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Revolutionizing Power Grid Management: Micatu's Journey from Garage to Global Impact
52 Plays3 years ago
On this week’s episode, Nathan Harris talked to Micatu’s CEO and founder Michael Oshetski. Michael started Micatu in 2011 and just a decade later the company is transforming how we operate electrical grid power systems. You might say Micatu is transforming transformers. Nathan and Michael talked about marketing in an industry that’s both risk-averse and rapidly evolving, and how Micatu is pushing the envelope.
🕑 💡 KEY MOMENTS
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03:08 🔌 Power plants are becoming more complex and circular, with renewable energy and prosumers playing a big role, creating business opportunities and driving the evolution of the electrical grid, but convincing risk-averse utilities to adopt new technologies is a challenge.
05:10 💡 The proposed infrastructure plan by Biden offers opportunities for integrating renewables and complex architectures, benefiting the utility side and critical infrastructure maintenance, while Texas faced a major crisis in February due to an unpredictable disruption in the electrical grid.
06:48 💡 Monitoring and condition monitoring are crucial in understanding and mitigating risks in the electrical grid, and while technology like mikatu's could have helped in certain aspects, the lack of preparation and winterization ultimately led to the crisis.
08:03 🔋 The future electrical grid will be decentralized, with a greater use of solar energy on residential and commercial levels, leading to homes with better energy efficiency and less dependence on large power suppliers.
09:43 🔋 The future electrical grid will have advancements in sensing, solar panels, wind turbines, and new power sources, while a new product called fovus will revolutionize industrial sensing with increased sensitivity and operational insight.
11:51 💡 The company has received a large investment and is experiencing significant growth, with plans for big announcements and expansion to a 50,000 square foot facility.
13:16 😊 The company has hired around 50 new employees and is excited for the next phase of its journey.
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This podcast is proudly sponsored by New Perspective Marketing, a dynamic growth marketing agency in Boston, MA, celebrating 20 years in business. We help sustainably focused B2B organizations grow their brands and scale up revenue. If you or your organization is looking to grow, visit npws.com for more info.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:12
Speaker
The new perspective launch pad is a new show where we speak with the leading voices in the startup world and hear their stories and their challenges that they face on their path to rapid growth. With me today is Michael Luschetti, who's the founder and CEO of Mikatu. Mikatu provides innovative optical sensing grid technologies that help manage the chaos of today's power grid. Michael's an expert in the optics industry and is an inspiring business leader and an entrepreneur. He's also one of the smartest folks I know personally.
00:00:41
Speaker
Michael, thank you very much for spending some time with me. It's always a pleasure talking to you. Thanks. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to talk about my journey and hopefully inspire other entrepreneurs. So thank you. So
Founding Motivation of Mikatu
00:00:55
Speaker
let's rewind the clock back to 2011 when you started the business. How did Mikati form?
00:01:00
Speaker
I really just formed because of, you know, I think a quest for, I want to say, more. And, you know, when I formed the company in 2011, I wanted to really have an impact as far as not only for my own personal experiences, but also have a positive impact for Black humanity. And, you know, the opportunity of optical sensing kind of came around.
00:01:23
Speaker
And I thought, you know, what the hell, might as well go for it. So myself and Dr. Atul Pradhan started Macau in 2011. It's all good companies, you know, kind of started in my garage, you know, kind of went from there. Has the company's purpose changed since it initially formed? Yeah,
Evolution and Partnerships of Mikatu
00:01:42
Speaker
you know, I think what we've evolved, I think we evolved from, you know, our original technology base and mission was to really
00:01:49
Speaker
have optical temperature and vibration sensing. But 2016 timeframe, we partnered with GridView Optical Technologies, which was a company owned by Michael Sexton. And over the last approximately five years, we've really focused on utility industry around providing. And the most highly accurate is in voltage and current measurement for control of the grid. And that goes from the distribution to sub-transmission or transmission side. So yeah.
00:02:20
Speaker
It's a complex subject. We'll probably just scratch the surface of it today. But tell me about the name Akatu. It's a really interesting name. What led you to that?
00:02:30
Speaker
Yeah, so Mikatu is actually my first name and Atul's first name. So if you took the MIC from Michael and the ATU from Atul and put them together, it's Mikatu. And then, you know, it's a play on kind of words. The M is kind of like representing the rising sun of, you know, opportunity. So that's why we picked the M in the middle of Mikatu.
