We are ‘pausing’ Hope Energy. Let me explain why.
When I first had the idea for Hope Energy, it was primarily because I had got to a point in my life where I felt like I had not contributed enough to society, and a strong desire to change that. In particular, other than my own ‘micro consumerist ’ sentiment (as George Monbiot would put it), I’d done little to try and tackle the biggest challenge of our time: climate change.
So I spent some time having a think about what I could do to try and change that and, after a few other events that happened around the same time, I came up with the idea of a carbon negative retail energy tariff. Thus, Hope Energy as a concept was born. This was primarily because energy (retail energy in particular) was one area I had experience in and so the best idea I had to try and make a positive difference in the world of tackling climate change. Timing wise, this was December 2019. And so, in the January of 2020, I went to see my boss at the time and asked him to make me redundant...! Not too long after, I left the company I’d worked with for 16+ years and founded Hope Energy. Little did I know though what was just around the corner...
Since that time, there’s been a global pandemic, an energy crisis, war in Europe, a cost of living crisis, unprecedented inflation, political instability, and fundamental changes to the energy industry (to name but a few occurrences). Each of these events have had a monumental impact on the world of energy, and wholesale energy prices in particular. Whilst I’d outlined risks in the industry as part of my business planning, including higher wholesale prices, I had no idea that things would be as extreme as they turned out to be (and I was far from alone in seeing the issues as suppliers left left the market last year).
Nevertheless, my belief was that our mission at Hope Energy was true and just, and the concept and plans were sound (backed up by the research we did at the outset). The key goal, though, was getting the business funded. As a business, we knew the risks and our strategy in the event of a failing market was to always to pause and come back when the timing was right. And, long story short, whilst we’ve had success on the funding journey, the crazy wholesale market has meant that our capital requirements have gone up and up and up given that, quite rightly, we must satisfy the regulator that we have sufficient capital to launch the business.
Towards the end of the summer, after a bit of time on holiday and some time to reflect, I made the decision that we need to ‘pause’ the business. The truth is because having conversations with investors and would-be investors has got to a point where I fear for the reputation and credibility of our business (as well as my own), primarily because of the continued volatility and uncertainty that we find ourselves in. With so many moving pieces still (wholesale prices, new Prime Minister, energy policy announcements without much detail, continued conflict in Ukraine, etc), I cannot hand-on-heart tell investors, with the certainty that I want, how much cash we need to successfully run the business. That’s the cold, hard reality of the situation.
This is a ‘pause’ though, not a shut down. Our business plans can and will flex and respond to the market, and provide a sustainable platform to combat climate change.
The team and I have spent so much time and put in so much effort to get Hope Energy started that to throw it away feels totally wrong – AND I take great comfort that our Board, made up of a fantastic and diverse group of folks, all still tell me that they believe in what Hope Energy is trying to do and achieve. However, we need the energy world to settle down, and right now it’s very difficult to work out when that will be.
The last sentence above being what it is therefore has a huge knock-on impact on me personally, in that I have a beautiful little family (as shown!) that I need to care for and look after, and therefore I need to start bringing in an income once again.
The generosity of our amazing investors to-date and selflessness of my wife, Kam, has allowed me to go on this amazing journey and be on the brink of launching the business... but it’s just not meant to be right now. As such, I’ll be moving into a new role in the coming weeks which I’m genuinely really excited about, as it’s with the Energy Systems Catapult which exists to help accelerate the energy transition and get us to net zero ASAP. I’m so happy to be still working in an area that I’ve found my calling for (i.e. tackling climate change) and so thrilled to the Catapult for the opportunity to join them. Formally or informally I will still be helping the rest of the gang at Hope Energy (of which there is about a dozen folks working away behind the scenes, plus a number of great partner organisations), because I still truly believe Hope Energy has an amazing future, when the time is right.
So this definitely isn’t the end of Hope Energy, and this definitely isn’t the end of Andy Caulton and my fight to save the world from climate change. Hope will be un-paused at some point, and I’m relishing the chance to get stuck into life at the Catapult, doing what I can to help other innovators and entrepreneurs tackle the climate crisis. In the meantime, we’re still working out what activities we will carry on with at Hope in the interim so watch this space. If we are a bit quieter than usual though, it’s not that we’ve gone away, but are merely hibernating until the energy climate (no pun intended) is more favourable.
I want to take the opportunity to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone that has helped and supported Hope Energy and myself on the journey so far. There are far too many people to name, but I take great pleasure in having met so many people on this journey over the past 2-3 years, many of whom I now consider good friends.
See you out there!
Andy 💚
