August 19, 2025 • 28 mins
“In the entire decade of the 2000s, we had about a third of the billion-dollar weather disasters that we've had in the last three years. So in the last three years, we've surpassed threefold that entire previous decade. And it's not only fires in California and the West Coast— it's floods, it's storms, it's winter storms, wind storms. Most states are contending with this in some form or another.” —Cole Ashman
Tired of outdated power systems leaving you in the lurch? Discover how cutting-edge technology is putting the power back in your hands, offering a smarter, more reliable way to keep your home energized.
Inspired by the chaos of Hurricane Katrina, Cole Ashman has dedicated his career to transforming the energy landscape. With a background at Tesla and a passion for innovation, Cole founded Pila Energy to create affordable, smart home batteries that empower individuals and communities. His journey offers fresh insights into the democratization of energy technology.
Tune in as Justine and Cole tackle the challenges of outdated power grids, the development of Pila Energy's smart backup battery, and the importance of making sustainable, affordable energy solutions accessible to all.
Meet Cole:
Cole Ashman is the innovative founder of Pila Energy, a company dedicated to making smart home battery solutions accessible to all. With a background in engineering and experience at Tesla, Cole has been instrumental in developing Pila's modular home batteries, which offer a cost-effective alternative to traditional backup power systems. Inspired by his experiences during Hurricane Katrina, Cole is passionate about providing reliable energy solutions that empower individuals and communities. His work at Pila Energy reflects a commitment to sustainability, innovation, and making advanced technology available to a broader audience.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
02:51 A Wake Up Call From Hurricane Katrina
05:10 Market Gap in the Energy Space
08:12 Pre-Market Product and Customer Response
10:29 The Impact of Power Outages and Market Trends
17:44 Community Support and Future Innovations
20:00 Consumer Decisions and Environmental Impacts
25:23 Innovation for Evolving Consumer Needs
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Justine Reichman: (01:35):
Good morning, and welcome to Essential
Ingredients. Guys, it's yourfriend, Justine. Your weekly
host that brings you lots of newfounders and innovators in the
space around the impact of foodon our healthcare, lifestyle,
beauty, fashion, and the planet.And today, we have Cole. And
(01:56):
Cole is the Founder of Pila.
Cole Ashman: (02:00):
Hello, Justine. It's great to be here.
Justine Reichman: (02:04):
I'm excited to learn about what you've
created here, the inspirationbehind it, and where you see it
going? Accessible energy. So forthose not familiar with Pila,
would you just give them thehigh level of it?
Cole Ashman: (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely. First, I'll step back even
before I talk about the productand talk about the changing
world that we're living in whenit comes to energy. I think,
unfortunately, more and more ofus are getting hit with power
outages and rising utilitybills. It's kind of a mess out
there right now. As a student ofthis, we have the oldest power
(02:42):
grid in the world. We built thevery first electricity grid in
the US. And now, it's very old.And there are all kinds of
things from fires on the westcoast to stronger storms that
are knocking it out more andmore. And that affects us,
everyone across the country. Andwhether it's your internet going
(03:03):
down or your food going bad inyour fridge, we're having to
figure out how to solve this. Sothere have been backup
generators, gas powered backupgenerators for a long time. In
the past 10 years, we've seenthese very premium Smart Home
batteries come onto the market.I've worked in that space for a
(03:24):
while, but Pila is aimed to bethe more accessible alternative
to that premium home battery.But at a price point that
matches that off the shelfgenerator. So we are a smart
backup battery that pairs withyour essential appliances, your
refrigerator, your window airconditioning unit, sump pump,
(03:44):
the Wi Fi in your den, you name it.
Justine Reichman: (03:48):
Awesome. That sounds really accessible. It
sounds like it's attainable forthe majority of the population.
And something that as globalwarming and as things evolve on
the planet, we're really goingto have
I've often thought about, do weneed a generator? What would
(04:10):
that look like? How much doesthat cost? Is it running on gas?
Is it running on power? Allthese different things between
space and cost. There's lots ofdifferent factors to consider,
so this sounds like a greatsolution. Coming up with
something like this, I'm surethere's a story behind it.
Cole Ashman: (04:45):
Absolutely, yeah. It's something I've been
thinking about for a long time,even before my professional
career. I grew up in NewOrleans. And in 2025, 20 years
ago, Hurricane Katrina knockedout power and disrupted things
way beyond that for us. And fromthat moment onward, I kind of a
(05:06):
bit obsessed with theseinvisible systems that literally
keep the lights on, and keeplife running smoothly. And you
know what it feels when thosesystems kind of disappear in a
moment? Studied engineering andhad the opportunity to work at
Tesla on the home batteryproduct, the Tesla power wall
(05:26):
and solar. And then for the lastfour years, I helped lead a
product team at a company calledSam who kind of innovated around
this smart electrical panelconcept. Taking that fuse box
circuit breaker panel, andturning it into a full fledged
control device and computer. Allof that's great. But the through
(05:47):
line for me has always been, aremy friends and family outside of
California adopting thetechnology? Because this is
really smart stuff, but you haveto own the home. And often, it's
a five figure upgrade. You'retalking $20,000 more, and a lot
of that's labor and customdesign. It's a big build out,
(06:08):
right? Even if you're getting agas generator, it's a pretty
expensive thing to do. So thestory is started with the
question, how do we merge thatintelligence with the kind of
dominant product for backuppower? Which are these kind of
antiquated, old pole start gasgenerators that collect dust in
(06:29):
the garage. And half the time,they may not even work because
you're supposed to maintainthem, and no one does. Blending
that with the intelligence ofthese quiet, seamless, Smart
Battery products. And so thatwas the genesis of Pila setting
out to solve that mission. Andthe name is a bit of an homage
(06:50):
to one of the kind of godfathersof this age, a guy named
Alessandro Volta, an Italianguy. He's credited with making
the first electrochemicalbattery. So batteries as we know
it today. His innovation wasstacking metal plates together,
and that stack, or if you're anItalian, that Pila pile formed
(07:13):
the first tabletop battery. Andthat story of how that battery
was created, it was inspired byelectric eels to have internal
organs that are kind of stackedtogether. So there was something
really inspiring about thisstory of innovation, drawing
lessons from nature. And for us,we are making smaller modular
(07:38):
home batteries. So there wassomething about that tabletop
device that also really stoodout to us. And we also thought
it sounded nice.
