Convenience Matters Intro:
[Music] You’re listening to Convenience Matters brought to you by NACS. Whether it’s for food, fuel, drinks, or snacks, about half of the U.S. population shops at a convenience store every day. We’ll talk about what we see at stores and what the future may hold for our industry.

Donovan Woods:
As the Biden Administration embarks on a very ambitious effort to deploy over 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, the question comes up…how? EV infrastructure has always been one of the questions that comes up along with range anxiety that maybe makes you think…is this something I should invest in for my organization, for my stores? But, we’re going to talk to someone who says, why do we have to have the power and wait for us to get there? Why not bring the charger to us ,wherever we are, no matter what our needs are or capabilities, we can have the power to act. Welcome to Convenience Matters. My name is Donovan Woods with the Fuels Institute and NACS and I’m joined today by my guest….my co-host, excuse me, Jeff. Wow!

Speaker 1:
Yeah, I’ll be a guest too, but Jeff Lenard with NACS!

Donovan Woods:
And, you know, Jeff we’re here joined today by someone that’s actually, the Fuels Institute has had as a guest on our podcast and we love talking to him. His name is Joshua Aviv is the founder and CEO of Spark Charge. Spark Charge is an organization that is caught the eye of so many organizations right now because they are here to answer that question of mobile charging, bringing power to wherever you are as a vehicle. Joshua, welcome to Convenience Matters.

Joshua Aviv:
Thank you guys. Super excited to be here. Super excited to be talking about some of the innovations that we’re working on here at Spark Charge.

Donovan Woods:
That is awesome. And again, it’s good to actually have you here on our platform here with NACS. I think this is a great two parties I think, should be talking the C-store industry and the idea again, with something like the goal that Biden has, or the Administration has, of bringing so many charging stations or to the infrastructure, where does Spark Charge plate in this role? I know it’s a big question to kind of lead us off with, but how does Spark Charge fit into that plan? What do you think?

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah, I mean, I think we actually help accelerate that plan, right. When you look at what Biden’s proposing, it’s really exciting. It’s really about getting the United States really up to speed to be able to service electric vehicles in a convenient manner and our whole goal here at Spark Charge, one of our mission and visions is, hey, we want to accelerate the rapid growth of electric vehicle adoption. And we believe that in order to do that, you have to remove those barriers to infrastructure. You have to remove those barriers around where, when and how the electric vehicle owner charges their car. While some companies go about this by putting a pole in the ground and waiting for the owner to show up, we believe that you can actually accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles much faster. If you’re able to bring the charger to the electric vehicle owner. When we look at the way society is going, like everything is moving on demand, right? You know, Instacart…my grocery store lives on my phone, with my Uber driver is on my phone, with Grubhub, Uber Eats, Door Dash. You know, my pizza guy lives on my phone and here at Spark Charge, we believe that the charging station should live on your phone as well. And that’s why we created BoostEV and the Roadie.

Jeff Lenard:
So when you talk about…the biggest trend in anything, including our industry right now is we asked retailers, what’s the biggest innovation you’ve seen over the last year in any channel. And, what would you like to see in your stores? Pretty much two things come to mind. One is frictionless and that’s involves payment. And that of course involves a phone. The other one is last mile and last mile in our industry means home delivery. It means curbside pickup. It means drive-through, it literally means thinking about your store operations differently beyond the box, that it’s not necessarily just come to the store, but the store can come to you. And that’s exactly what it sounds like you’re offering with EV here. Um, except let’s not call it last mile. Let’s call it next mile because that’s, that’s what the EV charging’s doing. Isn’t that the case?

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah, you’re 100% correct. Right? It’s really about building an infrastructure that’s meant to give the electric vehicle owner freedom. Right? So when you think about it the reason that a lot of these advancements with delivery and convenience, and you know, a lot of that industry is around basically what it boils down to is time-saving, right? I’m saving you time, right? You don’t have to sit and wait. You don’t have to go there and be there and we believe that BoostEV and electric vehicle owner is going to save a lot of time. It’s going to make the experience a lot better because they’re going to be able to basically charge when and where they want to versus having to go sit and wait at a charging station.

Donovan Woods:
So let me jump in here, Jeff. I feel like I should actually in the intro, I introduced you Jeff, as a guest of the show, instead of one of the hosts. I feel like you kind of are a guest, in this. ‘Cause I want to set this up to really have this discussion, it seems like, between the mobile EV charging sector, as well as the C-store sector, let me set this up and make sure that Josh has all the information so we can answer this correctly. Jeff, how many c-stores are we looking at in domestically, right now?

