00:00:00 · Alan Chang, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:00:00] S0: I mean, just to give you an idea. Right? The top engineer makes 10 times more than the bottom engineer. Running a company is not a democracy. You can't run a company based on committees. It doesn't work. You're gonna say you're gonna hire 100 people, but you can only find 20 great people. Does that mean you hire 80 mediocre people? That's also dumb. So the way I describe to the team of what we're building is this is an art piece in your home that saves you money, not the other way around. [00:00:21] S1: Today on Billions, I'm sitting down with Alan Chang, co founder and CEO of Fuze Energy, a UK based energy startup that just hit £5,000,000,000 valuation in only three years. Under Alan's watch, Fuze exploded from £2,000,000 in annual revenue to 400,000,000 today. That's a 200x growth, while traditional energy giants are struggling to innovate. He took the exact playbook he built as employee number three, at Revolut, and weaponized it in an industry that hadn't seen real disruption in decades. While Briseet Gas and Octopus are playing by the old rules, Fuze technology first model is making energy cheaper, cleaner, and more abundant. And Alan is the man making it happen. Alan, thanks a lot for being here. [00:01:10] S0: Thanks for having me. [00:01:12] S1: I'm quite curious to understand. You joined as employee number three at Revolut. You became very quickly chief revenue officer. How did you decide to make the switch from being chief revenue officer at a company that was scaling like crazy to start building your own company?
00:01:32 · Alan Chang
[00:01:32] S0: Yeah. So Charles and I were... You know, my co founder Charles and I worked together at Revolut. And, yeah, both both when I... Both both of us feel... Felt like, you know, fintech is a, you know, problem, right, is largely solved, and it's really about, you know, acquiring more customers, so it's about distribution. And we felt like our talent was better suited for solving another problem. Right? So when we're when we're selecting a new problem to solve, the criteria was the problem needs to be important. Right? So it needs to be a top problem for humanity, as well as a problem that if it weren't for us, it wouldn't get solved. Right? So energy was really the only problem that fitted this criteria, at least to us at the time. And... Yeah. So that that... That's why. Right? And, yeah, we think the the whole energy industry is heading to the wrong direction. Right? Energy price... Prices have gone up effectively year over year. Right? Since I can remember. US and Europe is going through this huge deindustrialization. Right, which is partially caused by high... Higher and higher energy prices. And, you know, people's quality of life is also going down. Right? Also, you know, partially because of higher and higher energy prices. So I think for various reasons, like, we... Yeah. We we we couldn't find a single energy company that, you know, we felt like is do... Is solving this properly. So we thought we'd give it a shot.
00:03:19 · Guillaume Moubeche, Alan Chang
[00:03:19] S1: And how does that happen? Like, concretely, like, you are both working at Revolut. Maybe during weekends, you know, you brainstorm about ideas. But do you, like, make a proof of concept before you decide to start your company, or you just say, okay, like, this is the new topic I'm passionate about, and I want to go all in? [00:03:39] S0: Yeah. So we spent about one year researching, right, at our own time. And then, yeah, a year later, we, you know, gave us enough conviction that... We didn't know everything at the time, but gave us enough conviction that something much better can be created here. So, yeah. So after that point, we we went all in. [00:04:02] S1: Okay. And how do you launch an energy company? Because, I mean, for a software, it's pretty easy. You know, you would just code something, ship it online to production, and that's it. But I'm assuming that there's a lot more regulation and things like that. So how do you go from zero to one? [00:04:19] S0: Yeah. So we spent about 1,000,000 to build the, you know, MVP of a, you know, full stack energy company. So we spent, you know, if I recall, like, around 50 k to acquire a license, and we spent $7.50 k to acquire a single wind turbine. [00:04:44] S1: How did you find it? [00:04:47] S0: We just, you know... Actually, transformed it just from, yeah, good old business development. [00:04:53] S1: Okay.
00:04:53 · Guillaume Moubeche, Alan Chang
[00:04:53] S1: Okay. [00:04:55] S0: Yeah. Knock on doors. And Charles also learned to become a trader, so he's a qualified energy trader. So there you go. That's your full stack energy. Like, very, very small full stack energy company. [00:05:09] S1: And how exactly did you get the the 1,000,000? Did you raise the money first and... Or did you use, like, some Revolut stock and and invest it directly? [00:05:19] S0: Yeah. I I... Yeah. Both of us put some of our own capital in it. Yeah. Before before Raise the Round. Before Raise the Round. [00:05:29] S1: Okay. So you you raised the round when you had, like, the the energy company, or was it before you [00:05:36] S0: It was, like, half half there. [00:05:38] S1: Okay. Okay. Okay. And and how how exactly do you go, like, for raising for for an energy company? Like, how how how did you pitch? Like, how did it look like at first?
00:05:38 · Guillaume Moubeche, Alan Chang
[00:05:38] S1: Okay. Okay. Okay. And and how how exactly do you go, like, for raising for for an energy company? Like, how how how did you pitch? Like, how did it look like at first? [00:05:50] S0: I mean, I'd say more or less is, you know, how I... It's just like, you know, describing the problem and, you know, at least have a high level plan of how we how we tackle it. So obviously, like, you know, we we had some financials, but, you know, they they were totally wrong, unsurprisingly, like most seed companies. But, yeah, like, I think I think investors, like, agree agree this is a big, you know, important problem to solve, and at least they think we're the right team to tackle it. Yeah. And and and and this is like... I would say this is one of the few industries where the addressable market is, like, absolutely huge. Right? I actually think, you know, this company can grow... Keep growing even beyond a lifetime. [00:06:53] S1: Okay. Nice. Do do you feel like your focus right now is The UK market, but you want to expand globally? Is it like your goal at some point? [00:07:03] S0: Yeah. Like, the goal is become a number one energy company in the world. So it's hard to do that without expanding internationally.
00:07:03 · Alan Chang, Guillaume Moubeche
[00:07:03] S0: Yeah. Like, the goal is become a number one energy company in the world. So it's hard to do that without expanding internationally. [00:07:11] S1: Alright. And and what's like the... Because right now, you're really, like, competing on on price. Like, is there... What what would you say? Like, what would make you the best company to keep, like, an energy cost that is extremely low? And what are the risks? Would the incumbent decide to, like, decrease your price if this is that you're starting, like, a price war? Like, how exactly do you think... Do you see it as a threat or not at all? [00:07:42] S0: Yeah. So, yeah, I get this question a lot. So I think the first assumption, right, should be most companies want to make more profit. Right? And I'll I'll argue if they wanted to make more profit, they would have already. [00:08:06] S1: Okay.