Justine Reichman: (07:48):
And so you took a lot of your experience
from what you did at Tesla,coupled with the experience
about Katrina, and put thattogether and came up with this
solution. So tell me about yourexperience in Tesla, and what
you did? How that directlyrelated to what you were able to
create?
Cole Ashman: (08:09):
Yeah, absolutely. What an incredible place to
learn. Some of the smartestpeople I've ever met were
working at Tesla the time. Atthe time that I was there, I had
a really fun job of travelingaround the globe. The US,
Australia, Europe, Japan andbeyond. Working with
electricians and homeowners totake the new stuff that we were
(08:31):
building at HQ and pilot it,understand where the rubber
meets the road. And how we pushthe ball forward in this very
regulated industry that's reallysafety focused and tends to be
slow moving, but taking the fastmoving California startup, or
startup mindedness approach. Soreally incredible learning, and
(08:53):
Tesla created the category ofthe modern smart home backup
battery. For a long time, therewere these lead acid think like
car batteries that you couldstack together with wires
running everywhere, and it was avery niche thing. And what Tesla
did was turn that into somethingthat was architectural and
significantly easier to installall in one box. But Tesla and
(09:16):
the folks that have come afterthem have largely been focused
on single family owner occupiedhomes that are getting rooftop
solar, and adding a battery atthat time. And that's left out a
lot of small businesses, butalso renters and condos, folks
that live in more urban areas ormulti unit buildings, and just
(09:37):
homeowners that aren't ready tospend $20,000 or more on that
kind of upgrade. Often, it isjust a handful of very important
appliances and devices that youcare about. If you're coming at
it from an outage mindedness,it's the fridge, maybe a sump
pump, maybe some lights andoutlets in your Wi Fi. And we
(09:59):
said, wait a minute. You cansolve this by just going
straight to those devices, andmaking those the smart devices
that are capable of protectingthemselves. And suddenly, it's
no longer a question of callingcontractors, getting quotes and
all of that. It's a question ofgetting a beautiful device
delivered to your home, andplugging it in.
Justine Reichman: (10:18):
You make it sound so simple. So right now,
you have the pre market product.Talk to me about the pre market
product. Where are you withthis? And what are next steps
with it?
Cole Ashman: (10:30):
Yeah. We will be delivering products later this
year to our early customers. Welaunched with a lot of fanfare
South by Southwest in Austinthis past March, and the input
from customers, market andtechnology partners has been
tremendous. I think we foundthat we've struck a chord. I
(10:54):
think for a long time, peoplehave seen the premium products
and said, maybe one day with mydream home. And we're happy that
the message of, hey, actuallyyou don't have to wait. You can
get this today. And self solvehas really resonated. So we've
had interest from almost 50states at this point, or for pre
(11:14):
orders. We're allowing folks toreserve early units on our
website. We are working as hardas we can to go through that
development process, which, asanyone who's built in the space
knows is very safety minded, andthere's a lot of scrutiny that
you have to go through to makesure this is a reliable thing
that's going to last 5 and 10years. And obviously, be safe
(11:38):
for the home and all the rest.
Justine Reichman: (11:39):
As I'm sitting here, I'm envisioning
it. It's on top of the fridge orsomething behind the door. It's
something that's easy to access.That the minute you lose your
power, you can utilize. It'saccessible to most. I mean, it's
under $1,000. Few $100, right?
Cole Ashman: (11:58):
So the market price is about the same as a
nice pull start generator. It's1299, so that's the base unit.
And you compare that tosomething like whole-home
battery, which is 25 upwards of$60,000. So we have a lot of
work to get it down to the pointwhere every single household can
(12:19):
afford it, and we've got plansto do that. But out of the gate,
we're excited to, at least bringthe entry costs way down to the
point where much, much morehomes and businesses can manage.
Justine Reichman: (12:36):
So right now, when you go onto the website,
you put down what? $99, itsecures your spot. Is it
something like that?
Cole Ashman: (12:43):
You've got it. So for folks who are already
interested and willing to puttheir money down, it's a $99
refundable deposit to get in onthe early orders as we start
shipping later this year.
Justine Reichman: (12:55):
It's low risk, absolutely. If we were to
Cole Ashman: (12:57):
I think most folks have probably keyed into the
look back at years past and seehow often the hurricanes come,
and how often the earthquakescome, and how often the heat
(13:23):
waves come that create powerlines to go down, and there's
other reasons they can go down.But let's just say we're looking
(13:43):
at a variety of these issues,what do we see as the uptick,
how many more people is thisaffecting year over year?
(14:07):
fact that it's going up. Outagesare becoming a more common thing
that we're dealing with, notonly in the US, but abroad.
Spain, several weeks ago, theentire country lost power. It's
largely driven by weatherevents. So it's strong
correlation between those bigstorms and fires, and the number
of people who are losing powerevery year, that's gone up. I
(14:28):
mentioned Katrina, that was 2005in the entire decade. Of the
2000s, we had about a third ofthe billion dollar weather
disasters that we've had in thelast three years. So last three
years, we've surpassed threefold that entire previous
decade. And it's not only firesin California and the West
(14:49):
Coast, it's floods, it's storms,it's winter storms, wind storms.
Most states are contending withthis in some form or another.
Justine Reichman: (15:01):
It's obvious, the need is there. People are
gonna need this. We need to makeit accessible to people. Don't
forget the elderly people thatare hooked up to monitors, or
hooked up to machines, or thesurgeries that are going on, or
people that need all sorts ofsupport as they get older, or
even just are sick, right? Sowhat an amazing thing you've
(15:24):
innovated. When I think aboutbatteries, I am curious about
the sustainability of them, andwhat happens to them afterwards?
So can you talk to me a littlebit about that?