Jeff Lenard:
There are 150,000 convenience stores in the country right now, about 120,000 or so sell fuel. But that’s based on the infrastructure they have in place. It sounds like what we’re talking about here is there’s an awful lot more that may not be selling fuel that could sell some level of mobility.

Donovan Woods:
And that’s, that’s the kind of question I want to come back to you, Josh, you look at a gap there and for about 30,000 plus stores that have never offered anything for the actual driver. So wherever you may go, you may go for convenience. You may go for food, you may go pick up something else, but that’s an opportunity there as well as the other 120,000 stores that have offered that to you, their energy to their customers, where does Spark Charge, or how do you view the C-store industry in terms of where are they on your target list of possibilities?

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah, it’s, it’s really simple. I think when we look at how we work with C-stores, it really falls into two categories, right? I think for the first time ever, we’re able to actually equip these stores with mobile charging units, where essentially when an electric vehicle owner shows up, they can have their car charge right there on the spot without having to take up precious real estate in front of the store or around the store. Now these stores can basically say, Hey, you know, if you’re an electric vehicle when you pull up, we can actually wheel out a charger to you, charge your car and you can be on your way. I think the other thing that we look at c-stores is that they can become actually hubs for charging. So this revolves around actually planned charging. So now, Hey, I know I’m going to be on a journey. I know I’m going to be driving and I want to stop and get a refresher, but I don’t want to have to sit in an empty parking lot. If I know that this convenience store, this C-store has charging, I can schedule a charge for someone to meet me there. It’s hard for my car or the C-store already has a unit and I know that I can pull in, have my car charge and pull out again. So really we’re talking about a new level of convenience around electric vehicle ownership that combines the owner with the C c-store together.

Jeff Lenard:
And Donovan, I know the Fuels Institute spends a lot of time explaining all the issues related to EVs. And I know some, but when you look at some of the things that this eliminates, it eliminates cracking concrete to lay conduits and all those other things and eliminating operations and just getting permits and what that cost is across the country varies, but it can be significant. The other thing it eliminates is, when going through those discussions, where do I put my charging? I have to make this decision now, do I give the most valuable real estate for charging? Do I do it somewhere else? It sounds like it doesn’t have to be this, this deeply strategic thought right now to get engaged and just start the process that it could be, Hey, let’s test and learn, and then we’ll figure it out as the customer will tell us what it is, as opposed to us predicting what the customer may want. So there are a lot of positives in this and one final thing, and then I’ll, I’ll kick it back to Donovan, we’ve been looking at convenience. Convenience stores started in 1927. We’re coming up on a hundred years, but when you look at convenience, we kind of see it in three different waves. And it goes back to the 1700s. The first wave was something goes to your house and that was the milkman later became pizza delivery and all these other things, but it was to your house. Second wave happened with the first gas station early 1900s that convenience was to the car. Then it became carwash. Then it became carhops and then it became all those things. Drive-throughs that were associated with a car. The third wave that we see is, is about convenience on some sort of device. And that started roughly with home shopping networks and all that stuff. And then it accelerated with tablets and stores smartphones, et cetera. And, and it feels like we’re entering a new wave of convenience where all these things are intermingling. And it’s amazing that it’s not just products, but it’s services, and its services like mobility. It just strikes me that there’s all these things out there, and it is very exciting times if you’re a customer, because everyone is looking to solve convenience right now.

Donovan Woods:
Absolutely. And you know, to paint a better picture now for our audience, I wanted to give some, kind of laid out for Josh, there on the C-store side, but Josh, can you paint a picture for our audience to kind of help them understand exactly what they’re talking about or what you’re talking about? Because you mentioned an opportunity. You mentioned two opportunities. One, I reach out to the C-store made sure that they have the capabilities of Spark Charge. Boom, I’m there where they are great. The other, maybe meet me there. Is this something someone carries with them? Um, is this a product that they can actually have with them all the time? What is your product actually? Is it something someone owns, leases? Is it a C-store who owns it? Can you kind of set up what exactly your product is?

