Apr 9, 2025 · 58m · sourcery
Base Power's $200M Series B | Co-Led by Lee Fixel, A16Z, Lightspeed, & Valor Equity Partners · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea
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On this episode of Sourcery, host Molly O'Shea interviews Base Power co-founders Zach Schendel and Justin White following their $200 million Series B funding round to discuss their mission of rebuilding America's electrical grid. The founders explain how their vertically integrated model, fast-paced 'violent execution' culture, and initial Texas rollout position the company to scale distributed battery storage nationwide.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Molly holds 9.8% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Molly as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 4.4 Guest disagreement 0.3 Molly pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Molly, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 41:07 Deregulated market reframing
Justin White pushes back gently on standard terminology, noting that calling Texas deregulated is a misnomer since it is heavily regulated retail choice.
Hardest push from Molly ▶ 8:54 Challenging Texas selection on blackout crisisO'Shea presses the founders on whether the Texas energy crisis and frequent blackouts drove their decision to launch there rather than just general pro-business policy.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 36:20 Utility rate-basing compared to defense cost-plusJustin White explains the counterintuitive economic incentives of traditional utilities, breaking down how rate-basing incentivizes capital expenditures over technological efficiency.
Molly holds their own ▶ 58:05 Multi-generational brand correctionO'Shea demonstrates her own perspective by building on Packy McCormick's quote, noting that community feedback pegged Base Power as 'multi-generational' rather than just generational.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Molly as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Molly pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series B Funding Announcement and Investor Overview | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea opens with an upbeat congratulations on Base's Series B fundraise and asks about investor composition and Packy McCormick's phrase 'executing violently'. The founders happily define their operational philosophy. | |
| Grand Vision and Solving the US Energy Grid Problem | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | O'Shea prompts the founders to explain the macro scale of the US energy grid bottleneck. Justin White gives a comprehensive breakdown of load growth inflection points, heat pumps, EV electrification, and AI data centers outpacing transmission infrastructure. | |
| Choosing Texas as the Launchpad and ERCOT Dynamics | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | O'Shea asks why Texas was selected and brings up Texas's frequent blackout crisis. White and Schendel explain the islanded nature of the ERCOT grid and its massive wind and solar volatility requiring local battery storage. | |
| Founder Origins: Venture Capital and Hardware Manufacturing | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea prompts both founders on their origin stories across Blackstone/Thrive and SpaceX/Anduril. Schendel details why utility-scale storage faces interconnection constraints, while White details setting up early manufacturing supply chains. | |
| Navigating Early Startup Challenges and Rapid Iteration | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea asks about early startup hurdles transitioning into a greenfield hardware venture. The founders explain their rapid cycle philosophy of deploying MVP units to earn the right to encounter higher-order operational problems. | |
| Vertical Integration Mechanics and the Member Journey | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | O'Shea asks for a step-by-step walkthrough of Base's vertically integrated member experience and asks how value accrues across the electricity sector. White and Schendel detail rate-basing utility incentives versus distributed behind-the-meter batteries. | |
| Navigating Deregulated Markets and Deployment Scaling | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | O'Shea asks about regulatory hurdles across states and Base's deployment targets. White clarifies that 'deregulated' is a misnomer for retail choice, while Schendel shares deployment run-rates versus traditional utility-scale developers. | |
| Go-to-Market Strategy, Seasonality, and Revenue Model | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea inquires about seasonal volatility and Base's go-to-market and revenue mechanics. Schendel outlines their direct and indirect homebuilder channels and their three-pronged revenue model. | |
| Building an 80-Person Team and Fostering Office Culture | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea asks how the team is composed across disciplines. Schendel and White describe managing a diverse in-person culture combining software PhDs, field electricians, and manufacturing operators. | |
| The Five-Year Vision and Creating a Generational Brand | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | O'Shea asks where Base will be in five years with unlimited resources. The founders lay out their vision to build America's modern technology-led power company, with O'Shea playfully expanding the ambition to 'multi-generational'. |
Statements from this episode (21)
Base Power raises $200M Series B from Addition, a16z, and Lightspeed
“The round was led by Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed coming in as new investors, and then existing investors, Valor, Thrive, Altimeter, Trust Ventures, Terrain, and a number of other smaller investors.”
