Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Coty Church, Owner & Founder of Tap Energy & Winner of the 2023 Regis University Innovation Challenge

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Coty Church is the Owner and Founder of Tap Energy LLC.He has created a patent-pending micro hydroelectric generator for residential and commercial use that taps into the potential energy already present in people’s daily lives.Learn more:https://www.tapenergyllc.comInfluential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-coty-church-owner-founder-of-tap-energy-winner-of-the-2023-regis-university-innovation-challenge

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us Cody Church, who's the owner and founder of TAP Energy and winner of the 23 Regis University Innovation. challenge. Cody, welcome to the program. Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me today. You're welcome. So I'm excited to talk with you and congratulations on winning that challenge. I know that is quite an honor. So I want to learn all about that, but get it started with your story. What's your background and

how did you get into this industry? Sure. Well, thanks a lot. Yeah, I grew up on a farm in Nebraska and we kind of always did things on a shoestring budget. And I learned to be pretty thrifty with my thought processes growing up. And I ended up going to college to be an engineer. And while I was doing that, non-traditionally, I married my wife. And I was going to school at the same time. And we were watching Shark Tank one night. And we were watching the water run down the drain.

And I thought, man, wouldn't that be awesome if we could capture the power of water and create electricity with it? And so I was working full time at the time as well while going to school for my engineering degree. And I thought I would tease. So working full time, married, and thinking about launching a business, you didn't sleep at all during that time frame, did you? No, no, not much. A lot of sleepless nights there. Yep.

Yeah. And so I used university to as a platform to kind of tease some of these ideas out and kind of play around. in a controlled space and, you know, move my way from engineer to engineering management. And I really got to the point where I thought, you know, I can make this happen. So went ahead and founded Tap Energy in 2021 and sort of filing for a patent on my technology. And here I am today, very early in the startup process, working on some working prototypes and collecting data at the moment. So it's been an exciting adventure at this point.

That's awesome. And I love, I mean, I've probably watched every single episode of Shark Tank and sometimes twice. And my whole family loves it. We can look at it and go, oh, you want $100,000 for 10% equity in the company. And my kids can go, what's the business valuation? Oh, a million. So, I mean, it's like, it's just such an educational thing. So it's really neat that that kind of spurred you on to think that way.

And then at some point, you started, you know, teasing out the ideas and getting kind of like a proof of concept conceptually. Now you're starting to work on a prototype. Do you have a working prototype enough to have proof of concept? Yeah. So while I was going to university, I made some small working prototypes where I had actually 3D printed them and we were able to charge a cell phone from running water and a tap with a 3D printed hydroelectric.

turbine. And so I took that and I enhanced the design. And what I really wanted to do was scale it up to where I could use it in a residential setting because, you know, working full time, I have limited time and resources. So my house was the perfect test bed for that. So that's what I'm, what I'm in the middle of right now is getting that installed in my home so I can collect data. I've been tracking my water usage here for a number of months. We just bought a new house. So it's the perfect time. to get this thing installed. I'm also looking at, you know, I've done a lot of the business background and market research and commercial is really where it is.

So as soon as I get the residential version installed and working, my next step is to scale this technology to a commercial setting as well. Of course. And, you know, getting with business advisors will tell you one thing or the other, but you got to start with where you're at. and I love that you started with a cell phone because it's like, okay, this is working. It's kind of like those experiments in science class where it's like, I'm making this electricity work off of a potato. So if you can make your technology charge a cell phone, okay, then now how do we go to the next larger thing and the next larger?

Well, obviously your house. So there you go. There's that because the residential market is going to be huge. And then now that proof of concept goes. And you know, you certainly don't pitch to like city municipalities before you've got. true proof of concept and residential because then they sneer at it if it doesn't work. So I just love how that sounds. And let's tie in now before we get into details of what that does.

Tell us a little bit about the Regis Innovation Challenge. How did that come about? What was that experience like? Yeah, that was a really great experience. So I was finishing my MBA late last fall. And one of my instructors had encouraged me to join the Regis Innovation Challenge. I was working on the same concept in one of his innovation classes. And I thought, oh, man, I don't know if I have enough time to do this.

And I talked to my wife and she said, are you crazy? She's like, you have to go for it. So I ended up signing up for the competition. And, you know, it was really great. I got to meet a lot of great mentors that helped guide me through the process of a startup. You know, this is very new to me. It's not what I do as a day job. So I got to meet with some great industry contacts, get some really good insights into both residential and commercial, really worked on the business plan and how I was going to roll this out to the world.

