By Winter Wilson for Joules Accelerator
When Kameale Terry was volunteering at the LA Cleantech Incubator, training people to fix charging stations and convincing others to hire the help, little did she know that she would go on to close a $17.5M Series A funding raise for her venture, ChargerHelp!
“I was in a role that needed folks to help fix the stations, but it was hard for me to find those people,” said Kameale. “So I started to volunteer and train people, and my idea was that those folks would just get hired. But what we saw was that a lot of people didn’t necessarily want to directly hire those service people.”
That’s when Terry came up with a question: if she could hire service workers and make sure they had 40 hours of work with multiple manufacturers and network providers, would people hire her?
The answer was a resounding yes. Terry pulled together the technology, developed an app, raised money and, before she knew it, became a full-time CEO and Co-Founder of her venture, ChargerHelp!
ChargerHelp! Is the “only national EVSE-dedicated operations and maintenance service provider” and “takes a technology first approach to providing [their] clients with reliable, predictable, and hassle-free EV charging,” according to their website. Their mission revolves around increasing uptime of EV charging stations to promote mass EV adoption.
When someone emailed Terry about Joules Accelerator, her first thought was “oh my gosh, I don’t want to do another accelerator.” But with Joules’ strong ties to the utility industry, she decided to carve out time for the program and was pleasantly surprised by her experience.
“Joules really helped us go deep,” said Terry. “I think that when we first started, we had a good opportunity to get a lot of introductions. But I tell folks all the time – it’s way more than introductions.”
Terry explained that Joules played a key role in helping ChargerHelp! navigate major corporations, especially utilities, and figure out who their champions were. The program helped the venture deepen relationships with customers and get to a place where they were ready to develop a pilot project for their technology.
“I really think that Joules is a hidden gem because a lot of people know about [other big accelerators]” said Terry. “But when I talk about Joules, I just feel like the whole team really rolls up their sleeves and ensures the success of the introductions. I think that more people should know about the program and really consider it.”
Terry is excited for ChargerHelp! to lead the way in showcasing how technology and people can work together to create good paying, equitable jobs in the clean technology space. Terry sees ChargerHelp! being able to help the industry think about reliability and uptime of infrastructure in a more holistic way. This year, CH!’s biggest need will be connecting with people who have charging stations and need reliable maintenance.
“Reach out to us for reliability as a service,” said Terry. “If you need fixed maintenance costs, we’re really excited to partner with new utilities and folks who have charging infrastructure and are new to the space.”
You can reach out to Kameale's team at sales@chargerhelp.com or to Joules Accelerator at joulesaccelerator.com/contact.
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