Prachi Mehta from the YPE Bay Area chapter and Tyler Micheli from the YPE Denver chapter come together to interview Smriti Mishra. Smriti is Director of Business Development and Strategy at Weave Grid, which provides electrification software for the scalable deployment of electric vehicles on the electric grid. Smriti has expertise in energy innovation, aggregation, and building industry collaborations. Prior to WeaveGrid, she was a Director at National Grid, a large Northeast utility where she led joint ventures for distributed energy for the unregulated business, including investments of over $110M in residential solar and storage. Smriti has also operated in demand response at EnerNOC (now Enel X) in a general management function as a P&L owner. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelors in Physics from the University of Chicago.
Show notes:
01:35 intro to Weave Grid and guest
01:48 Mishra before Weave Grid
02:43 superpower of choice?
03:31 dream profession entering college?
04:48 motivation/inspiration for her work
05:48 how Smriti got into energy
07:20 business school
10:42 climate change road map
13:58 concrete steps to growing technical knowledge during business school
18:25 unforgettable advice from a professor: what makes you happy?
20:20 what should the energy sector be working on short-term? whatever you can make an immediate impact in
24:57 how to determine what your true interests/skills are; be open to learning something unique
29:10 type 1 fun vs. type 2 fun in your career
30:51 reflecting on uncommon/indirect career path
34:30 importance of networking
35:30 current role, typical week at Weave Grid
37:44 latest stats on EV adoption
39:23 likes/dislikes about current job
49:49 advice for managers: hire someone smarter than you
41:47 her recruiting strategies
43:45 tips for job-seekers getting into the sector
47:15 activities outside the office that helped her grow
49:34 her memories of YPE in grad school
51:13 any disappointments/failures overcome in career?
54:36 optimistic about the future of the world?
60:40 what is her dream futuristic world?
Smriti's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?keywords=smriti%20mishra&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=8700cebb-b326-4f8d-862f-594dc0be5838&sid=13%3B
Prachi Mehta's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prachimehtaut/
Tyler Micheli's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-micheli-0b1a801b/