Cole Ashman: (16:02):
The easiest way for something to end up in a
landfill is for it to beoutdated in a year or two. The
planned obsolescence problem. Sostep one, you pick batteries
that are really designed forultra long life, and not all
lithium ion batteries arecreated equal. If you've owned a
smartphone, you know that aftera year or two, the thing doesn't
(16:23):
really hold a charge. So thatstyle of battery is really
designed for a lot of fastcharging and discharging
short lifetime, and reallylightweight. We're using a
different chemistry calledlithium iron phosphate, LFP, 10
year cycle life. So this isdesigned to be very long
lasting. On top of that, webuilt the software to get
(16:45):
smarter over time, like youriPhone, so that it doesn't
become out of date in three orfive years time, as you know
that the needs change for homesand businesses. And then once
the product has lived its usefullife, how are you recovering
(17:11):
that disassembly is as easy asputting the thing together. So
really, that kind of full end toend design life is something our
engineering team is incrediblyfocused on. And then the expert
level answer here too is ourview, that if we put batteries
more surgically in areas wherethey can be smarter next, let's
(17:34):
say next to your refrigeratorinstead of in the equipment room
or the garage, we can actuallymore judiciously provide power
to that appliance only what itneeds and cater to it. Which
means the size of the batterypack can actually come down as
well. So to provide that sameservice, say 30 plus hours of
(17:54):
backup for an averagerefrigerator, while that might
take a 15 kilowatt hourwhole-home battery, if you're
also supplying to all kinds ofunnecessary energy draws in the
home by being really focused onjust what's most important to
you, and going room by room andappliance by appliance, we can
actually lower the total needfor batteries created dug out of
(18:17):
the ground, and the rest takethat stored energy a bit
further. So all kinds ofdifferent angles here that we
can look at that question.
Justine Reichman: (19:04):
So I love the whole beginning to the end. It's
very thoughtful. It's thoughtfulabout the environment. It's
thoughtful about the customer.You're making it accessible,
you're giving them power, andyou're thinking about what you
can do with it at the end. Sofor those customers, though,
that even $1,200 is a lot, isthere a way to get something
(19:27):
subsidized? Or is there a way towork with you? Or do you have a
program, let's say, that wouldhelp facilitate making it
possible for those individualsthat might not have what they
need to get this?
Cole Ashman: (19:39):
Absolutely. Something we think about a lot.
We really want to envision aworld where everyone has this
protection. No one is literallyleft in the dark when power
outages occur. And of course,the people that are most at risk
may not be the ones that havethe ability to buy these new
types of products. The beautifulthing about what we're building
(20:02):
is it's actually infrastructure,and infrastructure grade kind of
design. Which means we have allkinds of partnerships in the
works with utilities who aretalking to us about offering
this to their customers as a fewextra dollars on their bill to
help spread out that cost.
Justine Reichman: (20:21):
They're automatically PG&E, right?
Cole Ashman: (20:24):
Large utilities and small since they see their
dutygeneration catch up with the
need. But there are some reallyinnovative teams at those
(20:51):
companies that are focused onsolutions in the home too. So
(21:34):
that's one example financinganother great option, and we'll
have more to share on that laterthis year.
Justine Reichman: (21:50):
Whether it's Katrina or it's a hospital, they
need food to be able to eatbecause you can't survive
without food, and you needhealth care, and that includes
plugging it in. So you're reallysolving a problem that is only
going to grow in my mind as wesee global warming continuing to
(22:13):
evolve each year, becoming moreand more contributory to all the
issues, whether it's flying orpower outages.
Cole Ashman: (22:22):
We want to move fast and give people tools to
put the power in their hands.And part of moving fast is
lowering the cost. The otherpart is just designing solutions
that work for more people. So wetalked about the renters in
addition to the owners. Thestory can't be, well, once we
build all of the next generationof homes, they'll be smart solar
enabled and backup batterycapable. We've got to think
(22:44):
about, how do we adapt ourexisting homes and businesses
for this new reality that you'redescribing? And this isn't to
say that there's no room for thepremium solutions that are
professionally installed. Thoseare great if you can get them.
But I think the last 10 yearshas showed us that it's not
quite the accessible mass marketproduct that a lot of us want it
(23:07):
to be. And again, that was ourmotivation in putting this
product together.
Justine Reichman: (23:12):
So as you're innovating, because you're
trying to solve this problem andmake things more accessible, are
there other products that you'rethinking about innovating down
the line to add to this?
theircontributing to that power bill,
Cole Ashman: (23:22):
Absolutely. A lot of people
(23:47):
and what's being powered byclean energy sources, and solar
versus the grid and expensiveelectricity. It can be a little
addicting for some of us.very data rich. And once you
have these things in your home,they can do a lot more than just
backup power. Take the fridge,for example. We can tell you if
(24:08):
that refrigerator is on thefritz. We've all had the
experience where you open thedoor and it's making a funny
noise, and should I callsomebody out? I don't know. How
do we make that easier? How dowe bring that answer to the
forefront? Hey, can we help youcall a technician out? This
thing's gonna fail in the next30 days. Or even small things
like the door was left open.Once you've got these smart
(24:31):
systems in place, they can makeyour life easier in so many
ways. So that's a broad answer.But for us, it looks like more
products in our portfolio, moresoftware features that help
people understand their energy.And again, it's all about
putting you in control, andunderstanding what's going on.
Justine Reichman: (25:48):
So as a founder that innovated this and
built this off your experienceat Tesla, what were some of the
things, some of the resources,or rather skills that you needed
that maybe you didn't have, thatyou had to surround yourself
with? Could you share a littlebit about that, and how you
brought those folks in?
Cole Ashman: (26:05):
Yeah, absolutely. This founding peeler has been
such a story of community andcoming together. And I've been
(26:37):
just lucky in my career to besurrounded by wonderful mentors
and people who are smarter thanI am to help through the
(27:11):
process. So drawing on thatcommunity from whether it's X
Tesla span, Apple, Amazon, allthese different tech companies,
(27:46):
and on the design side, somereally, really sharp folks when
it comes to how to think aboutbrand design, both consumers and
(28:22):
businesses. And I think thelesson here is, never discount a
connection. You never know wherethe person who's going to make
(28:58):
the biggest difference on yournext thing is going to come
from. I'm very grateful to havethose folks in my network
(29:31):
supporting in one way oranother, kind of on the PO
mission from advisory businessdevelopment, to design, app
(30:03):
development, to partnerships,and how to think about scaling
of businesses from the earlieststages, to making massive impact
(30:39):
with larger customers andbroader geographies.
