semester off college for it.
He started as a manufacturing engineer in Hawthorne and led part of the early Brownsville team that became Starbase.
After about four years he joined Anduril as head of manufacturing, working for COO Matt Grimm.
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He then co-founded Base Power with Zach Dell.
Where Base Power goes next
It plans more utilities and homes in Texas and Illinois, has announced Georgia, and is talking with two or three other states.
It expects to deploy about a gigawatt-hour this year and wants to multiply that in coming years.
It will stay in the US for at least a few years, though Australia, the UK, Japan and Germany have been considered.