00:02:53
Speaker
you know, the rising sun. The idea was is that, you know, there's always opportunities. You just have to look for them. So, yeah. It's an inspiring perspective, right? Yeah. For all the entrepreneurs. Yeah. You got to be right. Yeah. You got to get through the waves. Yep. Let's talk about power for a minute.
Challenges and Opportunities in Power Grids
00:03:13
Speaker
What do you think people need to understand about operating power plants now as opposed to the way they were historically or in the past?
00:03:20
Speaker
It's just more complicated. I think there's more of a bi-directional topology to power. It's not a linear like it used to be in the past where you have your power station transmission, sub-transmission distribution into your house. I think it's more of a circular topology where you have renewable energies.
00:03:37
Speaker
You have people that are generating and consuming. You have prosumers, as we like to call them. So there's a lot of interesting challenges. And there's all interesting challenges. It can create really interesting businesses and opportunity for businesses. So that's what's, I think, exciting about the status of power, at least North America. But this is also a global evolution of the grid. People say it's a problem. I really see it as the grid's evolving.
00:04:04
Speaker
to really embrace new technologies. And a lot of those technologies are newer forms of energy generation. So it's a healthy way to look at it. What would you say, if thinking of that, as you have endeavored down this path to change, to help support and evolve this change that's taking place, what would you say has been the biggest challenge in terms of marketing Mikatu's GridView platform?
00:04:32
Speaker
utilities are pretty adverse. They really have a big responsibility because they have to keep the power on at the end of the day. So just getting over those hurdles. I think the other thing too is that being a small company in a really big ocean of large companies, you have to be able to navigate those waters.
00:04:53
Speaker
So it's challenging, but I think the other hand, too, is it's, you know, technologies like mine are needed to help solve these problems. So that really helps us on the market because they're searching for new ways to solve very complex problems that didn't exist until we really put this together. So that's kind of the exciting part about it. Speaking of exciting, there's some good news that just has come out.
Impact of Policy on Mikatu and Industry
00:05:18
Speaker
We'll have to see how it ultimately shakes. But from the Biden side,
00:05:21
Speaker
We're talking a $2 trillion infrastructure plan with money set aside for the grid and modernization. Probably early stages here, but is that gonna make a positive impact from the CAATI? What do you see the impact might be for you?
00:05:37
Speaker
I'm excited about that. I think there's a lot of opportunities for us, particularly around, as this infrastructure plan includes obviously a lot of integration of renewables and more complex architectures. Now for us, it's just a, it's really exciting opportunity. So we'll see how it plays out. But yeah, I mean, anytime, you know, investment infrastructure, technology on the ability side, it really helps us. And also we have our vibrational platform, which is,
00:06:03
Speaker
Interesting for condition monitoring them from, you know, critical infrastructure assets are on transportation rail and, you know, a lot more thought is going into what it takes to really deploy infrastructure, but also to maintain it. I think that's really where we have the most value. Texas experienced a massive crisis back in February, right? Did you see from your vantage, did you see this coming?
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, yes and no. I mean, it's kind of a freak thing of nature to see that type of condition in Texas. It really goes back to the fact is that it's a difficult job a lot of people have to do. And there's so many variables to it. And it's just one small thing that can really disrupt a lot of people's lives. And I think that's why monitoring and condition monitoring is becoming more important is the fact that
00:06:55
Speaker
you know, I think we understand the risk until it really happens is when you appreciate the mitigation for it. So another way I look at it. Is there, uh, say a scenario in which wakatsu's technology could have helped or maybe, um, provided data to prevent the crisis that happened? Well, I think what we could have done is, um,
00:07:18
Speaker
you know, a little bit more of the distribution control of the power. You know, I think we could have helped a lot there. I think the other thing we could have done is
00:07:28
Speaker
you know, this wasn't really a great issue versus compared of just not being prepared for the weather. So, you know, I think we could have helped on some aspects, but some aspects, the disaster is just waiting to happen and it happens because there's, you know, a lot of lack of winterization and just other practices that were, you know, who knew they needed to do it, right?
00:07:51
Speaker
So, you know, I think we could have helped in situational awareness and the control after, but, you know, before not exactly sure where we would have had the most value. It's a tough topic. How about the future? When
Future of Power Grids and Emerging Technologies
00:08:07
Speaker
you look ahead, first and foremost for the grid, what major changes do you see looming ahead for us in the near term?
