The Hatch Podcast

Charles Jackson: Powering Alabama’s Tech Ecosystem with Innovation

• Hatch Fairhope • Season 2 • Episode 2

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What does it take to build a thriving tech ecosystem? Join the Hatch Podcast as we sit down with Charles Jackson, Innovation Development Manager at Alabama Power and a key figure in the Techstars Alabama Energy Tech Accelerator. From his Air Force service to shaping Alabama’s startup landscape, Charles shares insights on fostering innovation, supporting energy tech founders, and driving economic growth. Explore how corporate partnerships and intentional strategies are energizing industries and creating opportunities across Alabama.  

What You Will Learn  

  • How Alabama Power is driving tech-based economic development  
  • The role of corporate partnerships in accelerating startup success  
  • Practical advice for energy tech founders partnering with large corporations

Key Topics Discussed  

  • The impact of the Techstars Alabama Energy Tech Accelerator on founders and job creation  
  • Success stories of startups like AIOps, ShipShape AI, and HD Data  
  • Strategies for expanding innovation to rural Alabama communities  
  • The importance of customer-focused innovation for startup success

Show Resources and Links  

Sponsor Spotlight  

  • C2 Wealth Strategies: Wes Cody and his team at C2 Wealth Strategies provide personalized financial planning to help you achieve financial freedom. https://c2wealth.com/  
  • Barranco and Associates: Johnny Barranco offers holistic accounting and financial consulting to align your finances with your long-term goals. https://barrancoandassociates.com/  
  • Content Fresh: Content Fresh transforms your social media presence with strategies that drive massive growth and engagement. https://contentfresh.com/  
  • Roadmap for Growth: Chris Francis and Rick Miller’s online course helps small service businesses scale, build teams, and create lasting systems. https://treebusiness.com/

Quotes  

  • “We’re not just focused on internal innovation, but tech-based economic development for the state of Alabama.” – Charles Jackson  
  • “You either participate in innovation, or innovation will happen to you.” – Charles Jackson  
  • “Spend time knowing your customers and responding to their needs, not just your own knowledge base.” – Charles Jackson

Conclusion
In this episode, Charles Jackson reveals how Alabama Power is fueling innovation and economic growth through strategic partnerships and the Techstars Alabama Energy Tech Accelerator. From supporting cutting-edge startups to expanding innovation into rural communities, his insights highlight the power of collaboration and customer-focused strategies. Tune in to learn how Alabama is becoming a hub for tech innovation, and share this episode with aspiring founders or anyone interested in the future of energy tech.  

Hatch E2 - Charles Jackson

Imaging: [00:00:00] Hatch Hatch. This is the Hatch podcast where technology comes to life. A Hatch Fairhope production. 

Host: At Hatch Fairhope, we're all about cultivating creativity, driving innovation, and accelerating growth. Welcome to the Hatch Podcast. Each episode will bring you inspiring conversations with innovators who are pushing boundaries, solving problems, and building the next wave of success.

Host: Today we're joined by Charles Jackson, innovation Development Manager at Alabama Power, and a driving force behind the Techstars, Alabama Energy Tech Accelerator. From his Air Force service to his work in academia and now shaping Alabama's tech ecosystem, Charles has a unique perspective on what it takes to build thriving communities, support cutting edge startups, and foster sustainable growth.

Host: Stay tuned as we explore his journey and learn how Alabama power is, empowering founders, energizing industries, and creating opportunities for the next [00:01:00] generation of innovators. Welcome to Fairhope Charles. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with us today. 

Charles: Awesome. So excited to have the opportunity to, uh, share a little bit with you today and, and dive into a little bit about innovation in Alabama.

Charles: Power. 

Host: Let's just jump right in and start with, um, telling us a little bit about yourself and your background. 

Charles: My career started actually doing marketing for the College of Human Sciences at Auburn University 

Host: War, Eagle 

Charles: War Eagle. Um, spent some time also in the Air Force, 14 years in the Air Force Reserve, uh, at Auburn.

Charles: Doing again, like I said, marketing for the College of Human Sciences. Before finishing grad school. I. Um, and, and eventually ending up at Auburn University, at Montgomery teaching, uh, entrepreneurship and marketing and being director of graduate programs there for a while. Um, across all of that really gave me the opportunity to understand, I.

Charles: Really how to build a career in serving through large bureaucratic organizations and adding value, um, across, uh, ecosystems that are adjacent to [00:02:00] those types of organizations. Right. So while at A A UM had the opportunity to, uh, serve as a, uh, program director as well for a startup accelerator, um, Montgomery Tech Lab there, and, um, really.