New Speaker:
Absolutely. Yeah. It’s really simple and easy to understand. The product itself, we have two products. We have the Roadie, which are the portable chargers. And then we have BoostEV and BoostEV is the mobile app and so they cater to two different audiences, right? So with the Roadie, that’s something that we actually sell to the convenience store. That’s something we actually sell to them. And then they’re able to actually go out and service electric vehicle owners in a way they’ve never been able to before. As Jeff mentioned before, with the Roadie, it’s really taken out of the box, plug it into the car and you’re charging, right? There’s no need for infrastructure. There’s no need for permits. There’s no need to be based the property. Um, it’s essentially a DC fast charger that you can quite literally hold in your hands, right. And that’s really innovative. And then it opens up the door for a wide array of businesses to now go out and start servicing electric vehicle owners. We sell that product directly to businesses with the sole purpose that they want to serve as they want to work with EV owners. When it comes to the EV owner directly, that’s where BoostEV comes in. And BoostEV is our mobile app. It’s available on Android and iOS. And with BoostEV, we’re really allowing that electric vehicle owner to tap into that network and get {inaudible} delivered to them wherever they need it. So now with BoostEV, I can select how much range I want. I can select where I want it, I can select the time and the location and I can pay all in one app and a business that has my product, a business that has the Roadie can now service that electric vehicle owner, whether it be meeting up at a store or bringing that to them, to charge their car. It now opens up a whole new way of freedom, both for the electric vehicle owner and a whole new revenue stream for the business as well.

Donovan Woods:
Got it, got it. That that helps paint a better picture of exactly what we’re talking about. And I go back to the opening when I talked about the Biden Administration, we’re looking at the infrastructure, what a product like yours or the idea of mobile charging opens up. Isn’t just the cost savings in terms of, as Jeff mentioned breaking concrete for a new energy source, but also each state, each city, each jurisdiction, there’s Federal rules and regulations and policies surrounding public charging infrastructure. And it gets really complicated. It’s a very intricate web that if you aren’t sure if you really have the customer base for door for, to support this, when you start going down that web of what it could look like legally, I don’t see why you may want to do that because it can get frustrating a product like that so much even just yours, but the mobility factor of it as Jeff brought out, making things convenient for the customer and consumer, that’s where I think the idea of mobile charging really could be something positive for our customer base. What do you, what do you think Jeff, is it the c-store customer, who they are, and the things you’ve seen over the years, does this appeal to that particular customer base?

Jeff Lenard:
Yeah, I think everyone wants convenience and I think Josh set it up. This is about just redefining convenience. People will pay for it because it’s value and time is money. Even if they take that time and then just go watch Tik Tok or something like that, it still feels like value. But, I think that the, well, like with all convenience, the hardest thing is to change current consumer behavior. And that’s just one customer at a time. And then he goes to social media and raves. And then we can all think about the first time that somebody introduced us to something that just like blew our minds. To me, I remember the first time somebody ordered an Uber with me and we’re just sitting on the, on the side of the road in downtown DC and he says, ” my Uber’s coming up!” I said, “what’s an Uber?” And, and he says, “well, oh, look, there’s his picture, there’s this license plate. And this is how it works.” And it was just so new to me. It’s all I could think about the rest of the day. And obviously a lot of people have thought about it has done quite well, but it’s, it’s those kinds of things where somebody figured out a way to do something entirely different than just more of the same. And, and I guess that, that leads to something I think Donovan and I both want to know is – Josh, how’d you come up with this idea? I mean, what problem were you trying to solve? And, where was the aha moment where you just said, “hey, portable EV charging. Sounds like a good idea because it does this.”