We met on a number of different Saturdays throughout the winter and then in the spring making progress all the way along until we got to April. And, you know, I was fortunate enough to pitch each of our pitch nights. and make it to the next cut and kept getting more excited and I just threw more energy at it. And, you know, lo and behold, in April, I was able to pitch on the final night and win the competition. And I'm grateful for the experience. That's awesome. And that becomes another aspect of proof of concept because it's not the actual technology, but you had people that are proving that it's a viable idea. So I think that is really neat. And those challenges, you know, it is not just submit this.

And yeah, you won, it is grueling and it is competitive. So to win that is just such a huge honor. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, what was really great about it is I got rid of my ugly baby syndrome. You know, I thought my idea was really great. But I really listened to those people that were giving me that feedback. And I was able to pivot business a little along the way, which was really great. And set me up for success to where I am today.

Yes. Excellent. And guess what? You never, you never quit doing that. You know, Tony Robbins teaches about Kani, C-A-N-I,

constant and never-ending improvement. So you're going to pivot slightly here and then pivot slightly there and then, you know, improve this and iterate that. So it's just constant. So let's jump into what actually is a microhydroelectric

turbine that now is going to power energy from water in our houses and beyond. Sure. Well, tap energy is really geared towards capturing wasted energy that's produced in our daily lives. So think about water running in your house. You know, you're sprinkling your lawn, you're washing your clothes or your dishes. Every time you use water, there's power in that.

And what a microhydro turbine is is basically a mini Hoover Dam that you can fit in your home or your business. So I'm capturing that potential energy in that water and converting it to usable electricity. So it's not working. It only works when water runs then, right? It does. It does. Okay.

And it works on a very small scale. So think of, you know, this device is in a residential setting as a single solar panel for your house. So it's not meant to be a complete replacement for power generation, but it's a supplement to what you've already got. So maybe thinking creatively, could solar and microhydro work together? They can. And that's the really great thing. You know, we live in Colorado here. And so we typically water our lawn at night because the sun is so intense during the day.

And we don't want to waste the water that we're putting down. So we've got solar on the house during the day. We're generating electricity during the day. But when the sun goes down, there's nothing to generate that electricity. Well, now my sprinklers start running in the summertime. And they're running for a long duration. So they're supplementing that power generation that I had during the day. So it runs anytime you're using water, which is great.

Yeah, that's huge. So let's talk about a little bit about when this is fully proven, working operational. What are some of those benefits? So I know that then it becomes like, oh, well, it's a complement to solar because like you just said, it's probably not going to help someone go off the grid and run their house electricity on water because just of the of of of that volume but how does that tie into renewable energy and how can that look attractively from a 30,000 foot view yeah absolutely well this is a passive device so once this is installed in your house you go about your daily life and you you forget that it's even

there and you're reaping the benefits so in a home you know you may be creating 500 watts of electricity and what does that mean well that's running five flat screen TVs or 50s or 50 D-L-D bulbs when the water's running. So you're going to offset your electricity bill by three to eight percent a month, which doesn't sound like a lot. That's something like, you know, you got a free Starbucks every month. And that's really what the business took a turn is we started looking at commercial and where are those high-use water areas?

So we're looking at agriculture. You know, we water our crops. There are hundreds of millions of gallons a year used in water. water to water crops to feed the U.S. We've got things like golf courses, too. So that's a luxury thing. People love to go out to those green golf courses, but it takes a lot of water to do that.

So what we can do is we can create these devices and we can get, we can offset their electricity needs, say, maybe to run your clubhouse or to run some of your pumps that are irrigating your fields. That's a great, great point. Yeah. Watch for, I like how you're framing. that up. You're watching for things that you're already doing to maximize that effect. You're already watering this. You're already using sprinklers or things like that. So how can we tap into

that, which kind of ties into your company name? I love that. Tap energy because I just found myself saying that. Then I'm like, oh, yeah, that's the name of your company. So how can you tap into the process that's already going to get energy to do another process that you would normally pay or is a type of, I don't know, energy source that might not be as environmental friendly. So I think it's such a neat, a neat concept. Yeah. And while sometimes you may think that the generation is small, if we get a lot of people doing this because it's easy for them to do, right? They go about their daily lives and they're reaping the benefits of what they're already doing.

