A Unique Experience

At Gigawatt, we aspire to reimagine the Utility experience, delighting utility customers across the globe. To do that, we have developed a unique company culture focused on a smart and getting things done way of thinking. Gigawatt is a team-oriented environment where talented people can thrive — enabling our employees, customers and partners to innovate at a rapid pace that is unheard of in Utilities. Our culture is based on eight core principles:

Smart and Gets Things Done

On a day-to-day basis we over deliver to our customers as we re-imagine how a utility operates today. The Gigawatt team consists of a mix of industry’s best and brightest mixed with outsiders who bring a fresh perspective and our unique smart and get things done culture.

Security & Compliance

Protecting our customers information and meeting the high regulatory and security standards in the Utility industry has been part of our DNA since day one. We innovate quickly, but do not skip security and compliance. This is accomplished using automation, checks and balances, and AI tools to ensure we are compliant every step of the way.

We continuously strive to live up to these principles, most people who join Gigawatt are pleasantly surprised by our methodology, culture and the way we empower people at every level. As our business grows and evolves, our culture will, too. What won’t change is our focus on “smart and get things done” and our determination to ensure that Gigawatt remains a place where great people can do the best work of their lives and have a once in a lifetime work experience. If this sounds exciting, you will love it here. Gigawatt is not for everyone, so please read on.

WE ARE A Team

We believe that what makes a fantastic work experience isn’t just about free pizza and gym memberships (although we love to work out). It is about the people, culture and what they can accomplish together as a team. Imagine working alongside team members who are not just great at what they do, but are even better at working together as a team. It’s why we model ourselves as a high performing racing team, A high performing racing team is maniacally focused on performance, utilizing the best tools, eliminating steps in the process that waste precious time and focused on picking the right person for every position to win the race.

While every member of our team has different skills, we look for building small but highly empowered teams who work together to complete the broader company mission. These are the values we value:

Creativity

You welcome new ideas, are passionate and persistent in pursuit of innovative solutions. Doing things the way they have always been done is not the starting point. We are constantly thinking of ways to eliminate steps in a process to accomplish the same objective with higher levels of accuracy and less chance of error.

Grit

If you fail, you quickly get up and adapt to the circumstance. You have a track record where grit has made you successful. You make the next best move without spending onerous time agonizing over the past.

It’s easy to talk about values and harder to live them. We work hard to keep each other accountable using a unique stand-up approach that includes everyone in the company, from leadership to the new hire. Excellence, trust and accountability go hand in hand. It is why we invest in strong communication that builds trust and transparency in everything we do. This, in turn, enables us to practice extraordinary candor — ensuring constructive and continuous feedback is part of our everyday processes. It takes courage to ask someone how you could do better, or to seek alternative opinions, and integrity only to say things about a colleague you’re willing to first share with them directly. But extraordinary candor helps us improve faster as individuals and a company.

High performing teams are many times more effective than the average, our culture and teams are driven by overall performance and meeting our goals — not seniority or tenure. It’s also why we focus on maintaining a high-performance culture. We expect our leaders to be strong developers of talent, spending 50% of their time investing in existing talent or finding new talent to fill gaps in skills. And to ensure they have the right “crew member” at every position. Asking the hard question “knowing everything I know today, would I hire X again?” or “does X have the right skills to successfully complete the mission?”. If the answer is no, we believe it’s fairer to everyone to find a different role for that individual (we are a growing company with a lot of opportunities) or to part ways quickly.

This type of high-performance culture can be intimidating, but in reality, it creates the best experience of your working career. This culture helps avoid surprises. We look for a track record of success, but also for team members who made bets that did not pay off and gained valuable experience from their failures. We want and need people who challenge the status quo and approach problems in new ways. We stick with employees who “fail fast” but then know when to quickly pivot and try the next thing.

No matter how brilliant someone may be, there’s no place in our culture for people who don’t treat their colleagues with decency and respect. When you have talented people who work well together — trusting each other’s intentions, debating and acknowledging differences in opinion but in the end, making decisions and moving together as a team, makes everyone more successful.

REthinking COMPANY HIERARCHY

We have all most likely worked at companies where decisions were only made top down, where there was little transparency, and it was not clear you were even making a difference. At Gigawatt, we aim to inspire and empower more than just management because people can have a greater impact when they’re free to make decisions about their own work if it will help them meet the company objectives quicker.

As part of this, we strive to develop a meritocracy at every level of the company, allowing our people the freedom to get things done. We expect managers to set objectives, not attempt to control every move — giving their teams the direction and clarity needed to know what is important, then getting out of their way and letting them get work done. We avoid endless meetings, keeping them short and requiring individuals to come to the meeting prepared. We share a lot of information internally, keeping it organized. We also communicate through regular company meetings where anyone can openly ask questions. It takes an unusually responsible person to thrive in this environment — someone who’s self-motivated, self-aware and self-disciplined, who does not wait to be told what to do. You walk into a room and are willing to do anything, including pick up trash that is on the floor. That said, this freedom should not be confused with incompetent or lax leadership. You will experience leaders at Gigawatt who are directly involved in the work being done around them. They are there to help get work done and to actively coach their teams. They may also have to step in when someone is about to make a bad decision that is not in the best interest of the team, that is unethical or could materially harm the company. Sometimes during a crisis or if a new team member lacks the full context of a problem, we as a team need to first assume that the best intentions of the team and company are being considered when a decision is made.

While we operate as a meritocracy, allowing anyone to present a great idea we do not make decisions by committee. Someone who is trusted is always empowered to make the final decision. Committees slow companies down and lead to poor decision making. For every significant decision, we identify an informed lead who is the “quarterback”responsible for making a judgment call on the right path forward. Then the team, each led by their own informed quarterback, implements the decision. If our chosen quarterbacks are not pulling the best decision from the team, making the right choice, they will be replaced. This highly aligned but team-led approach gives teams the freedom to move quickly and operate independently, while ensuring accountability for the outcome.

We’ve learned that the best ideas can come from anywhere, which is why we expect informed “quarterbacks” to seek out different opinions and listen to people at every level. Of course, not all opinions are created equal. It is impractical for everyone to have the same level of experience, to always weigh in on every decision. After a decision is made, we expect everyone, including the people who argued for a different approach, to then commit. To commit and move forward as a team. This helps ensure the outcome is as successful as possible. Afterwards, when the impact is clear, the informed quarterback and team should reflect on their choices — what worked and what didn’t — using retrospectives so that everyone can learn how to do better next time.

ALWAYS IMPROVING

Gigawatt is doing something exciting and unique as we re-imagining and transform the utility industry. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. 
It’s why we care so much about our culture, putting people over process and creating an environment where everyone feels a sense of responsibility to do things better. We believe this approach is the path to success.

It’s also why we constantly seek to improve our culture. We will not die on a hill we have already climbed. Every new employee we add has the opportunity to help improve how we work — finding new ways to accomplish more together. This unique culture is creating innovation at a pace that is unheard of creating a re-experience experience for our customers, employees, and investors. It’s how we are building a wildly successful solution and business.

Our company operates in an environment where ISO, security and SOC II certification are must-haves. We automate as much of that as possible, eliminating mistakes. We will not waver on compliance. We have clear rules for things like harassment, bullying, leaking company information, or customers information. Despite this, we work hard to keep overhead at Gigawatt to a minimum and ensure any process is clearly defined, simple, and as automated if possible. For example, our vacation policy is “You work hard, you need to take your vacation.” Our expenses policy is: “Treat the company’s money as if it were your own.” You will have the freedom to spend within your budget. This approach gives employees the freedom to manage their personal life balance and make business decisions quickly.