Sachin and Adam
00:54:03 · Sachin
[00:54:03] S1: When we've talked about why energy is important, we've often contextualized it in terms of competitiveness and sort of competing against China, and this is important for America's future, but energy is also a very personal thing, and I something think that shows that was the twenty twenty one Texas crisis. People died, a lot of people went through a lot of suffering. The sort of the future of Texas for a moment sort of hung in the balance, what was actually going to happen to the grid. Are there any personal stories related to the energy crisis or to Base that you sort of think of when times are tough and that really make you remember like why you're building this
00:54:37 · Zach Dell
[00:54:37] S0: in the first place? The Winter Storm of twenty twenty one sticks in my memory and sticks in the memory of a lot of people at the company who were in Texas or had relatives from Texas around that time. But the company, the mission, the vision, the strategy is about a lot more than my story or Justin's story or the story of Texas. It's about the story of energy technology and the future of humanity. And the fact that if we are going to live in an energy abundant, incredible future of the world, we have got to start solving these core constraints today. And energy is that core constraint that we have to unlock. And so we think a lot about these kind of moment in time energy crises and problems that occur, you know, 2021 in Texas. But there are other examples of this, you know, Europe, right, in the last couple of years, what's happened in the Russia Ukraine war and Germany and the nuclear plants and, and, you know, what's happened to gas prices. And, there are examples of this all across the world. So we think a bit bigger and think about the societal impacts of if we don't do this ten years from now, twenty years from now, what will this country be? What will, know, what will Texas be? What will The United States Of America be? Where will we be positioned relative to China, relative to other players? We cannot afford not to do this. We cannot afford not to fight like hell to inflect energy production in America. And it's it's it's bigger than Texas. It's it's bigger than than just The US, but that's kind of how we think about it.
00:56:14 · Sachin, Zach Dell, Adam Miller
[00:56:14] S1: And as a follow-up to that, what's the actual scale of ambition for a company like this? Because you can build an enormous company just based in Texas. You can build an extra enormous company just in The USA. But you've mentioned markets like Japan, Australia, Europe. How big do you wanna build this company? [00:56:28] S0: As big as it needs to be to solve the problem. I genuinely believe it can be one of the biggest companies in the world. It'll take a lot of time, a lot of capital. It'll be very difficult. We'll get punched in the face many times along the way. But I I believe we have the opportunity to build one of the biggest technology companies in the world. Energy is the largest part of the economy. Depends on how you slice it and measure it, but it's one of the largest parts of the economy, And we wanna build the dominant technology company in the category, not just in The US, but across, the whole world. [00:57:01] S2: And who do you need to become to lead the company to get there? We'll have to find out together. [00:57:06] S0: I don't know. I don't know. And I'm on that journey, right? And I show up every day and I do everything I can do to be the best version of me and play my game and be the best leader I can be for the team. Take feedback well, get better every day, every week, every month, every year, and, hopefully I'll become that person. But definitionally, like, I I don't know. We'll have to find out together.
00:57:06 · Zach Dell, Sachin
[00:57:06] S0: I don't know. I don't know. And I'm on that journey, right? And I show up every day and I do everything I can do to be the best version of me and play my game and be the best leader I can be for the team. Take feedback well, get better every day, every week, every month, every year, and, hopefully I'll become that person. But definitionally, like, I I don't know. We'll have to find out together. [00:57:30] S1: Who are the leaders that you look up to? People outside of the company that you look up to and gain inspiration and learnings from.
00:57:37 · Zach Dell
[00:57:37] S0: I mean, my dad's my ultimate hero. Right? And that's the obvious answer. But there are certainly CEOs and leaders, that I look up to. I mean, Collison brothers really inspire me. I'm I'm incredibly impressed by Patrick and John and what they've done with Stripe. Elon obviously is incredibly inspirational as as an entrepreneur in some ways. I think in other ways, you know, certain methods or tactics of his that that I would take a different approach and that's fine. You mentioned, you know, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil and and what he was able to build. And that story is is fascinating. And I think there's a lot to learn from there. But I I don't actually do a lot of, I don't have like a list of entrepreneurs that I aspire, you know, don't have posters on my wall, you know, above my bed of like the CEOs I wanna be like. It sounds cliche, but I have to be the best version of Zach I can be. Like, I don't try to be my dad, right? I don't try to be Elon. I don't try to be Patrick Collison. I don't try to be Josh Kushner because I would suck at all those things. Like, I would be a very poor version of those. I try to be the best Zach I can be and try to, you know, make Zach the best possible leader for Base Power. And it has to it has to be genuine, right? It has to be real. Like it has to be this company has to be the the actual thing that I wake up thinking about, go to sleep thinking about, and the leader it needs, you know, has to be the person that I become or it's not gonna work. Right? And if I try to be Patrick or I try to be Josh or I try to be my dad or I try to be Elon, we're all F'd. Right? It's like it's not gonna work. So I don't really look up to people in that way. I take inspiration and I'm I'm very impressed by people like John and Patrick. And I love reading about Rockefeller, and, you know, my dad is my ultimate hero, you know, personally. I think he's just an amazing human. He's an amazing father and husband and grandfather and and leader and person. But, I'm doing my best to be the best version of
00:59:27 · Sachin, Adam Miller, Zach Dell
[00:59:27] S1: me. Awesome. [00:59:29] S2: I think that's a good way to finish up, Zach. It's been a pleasure. I feel like running through a war now with your energy. [00:59:36] S0: Let's go. [00:59:37] S1: Yeah. We [00:59:38] S0: got a couple open desks here and a lot of work to do. So after this interview, let's strap you guys in. Yeah. Seriously, thank you for that. [00:59:45] S1: It's meaningful because I don't think there's a lot of companies you can visit that can say that they could genuinely be one of the biggest companies in the world and doing something that's critical for, you know, every American individual in business, like literally every single one. So it's a powerful company that could change the world. [01:00:00] S0: Thank you. We're we're excited. Yeah. Thank you guys for coming. Cool. Awesome. Thank you. [01:00:04] S2: Cool. That was great. [01:00:05] S0: Pleasure to meet you guys. Appreciate that. Yeah. That was fun. To meet you. [01:00:07] S2: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. [01:00:07] S1: You're an exceptional speaker and storyteller. [01:00:09] S0: Oh, thank you.