Something You Should Know - Bonus Episode: A Charged Up Success Story

Episode Date: May 13, 2022

This is a special bonus episode that is part of the Dell PodFerence 2022… Everyone has been in a situation where your phone was running out of power, there was no place to charge it and you really needed to have it NOT DIE! Listen to this great story about an ambitious 23-year old entrepreneur who saw this universal problem and created a great opportunity.  Hugo Tilomuth created a company in Great Britain called ChargedUp that directly addressed the problem of dying phones needing a charged. His story of success is a great one and I am sure you will enjoy this custom episode which is part of the Dell PodFerence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with modern devices and Windows 11 Pro so you can do more and we can all go forward together. Do you break out in a cold sweat when the battery symbol on your cell phone turns red in the middle of texting? If so, you may have nomophobia. It's the fear of being without your mobile phone. And if you have it, tech founder Hugo Tillemuth could be your new hero.

Having studied for a degree in renewable energy engineering at Exeter University, Hugo Tillemuth was at a cricket match, awaiting a call for a last-round interview with a tech company when he realized his phone was running very low on power. He had to quickly leave the match to buy a power bank to charge his phone, and then he rode home on a mobile rented bike. That's when a light bulb went off in his head. Why not combine the flexibility of the sharing economy with the universal need to charge your phone on the go? along with Charlie Barron, Hakeem Bouguet and Forrest Skirman-Stevenson founded ChargedUp, the UK's first network of mobile power bank stations

powered solely by green energy. Now, some ideas are deceptively simple. They might look easy to do, but there are a million things that can go wrong before you actually bring it to market and create tangible value for users. In the beginning, the founders had to do everything themselves. They bought a load of power banks from Alibaba, direct from China, with CHARGED UP written on them. And they went to a music festival to see if people would actually pay for a mobile phone charge.

In just two days, they made $2,500 and considered the concept a success. Now, at that point, they were inspired to create the first iteration of the charged-up station, which was essentially a vending machine for batteries. Now, that was a clever idea, but from the beginning, the company really wanted to focus on the environmental benefits of the sharing economy, which allows users to share items rather than buy them. So the power banks would have to be returned and recharged. Eventually, the new charged-up charging station was created that both distributed and recharged the power banks. Now, rather than offer fixed charging points,

the company would provide a network of charging stations that lets users rent a mobile charging bank from one station and return it to another station if needed. That way, mobile phone use remains mobile. They also partnered with renewable energy company Ecotricity for green energy. The company focused on the almost universal problem of mobile charging and combined that with an environmentally friendly sharing is caring philosophy. This created a service that provided customers 100% green energy-charged power banks

to charge their phones in public spaces and then return them to any charged-up station at their convenience for reuse. Charged-up power stations rapidly found their way into bars, restaurants, cafes, sports and performance venues, retail stores, and other public spaces, by answering the question posed by hundreds if not thousands of patrons every day, do you have a place where I can charge my phone? They conveniently provided that service with no expense to the business and satisfied their customers' needs. Users easily found the nearest charged-up power station through the company's app, then scanned a QR code, removed a power bank to charge their phone,

and returned it to any charged-up station when they were finished. And they were charged only for the time each power bank was in use. So I want to tell you about something really exciting, and that is that this podcast, Something You Should Know, will be part of this year's Dell Technologies Small Business Virtual Conference, kicking off on May the 10th. Small businesses are ready to thrive again and looking for resources to rise to the challenge. That's why Dell Technologies has assembled an all-star lineup of podcasters for the third year in a row to create a virtual conference to share advice and inspiration for small businesses.

Whether you're still working remotely or you're back together again, let Dell Technologies help safeguard your business with modern devices and Windows 11 Pro. Search Dell Technologies Small Business Podference on Odyssey.com, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts starting May the 10th. And be sure to tune in for Something You Should Know's custom episode on May 13th and May 18th. The Charged Up team spent a long time developing both hardware and software. Then, the business spent two years successfully scaling with a strong presence in over 3,000

UK locations. They even started to roll out the Char-up product across Germany and the Netherlands. In the process, the company added employees to their teams so rapidly that they used many subscription software tools, such as Notion, for creating knowledge banks, so newer employees would have the same benefits from data as older employees. They also used Slack for team communication so the company's culture and core values remained protected as the teams expanded. Business was booming. Everyone was happy. And then the unthinkable happened.

Like many businesses, the coronavirus pandemic caught charged up by surprise. People were no longer going to sporting events and concerts. Restaurants, cafes, and bars were empty. No one was shopping or traveling. But rather than see a problem, Hugo and his team saw an opportunity. During that time, the UK and other countries made it mandatory for every public place to have hand sanitizer available.

Because the business had built up so many strong relationships with venue owners, pub landlords, and building managers, the company pivoted its offering by creating automated hand sanitizer stations and launched a division called Cleaned Up. The business grew rapidly and provided tens of thousands of automated hand sanitizer stations to transportation hubs, airports, hotel chains, public venues, restaurants, and any other place in need. Because of surging demand, the business was able to successfully navigate through the pandemic. And as people began to emerge from lockdowns, quarantines, shelter-in-place orders, social distancing, and other forms of protective isolation, the need for mobile charging stations re-emerged with a vengeance,

and Charged Up was back in business. Caring about being a benefit to others and the planet has always been foremost in the minds of the founders of Charged Up. Because they wanted to create a green business from the beginning, they adopted a shared economy model. Instead of people buying the power banks, which is neither efficient nor good for the environment, power banks are shared, reused, and eventually recycled,

which reduces lithium demand. Since they are powered by green energy and the company's revenue directly supports renewable energy sources, the entire product cycle is green from start to finish, which customers find dissatisfying as their newly charged phone. Charged Up now has more than 300,000 users and 5,000 stations across Europe and is planning for international growth. They have also set up Charged Up Labs, the research and development arm of the company, to adapt as technology changes.

And they now have some of the most intelligent, experienced investors on their team to support their efforts. In addition, they have developed a new electronic point-of-sale platform called Served Up, which gives businesses the tools to serve their customers fast, reduce staff costs, and drive additional revenue. All this came from an ambitious and creative 23-year-old spotting an unfulfilled need that's finding an elegant, environmentally beneficial solution that is coming to you soon. And that is something you should know. Let Dell Technologies help safeguard your business with modern devices and Windows 11 Pro

so you can do more and we can all go forward together. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced.

She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts.

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