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah, it’s really simple. So, I mean I came up with the idea while at Syracuse Iniversity we really are the epitome of the dorm room startup. Right. We really started working on this idea way back in 2017. And what we realized was the amount of infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles was never really going to be able to catch up at least not for a very long time. And that was back in 2017 and now that we’re here in 2021, and we look at it and the infrastructure still isn’t available, right? And so we said, well, how can you, how can you grow infrastructure while at the same time, provide freedom to the electric vehicle owner while at the same time increasing the better experience around EV charging. And he said, you know, the only way to do that is really to put the power of how, when, and where you charge the car in the hands of the electric vehicle owner. And so we said, well, what does that take? Right. Well, okay, well, you gotta develop the portable charger first. Right? When we started out, there was no such thing as a portable DC fast charger. So we had to develop that technology. We had to create that market. We had to create that product literally from the ground up from ideation all the way to a physical product that arrives in front of someone. We really worked it out for a good three years on that. Once we really got that mastered and we started shipping that product, we said, well, okay, we’ve got this device. That’s really unique. We’ve got this device that solves a big problem for the world, but how do we scale it, right? How do we get it into the hands of as many owners as possible to continue to solve this problem? And that’s where, when we came up with BoostEV. We said the missing link here is the fact that if electric vehicle owner wants this, they should be able to have it delivered to them with the push of a button. It should come right away, no matter where they are or what they’re doing. And we realized that the scenarios out of that just continued to grow. We had people saying, Hey, I would love to get charged at home. I would love to get charged while I’m grabbing a cup of coffee. I would love to get charged while I’m at my kid’s Little League game. I would love to get charged while I’m at at work. If I can take out my phone, push a button and have range delivered. And all of those scenarios, then my experience as an EV owner just went up and that’s just for the people who currently own an electric vehicle. Now, when you take, and you look at it from the standpoint of new car buyers, right? The first thing that people say, how do I charge my car? And when we look at the way that the electric vehicle industry markets itself, we always see these advertisements around two car garage, some power walls, two clean vehicles, freshly washed side by side. But the reality is that 80 to 90% of Americans don’t live like that. Right? And so if you, most of Americans live in apartments, complexes, duplexes, high-rises and so they don’t have guaranteed access to charging. And so we realized that not only were we solving this convenience aspect and increasing the experience around and making the experience better on electric vehicle adoption, but we were also now solving a huge problem with infrastructure and the way that people go about their lives. So creating a better experience around someone who doesn’t have a home, creating a better experience for people who don’t live in an area that has readily available access to charging. And so we’ve started to grow on that and we really felt that we really struck a nerve in the industry when we started getting a lot of support from the OEMs, a lot of support from the utility companies. I mean, there are some places in California where it’s two years to put a hole in the ground. It’s two years to get a charging station installed due to the high demand. So if you can make the charging station live on the phone and you can allow the electric vehicle owner the charge on their time, then you’ve just solved a huge problem. Not only for the OEM, you solved a huge problem for the EV owner, you solved a huge problem for the utility company, and you are now allowing the electric vehicle market to grow at a much faster rate.

Donovan Woods:
I still love the story you tell, Josh, of Spark Charge – anything that comes from a dorm room and to actual fruition as a cool thing. Apart of the story though I want to make sure our audience gets as we’re kind of running out of time here with you. And that is…you guys were actually on Shark Tank. Like, NACS, we’ve had Shark Tank, actual Sharks at our NACS Show in different platforms. But here we are, we have a guest that’s actually not only on Shark Tank, you were a popular Shark Tank member…uh what do you call it…a guest. And you guys are actually moving forward. And the way we connected that still blows my mind. I posted something because I saw something on LinkedIn about Spark Charge. And I just sent a note to the world on LinkedIn saying, if anyone knows this guy, Joshua, could you please let me know? I want him on our podcast. We have to get him on our podcast! And, somehow that got to Mark Cuban, like THE Mark Cuban. And when I heard that, I was like, okay, sure. And actually it got to the Mark Cuban, to a friend of mine that’s also a business owner and he’s like, no, seriously, it was Mark Cuban reached out, said reach out to this guy. And I’m like, wow. So first of all, everyone LinkedIn works. I mean, if I can get Mark to you as attention to actually get Josh here on our two of our platforms, it’s a cool thing. But Josh, can you give us anything that you can tell without getting trouble – what’s the Shark Tank experience really like?

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah. I mean, it’s a thrill, right? I mean, it’s a real thrill and it’s a great experience. It’s a really good learning experience as well. But I mean what you see on TV is real, right? You’re, you’re there and negotiating with those investors, you’re there negotiating with the Sharks and y you’re there to present your business, defend your business and close a deal. I think that entrepreneurs that are looking to go into it, I think you really have to figure out is Shark Tank right for you. Right. Um, if you look at the way that the Sharks invest, they really want to be able to help a business more than anything else. Right. Whether that’s through capital, whether that’s through expertise, whether that’s through knowledge they really want to help your business grow and succeed. And so I think for entrepreneurs that are looking to go onto it and entrepreneurs looking to learn more about the experience, I think the one question that I always recommend that entrepreneurs ask themselves is like, what can the Sharks help you with? Obviously most entrepreneurs are gonna say, okay, but you know, boil that down. Where are you at with sales? Where are you at with growth? Where are you out of scale? You know, what expertise can, you know Lori {Greiner} bring to your company, right? What’s going to get her excited about working hand in hand with you. I think that’s the, that’s the goal that most entrepreneurs should have.