Charles: Uh, again, built the relationship with Alabama Power, um, and, and had the opportunity now to really scale the impact of accelerators across the state and the impact that, um, they can provide for, uh, founders that are being recruited to our state, founders that are being grown from within our ecosystems, but then really also making sure that we can optimize the impact that we can provide to the state of Alabama from an economic development standpoint.

Host: What are your primary responsibilities there in your role? 

Charles: So we oftentimes have to really clarify. A lot of people feel that from an innovation development standpoint. We primarily focus on internal innovation development from an energy tech perspective. Um, although that is a part of what we do, um, the larger part of what we do is tech-based economic development [00:03:00] for the state of Alabama.

Charles: From an industry agnostic standpoint, really about. Creating value, um, for our state from an economic development standpoint, but creating value also for all of the industries in which are representative of our industrial and commercial customers, but then also those who add value to our residential customers.

Charles: Also across the, uh, Alabama Power Service territory. So. Our primary goal is really to focus on, uh, accelerator models, but then outside of that, also just innovation development models that just support, uh, industrial and economic development in our local communities. That is, that is our primary focus from the innovation development team.

Host: So you also handle programming for the, um, Techstars, Alabama Energy Tech Accelerator, correct? 

Charles: Uh, yes we do. So, uh, with Techstars, Alabama Energy Tech, we are direct corporate partners there, in which we really look to see how do we can add value to that program through our network, not only within the company, but also within the relationships that we have with.

Charles: Our, um, corporate and industrial partners as well that we know that can add value to, uh, the founders that we recruit to that program. Um, one of the things that we recognize is that, um, although energy tech or energy is an industry in itself, that. Every other industry is a user of energy. So [00:05:00] although that accelerator is more so considered a, uh, energy accelerator, it does tend to have some aspects of being industry agnostic at the same time.

Charles: Um, so we have a lot of founders that we have the opportunity to recruit. That adds a lot of internal value to Alabama power, but definitely adds a lot of value also to our, um. Our ecosystem as a whole and other corporate and industrial partners that we serve. 

Host: So 150 million, I believe, in funding across four cohorts.

Host: What do you think has made the program so successful for founders? 

Charles: Definitely the intentionality that we, we bring as a corporate sponsor of that program. Um, as a corporate partner of that program, we, uh, directly align with, um, companies that we feel that. Can add value, um, to our state ecosystem. But at the same time as we're sourcing and looking for companies, we're looking for [00:06:00] the intentionality or through the lens of intentionality of commercialization, right?

Charles: So in our state, we know, you know, everyone talks about capital, everyone talks about, and, you know, access to capital, and that's great, but we also need to be intentional about access to customers, uh, as, as a large part of our. Outcomes and goals that we seek are to, uh, recruit these companies to either have, you know, a, a headquartered presence in Alabama.

Charles: Uh, at the very, uh, least we would love to see them have a operational presence in Alabama creating jobs for, uh, the citizens and residents of Alabama. So for us to be able to do so, we need to be very intentional about. Identify pathways of customers for those startups to make it make sense for them to have that operational presence.

Host: Can you give us some examples of some of the companies that have come through the cohort that have had success? 

Charles: You know, I, I, I think of a company like AIOps, [00:07:00] which is, uh, uh, based in mobile. Um, they are a. A group of founders who have also doubled their employee base and count within one year since them being in a program and they've gotten great traction, right?

Charles: Um, and have applications across a variety of industries when it comes to, uh, the optimization and controls of. Uh, systems and things of that nature in a automated manufacturing environment. Um, plant environment, things of that nature. Right. Uh, again, we just look at companies like that and, and look at the, uh, value they can add from a job creation and employment standpoint.

Charles: We have a company also ship shape ai. We actually have two ship shapes. We have a ship shape that is also mobile based that is. Doing great from a, uh, container, uh, forming, uh, standpoint along with, uh, energy generation. Um, in the process of container growing. Uh, they have amazing [00:08:00] projects and, and, and pilots.

Charles: Um, they, they have a couple projects right now that's on the International Space Station, right? So they're working very closely with nasa. Um, but there's another ship shape that, um, we often celebrate is ship shape, a ai, um, that came through. Um, one of our earlier cohorts, uh, they work primarily with whole, whole home, um, energy optimization and energy usage.

Charles: Um, primarily with also HVAC companies. Again, just looking at, um, ways to, uh, optimize energy usage across, uh, whole home systems. Also large, uh, corporate HVAC systems and all of that good stuff too, right? So a lot of people would say, you know. I'd be surprised to hear that we are working with founders from an energy perspective that are helping people save money on energy, right?

Charles: Um, it's one of those things that we see from an innovation standpoint. You either do it or it's gonna be done to you, right? So, um, again, and that, and that also adds value to our residents and our, our corporations, [00:09:00] industrial partners that we serve. Um, and, and we want to be a, a good partner. We want to, uh, help people use our.

