Hello, everybody. My name is Destenie Nock, and I am the Founder and CEO of People's Energy Analytics. I am so excited to be able to answer the “10 questions with” the founder in this profile series. So, let's just get started.
How did You come to this Work? And Why is it so Important to You personally?
So, at People's Energy Analytics, we focus on reducing unpaid energy bills while improving revenue recovery in electric and gas utilities. We use data analytics to find people who are struggling to pay their energy bills and then connect them to financial assistance. This helps reduce bad debt in the utility and also really helps improve the health of our communities.
I came into this work because I was in grad school, and my lights were cut off. So, I struggled to pay my energy bills, and I have a degree in Electrical Engineering. I was getting my PhD in Energy Planning. And then all of a sudden, I found myself in this position where my grad school salary was not able to really cover the high cost of the house I was living in.
We had an oil heating system and really bad insulation in the walls—I think there was no insulation in the 100-year-old house with very drafty windows—and the energy bills were just astronomical. It was so hard for us to really just balance everything financially. And, so once I realized that this issue happens across the U.S.
There are roughly 20 million Americans who struggle to pay their energy bills each year. I wanted to ensure that I was not only solving a very large problem but also helping people with whom I shared experience, so that's how I started developing the analytics.
I am also a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where I spent the first three years of my career making connections with utilities, understanding their data analytics needs and pain points, and then testing these analytics in multiple utility regions.
We were able to prove that there are disparities between high- and low-income households, where low-income households are typically waiting 4 to 7 degrees longer to start using their air conditioning systems. In the winter, we see the disparities between high and low in groups at about 6 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.
That's when we said, okay, this is a very large systematic issue and we want to be able to help people solve this energy deficit, energy insecurity, energy poverty problem. We've heard all these terms used, but it's hard to solve these energy affordability challenges at scale. At first, I thought about how we could go from household to household, but then, as we really thought about it we decided we need to reach millions of people. Everybody who pays an energy bill has to work with an electric or gas utility. And, so that really became the push for us to develop a business-to-business platform software.
What was Your Light Bulb Moment for People's Energy Analytics?
So I'm a professor, right? I was out here grinding, trying to get the work out there and let people know about what we found in the research, and I went to this energy affordability conference. And we had a side event where we thought maybe 20 people would show up. In that side event, 120 people from energy affordability representatives, utility representatives, low income housing energy assistance program directors all came in waves.
Many of them were asking us how they could do the analytics in their own entities. That's when I realized I needed to figure out how to scale. I've spoken in regulatory proceedings, but to really reach those 20 million Americans, find them, and connect them to assistance, I need a whole team around me.
Once we saw that there was a lot of interest from that conference, it became clear that Peoples Energy Analytics needed to happen. So, I'm really fortunate that I have great PhD students, and have made a lot of connections in the utility space. I have super smart people on my team who are interested in helping communities. And that's when we said, okay, let's make it feasible for utilities to source and use the data analytics that I started at Carnegie Mellon.
What is the elevator pitch for People's Energy Analytics?
At People's Energy Analytics, we focus on reducing unpaid energy bills while improving revenue recovery in electric and gas utilities. We use our proprietary data analytics, which is patent-pending, to identify households under multiple at-risk categories, one of which being energy limiting behavior.
People who struggle to pay their bills, people using so little energy they put themselves at risk of pipe freeze, heat stroke, or heat illness, and people lacking air conditioning units, very inefficient units, or lacking insulation that will drive up those bills. So once we do that, we have been able to reduce the cost of identifying these households by up to 94 percent in utility regions.
We are working with multiple utility partners, one being Peoples Gas right here in Pittsburgh and the other being Southern Company, which spans the Southeast. We are deploying these analytics to not only find these households but also ensure that everyone can afford to pay their energy bills. So, I hope that you join me in our effort to ensure that everyone can afford to pay their energy bills at Peoples Energy Analytics.
What is the Strategy for Building a Team around You?
When we are looking for ways to build our team, one is that we really want go-getters, right? We want people who not only believe in the work that we're doing but are also willing to throw their ideas out there because we believe everybody has something to contribute to solving energy affordability challenges. That's why we look for driven people. We also look for people who really believe that helping people pay their energy bills is good for business.
