Wannie Park, Zen Ecosystems CEO, On Current Energy Infrastracture And Circular Economy

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

I am currently the CEO of Zen Ecosystems, an energy management platform that helps small to medium sized businesses take control of their energy usage while meeting sustainability goals. I have more than 20 years of experience in energy, renewables, IoT and SaaS and I’m passionate about leveraging technology to make a tangible impact against climate change by redefining the way businesses interact with energy.

Prior to Zen, I was Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Inspire Energy, responsible for growth and partnerships. Prior to joining Inspire, I was SVP of Business Development at CEIVA Energy, a SaaS-based demand response and energy efficiency provider.

I graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and earned my Master’s in Business from USC and Environmental Law degree from the UCLA School of Law.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Our startup is called Zen Ecosystems and our mission is to make the clean energy transition simple and easy for small to mid-sized businesses. We deliver on this through Zen HQ, which provides the retail, hospitality, multi-dwelling unit and Quick-Serve-Restaurant (QSR) sectors the ability to implement demand-side management programs to meet demand response and energy efficiency goals.

Zen HQ allows our customers to monitor and control energy demand associated with refrigeration, lighting, HVAC, equipment, and store operations in multiple sites anytime, anywhere.

What is the origin story?

Zen Ecosystems grew from an Australian kick-starter project, launched and funded to create a ZigBee thermostat based on an RFP from Comcast. After successfully winning the RFP, Zen launched a series of products, including a WiFi thermostat and an award winning SaaS platform, Zen HQ, that provides sophisticated control of HVAC, lighting, and other load control devices.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We are a tribe of marketers, technologists, and environmentalists coming together to make a positive impact on our world. Our goal is to help our clients reach 100% carbon neutrality by 2030. We are open and transparent with all that share our journey.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I would probably be working on the same problems!

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

We’re focused on helping key clients achieve their sustainability goals. We tie our success to our customer’s metrics.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

We’re excited to see our clients seek out broader, more strategic solutions that help them achieve their sustainability goals. We’re finding that it’s no longer about simple controls, it’s about fundamental changes in the way they embrace their energy usage.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

We are really excited about the growth of the “circular” economy; the improvement of attitudes and technologies around reuse/recycle have evolved from just a consumer focus to a comprehensive business focus as well.

I mostly worry about businesses that have not adopted technology that is already available, and I worry about our current energy infrastructure. It’s getting hotter, there’s more demand on cooling systems, and companies need to embrace technology that’s already here to address this change.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I appreciate the open format and the community of like-minded entrepreneurs!

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Surf more.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Companies that range from the Fortune 100 all the way to small to medium-sized are tying goals (and backing it up with executive compensation) to sustainability initiatives.