00:00Zach Dell, the son of Michael Dell, Dell Technologies, fifth richest man in the world,
00:04founded Base Power. It's a unique concept. You pay $695 to install these batteries.
00:11You're essentially leasing them from Base. You're giving power back to the grid when demand is low.
00:16That helps keep your electricity rates lower. And then Base is your electricity provider on
00:22a monthly basis from there on out. And you also pay, like a Costco membership, $19 a month to
00:28maintain that service. Base went from installing just a battery a day a couple years ago to over
00:33100 batteries a day today. The valuation's gone from $4 billion nine months ago to $13 billion today.
00:40Zach Dell told me that they're really focused on rapid growth right now. I mean, they just opened
00:46their first battery manufacturing business. That means they're making their own batteries,
00:50not using third-party batteries anymore. There's, of course, a big challenge Dell is facing as he
00:56grows his young company. They're paying a lot of money right now, investing to build up that
01:00manufacturing scale to move into new markets. But the customers, they don't pay a lot up front.
01:06It's how much they're paying over time. So it's that long-term commitment where Base is going to
01:11really prove itself. The question is, with that long-term commitment, how fast can Base grow into
01:17a profitability model and not just look for scale? For more on Dell's battery business,
01:22you can check out my full article at fortune.com.
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