When I first started the company, some people stated that it's hard to do well while doing good. And that's just not what we believe at Peoples Energy Analytics.
At this company, we believe that helping people pay their energy bills is just good business practice in the energy space, particularly. However, we also recognize that there are times when people will struggle, and there are many bill assistance programs out there.
We ensure all of our team members truly believe in using data analytics to help connect people to assistance.
What has surprised you most about starting People's Energy Analytics?
I think that there are two things that really surprised me. One is that, at the beginning, when we were told it's hard to do well while doing good, that made us think, okay, maybe a lot of people won't be interested in the business, but let's just try it out. We started off by saying we're going to give it at least a solid two years, and if we haven't gotten any traction, then we're going to iterate.
But in our first year, we had so many conversations and I wasn't invited to speak at over 6 conferences. We were talking to regulators, energy systems, program directors, utility companies, etc. And, there was actually a public utility in the middle Atlantic that signed up with us and allowed us to test our analytics in order to scale it to a million households.
In our second year, we were very fortunate to receive investment from the R. K. Mellon Foundation and Innovation Works here in the Pittsburgh region. That really helped us scale up our efforts and allowed us to not only enhance our security requirements (cybersecurity is a big deal) but also expand our team to bring in someone with business expertise and a data analytics professional to help me scale up those efforts.
From that, we were able to land two utility customers within just two years of being in this business. That ramp-up and that traction that we've been getting really surprised me because I've heard other stories where startups are grinding for 5 to 6 years before they're landing these big customers.
The utilities that we are currently working with span over 6 million households. And I think that's something. It's just so exciting that these utilities are willing to really put some powerhouses behind the data analytics to find households that need some additional assistance in their territories.
Talk Us through one of Your Daily Rituals.
I have a couple of daily rituals, so let me try to pull out two of the big ones. When I wake up in the morning, I like to start by thinking about what I want to accomplish the day.
There is this book called ‘Eat That Frog,’ where it says if the worst thing you have to do during the day is to eat a frog, you should eat it in the morning. That way, you won't spend your whole day thinking about it, and then after you've eaten that frog, everything else is a bonus. The way I apply that is, in the morning, I ask myself, what is the one thing I need to accomplish for today to be successful? And then I try to accomplish that thing first.
That might be finishing an article, meeting with my data analysis team, drafting a response in a regulatory proceeding, responding to one of my utility partners about a plan for deploying the analytics, designing marketing materials, or something along those lines. And then after that, once I've accomplished the main thing that I was the bottleneck on, everything else is a bonus.
That has helped us really scale up our traction because there is rarely ever a case where I am the bottleneck on something, and it's because I'm doing that morning ritual.
Then, the other daily ritual I'll add in here, even though I was only asked to say one, is my nighttime ritual.
I'm a person who thinks all the time. I think for a living because I'm trying to make these data analytics. I'm trying to understand what metrics we need to make to really identify these energy poverty challenges. This means that sometimes I have a really hard time shutting down my brain in order to get a good night's sleep.
So I now meditate every night before I go to sleep. Now, I'm not doing a couple of hours; I'm typically doing roughly a 5-to-10-minute meditation, focusing on my breathing. There are typically positive mantras involved. I do guided meditations. I've used the Fitbit app and the Headspace app. Doing that has really helped me recenter on things that are important to me and turn off my brain from time to time. That's actually helped me sleep better, which then helps me run faster the next day. So that has been really helpful.
What is a Recent Challenge You’ve faced as an Entrepreneur, and How Did You Overcome it? What Lessons Did You Take Away from It?
One of the challenges that I have, I think recently dealt with is the perception of women entrepreneurs, particularly those of us who are in the family-rearing stage. Back when I was pitching in March and February, I was pitching while pregnant. I was due to deliver my baby in the Spring, but there were some pitch competitions. I am the CEO, so I'm out there and I'm still pitching and hustling.
For the last two years, we have been having some conversations with a venture capitalist that we thought would be very interested in investing in the company. But once that venture capitalist found out that I was pregnant, they just started saying things like, “Oh, well Destenie, you're not following up fast enough," or "you haven't proven out the business case", or “Okay, you're getting traction with these customers, but it's not enough traction.” Or the things that used to be the milestones they used to want us to hit for the funding just weren't good enough anymore. And that made me feel very depressed. It made me feel like I had to try to balance my desire to have a family with my desire to also make sure people can pay their energy bills.
