Thousands of electric vehicle charging stations will be built nationwide over the next decade. ChargerHelp!, founded in January 2020 by Kameale C. Terry and Evette Ellis, wants to ensure they stay up and running. The idea for the on-demand repair app for EV charging stations came to Terry when working at EV Connect. She held several roles, including director of programs and head of customer experience. She noticed long wait times to fix non-electrical issues at charging stations due to the industry practice of using electrical contractors. “When the stations went down, we really couldn’t get anyone on-site because most of the issues were communication issues, vandalism, firmware updates or swapping out a part — all things that were not electrical,” Terry said interview with TechCrunch earlier this year.
After Terry quit her job to start ChargerHelp!, she joined the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, developing a first-of-its-kind EV Network Technician Training Curriculum. Shortly after, Terry and Ellis were accepted into Elemental Excelerator’s startup incubator and have landed contracts with significant EV charging network providers like EV Connect and SparkCharge. The company uses a workforce-development approach to hiring, meaning they only hire in cohorts. Workers receive full training, earn two safety licenses, are guaranteed a wage of $30 an hour, and receive shares in the startup, Terry said. We’re excited to announce that Kameale Terry will join us at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021, a one-day virtual event scheduled for June 9. We’ll cover a lot of ground with Terry, from how she developed her EV repair curriculum to what she sees in the company’s future.
Each year TechCrunch brings together founders, investors, CEOs, and engineers working on transportation and mobility. If it moves people and packages from Point A to Point B, we cover it. This year’s schedule is filled with leaders in the mobility space who are shaping the future of transportation, from EV charging to autonomous vehicles to urban air taxis. Among the growing speakers are Rimac Automobili founder Mate Rimac, Revel Transit CEO Frank Reig, community organizer, a transportation consultant, lawyer Tamika L. Butler, and Remix/Via co-founder and CEO Tiffany Chu. They will come together to discuss how (and if) urban mobility can increase equity while remaining a viable business.
Other guests include Motional’s President and CEO Karl Iagnemma, Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson, GM‘s VP of Global Innovation Pam Fletcher, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, Joby Aviation founded,r and CEO JoeBen Bevirt, investor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman (whose particular purpose acquisition company just merged with Joby), investors Clara Brenner of Urban Innovation Fund, Quin Garcia of Autotech Ventures and Rachel Holt of Construct Capital, Zoox co-founder, and CTO Jesse Levinson. We also recently announced a panel dedicated to China’s robotaxi industry, featuring three female leaders from Chinese AV startups: AutoX’s COO Jewel Li, Huan Sun, general manager of Momenta Europe with Momenta, and WeRide’s VP of Finance Jennifer Li.