Charles: Primary product and use it more efficiently to where it can benefit their outcomes and the economy as a whole too. So again, when we talk about the success of these companies, um, that their success, um, really is benchmarked by outcomes that are beyond the bottom line of just Alabama power as well. Right.

Charles: The third company that we feel have definitely, uh, met the expectations of, uh, what we see as success is a company called HD Data. HD Data is a company that has built innovation using, um, large language models that, uh, really. Automates, you know, FERC reports and, and federal policies and things of that nature to help highly regulated industries.

Charles: Uh, really utilities as a whole to be able to process through large amounts of [00:10:00] information and come to a decision, um, much more quickly about, um, things in which that, um, are. Impacted by fed federal regulations and, and things of that nature. But what we see as part of their, their success is that, is that they, um, move the primary operations of their company from Chicago to Alabama because of their relationship with the Techstars Accelerator.

Charles: And since that timeframe have added 13 jobs, uh, here in Alabama. Now, when we think about 13 jobs, it may not seem like a lot in terms of what we're traditionally seeing from a. Um, economic development standpoint and being able to recruit large, uh, industrial partners to our state. But what we see from a innovation development standpoint is the opportunity to do.

Charles: Uh, a lot more farming, right. Growing innovation. When we think about the large headquartered organizations across our state, one of the things that we recognize is very few of [00:11:00] those headquarters were recruited to Alabama. They were grown in Alabama, so I. Um, especially across the Birmingham market and ecosystem where our headquarters sit, we have examples of startup companies who have successfully grown, scaled, and exited while providing great jobs across Alabama, which is very different from I.

Charles: The shorter term, um, plays that we typically see with economic development. So in the innovation development space, we see the opportunity of ve investing in these startup companies, um, as a longer term marathon play, um, when it term comes to job creation and, and, uh, impacting the Alabama economy. 

Host: Can you zoom out and talk kinda on a macro level about what role corporate partnerships play in ac uh, accelerating tech development in a region?

Charles: We feel that is, is essential for corporates to engage in a startup ecosystem with founders and, and small businesses. One from [00:12:00] a, um, from a, um, circulation of resources standpoint, right? So a lot of these startups, one, I. They need business, they need corporates to be willing to engage with them, um, to one, validate their innovation that they're working on.

Charles: Um, at the same time, even though that provides great resources and great opportunity for the founders, it's very important for the corporations also, right? Because in corporations, a lot of times we are so inundated in. Our day-to-day operations and we get so, uh, accustomed to, you know, our core product and what we do every day, that we lose the opportunity to keep an ear to the ground when it comes to new emerging innovations.

Charles: Right. Um, as I said before, you know, you have to make a choice to e either participate and be a part of innovation. Or allow innovation to happen to you. Right. So from a corporate venturing standpoint, our engagement or [00:13:00] corporates in general engagement with, uh, startup companies allow them to still remain, um, innovative in themselves because innovation just doesn't naturally happen.

Charles: Large bureaucratic organizations, right? So, you know, our alignment with the, uh, startup ecosystem allows those founders to run fast and break things in a way in which corporates are not comfortable doing every day. Corporates are largely risk averse, right? Um, so. You know, there's tremendous amounts of value that is a two-way street.

Charles: It is, it's an opportunity for the founder, again, to validate their innovation and be able to have a corporate as a first customer. That gives them instant credibility when they go out and continue to sell their products. Um, but it then again, is, is is also value creation for the, for the corporate as well.

Charles: You know, founders can learn a lot. From corporates in terms of the corporate sales cycle and expectations. Um, but at the same [00:14:00] time, we have to be willing to, as corporates, make it easier for startups to engage with us also. Right? So there's a compromise that typically happens in that corporate startup ecosystem engagement piece that is really essential, uh, to really make it.

Charles: Easier for that engagement from the founder perspective. Um, but at the same time, um, again, as I share adds value to the corporate as well. 

Host: So, we're excited to have you in town, um, for our very first Biotech innovation summit that is hosted by Hatch Fairhope and Bio Alabama. Tomorrow night you're gonna be speaking on one of our panels.

Host: So why, why biotech? 

Charles: Alabama Power is really invested in industry verticals that add value to all of our customers across the state, right? So when we begin to think about the opportunities of, of biotech the resources that are already within this state, from the health [00:15:00] systems and the knowledge base that exist here, uh, we have the opportunity to be a part of, of, of impacting lives from a.

Charles: From a, uh, research perspective to a commercialization from that research perspective when it comes to quality of healthcare, when it comes to efficiencies across our systems, when it comes to, um, things in which biotech touches, right? Um, everything from, from, from food production to healthcare to those things.