Base Power vertically integrates hardware, software, operations, and direct-to-homeowner sales
“We develop battery technology. We deploy the hardware. We own it. We operate it. We sell power directly to homeowners. We install the batteries ourselves. We do the field service and operations and kind of everything, all parts of the stack to build out a flee…”
White: US grid transmission will fail to connect generation and demand
“Our view is that if you fast forward you know, a decade or two, what you would find is that there might be enough generation out there. There might be enough, you know, nuclear companies that, that come online or wind and solar or natural gas. And there will b…”
White: Incumbent US utilities are unprepared for surging electricity load growth
“Existing grid operators and companies that own the grid, AKA utilities, Really, we don't believe have this sort of technology approach to solving the problem and frankly have operational and financial challenges as well. And there's a bit of a sort of like old…”
Schendel: The energy industry lacks a disruptive equivalent to SpaceX or Anduril
“I think the energy industry is actually in a pretty similar spot That the aerospace industry or the defense industry was in, in, in the last decade. The difference is that the energy industry doesn't have a SpaceX and it doesn't have an Android role. And we st…”
Schendel: Texas power grid is a canary in the coal mine for America
“That said, we think that Texas in a lot of ways is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country. And as a lot of the rest of the country moves into a load profile that looks a lot more like Texas, the demand for batteries in those states will go up …”
White: Texas produces significantly more wind and solar energy than California
“Texas has the most wind and solar of any state more, much more so than California, in fact.”
Schendel: Solar and wind plus storage will structurally undercut fossil fuels
“Well, actually the marginal cost of wind and solar plus storage is just going to be lower than the marginal cost of coal and natural gas.”
Schendel: Utility-scale grid battery interconnection takes five to ten years
“So it takes five to 10 years to get a battery good connected.”
Schendel: Base Power has installed over 1,000 batteries in the ground
“We now have over a thousand batteries in the ground and we've kind of earned the right to unlock new problems that we have to go figure out.”
White outlines Base Power's three-generation shift toward fully custom battery hardware
“Today we have basically three generations of hardware that we're either deploying or in process of deploying. And again, kind of back to the prior point we're iterating on hardware going more and more custom over time. So gen one has a bit of custom mixed in w…”
Base Power cuts home battery installation times from months to weeks
“So today, if you go buy a home battery it's probably gonna take you two to six months to get that battery on your home. We can get a battery on a home. You know, it varies by permitting requirements from the local municipality, but on the order of two to four …”
White: Regulated utility incentives mirror defense cost-plus contracts
“The incentive structure is, is, is interesting actually for these companies in that they are typically, typically financially incentivized to spend money, not to save money. So in defense, this is called cost plus in the utility world, it's called it's called …”
Base Power announces its first utility partnership with Bandera Electric Cooperative
“So actually just today we announced our first utility partnership with Bandera Electric here in Texas, which we're super excited about.”
Schendel: Base Power is installing 15 to 20 home batteries per day
“I think we did 19 installations today. So we're, you know, on the order of 15 to 20 installations a day.”
Base claims it will be America's fastest battery developer by summer 2025
“By the summer we'll be deploying at twice the rate. So we'll be the fastest battery developer in the country in, in, in the next, you know, three months.”
White: Distributed home batteries are vastly superior to centralized utility-scale storage
“And so, the distributed model, we're proving out now, and we're hoping to continue to prove out is just a far more effective way to put the incremental storage onto the grid.”
Base Power offers home batteries at checkout in 25 Lennar Texas communities
“If you're buying a Lennar home in, in select communities in Texas now, I think it's 25 communities across the state. When you go to buy a Lennar home, you have the option to sign up for base At kind of effectively checkout so that when you move in and deal in …”
Schendel reveals Base Power's three revenue streams and exact consumer pricing
“So we make money really in three ways. One is by monetizing the batteries for grid services. Two is by charging a monthly fee. So you pay four 95 up front which is another source of income and then 17 bucks a month. And then we sell power to the homeowner and …”
Schendel outlines Base Power's ambition for a fifty-state nationwide expansion
“Build critical infrastructure for the country, and what that looks like is being in all 50 states going up the stack into utility infrastructure, going down the stack into the home and building more products and services to lower costs and increase reliability…”