Blackburn Energy

Andrew: It’s kind of an interesting story. When I was a kid my Dad taught me how to drive trucks. And as a young kid, you don’t listen to all the instructions you’re told; one of the things he told me was, you have to be careful going down hills in a loaded truck. It’s going to push you because there’s a lot of energy in the truck. Of course, the first time I did it, I didn’t listen. I was rolling down a big hill and slamming on the brakes, realizing that wasn’t going to stop the truck. I realized pretty quickly that’s not how the equation works and it was terrifying because I thought I was going to roll the truck over. I was headed down the hill with people stopped at the light at the bottom. Then I remembered my Dad’s conversation, started downshifting and avoided rolling the truck.

I’ll always remember that moment and how much force there is in a loaded truck. Later, I went to college took physics and learned about Newton’s 2nd law, and all the different principles and I recalled my experience with the truck as a kid.

One day I’m sitting in traffic on the Mass Pike next to a truck, watching its drive shaft spin. After looking at this for a while, it dawned on me. Everything came together: all that force, all those lessons I learned as a kid and what I learned in college — I realized I could make energy from that truck. There’s a point in that vehicle I can harvest energy from and right there in my car, I started taking notes. At the time, I was working in the venture group of a big corporation, and they were investing in companies with electric vehicles, hydrogen, and telematics. Knowing of the technology out there, it was during that moment where my past and present came together in this idea — that there’s a great opportunity especially in large vehicles to harvest energy.

Andrew: Our goal is to build a product, a real product that solves a real-world problem and improves the lives of people. And also to do that in a way that’s profitable. We’re determined to cross that commercialization threshold and become a company that creates a product people can rely on and use to make their lives better.

We want to improve the lives of millions of truck drivers around the world. And then go on to do distributed energy grids in the emerging world and possibly with the military.

Andrew: It’s a small business that doesn’t have the funds like most. I view startups who begin with $100 million as large companies who just haven't been around too long. A startup to me is a team of people working to solve a problem. They put a lot of themselves into the equation early on and then build the company from there. But that model is tough and requires a pretty big commitment.

When I think of a startup, I think of the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford, the folks who built it in their garage and basement. And through their own sweat equity built it into something, before they brought in investors. That’s the model we’re on. That one is little more difficult than someone writing a big check, saying I love your ideas, go figure it out, and we'll pay you to do it.

There’s nothing wrong with that model, but our path is a little bit more difficult than that and I also find it a little bit more rewarding. Because the investment in the company is more personal than when someone pays you to solve the problem, you’re not a hired gun. We believe in what we're building. That I like and that path to me feels right.

Andrew: It’s exciting; however, you really have to be on your toes on decisions. Every decision is meaningful. You don’t have the luxury of buying the wrong part or wrong equipment because you’re on a razor-thin margin.

Money is inconsistent. You don’t get paid all the time. As the founder, I put the money into the company rather than take the money out. It’s a tricky dynamic, but it comes at a cost. On the other hand, I wouldn’t change what I do on a daily basis for anything. I love what I do. I love the shop. I love the prototyping. I love the building. I love the company.

The downside is it’s very hard on my responsibilities as an adult and there’s a price to be paid. It’s wonderful and also difficult. I don’t have a college fund anymore for my kids. We spent that money on all the equipment in here. And I don’t regret that, but there are those moments at 2am when you’re hoping you made the right decision. It’s not as easy as people make it out to be.

Peter: Well, it’s a good mixture. There's a unique ecosystem in this part of Massachusetts. There's both co-working space for offices and for actual manufacturing. Scaling up is very difficult in the larger cities because the first thing that happens when you try to scale up is you try to find real estate and run into limited space options and long leases. At CI Works you're further North and rent is lower. The facility allows you to scale up to your desired space needs as you grow. Not to mention the ability for us to park our 18 wheeler next to the building.

Andrew: I started out with 400 square feet and was one of the early tenants here. And I know it’s a cliché, but I started this in my barn. Working on it on the weekends and cutting up a truck. As I started to progress, I realized that being in a barn was awesome, but I was also isolated and wasn’t a part of a community. I didn’t have resources and had to drive a long distance to get them.

We’ve found a rich ecosystem here; from machine shops to engineers and this space allows us to scale up when needed. I need space where I can take out my welding torch and weld or fire-up my Bridgeport to cut metal and make noise. I have dirty space and can use the computer to send emails and make a PowerPoint.

We work with trucks, the frame in our shop is a Freightliner, Class A truck frame, that we actually had to cut to get in here and it’s still over 20 feet. It’s not something you can squeeze into a space in Cambridge or Somerville.

Peter: When you talk about the Merrimack Valley, there’re two things you’ve got going here. One is based on the general area and the amount of manufacturing that still goes on here. Everything we have on our truck was prototyped within 20 miles of here and is now currently made within 50 miles of here.

The next thing is the community, not only the services like marketing firms and so forth, but also the startup community aspect where there are other companies in our same position. Andrew can go over and borrow something from the electronics people on our floor. And in turn, they’ll borrow something from us. We’ll tell each other about grants and opportunities for investment. It’s a true community. You’ve got the geographic value of where we are and you have the specific value of this particular facility.

