In the right place, at the right time, with an eye for opportunity, a commitment to economic growth for all, and a drive to get things done. That's entrepreneur Cameile Terry, co-founder of Los Angeles startup ChargerHelp.
She tackles the contemporary issue of the dire state of public charging stations for electric vehicles, while training an often overlooked workforce for jobs in a growing sector of the economy.
Billions of dollars are flowing into building an EV charging network nationwide, and billions more are being built in California. However, outside of Tesla's Supercharging network, equipment deployed by multiple charging companies has proven to be unreliable, with more than 20% of chargers overall failing at some point.
Without reliable public chargers, it will be even harder to convince people to buy EVs to fight climate change and reduce pollution.
Charger companies say they are working hard to resolve reliability issues by strengthening their own repair and maintenance capabilities, increasing training and relying on third-party companies like ChargerHelp.
The charger sector is full of young companies looking to capitalize on the rapidly growing market. ChargerHelp, which he raised $21 million in venture capital funding to develop a software program for charger maintenance and repair. Unlike many of its competitors, the company also trains workers for network operations and field repairs, focusing on people and communities long overlooked at the beginning of economic and technological change.
ChargerHelp “is committed to general and racial diversity and creates great jobs,” said David Epstein, CEO of Unreasonable Group, which connects startups and investors. But ChargerHelp is more than just a do-gooding organization, he said. “They have a great business model from a cash flow perspective.”
Like many entrepreneurs in what has become known as “clean tech,” the opportunity was a bit of a surprise. Terry's story counts as an example of good fortune benefiting the prepared mind.
read more: Can California pull off its grand transition to EVs? Read our coverage here
She grew up in South Los Angeles. Her extended family values her dedication and hard work very much. It worked. She quickly rose through the ranks in any organization she joined. Motivated by her desire to succeed financially, she took a job at a bank near Philadelphia. She started as a part-time teller and eventually became a manager in a corporate bank.
She loved Philadelphia. “One of the best things about ChargerHelp is that we have so many black people,” she said on the Founders Unfound podcast shortly after ChargerHelp was founded in 2019. She visited her cousin Ray, who works in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol. “Everyone was like a nerd, and it was incredible to see such a concentration of black wealth,” she said. It was moving.
She moved back to Los Angeles in 2016 after her mother's cancer returned. Saving her energy to care for her, she took a relatively easy job answering customer support calls at EV Connect, a small company that makes software for charging stations. Eventually, her growing company asked her to create a call center and customer experience department.
“Charging stations just create these nuisances,” she said. At the time, charger companies relied heavily on expensive electrical engineers to fix what turned out to be equipment software problems for which they had no training. In fact, the need for the profession of “charger mechanic” was hardly recognized.
“It would be great if we had employees who wanted to do that,” she said.
She left to work as a consultant for the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. The company's CEO, Matt Petersen, encouraged her to start a company that would train and hire people who could provide technical services to the charging industry. Her first contract was with Southern California Edison for electric chargers for school buses. The company took off from there.
Terry is “a superstar who can bring people together and share a vision to make things happen,” Petersen said. “Her story and Evette’s story is a hero’s journey for us.”
Evette is Evette Ellis, a workforce development professional who Terry met at LACI and felt an immediate rapport with. After seeing her in action, Terry brought her into ChargerHelp and was so impressed that he made Ellis a co-founder of her company.
Ellis, who grew up in Compton, wasn't sure at first. She said, “These clean science-minded white people are good people and they're going to save the world, but I didn't necessarily see myself in that realm.”
But she was a good fit. In a podcast interview, Terry said clean tech executives “talk a lot about capital, and it's really cool to be a part of that.”
As a teenager, Ellis remembers watching a woman behind the counter at the Poole Park day care center, clearly in charge and telling others what to do. “It was my first experience with the idea that there were jobs and there were people offering them.” She sought employment and became program coordinator by the end of the summer.
Ms. Ellis earned her vocational training certification through the Federal Department of Labor's vocational training program. The program's historic mission is to provide job training for people who do not plan to attend college. Like Terry, she also joined LACI as a consultant.
At ChargerHelp, Ellis began working closely with SAE International, the automotive industry's standards-setting organization, to create a certification training program for charger technicians. Training will take approximately six weeks before deployment in the field.
Beyond the technical content, Ellis emphasizes the importance of attitude. Graduating from a training program and landing a new job is a big step that impacts not only new hires but also future graduates. “If you’re not giving it your all, you’re going to burn some really big bridges,” she says.
Field technicians do not need to know the software code to do their work. All you need is to learn how electricity works, how EV chargers work, how electric cars work, and work with remote experts in your network operations center on your computer or smartphone. A basic understanding of how to work with software programs. Ellis said federally certified safety training is an important part of the program.
The types of jobs ChargerHelp trains for combine familiarity with computer software, basic electrical and electronics knowledge, and a reasonable amount of manual dexterity, and involve applications in which software can be used in everyday life, from Ring doorbells to personal robots. It will become increasingly common as it continues to penetrate hardware. App on car dashboard screen.
High school graduates can do that. The same goes for people who graduate from college but don't have the skills that employers are looking for.
Heaven Holmes, of Fresno, graduated from California State University, Dominguez Hills last year with a major in psychology and criminal justice, and was job-hunting in her hometown when Terry interviewed her on local TV news. His mother saw him receiving it. Her mother said, “She's the African-American woman on TV who works here.'' She is about repairing chargers. Holmes applied, underwent training, and became a ChargerHelp technician.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but I was curious and always wanted to know more,” she said. Every day is a new challenge, she said.
She is happy to be in an industry with great prospects and opportunities for advancement. “The world is changing and these jobs are not as discreet as you think. People get excited when they see a charger working properly after being out of order for months. .”
Hourly wages for EV charger field technicians range from $20 to $60, with a concentration in the $35 to $40 range. Certified electricians do even more. To date, ChargerHelp has trained 1,000 employees and recently launched a program to train trainers for other companies and workforce development organizations.
Of course, ChargerHelp isn't the only company developing charger software and training employees to use it. Charging network companies like Flo, ChargePoint, and Electrify America are expanding their own training programs.
The same goes for charger manufacturers, including ABM. “It's important to raise awareness about trading in general across America,” said Mark Hawkinson, president of technical solutions at ABM. “We're seeing that the skill sets for maintaining critical infrastructure are depleted. Our schools don't teach shop anymore. We need to get back to those basics.”
Even companies that have relied on fossil fuel supplies for decades, such as Owl Service, which installs and maintains gas pumps, are rapidly transitioning to electric vehicle charging. “The demand for technicians is increasing, especially in the Los Angeles market,” said Owl Vice President Dave Patrick. LA is currently the region with the “highest growth potential” for the company.
Detroit's Marcus Glenn recently underwent charge point training but remains open to options. He was employed by an automotive heating and air conditioning supplier when he signed up to learn about charger repair. He successfully completed the course but is sticking to his current job for now. The automotive industry is undergoing rapid changes and there is always the threat of layoffs. Glenn likes knowing he's ready for the future. He said: “It's good to have some stability. I'll look for those opportunities and see where this leads.”
He recommends the move to others. “If you're interested, be a curious cat. Do your research. There are many ways to get into this industry. There will always be jobs.”
read more: Broken chargers, lax oversight: How California's troubled EV charging stations threaten emissions targets
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