Justine Reichman: (30:56):
A little less than a year and a half. So in
order tothose viewers that are watching
and they ask, okay, what do Ineed to do to make something
(31:16):
like that happen?
Cole Ashman: (31:27):
Absolutely. One, and I said it before,
of people give, but I think itbears repeating because it's
easy to want to shield your ideafrom the world until you feel
that it's perfect. But you'regoing to learn so much faster if
(31:50):
you build something scrappy, getit out there, learn, iterate,
and be open to feedback. Sonumber one would be, get
started. Number two, if you'rebuilding in your domain, you've
been working in a space for awhile,
(32:15):
done before? But I think havingyour own center of belief guide
you forward. And taking on thefeedback that you have and
assembling it into your mentalmodel is a real skill, and not
getting downtrodden in theprocess. And I think that takes
us to number three, which is,surround yourself with people
that can help orient the path.People that you trust to give
(32:39):
advice, not only in, let's saylike a technical area, but also,
I've benefited a lot from justgeneral mentorship and career
(32:59):
life area as well.
Justine Reichman: (33:09):
Thank you for sharing that. I think that's
really helpful. I've beenthinking a lot about because I
get asked questions all the timeabout, when you're pitching your
business, what do you recommend?PowerPoint or this? And my
(33:29):
reaction is always like, beauthentic. Be genuine. Have the
founder there, because peoplewant to invest in founders. So
for your experience, I'd love toknow how you went about this,
and what you found to be mostuseful?
Cole Ashman: (33:44):
Yeah, it's fun. Again, no secrets. But I think
your point about being authenticis ultimately the answer. For
(34:31):
some people, they're veryvisually minded. And spending
(34:54):
the time to put together thosevisuals helps tell the story.
(35:20):
For others, they're wordsmiths,and they can tell a story
Justine Reichman: (35:37):
So what role as you're pitching this to
verbally with no problem, andpaint that picture. Just don't
(36:10):
feel that you have to conform tosome rigid way of doing things.
(36:37):
Think about it as, how would youdescribe it to a friend or family?
people does the impact on theenvironment play?
Cole Ashman: (37:13):
It's something we think a lot about internally,
all the way down to ourpackaging design. We talked
about the cells. But in ourspecific product category, it's
probably not the number one, twoor three. We're really proud of
the work that we've done to makesure that this product is
responsibly designed. But formany people, if they're running
(37:37):
a generator in an outage, itlower down on that need. To your
point, they're powering themedical equipment in the fridge,
they're skewing fumes, butthey're also breathing those
fumes. And they're kind oftaking these affordances, if you
will, on the environmental sidealready. So just by virtue of
having the clean battery, it's abetter product for the
(38:00):
environment. But moreimportantly, just a better user
experience. You're not outsiderunning an extension cord in the
rain, trying to refuel agenerator and running this noisy
thing, refueling it fromelectricity most of the time,
(38:22):
that's going to be way cleanerto a low efficiency.
Justine Reichman: (38:38):
Well, with that being said, what role does
that play selling it to theconsumer online, which is what
you're doing right now? Talk tome about the education that's
going into this. And I'mcurious. Aae people curious? Are
they asking? Is this not evenpart of the conversation? They
just really want to solve aproblem.
Cole Ashman: (38:58):
A little bit of both. I think that's the fun
part about creating a newmarket. You have people coming
in with different levels ofknowledge. So some of our early
customers may even own a powerwall or a whole home generator
system, and they're used tothinking about all kinds of
different power questions fortheir home. So they know exactly
(39:19):
what they're looking for in avery pointed question. On the
other hand, because this productso accessible, we're talking to
folks who may not be tech nativeand have a lot of basic
questions just around, how doesit work? Okay, so I plug it in,
then what? What kind ofinformation do I get? How does
it contemplate security andsafety, and all of these things?
(39:39):
So we're kind of seeing it fromall angles, and it's been a
really fun thing to put togetherthe simple answers for all of
these questions. Because again,we want to provide all the
detail that people need to makethe purchase decision,
understand the product and beexcited. But there's always a
balance between giving the fullengineering answer. And giving
(40:00):
the human answer.
Justine Reichman: (40:28):
I think it's important that it gets people
thinking, and it's important forus to tell them what you've done
so that they can make the bestdecision for themselves.
Cole Ashman: (40:49):
Absolutely. And this discovery process a lot of
learning. And most of us, let'sbe honest, don't think about
energy and electricity on a dayto day basis. We're not saying
those things. You can lower yourbills. You can protect your
(41:11):
family. And we want to givepeople the understandable,
digestible answers and productsolutions that can help them get
started. Because, again, thatthe default way of building with
these expensive contractor led$20,000 system, the knowledge
(41:31):
gap there, it's incrediblyoverwhelming. So in making this
battery system that we'rebuilding more modular and
accessible, plug and play, we'rekind of adapting the messaging
(42:00):
that everyone needs to. But in aworld where outages, high bills
(42:23):
to make it also more digestiblemodular, kind of learn as you
go.
Justine Reichman: (42:31):
So are we looking at this on an app or
something?
Cole Ashman: (42:38):
There's a screen on the device. But we went even
further than that, because weunderstand that there's kind of
app fatigue in the smart homespace. For some folks, the app
is great. For others, they maywant to engage with it only
occasionally. So we have doneour best to make the information
(43:00):
as accessible as possible. Italso connects into other smart
home systems, whether it'sGoogle Home. Alexa, you name it.
Justine Reichman: (43:15):
Awesome. Cole, thank you so much. If our
guests that are tuning in viaYouTube or our podcast want to
learn more, what is the bestplace to go? How can they find
out more? Possibly even preregister for their battery.