We get thousands of these out there. It makes a material impact on the way we generate power in the U.S. And the world in general, you know, I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all for how we generate electricity. I don't think it's all going to come from coal or oil or it's all going to come from solar. We have to be creative about these concepts that we come up with and these products that we develop to supplement each other and to work together in harmony. So I've never heard of this technology before, but so I'm asking questions. as that inquisitive mind, but it makes me think about the batteries in the EV cars that it sounds all great to not use gas and just charge up electrically.

But then all of a sudden, after a period of time when you need to get a new battery, it's 20 grand or more. And it's like, oh, well, wow. So have you looked at some forward thinking to go, okay, what's the, what's this going to cost? Like, is it going to be feasible for a homeowner to go, hey, I can add this in and defray a little bit of my electricity. What kind of cost structure would that be? You know, not dollar-wise, because I know you haven't priced it out, but is it going to be small, medium, large, that kind of thing.

Yeah, so, you know, from a residential standpoint, it's a cost. And I have priced out a lot of this. And we're looking at, you know, somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500 for a device. And you're going to be on, depending on how much water you use on the order of five to seven years for your payback. Now, that's not great, but when you compare that to solar, your initial investment is considerably lower going with the microhydro. And your payback is shorter yet. And, you know, you're gaining a benefit and you're doing something good for the environment. So I think, you know, residential, you're going to be tugging on the heartstrings, but there's, there's, you, you drive around anywhere in the Denver area and you see solar panels on roofs everywhere.

So people really understand, you know, what these small things are actually doing and they're investing in their future. Commercially, well, that's obviously going to get a little more expensive, but the payback goes down considerably. Commercial use, you know, the demand is so much higher. So your payback is in the one to three year range still for a very small investment, you know, less than $5,000. So it can make a big impact for a business, small, medium, or large. Yeah. know you're still in the development stage, but what are some of the kind of safety considerations or maintenance that needs to be considered? Yeah, that's the great thing. And that's part of the

patented technology that I'm working on is a super simple device. So nearly maintenance free, there's very few moving parts in there. And what's in there is simply design. You're looking at dozens of years of life before you have to do any sort of maintenance on it. The great thing is, this can not only provide power for immediate use, but you can also store it in a battery bank, just like solar does as well and use it at a later time. So depending on what kind of bells and whistles we want to add to this, the maintenance is low,

but you may have some wear items at some point. Yeah, and I mean, with a price point that's affordable on the front end, then obviously if there's parks that are needed, it's not going to be horrendously expensive. So I think that's, I think you're going to get another kind of like an intangible benefit, which is like the cool factor. Like this is going to be something that people are going to want to talk about to go check this out. That's the hope.

Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. Okay. So then what's the next steps? What are you seeing? Like once this launches and you're getting proof of concept, what are you seeing the viability in this industry? Is this something that's going to in time rival solar?

I think it's really going to supplement solar. I believe that we can put a lot of devices out there in the industry and generate a lot of excitement around it. It's not a replacement or not intended to be a rival to it, but really a compliment to it. I like that. I think that becomes a nice positioning to the solar industry where, you know, you can even align with solar. companies to say, look, we're not a competitor. We're a supplement. And let's work together.

So I think that because I mean, in certain parts of the country, you might have houses that are running on solar that here comes a whole batch of cloudy days. And now the house is struggling. So maybe this becomes something where you come along, supplement the solar fills in the gaps. And now you have less of those days. And I don't know what those research numbers look like. But if that is the case, that might be very well received in the solar industry.

and then you come in solving that problem. Absolutely. Yeah, and we're giving the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineers that are out there speccing and building houses and speccing those systems, you know, another menu item for them to sell

to their customer, depending on their customer's needs. So we're just giving more options for people to be created with how they create green energy. Yep. I love it. I think that is just great. So I think that you have documented

such a neat, you know, here's this idea. I took action on it. Step at a time. Wouldn't easy, but you built it, you built it. You tweaked this. You submitted for the challenge. You did the work there. And now you got some momentum.

So I think this is such an exciting technology. This is really cool. So thank you so much for doing this and coming on today, Cody. What is the best way that someone can learn more about your technology and reach out and connect with you? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I really appreciate the time here today. You can find me at www. tapenergyllc.com.

We're also on Instagram and LinkedIn. So take a look at us, follow us, see what we're up to in the coming weeks and months and years. Excellent. Well, Cody, thank you so much for coming on today. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. Yeah, thank you. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episode,

Visit www. www. www. Influential Entrepreneursradio.com.