Charles: These are all things that add value across, um, across. Our network of communities. Um, and at the same time, again, as I shared before, from an energy tech perspective, there is no industry that exists that is not energy adjacent, right? So again, just wanting to make sure that we are connecting with, uh, corporate partners across all industries that are adding value to, uh, the residents and the corporate and industrial partners across the state of [00:16:00] Alabama, uh, in these mutually beneficial relationships.

Host: So life science companies, um, in particular have unique energy and infrastructure needs. Can you talk a little bit about what Alabama Power is doing in this region to support that growth? 

Charles: Yes. Most importantly, you know, we're seeking to make sure that infrastructure is, uh, sistant to make sure that the quality of energy that.

Charles: Those industries actually demo demand or is, is actually accessible and available and affordable. Right. So just making sure, uh, that also as we're, as I shared before, focusing on, uh, economic, uh, development and recruitment of, of companies through Alabama, that that the package of our core product is, uh, is reasonable and feasible for those companies.

Charles: Uh, to get, you know, quality, energy and reliable energy, uh, to be able to service those in which they're responsible for serving. Also, we really have a strategic focus of, uh, working in communities that we have previously [00:17:00] identified as innovation scarce to be able to, um. Really expand the distribution of statewide incentives and programs, you know, through Innovate Alabama and other other state programs and federal programs, uh, to really, uh, have a conversation about innovation in places and spaces that I.

Charles: Having had these conversations more naturally here in the recent past? Right. So, uh, when we look at Fairhope, when we look at mobile and, and the greater community here, and we look at the, the value that hatch and also innovation portals are providing, we're trying to figure out how can we. We can leverage some of that energy in adjacent communities, right?

Charles: And, and some of our more rural communities, whether it's the bayonets, whether it's the, uh, Marengo counties and the places that are adjacent to be able to look at how innovation can be impactful in the industries that are prominent in [00:18:00] those, those communities as well. Right? So, you know, we really want to take advantage of growing a more.

Charles: Vibrant innovation e center system, I'm sorry, across the hubs that exist and allow us to radiate some of that energy, I would say, um, across those adjacent communities to make sure that innovation is a conversation that I. All of Alabama can be a part of, as opposed to the tech hubs that, uh, that, that primarily exist.

Charles: What, which we realize is really aligned with the, what we, we, we would say the I 65 corridor, you know, from the greater mobile and Baldwin County area to the Montgomery, to the Birmingham and to the Huntsville and us being intentional about getting a little bit east and west of that corridor a little bit and, and making sure that innovation, whether it be ai.

Charles: Whether it be, uh, machine learning, any of the emerging innovations that we [00:19:00] see are part of prominent conversations in our more, uh, urban tech centers that we are looking at how those applications can be beneficial from a quality of life, from a, uh, industrial development and economic development standpoint, uh, in some of our more rural communities as well.

Host: So a great place to start is with collaboration like that's happening at, um, our biotech innovation Summit at the Grand Hotel. And, uh, we look forward to hearing more from you on the panel and all that you guys are doing. Just as we wrap up, I wanted to kind of see if you had any advice, you know, with your extensive background, any advice you would give, uh, to founders, those particularly, you know, wanting to inter innovate in the energy tech sector or that's sticking to partner with larger corporations.

Host: Any advice you would give? 

Charles: You know, the, the advice that I would share with most founders is not to get lost in the innovation in the innovator bias. Right. You know, our solution is. The best solution because it's our solution. Um, founders [00:20:00] really have to take advantage of spending time with who will be their primary customer, and learning from those, whether it's large corporations, whether it is, uh, industrial partners or whomever, learning from those, uh, leaders of those sectors and to really understanding what their need sets and their problems really are.

Charles: You know, at the end of the day, we can over engineer a, under engineer a solution based off of what we perceive the problem truly being. So I really, I really do encourage founders to spend time knowing their customers and responding to the needs of their customers and not just responding from. Their own personal knowledge base and competencies.

Charles: Be willing to pivot and learn, um, across this process. Right? Um, because that's, that's where you're going to find the most success and the most opportunity is, is pivoting, learning and listening to your customer and not just listening to yourself. Right. Um, really excited to. Be able to share more, um, across, uh, the evening [00:21:00] of biotech and, and, and just thankful and grateful for the opportunity for you all to invite Alabama power to be a part of this, this amazing opportunity here in Fairhope.

Host: We're thrilled to have you that pivot, learn, and listen. That's great advice for life as well, I think, and a good place to wrap it up. Um, Charles, I thank you again so much for sitting down with us today, 

Charles: Stephanie. Thank you. 

Imaging: Hatch Hatch Hatch. This has been The Hatch Podcast, a production of the Hatch Team in Fairhope, Alabama.

Imaging: Host Stephanie Gs. Producer Tim Scott, executive producer and creator, Keith Gs. Visit hatch fairhope.com for more information.