Cole Ashman: (43:34):
Easiest way is our website. So it's
www.pila.energy. You can also goto pilaenergy.com. We post
regular updates on our blog, onour website. And they can also
find us on the socials, onLinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram as
Pila Energy.
Justine Reichman: (43:54):
Awesome. Cole, thank you so much. I want
to thank our guests who tuned intoday. I want to thank those
listeners, because we've gotsuch a great community. And
without this community, who arewe talking to? So really, it's
built up of the amazing guestslike yourself and our wonderful
listeners. So I want to justtake a moment and thank you
both, Cole and our listeners,for joining me today.
Cole Ashman: (44:18):
Thank you very much.
Justine Reichman: (44:20):
It's my pleasure. And for those that
maybe want to check out ourvideo cast because you're
listening to the podcast,YouTube, it's Essential
Ingredients with Justine,anywhere you listen to your
podcast.
Good morning, and welcome to Essential
Ingredients. Guys, it's yourfriend, Justine. Your weekly
host that brings you lots of newfounders and innovators in the
space around the impact of foodon our healthcare, lifestyle,
beauty, fashion, and the planet.And today, we have Cole. And
(01:56):
Cole is the Founder of Pila.
Cole Ashman: (02:00):
Hello, Justine. It's great to be here.
Justine Reichman: (02:04):
I'm excited to learn about what you've
created here, the inspirationbehind it, and where you see it
going? Accessible energy. So forthose not familiar with Pila,
would you just give them thehigh level of it?
Cole Ashman: (02:18):
Yeah, absolutely. First, I'll step back even
before I talk about the productand talk about the changing
world that we're living in whenit comes to energy. I think,
unfortunately, more and more ofus are getting hit with power
outages and rising utilitybills. It's kind of a mess out
there right now. As a student ofthis, we have the oldest power
(02:42):
grid in the world. We built thevery first electricity grid in
the US. And now, it's very old.And there are all kinds of
things from fires on the westcoast to stronger storms that
are knocking it out more andmore. And that affects us,
everyone across the country. Andwhether it's your internet going
(03:03):
down or your food going bad inyour fridge, we're having to
figure out how to solve this. Sothere have been backup
generators, gas powered backupgenerators for a long time. In
the past 10 years, we've seenthese very premium Smart Home
batteries come onto the market.I've worked in that space for a
(03:24):
while, but Pila is aimed to bethe more accessible alternative
to that premium home battery.But at a price point that
matches that off the shelfgenerator. So we are a smart
backup battery that pairs withyour essential appliances, your
refrigerator, your window airconditioning unit, sump pump,
(03:44):
the Wi Fi in your den, you name it.
Justine Reichman: (03:48):
Awesome. That sounds really accessible. It
sounds like it's attainable forthe majority of the population.
And something that as globalwarming and as things evolve on
the planet, we're really goingto have
I've often thought about, do weneed a generator? What would
(04:10):
that look like? How much doesthat cost? Is it running on gas?
Is it running on power? Allthese different things between
space and cost. There's lots ofdifferent factors to consider,
so this sounds like a greatsolution. Coming up with
something like this, I'm surethere's a story behind it.
Cole Ashman: (04:45):
Absolutely, yeah. It's something I've been
thinking about for a long time,even before my professional
career. I grew up in NewOrleans. And in 2025, 20 years
ago, Hurricane Katrina knockedout power and disrupted things
way beyond that for us. And fromthat moment onward, I kind of a
(05:06):
bit obsessed with theseinvisible systems that literally
keep the lights on, and keeplife running smoothly. And you
know what it feels when thosesystems kind of disappear in a
moment? Studied engineering andhad the opportunity to work at
Tesla on the home batteryproduct, the Tesla power wall
(05:26):
and solar. And then for the lastfour years, I helped lead a
product team at a company calledSam who kind of innovated around
this smart electrical panelconcept. Taking that fuse box
circuit breaker panel, andturning it into a full fledged
control device and computer. Allof that's great. But the through
(05:47):
line for me has always been, aremy friends and family outside of
California adopting thetechnology? Because this is
really smart stuff, but you haveto own the home. And often, it's
a five figure upgrade. You'retalking $20,000 more, and a lot
of that's labor and customdesign. It's a big build out,
(06:08):
right? Even if you're getting agas generator, it's a pretty
expensive thing to do. So thestory is started with the
question, how do we merge thatintelligence with the kind of
dominant product for backuppower? Which are these kind of
antiquated, old pole start gasgenerators that collect dust in
(06:29):
the garage. And half the time,they may not even work because
you're supposed to maintainthem, and no one does. Blending
that with the intelligence ofthese quiet, seamless, Smart
Battery products. And so thatwas the genesis of Pila setting
out to solve that mission. Andthe name is a bit of an homage
(06:50):
to one of the kind of godfathersof this age, a guy named
Alessandro Volta, an Italianguy. He's credited with making
the first electrochemicalbattery. So batteries as we know
it today. His innovation wasstacking metal plates together,
and that stack, or if you're anItalian, that Pila pile formed
(07:13):
the first tabletop battery. Andthat story of how that battery
was created, it was inspired byelectric eels to have internal
organs that are kind of stackedtogether. So there was something
really inspiring about thisstory of innovation, drawing
lessons from nature. And for us,we are making smaller modular
(07:38):
home batteries. So there wassomething about that tabletop
device that also really stoodout to us. And we also thought
it sounded nice.
Justine Reichman: (07:48):
And so you took a lot of your experience
from what you did at Tesla,coupled with the experience
about Katrina, and put thattogether and came up with this
solution. So tell me about yourexperience in Tesla, and what
you did? How that directlyrelated to what you were able to
create?