Jeff Lenard:
Yeah. When you watch the show, if we’ve learned anything in, in, by the way, Donovan and I are, I guess we’d call ourselves double threats. We’ve interviewed a Shark and we’ve interviewed somebody on Shark Tank together. So double threats.I don’t know if that’s a thing, but it is now. But, but we’ve learned in watching it, you have to know your valuation. I mean, that’s the number one thing if you’re asking people for a piece of the company. But what are some other things Josh, that, that you learned out of that whole experience and how do you talk about your business? Because I think a lot of people, kind of confused when they talk about their products. They, get so caught up in the features. They don’t focus enough on the benefits because the benefits is where the aspiration is. It’s what gets people all engaged. But if you talk about will, and then you push this button and this happens, and this happens, and this happens, it’s kind of boring. But if you go back to the classic thing, Steve Jobs, when he introduced the iPad…iPod, he said a thousand songs in your pocket, he didn’t explain how it happened. He just said a thousand songs in your pocket. So was there something that you really said that absolutely resonated that you just said, okay, now I’m locked in. I’m going to use this in marketing all the time.

Joshua Aviv:
Yeah. It was, you know, it was the phrase “charge any time, charge anywhere.” That was the phrase, that was the slogan that we really stuck to as a group, right. The electric vehicle owner should be able to charge anytime and anywhere they want and that’s what really led, that was our guiding light, right? So, you know, we needed to make a product that allowed them to do that. We needed to make an app that really allowed them to fill that you know, charge anytime and anywhere the electric vehicle owner wants was our guiding light and our slogan that we’ve used to really help us make decisions.

Jeff Lenard:
And with convenience stores everywhere in the country, as, as I said earlier, 150,000, there’s typically a convenience store for every 2,100 people in this country so it’s not going to be very hard to find one. Um, if this is a if this could be built out for stores that find this of interest, I think it’s really intriguing how it’s, it’s redefining convenience at the convenience store. And we’re going well, well, well beyond where we were perceived a half-century ago as just the mini-mart, which was a tiny grocery store. We solve problems now and it’s not really stocking product.

Joshua Aviv:
Look, the convenience…I think convenience stores have a huge role to play in electric vehicle adoption, right? As you said, they really, I think when you look at the way the convenience stores operate and the focus and their goal is really servicing the community, right. There are a lot of communities where the convenience store is the social hub for the town. There’s a lot of places where the convenience store is the point of access to goods and services. You know, and I think as we look at electric vehicle adoption, if we can equip more convenience stores with DC, fast charging, and we can equip more convenience stores to enable them to service electric vehicles, then we’re going to really grow the electric vehicle market and rapid scale. Not only from, from a standpoint of EV onwers buying cars, but also, now you’re going to open the door to easy adoption in locations that previously probably would have never been thought of, right? If convenience stores are able to have mobile charging where they can bring it out, charge a car, and service that community service, service owners in that community, then locations where I think people call them charging deserts where there just isn’t access to charging, or there isn’t access to power in a certain area. Convenience stores can play a huge role in that. And I also think there’s a role for convenience stores to play when you come up with natural disasters. So a lot of times, what do people do? They flock to convenience stores. they buy bread and milk and water, but when the power goes out and the grid is down, now, people can flock to convenience stores to get their car charged as well. So now you’re opening up this new way of service to really bring convenience stores into really the full ecosystem of EV charging. I’m here with you when you need me; I’m here with you when the grid is down; I’m with you when you need a top off; I’m with you when you’re traveling. I think the convenience store as a huge, huge, huge, huge role to play in electric vehicle adoption.

Donovan Woods:
So I wanted to…I wish our Engineer had actually started the closeout music there, because you kind of wrap this up with a pretty bow yourself, Josh, we appreciate that. That was a wonderful exit! Drop the mic and walk away.

Jeff Lenard:
We’re with with you. I’m going…I’m going to go to the Patent Office right down the street. I’m going to buy that for convenience stores. We’re with you.

Donovan Woods:
And Josh, if anyone did have questions on working with Spark Charge, how can they reach you?

Joshua Aviv:
Please feel free to go to our website, www.sparkcharge.io. You can get in touch with us there. You can get in touch with us on the website. And I believe if you’re interested in learning more about the Roadie and how we can actually service your convenience store, hit up [email protected]. We have a really good team that’s really built to really work with each individual customer one by one. So I’m more than happy to start working with convenience stores, more than happy to start working on solving the solution of electric vehicles adoption.

Donovan Woods:
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Josh, we appreciate you being here with us on Convenience Matters, and as he said, EVs aren’t just coming, they’re here. But, more importantly, if you listen to the entire message of our conversation today, making life convenient is continuing to evolve. As a c-store owner, remember, customers look to you for leading your communities – our communities – into the future. They’re looking to you to be able to charge or refuel their vehicles, or their bodies, anytime, anywhere. Thank you for listening to Convenience Matters.

New Speaker:
Convenience Matters is brought to you by NACS and produced in partnership with Human Factor. For more information, visit convenience.org.