00:08:15
Speaker
I think you need to see more prosumer based model. I think the greater the future is going to be very decentralized. I think the role of power plants is going to be, I think, I'm not going to say it's going to be diminished, but it's going to be supplemented by the use of more solar energy on a residential basis, but also on a commercial slash industrial basis also.
00:08:42
Speaker
You see a lot of homes now are going to have better standards for net zero, better insulation, less power consumption, and more generation. I think the grid of the future for the vision I have is that it's really decentralized. And it's a little bit more self-sustained in a manner of a residential type of level. So less dependence on big power suppliers. A very complex grid is now very
00:09:10
Speaker
regional and circular. So I'm excited for that future. I think we can get there. I think we can get to a net zero.
00:09:20
Speaker
designs for homes and really get to a carbon zero type of energy generation. I think that's all really possible. And it's going to take, you know, 100, 150 years, but it's the next evolution of where we're going anyways, right? You really look at how the grid's evolved over time. It's something that's, you know, it was bound to happen, right? It's that you get more decentralization of generation, more, I want to say more power to the consumer. It's just basically the way it's rolling.
00:09:51
Speaker
Any particular technologies on the consumer end that you're keeping your eye on that you think are going to be pretty game-changing? Cold fusion. That would be cool, though. Cold fusion. But no, I mean, there's always stuff coming around the corner. I think the optical sensing is really going to enable some of this next generation of
00:10:16
Speaker
controls games, but also just higher efficiencies. We're really going to seize a game of higher efficiencies as far as solar panels. I saw that
00:10:25
Speaker
I was reading some papers on solar panels are becoming more efficient. Also, you're going to see a total paradigm shift in wind turbines. I think there's going to go towards more of a passive wind turbine design. The blades cause a lot of issues. You see a lot of tidal power. You see a lot of geothermal power. There's a lot of potential in the Earth. And I think a lot of that's going to get tapped into. So it's just like I said before, it's going to be a shift from centralization to decentralization.
00:10:55
Speaker
a lot of variation of power, so. Creative solutions.
Product Launch and Entrepreneurial Journey
00:11:00
Speaker
And when you look ahead to the future for Mikatu for 2021, what are you most excited about?
00:11:05
Speaker
Really excited about our FOVIS product launch. It's really a game changer. It's equivalent to what the grid view was. But for the industrial sensing market, FOVIS stands for Photonic Vibration Sensor. It's also really a game changer, because what it is is a drop-in replacement for existing vibration sensors. But it's 10x more sensitive. It's really focused around condition monitoring solution.
00:11:30
Speaker
And it really can give that operational insight to really make decisions and understand the condition of your equipment much, much sooner. So I think that's going to be a game changer. I'm really excited to see that drop. I guess a really big point is going on with the review platform.
00:11:46
Speaker
got some really cool technology coming out, really big announcements here soon. So yeah, 20, 21 is going to be another great year for us. You know, we've obviously locked in a really big investment from WAVE, Equity Partners at Boston. And we have new partners, SVP, and a really great bank to work with.
00:12:04
Speaker
And, you know, we got some other stuff in the works that can be some big announcements. Must be put that out there. So another big year, big growth for us is what we're seeing. It's been really exciting work with you guys up to this point, just to watch you guys catapult. Tell me if someone wants to get ahold of you, what's the best way for them to reach you?
00:12:27
Speaker
I think Dan's a great way. Just reach out to my LinkedIn account. I'd love to talk to you. You know, really huge support of the entrepreneur community. I think it's a journey. You know, people step into entrepreneurs and it's going to be a life changing type journey.
00:12:44
Speaker
And you know, it was for me. And you understand that you have to start somewhere. You know, Apple started in the garage, you know, everywhere. But everybody starts somewhere. Yeah. I did not know you had the garage story. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, it was awkward too. I'm just like having zero space and you know, we got out of it. Actually, you know, we're just excited. We're moving to a
00:13:14
Speaker
50,000 square foot facility this year, we're expanding. So it's going to be fun. Yeah. I mean, how many, how many new hires have you, have you onboard in the last? I've lost count from 50 ish. I think, um, yeah, it's been fun. So, um, you know, we're just really geared towards the next phase of the company and it's an exciting journey. Thanks for spending some time. I really appreciate it. I appreciate it too. So thank you.