Cole Ashman: (08:09):
Yeah, absolutely. What an incredible place to
learn. Some of the smartestpeople I've ever met were
working at Tesla the time. Atthe time that I was there, I had
a really fun job of travelingaround the globe. The US,
Australia, Europe, Japan andbeyond. Working with
electricians and homeowners totake the new stuff that we were
(08:31):
building at HQ and pilot it,understand where the rubber
meets the road. And how we pushthe ball forward in this very
regulated industry that's reallysafety focused and tends to be
slow moving, but taking the fastmoving California startup, or
startup mindedness approach. Soreally incredible learning, and
(08:53):
Tesla created the category ofthe modern smart home backup
battery. For a long time, therewere these lead acid think like
car batteries that you couldstack together with wires
running everywhere, and it was avery niche thing. And what Tesla
did was turn that into somethingthat was architectural and
significantly easier to installall in one box. But Tesla and
(09:16):
the folks that have come afterthem have largely been focused
on single family owner occupiedhomes that are getting rooftop
solar, and adding a battery atthat time. And that's left out a
lot of small businesses, butalso renters and condos, folks
that live in more urban areas ormulti unit buildings, and just
(09:37):
homeowners that aren't ready tospend $20,000 or more on that
kind of upgrade. Often, it isjust a handful of very important
appliances and devices that youcare about. If you're coming at
it from an outage mindedness,it's the fridge, maybe a sump
pump, maybe some lights andoutlets in your Wi Fi. And we
(09:59):
said, wait a minute. You cansolve this by just going
straight to those devices, andmaking those the smart devices
that are capable of protectingthemselves. And suddenly, it's
no longer a question of callingcontractors, getting quotes and
all of that. It's a question ofgetting a beautiful device
delivered to your home, andplugging it in.
Justine Reichman: (10:18):
You make it sound so simple. So right now,
you have the pre market product.Talk to me about the pre market
product. Where are you withthis? And what are next steps
with it?
Cole Ashman: (10:30):
Yeah. We will be delivering products later this
year to our early customers. Welaunched with a lot of fanfare
South by Southwest in Austinthis past March, and the input
from customers, market andtechnology partners has been
tremendous. I think we foundthat we've struck a chord. I
(10:54):
think for a long time, peoplehave seen the premium products
and said, maybe one day with mydream home. And we're happy that
the message of, hey, actuallyyou don't have to wait. You can
get this today. And self solvehas really resonated. So we've
had interest from almost 50states at this point, or for pre
(11:14):
orders. We're allowing folks toreserve early units on our
website. We are working as hardas we can to go through that
development process, which, asanyone who's built in the space
knows is very safety minded, andthere's a lot of scrutiny that
you have to go through to makesure this is a reliable thing
that's going to last 5 and 10years. And obviously, be safe
(11:38):
for the home and all the rest.
Justine Reichman: (11:39):
As I'm sitting here, I'm envisioning
it. It's on top of the fridge orsomething behind the door. It's
something that's easy to access.That the minute you lose your
power, you can utilize. It'saccessible to most. I mean, it's
under $1,000. Few $100, right?
Cole Ashman: (11:58):
So the market price is about the same as a
nice pull start generator. It's1299, so that's the base unit.
And you compare that tosomething like whole-home
battery, which is 25 upwards of$60,000. So we have a lot of
work to get it down to the pointwhere every single household can
(12:19):
afford it, and we've got plansto do that. But out of the gate,
we're excited to, at least bringthe entry costs way down to the
point where much, much morehomes and businesses can manage.
Justine Reichman: (12:36):
So right now, when you go onto the website,
you put down what? $99, itsecures your spot. Is it
something like that?
Cole Ashman: (12:43):
You've got it. So for folks who are already
interested and willing to puttheir money down, it's a $99
refundable deposit to get in onthe early orders as we start
shipping later this year.
Justine Reichman: (12:55):
It's low risk, absolutely. If we were to
Cole Ashman: (12:57):
I think most folks have probably keyed into the
look back at years past and seehow often the hurricanes come,
and how often the earthquakescome, and how often the heat
(13:23):
waves come that create powerlines to go down, and there's
other reasons they can go down.But let's just say we're looking
(13:43):
at a variety of these issues,what do we see as the uptick,
how many more people is thisaffecting year over year?
(14:07):
fact that it's going up. Outagesare becoming a more common thing
that we're dealing with, notonly in the US, but abroad.
Spain, several weeks ago, theentire country lost power. It's
largely driven by weatherevents. So it's strong
correlation between those bigstorms and fires, and the number
of people who are losing powerevery year, that's gone up. I
(14:28):
mentioned Katrina, that was 2005in the entire decade. Of the
2000s, we had about a third ofthe billion dollar weather
disasters that we've had in thelast three years. So last three
years, we've surpassed threefold that entire previous
decade. And it's not only firesin California and the West
(14:49):
Coast, it's floods, it's storms,it's winter storms, wind storms.
Most states are contending withthis in some form or another.
Justine Reichman: (15:01):
It's obvious, the need is there. People are
gonna need this. We need to makeit accessible to people. Don't
forget the elderly people thatare hooked up to monitors, or
hooked up to machines, or thesurgeries that are going on, or
people that need all sorts ofsupport as they get older, or
even just are sick, right? Sowhat an amazing thing you've
(15:24):
innovated. When I think aboutbatteries, I am curious about
the sustainability of them, andwhat happens to them afterwards?
So can you talk to me a littlebit about that?
Cole Ashman: (16:02):
The easiest way for something to end up in a
landfill is for it to beoutdated in a year or two. The
planned obsolescence problem. Sostep one, you pick batteries
that are really designed forultra long life, and not all
lithium ion batteries arecreated equal. If you've owned a
smartphone, you know that aftera year or two, the thing doesn't
(16:23):
really hold a charge. So thatstyle of battery is really
designed for a lot of fastcharging and discharging
short lifetime, and reallylightweight. We're using a
different chemistry calledlithium iron phosphate, LFP, 10
year cycle life. So this isdesigned to be very long
lasting. On top of that, webuilt the software to get
(16:45):
smarter over time, like youriPhone, so that it doesn't
become out of date in three orfive years time, as you know
that the needs change for homesand businesses. And then once
the product has lived its usefullife, how are you recovering
(17:11):
that disassembly is as easy asputting the thing together. So
really, that kind of full end toend design life is something our
engineering team is incrediblyfocused on. And then the expert
level answer here too is ourview, that if we put batteries
more surgically in areas wherethey can be smarter next, let's
(17:34):
say next to your refrigeratorinstead of in the equipment room
or the garage, we can actuallymore judiciously provide power
to that appliance only what itneeds and cater to it. Which
means the size of the batterypack can actually come down as
well. So to provide that sameservice, say 30 plus hours of
(17:54):
backup for an averagerefrigerator, while that might
take a 15 kilowatt hourwhole-home battery, if you're
also supplying to all kinds ofunnecessary energy draws in the
home by being really focused onjust what's most important to
you, and going room by room andappliance by appliance, we can
actually lower the total needfor batteries created dug out of
(18:17):
the ground, and the rest takethat stored energy a bit
further. So all kinds ofdifferent angles here that we
can look at that question.
