S1E4 - Olivier Proulx, Co-Founder and CTO of ChargeHub

Come and meet Oli Proulx, Co-Founder of ChargeHub, a Montreal Startup whose supercharged platform allows its users to locate and use charging stations for their EV all over North America. ---- Olivier (Oli) studied Engineering at McGill University in Montreal but during in studies, he spent most of his time building electric snowmobile prototypes, teaching karate and bartending. He moved to Austin for 4 years and then came back to Montreal to complete a masters’s degree, have children and co-found ChargeHub where he is currently CTO. ChargeHub’s mission is to increase electric vehicle adoption by simplifying the charging experience. Olivier grew the ChargeHub technical team from 1 to 25 over the last few years to support ChargeHub’s growth. Today, over 1M people use ChargeHub to find and use charging stations. Through entrepreneurship’s ups and downs, Olivier’s grit and positivity has enabled ChargeHub to become an indispensable player in the North American EV market. Links: Carbon Counter: https://www.carboncounter.com/ ChargeHub: https://solutions.chargehub.com/ Episode Timeline & Highlights [00:00] - Preview & Intro [03:00] - Cabin Gossip Fact [04:35] - What is ChargeHub? [10:45] - Electric Cars and the Lotus Elise Prototype from Tesla [13:55] - All about the Crowdsourcing capabilities of ChargeHub's Platform [16:41] - Running out of gaz versus running out of charge [19:47] - Growing ChargeHub from 1 employee to 25 - Strategies, obstacles, key learnings [27:45] - What's Next for ChargeHub [29:40] - The marketing angle, growing the user base to a million+ [32:44] - The environmental impact of driving an electric vehicle varies depending on how electricity is produced, coal versus hydroelectricity - Well to Wheel [36:33] - Closing comments