Andrew: We've crossed several very significant thresholds. One was the design and technology; the other was proof of concept on the bench. Then it was proof on the road. We’re a trucking company, we own our truck and run it down the road. We’re now in manufacturing, that was our next milestone. When the product hits, that’ll be another one. We’re done with prototypes, no more prototypes. We’re now really making a commercial product. That’s a milestone. The next big one is our first 100 sales.

Andrew: There’s a number of things. Something I always talk about with other entrepreneurs starting out are the ‘why questions.’ Why are you doing this? And if you can’t answer that question or if you don't know why you might want to think about pausing and trying to find an answer to that. You really need to know that answer because you’re going to be tested. Where I see most startups fail is when it stops being fun and starts being hard. That’s when a lot of people quit.

The second ‘why question’ is your ‘customer’s why.’ Why would anybody buy it? And if you haven’t figured that one out, then you need to go figure that out pretty soon as well. That’s your public ‘why question.’ You have to talk to everybody in the world about what you’re trying to make. You need that internal drive. And you can’t answer that until you have those quiet moments alone and know why you’re doing it and why you’ll be successful.

Andrew: Honestly, I think, what put me on the right course was talking to legendary startup guy, Bob Dorf at the Clean Tech Open. He told me, “I love what you’re doing, but I’ll bet you any amount of money your product won’t survive its first interaction with your customer.” I was like whoa, that’s a pretty bold statement. I took up the challenge, went out and did a ton of customer discovery, and it turned out he was right. Our product at the time cost $22,000. It was very complicated, ran on Lithium-Ion batteries and had all these things that we thought were perfect. Come to find out the industry didn’t want any of that. They loved the idea and the solution, but not the technology.

The best thing I did was a real honest to goodness customer discovery. We talked to everybody in the industry. They would tell us, “I love what you’re doing, I love the idea,” and then we’d ask, “But would you buy it?” And they would say, “No.” Then we would ask, “Why won’t you buy it?” And “What are we doing wrong?” It can be painful. You get a lot of doors slammed in your face, you get a lot of people, smart people who are going to tell you that’s the dumbest thing they’ve ever heard. You’ve got to go through that process, to find out who that customer is, understand the world from their view.

I think the best training for any entrepreneur is to go out in the world and be a waiter or waitress. Interact with people, understand people. People buy your product. I think the worst thing you can do is to get an MBA. In all honesty, the underlying premise of a Masters in business administration is that a business exists, that it has customers, and has a product. Those are the three things you don’t have when you’re a startup. You don't have a product, customers or a business. You have ideas. And the only way to figure it out is to get close to your customer. You may find out that your customer is somebody else. If you don’t do those things, then you’re lost.

Peter: For me, I have the luxury of 20 years of starting my own businesses. I've never joined someone who's already had something going until now. Now, my say isn’t the only say. You’re looking at the core full-time team, along with a part-time team and 3rd parties. It's exciting because there is a potential here for us to build a relatively big group of people to make a significant economic and environmental impact.

Craig: For me I’d say, even though I was hired on as an engineer, being one of three core members of the team. I’ve learned to make myself available to perform any task within a startup. One thing I’ve learned is that I can go beyond what I’ve learned in school and apply myself in areas like marketing and really whatever is needed of me. Sometimes you end up spreading yourself pretty thin, but it’s manageable and a challenge. That’s part of the fun.

Andrew: For me personally, I’m actually by nature an introvert and would prefer not to be in the spotlight. I love being in the shop. I was a philosophy major in college, so give me the right book and I’ll disappear and be very happy. I knew I'd grow out of my shell during this process. And I've learned I can do that more easily now. If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to stand up in front of a whole bunch of strangers and bare your idea to them. Knowing a bunch of them are going to think it’s stupid and tell you, that you’ll never make it. I’ve learned I’m a little more resilient than I thought I was. Which is kind of cool.

Andrew: So when I started Blackburn, I was currently living in Gloucester. I'm not from Gloucester, but when you go there, you’ll hear the name Howard Blackburn everywhere. He was hailed for doing the impossible. During the winter of 1883, he was out fishing in the North Atlantic, and a storm separated his fishing boat from his schooner. And him and his fellow doryman were left for dead.

Well, his doryman dies in the boat, and Howard Blackburn decides he was going to make it back alive and do what nobody in the world has ever done. To secure his fate, he dipped his hands into the Atlantic and froze them to the oars of his boat. Then rowed for five days straight all the way back to Newfoundland — losing all his fingers, thumbs and a toe or two. He was hailed as a hero in Gloucester because no one ever thought it was possible, and in some ways, he gave everyone around him hope.

He gave everybody in the fishing world hope that they might make it home safe too. And when I looked at what I was going to do and how hard it was going to be, his story served as inspiration, and I said to my wife, “We’re going to have to freeze our hands to these oars.”

There’s only one way to be successful, you’ve got to row all the way to the other side. You can’t stop right in the middle or your dead. So, here I am in my 4th year and we’re still going, and I don't know I might have lost three or four fingers, my wife would probably say seven. But hey, I’d rather be Howard even if I’m missing a few fingers.