Justine Reichman: (19:04):
So I love the whole beginning to the end. It's
very thoughtful. It's thoughtfulabout the environment. It's
thoughtful about the customer.You're making it accessible,
you're giving them power, andyou're thinking about what you
can do with it at the end. Sofor those customers, though,
that even $1,200 is a lot, isthere a way to get something
(19:27):
subsidized? Or is there a way towork with you? Or do you have a
program, let's say, that wouldhelp facilitate making it
possible for those individualsthat might not have what they
need to get this?
Cole Ashman: (19:39):
Absolutely. Something we think about a lot.
We really want to envision aworld where everyone has this
protection. No one is literallyleft in the dark when power
outages occur. And of course,the people that are most at risk
may not be the ones that havethe ability to buy these new
types of products. The beautifulthing about what we're building
(20:02):
is it's actually infrastructure,and infrastructure grade kind of
design. Which means we have allkinds of partnerships in the
works with utilities who aretalking to us about offering
this to their customers as a fewextra dollars on their bill to
help spread out that cost.
Justine Reichman: (20:21):
They're automatically PG&E, right?
Cole Ashman: (20:24):
Large utilities and small since they see their
dutygeneration catch up with the
need. But there are some reallyinnovative teams at those
(20:51):
companies that are focused onsolutions in the home too. So
(21:34):
that's one example financinganother great option, and we'll
have more to share on that laterthis year.
Justine Reichman: (21:50):
Whether it's Katrina or it's a hospital, they
need food to be able to eatbecause you can't survive
without food, and you needhealth care, and that includes
plugging it in. So you're reallysolving a problem that is only
going to grow in my mind as wesee global warming continuing to
(22:13):
evolve each year, becoming moreand more contributory to all the
issues, whether it's flying orpower outages.
Cole Ashman: (22:22):
We want to move fast and give people tools to
put the power in their hands.And part of moving fast is
lowering the cost. The otherpart is just designing solutions
that work for more people. So wetalked about the renters in
addition to the owners. Thestory can't be, well, once we
build all of the next generationof homes, they'll be smart solar
enabled and backup batterycapable. We've got to think
(22:44):
about, how do we adapt ourexisting homes and businesses
for this new reality that you'redescribing? And this isn't to
say that there's no room for thepremium solutions that are
professionally installed. Thoseare great if you can get them.
But I think the last 10 yearshas showed us that it's not
quite the accessible mass marketproduct that a lot of us want it
(23:07):
to be. And again, that was ourmotivation in putting this
product together.
Justine Reichman: (23:12):
So as you're innovating, because you're
trying to solve this problem andmake things more accessible, are
there other products that you'rethinking about innovating down
the line to add to this?
theircontributing to that power bill,
Cole Ashman: (23:22):
Absolutely. A lot of people
(23:47):
and what's being powered byclean energy sources, and solar
versus the grid and expensiveelectricity. It can be a little
addicting for some of us.very data rich. And once you
have these things in your home,they can do a lot more than just
backup power. Take the fridge,for example. We can tell you if
(24:08):
that refrigerator is on thefritz. We've all had the
experience where you open thedoor and it's making a funny
noise, and should I callsomebody out? I don't know. How
do we make that easier? How dowe bring that answer to the
forefront? Hey, can we help youcall a technician out? This
thing's gonna fail in the next30 days. Or even small things
like the door was left open.Once you've got these smart
(24:31):
systems in place, they can makeyour life easier in so many
ways. So that's a broad answer.But for us, it looks like more
products in our portfolio, moresoftware features that help
people understand their energy.And again, it's all about
putting you in control, andunderstanding what's going on.
Justine Reichman: (25:48):
So as a founder that innovated this and
built this off your experienceat Tesla, what were some of the
things, some of the resources,or rather skills that you needed
that maybe you didn't have, thatyou had to surround yourself
with? Could you share a littlebit about that, and how you
brought those folks in?
Cole Ashman: (26:05):
Yeah, absolutely. This founding peeler has been
such a story of community andcoming together. And I've been
(26:37):
just lucky in my career to besurrounded by wonderful mentors
and people who are smarter thanI am to help through the
(27:11):
process. So drawing on thatcommunity from whether it's X
Tesla span, Apple, Amazon, allthese different tech companies,
(27:46):
and on the design side, somereally, really sharp folks when
it comes to how to think aboutbrand design, both consumers and
(28:22):
businesses. And I think thelesson here is, never discount a
connection. You never know wherethe person who's going to make
(28:58):
the biggest difference on yournext thing is going to come
from. I'm very grateful to havethose folks in my network
(29:31):
supporting in one way oranother, kind of on the PO
mission from advisory businessdevelopment, to design, app
(30:03):
development, to partnerships,and how to think about scaling
of businesses from the earlieststages, to making massive impact
(30:39):
with larger customers andbroader geographies.
Justine Reichman: (30:56):
A little less than a year and a half. So in
order tothose viewers that are watching
and they ask, okay, what do Ineed to do to make something
(31:16):
like that happen?
