Collaborating for Cleaner Energy with Will Rowe | Conversations in Cleantech | Season four, Episode five

CEO and Co-Founder of Octopus Hydrogen, Will Rowe was always destined to follow the path of cleantech entrepreneurship but as with any journey, it wasn’t always plain sailing. 

After working on a start-up with Co-Founder, Julius Baghdadi which ultimately didn’t prove commercially viable, the pair were more determined than ever and connected with Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy to found the Octopus Energy Hatchery which set them on the path to founding Octopus Hydrogen. 

The company has been incredibly successful in the green hydrogen space and with its agile start-up culture is continuing to go from strength to strength with no signs of slowing down. 

Read on to discover more about Octopus Hydrogen and Will’s advice to other budding cleantech entrepreneurs hoping to turn the tide and create a cleaner, greener tomorrow. 

If you would like to hear more from Will, take a listen to his full Conversations in Cleantech episode here. 

Could you explain more about the work Octopus Hydrogen do? 

We effectively build green hydrogen production facilities, co-located with wind and solar assets. Whilst we don’t get involved in the physical build of those spaces, we do partner with other renewables developers in the space and work with them through the planning, permitting and development stages with the end goal of adding green hydrogen onto the project. 

Typically we focus on projects of grid-scale where there is some sort of issue with the export of power whether that be a kind of curtailment or a marginal business case where hydrogen may be able to help. We are trying to do this across the country at the moment, whether that be in wind projects in Scotland or solar projects in the South. 

From here, we focus on two key applications: we allow other companies to come and collect hydrogen from our sites and we deliver hydrogen all the way through to the end application. It might be someone that wants to run an auxiliary power unit so they want to use hydrogen instead of diesel. As the commercialisation of low-carbon flights begins, aviation is a sector we may look at. In a nutshell, any application where hydrogen needs to be delivered is something we would look at. 

Can you give an insight into your relationship with Octopus Energy?

We started around 18 months ago in April 2021. However for some context to the relationship, here is a little bit of my career history. I spent a long time at OVO Energy, I started as an agency employee and then had a short stint in the City before returning. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at OVO mainly because their philosophy was based on doing things cleaner, greener and simpler. These principles are the things we should be focusing on as part of the energy transition.

It was here that I first came into contact with Greg Jackson (CEO of Octopus Energy) when he was working at a different business. We kept in touch and he eventually went on to found Octopus Energy. 

A couple of years after Octopus was created, myself and my Co-Founder, Julius Baghdadi left to start our own business. Our first start-up centred around a 24/7 carbon-free energy supply business using behind-the-metre batteries. We still believe in this technology however it became challenging when regulations changed which meant that if you worked behind the metre you could no longer get the commercial benefit called the targeted charging review and this basically killed the business. 

After spending a year of our lives working on a business that didn’t come to fruition, we knew we needed to think of another idea. We approached Greg and said whilst we haven’t got a good idea right now, we think we could run an incubator to find a good idea. Greg thought it was a great plan and so the Octopus Energy Hatchery was born. 

Effectively, a year later, we hatched our first business which was the hydrogen business and the hatchery is now dormant as we focus 100% on Octopus Hydrogen. 

How have you managed to build and maintain an autonomous and decentralised culture?

I have been lucky to work at several different businesses and work under many different entrepreneurs within them. One thing I realised is that I always perform best in a relatively autonomous environment where I am working towards something bigger than myself. I think it is much better to have everyone focusing on the mission rather than micromanagement or being bogged down with heavy internal processes. 

At Octopus Hydrogen, we always wanted to create a culture which is pro decentralised decision-making, low bureaucracy and low internal processes that create fiction. What we have witnessed is that without making this a priority, good people are driven out of the business. We believe that we can keep our agile, start-up culture as we grow.

I must admit that it is great having an investor like Octopus Energy because Greg also really believes in this ethos so it does make it easier to have that cultural conversation when everyone believes in the same thing. 

We pride ourselves in hiring competent people who are truly passionate about the mission, typically to do with sustainability. Our team act as our internal barometer ensuring that we are always doing the right thing which is a really nice metric as it ensures that we’re not just ‘green’ from the top down, everyone wants to focus on the right things. 

There are so many opportunities within the green hydrogen space. The whole business decides if a new idea or way of working is worth pursuing, it is not a top-down, micromanaged or process-heavy decision. 

What advice would you offer to a budding entrepreneur in the cleantech space?

One of the things I realised is I didn’t need to be in such a mad rush. 10 years ago myself and Julius wanted to start a business and it has taken us 10 years to work out exactly what we wanted to do. However, in that time, we worked in a fantastic business that was sustainability focussed. 

I think it is better to think of your career as a journey, you want to grow, learn and shape yourself into the person you want to be. You’ll learn along the way your true values because if I had worked for 10 years on something that I didn’t care about, it probably wouldn’t have worked out for me. 

I would also say try and find an idea that truly motivates you to want to work on it for a long time. You only have a set number of hours in a day to work on something so make sure it is something that inspires you. 

Enjoyed this article? Listen to the full podcast here, and connect with Will on LinkedIn to follow the Octopus Hydrogen journey.