Something exciting is happening at Enervee. But we’re not talking about Eco Financing, the Enervee Score or our Series B funding round (although, they’re exciting too). Our amazing team is growing – and fast. Over the past 12 months, Enervee grew by 60%, and we’re now in the triple digits!
To mark this milestone, we spoke with a number of employees to get their perspectives
Welcome Catoria!
On April 19th, we were thrilled to welcome Catoria Weekly, Project Manager in our Professional Services team, as Enervee’s 100th employee. When asked how it felt to be employee #100, Catoria aptly summed it up with: “It’s exciting!”. And she says that with a deep understanding of what lies ahead, joining a fast-growing tech company.
“My last company was a little less than 50 employees, so there was a lot of learning, a lot of changes – and it felt warm and friendly, like a family. I’ve been through two buy-outs, so I definitely got to see a lot of changes, which I like.”
Besides being a start-up, Enervee was attractive to Catoria for two main reasons: Enervee’s mission and the prospect of good work-life balance, backed by the 2022 awards we received from Built In for LA Best Places to Work and LA Best Small Companies to Work For.
In her spare time, Catoria told us that “traveling is a personal passion” and that she likes to try new restaurants. She and her husband are “into fitness generally, and love to watch boxing.” It sounds like these athletic genes have also carried over to her 2-year old son, who ”has great hand-eye coordination and plays basketball, baseball, soccer - and swims.” Wow!
It was great to talk with Catoria on her first day at Enervee. Her PM skills and marketing background will certainly play an important role in Enervee’s continued success.
Perspectives from our remote workforce
On this occasion, we also caught up with a number of other employees scattered around the country – including Austin TX, Portland OR and the San Francisco Bay Area – to get their take on a range of topics, from rapid company growth to remote work and company culture. COVID opened the door for Enervee employees to work from home – from anywhere – and we’re headed back to being a fully remote company, based on employee preferences.
How do you feel about the rapid growth that Enervee has been experiencing?
“Exciting” is the word that most often comes to mind when employees think about our growth spurt. “From new associates to new projects and new opportunities, I’m excited for where we are as a company and where we’re going,” said Kory Duffy, Enervee’s Director of Partnerships. “The growth needed to bring this mission to scale is going to require exponential leaps, and it’s amazing working with teams who embrace that challenge.”
“Every time the People team announces a new hire,” said Will Rutledge, Product Manager for the Enervee Commerce platform, “I can directly see how that’s going to build our capacity and bring new value to our work.” Riffing on this thought, Kory called out “the broad variety of skill sets, backgrounds and locations” he’s seeing.
While one might assume that adding so many people so quickly might slow things down or come with other kinds of growing pains, Will said that he hasn’t seen that at all. “The team seems to absorb the change well, and leadership has done a really great job of putting processes in place to make the transition go smoothly.”
Working from home
Ana Gole, Vice President for Professional Services, joined Enervee during the pandemic, her first experience onboarding remotely. “I really enjoyed how people tried to recreate that experience of walking in the door the first day and meeting a few people, and then meeting your team. I wouldn’t have even known who to set up 1 on 1s with.” She also pointed out that hiring remote talent is “a very organic way for Enervee to grow the company”, and one that gives us a local presence to best serve current and future utility partners.
“I’m finding that I do enjoy and prefer remote work, mainly due to the flexibility it provides to spend time with family in various locations”, said Kory. And he’s not alone. COVID forced this work mode initially, but the vast majority of employees meanwhile prefer working from home, and Enervee will soon be a fully remote company. “Enervee has certainly supported my remote work environment through flexibility to accommodate individual schedules”, said Kory, “as well as ensuring I had the proper equipment sent directly to me before I onboarded so that I can ensure my work setup was ready and comfortable before day one even started.”
Will added that “although we’re all remote, people seem to still be really eager to get to know you and show genuine interest in building a good team rapport. Everyone turns their cameras on for meetings and everyone participates in team building activities. You can tell that people are engaged in their work and happy to be on the team.”
Company culture and advice to new hires
Enervee’s CEO, Matthias Kurwig, is a seasoned entrepreneur who knows how fundamentally important it is to maintain company culture in this phase of rapid growth: “culture is the key to success as we use our Series B capital injection to continue scaling revenue over the coming 18 months. We can’t take any shortcuts on the hiring front, despite the tight labor market and our need to nearly double our team. And our hiring team, led by Laarni Canoy (Director of Recruiting), has a laser-sharp focus and impeccable track record attracting great talent who share our passion and values.”
Will heard Matthias’s message: “I can really see that reflected in our company culture. We all seem to share similar values, especially from a commitment to the environment perspective and the value we place on working for a mission-driven company. That’s made for an immediate connection that I’ve really enjoyed. In past roles, I’ve been the one sustainability guy on the team, bringing in food from my garden and talking about how to recycle properly, but at Enervee it’s par for the course.”
Ana was impressed with Enervee’s commitment to diversity: “Enervee is doing a great job hiring women in leadership positions. I want to give a shout out to Laarni.” Ana also loves how Enervee’s mission has been defined, and she particularly called out the open-eyed approach to embracing the risk of being a pioneer. “This is the first time I’ve started at a company where leadership has talked openly about innovation risk – the fact that there will be successes, but also failures – rather than just communicating complete, unrealistic optimism.”
New hires are integral and valued members of Enervee from their first day on the job. Here are some tips from current employees that should eliminate any hesitation to dive right in:
- “My best piece of advice would be to be open”, said Kory. “Be open to meeting new people, learning from others, being flexible, taking chances, teaching others, asking and answering questions, taking on projects, and providing input.”
- Will urged new hires to take advantage of Enervee’s leadership team. “The whole leadership team is incredibly approachable. They’re all a great resource and at a company of this size, one of the benefits is that you can jump on the phone with any of them if you have questions or need advice. So, don’t be afraid to reach out to any of them. They all want to see you succeed and they’ll do whatever they can to help you.”
- “Come in and just get to meet the team,” said Ana. “The learning curve will be steep, but just give yourself that breathing space – and then it’s just a fun ride from there.”
If you like what you read, are looking for a new career challenge and want to be at the forefront of the clean energy transition, our hiring team would love to meet you! Check out our careers page.