Cole Ashman: (31:27):
Absolutely. One, and I said it before,
of people give, but I think itbears repeating because it's
easy to want to shield your ideafrom the world until you feel
that it's perfect. But you'regoing to learn so much faster if
(31:50):
you build something scrappy, getit out there, learn, iterate,
and be open to feedback. Sonumber one would be, get
started. Number two, if you'rebuilding in your domain, you've
been working in a space for awhile,
(32:15):
done before? But I think havingyour own center of belief guide
you forward. And taking on thefeedback that you have and
assembling it into your mentalmodel is a real skill, and not
getting downtrodden in theprocess. And I think that takes
us to number three, which is,surround yourself with people
that can help orient the path.People that you trust to give
(32:39):
advice, not only in, let's saylike a technical area, but also,
I've benefited a lot from justgeneral mentorship and career
(32:59):
life area as well.
Justine Reichman: (33:09):
Thank you for sharing that. I think that's
really helpful. I've beenthinking a lot about because I
get asked questions all the timeabout, when you're pitching your
business, what do you recommend?PowerPoint or this? And my
(33:29):
reaction is always like, beauthentic. Be genuine. Have the
founder there, because peoplewant to invest in founders. So
for your experience, I'd love toknow how you went about this,
and what you found to be mostuseful?
Cole Ashman: (33:44):
Yeah, it's fun. Again, no secrets. But I think
your point about being authenticis ultimately the answer. For
(34:31):
some people, they're veryvisually minded. And spending
(34:54):
the time to put together thosevisuals helps tell the story.
(35:20):
For others, they're wordsmiths,and they can tell a story
Justine Reichman: (35:37):
So what role as you're pitching this to
verbally with no problem, andpaint that picture. Just don't
(36:10):
feel that you have to conform tosome rigid way of doing things.
(36:37):
Think about it as, how would youdescribe it to a friend or family?
people does the impact on theenvironment play?
Cole Ashman: (37:13):
It's something we think a lot about internally,
all the way down to ourpackaging design. We talked
about the cells. But in ourspecific product category, it's
probably not the number one, twoor three. We're really proud of
the work that we've done to makesure that this product is
responsibly designed. But formany people, if they're running
(37:37):
a generator in an outage, itlower down on that need. To your
point, they're powering themedical equipment in the fridge,
they're skewing fumes, butthey're also breathing those
fumes. And they're kind oftaking these affordances, if you
will, on the environmental sidealready. So just by virtue of
having the clean battery, it's abetter product for the
(38:00):
environment. But moreimportantly, just a better user
experience. You're not outsiderunning an extension cord in the
rain, trying to refuel agenerator and running this noisy
thing, refueling it fromelectricity most of the time,
(38:22):
that's going to be way cleanerto a low efficiency.
Justine Reichman: (38:38):
Well, with that being said, what role does
that play selling it to theconsumer online, which is what
you're doing right now? Talk tome about the education that's
going into this. And I'mcurious. Aae people curious? Are
they asking? Is this not evenpart of the conversation? They
just really want to solve aproblem.
Cole Ashman: (38:58):
A little bit of both. I think that's the fun
part about creating a newmarket. You have people coming
in with different levels ofknowledge. So some of our early
customers may even own a powerwall or a whole home generator
system, and they're used tothinking about all kinds of
different power questions fortheir home. So they know exactly
(39:19):
what they're looking for in avery pointed question. On the
other hand, because this productso accessible, we're talking to
folks who may not be tech nativeand have a lot of basic
questions just around, how doesit work? Okay, so I plug it in,
then what? What kind ofinformation do I get? How does
it contemplate security andsafety, and all of these things?
(39:39):
So we're kind of seeing it fromall angles, and it's been a
really fun thing to put togetherthe simple answers for all of
these questions. Because again,we want to provide all the
detail that people need to makethe purchase decision,
understand the product and beexcited. But there's always a
balance between giving the fullengineering answer. And giving
(40:00):
the human answer.
Justine Reichman: (40:28):
I think it's important that it gets people
thinking, and it's important forus to tell them what you've done
so that they can make the bestdecision for themselves.
Cole Ashman: (40:49):
Absolutely. And this discovery process a lot of
learning. And most of us, let'sbe honest, don't think about
energy and electricity on a dayto day basis. We're not saying
those things. You can lower yourbills. You can protect your
(41:11):
family. And we want to givepeople the understandable,
digestible answers and productsolutions that can help them get
started. Because, again, thatthe default way of building with
these expensive contractor led$20,000 system, the knowledge
(41:31):
gap there, it's incrediblyoverwhelming. So in making this
battery system that we'rebuilding more modular and
accessible, plug and play, we'rekind of adapting the messaging
(42:00):
that everyone needs to. But in aworld where outages, high bills
(42:23):
to make it also more digestiblemodular, kind of learn as you
go.
Justine Reichman: (42:31):
So are we looking at this on an app or
something?
Cole Ashman: (42:38):
There's a screen on the device. But we went even
further than that, because weunderstand that there's kind of
app fatigue in the smart homespace. For some folks, the app
is great. For others, they maywant to engage with it only
occasionally. So we have doneour best to make the information
(43:00):
as accessible as possible. Italso connects into other smart
home systems, whether it'sGoogle Home. Alexa, you name it.
Justine Reichman: (43:15):
Awesome. Cole, thank you so much. If our
guests that are tuning in viaYouTube or our podcast want to
learn more, what is the bestplace to go? How can they find
out more? Possibly even preregister for their battery.
Cole Ashman: (43:34):
Easiest way is our website. So it's
www.pila.energy. You can also goto pilaenergy.com. We post
regular updates on our blog, onour website. And they can also
find us on the socials, onLinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram as
Pila Energy.
Justine Reichman: (43:54):
Awesome. Cole, thank you so much. I want
to thank our guests who tuned intoday. I want to thank those
listeners, because we've gotsuch a great community. And
without this community, who arewe talking to? So really, it's
built up of the amazing guestslike yourself and our wonderful
listeners. So I want to justtake a moment and thank you
both, Cole and our listeners,for joining me today.
Cole Ashman: (44:18):
Thank you very much.
Justine Reichman: (44:20):
It's my pleasure. And for those that
maybe want to check out ourvideo cast because you're
listening to the podcast,YouTube, it's Essential
Ingredients with Justine,anywhere you listen to your
podcast.
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