The challenge is that startups do not traditionally have maternity leave or have women pitch while pregnant at these pitch competitions. And at these pitch competitions, I'm typically one of the only women of color pitching up there, so that was something that was really challenging.
Now, I will say that I have a good therapist. She helped me see that if that person was going to walk away because I was pregnant, that was probably not somebody that I wanted to tie myself and my company to for the long haul. You really do need people who believe in you, your mission, and what you're doing in this space.
Once I was able to let that one go, I was still upset. But I did try to calm myself down and let it go a little bit more. Then I will admit that I was still a little afraid to tell people I was pregnant—like my utility partners, or the new venture capitalists I was talking to. But at the same time, I want to make sure that I'm always bringing my authentic self to the workplace. Then, once I felt more comfortable telling people that I was pregnant, we actually found another venture capitalist, who we were still in discussions with. They believe in the mission. They believe in the social impact that our company could have. We also got the money from the R. K. Mellon Foundation. He also saw me pregnant. And when I told him that I had a baby we both connected on how he had recently adopted a child.
That was something that I believe was just really great about being in the startup community and something I really do love about Pittsburgh. And then also my utility partners—one of them actually sent me a welcome, new baby text message. And that was something that just made me feel like I was working with the best people I could possibly work with because they truly believe that we can do this work and have families, and those things should not be compromised.
So, yes, I was upset about that venture capitalist leaving, but I also love my utility partners. I'm really excited about the venture capitalists we have on board and our partners at the R. K. Mellon Foundation. And so that has just made it really easier for me to bring all of myself to this job.
What does the next year look like for People's Energy Analytics?
As I've mentioned that we are really scaling up our traction. We're ramping up very quickly, and over the next year, we are bringing on more utility customers. We have a good number in our pipeline, and we're also executing on the current contracts we have.
So we are targeting to hopefully have represented over 40 million homes within our data analytics. So that is a big scale-up very fast. But, with the number in our pipeline we expect that is something that we can really hit and target.
What is a key piece of advice that You have received that You'd want to Share with other Founders?
A key piece of advice is that you do have to really believe in what you're doing, and most founders do. But the other thing that I've typically heard founders say is that they're worried about someone else coming in and cutting their company out. And yes, there is competition. But the best advice I ever got is that most startups die by suicide, not homicide.
So what does that mean? That's when most startups go out of business; either they ran out of money, and all of the people couldn't afford to stay there anymore. Or the founders lost sight of their vision for the company, or they got disillusioned because it was a grind. And I do think that founders plus anyone working at startups need to take care of themselves. So take care of yourself, make sure that your bills are getting paid, and make sure that mentally, you're ready to go into that grind. Meditate, get a therapist, talk to people. Don't give up all of your social endeavors, like talking to your friends and family, just to run a business because, at the end of the day, you need to make sure that you are here for this marathon.
And if you are in it and you're there and you have a good team around you, that team will stay committed, but you have to be committed, and you have to be able to wake up every day and go back to the grind. I've heard of founders surviving on McDonald's. And I'm like, please don't...there's so much better food out there.
But really, just make sure that you're taking care of yourself and your health and remembering why you started the business in the first place. I think that can keep founders there until they reach that exit, that IPO, that acquisition, right? I think that's a big thing.
How can our regional Startup Community help your efforts?
We're always looking for great connections to people. I would love to put feelers out there for anyone who's interested in project management - that's one place we're looking to expand our team into, in addition to really expanding our outreach to other utility companies and things.
We've been talking about expanding our sales, spending, and data analytics teams. And really, if there's a project manager who can help oversee everything, I think that's going to be helpful. The other thing about helping the community efforts across the region is that every time I meet someone who really believes in startups and the startup ecosystem, I feel rejuvenated.
I think that this region has been great in terms of connecting with people who are interested in really innovative ideas and putting names out there. So, that's something that I have always appreciated and that I really love about our ecosystem.
So again, thank you for having me on to talk about the “10 questions with” the founder.
Once again, my name is Destenie Nock, and I am the founder and CEO of People's Energy Analytics, where we reduce unpaid energy bills while improving revenue recovery in electric and gas utilities. Have a great day!
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