Elon Musk's decision to lay off Tesla's entire Supercharger team turned out to be a boon for Aaron and Stephanie Luque, founders of EnviroSpark Energy Solutions. The couple seized the opportunity to hire the laid-off employees for their EV infrastructure company. They have already hired Joe Williams, the former Southeast Supercharging lead at Tesla, as their new senior vice president of business development. Despite the initial shock and criticism, Musk is now rehiring some of his former staff and has promised to invest over $500 million in the Supercharger network. For EnviroSpark, the layoffs came at an opportune time, right after they had secured a significant funding round.
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Elon Musk's decision to lay off Tesla's entire Supercharger team
turned out to be a golden opportunity for Aaron and Stephanie Luque,
founders of the Georgia-based EV infrastructure company, EnviroSpark
Energy Solutions.
In the early days of their company, Aaron
would visit the local Tesla showroom in Atlanta, seeking opportunities
to set up home charging for new Tesla owners. Now, Tesla was indirectly
aiding EnviroSpark again by letting go of its Supercharger team just
when the Luques were in dire need of new employees.
Aaron
recalls, "Just a day before, we had secured the largest funding in our
company's history, a whopping $50 million. The prospect of recruiting
enough people to fill our expanded headcount seemed overwhelming."
The
news of Tesla's mass layoffs came as a shock to him. The Supercharger
network, with its vast reach, reliability, seamless integration, and
superior charging experience, was a major selling point for Tesla cars.
On a personal level, it was hard for Luque as he had developed
friendships with many of the employees.
He says, "Every single person I knew and admired at Tesla was let go. They were as passionate about EV charging as we were."
Among
those laid off was George Bahadue, who had been a senior manager for
site acquisition and business development at Tesla. He took to LinkedIn,
encouraging his network to consider the laid-off Tesla employees, whom
he described as resilient and the best in the business, for their teams.
Seizing
the moment, Stephanie Luque reached out to Bahadue on LinkedIn,
informing him that EnviroSpark was hiring for multiple roles. They also
set up an email hotline for Tesla employees and added a banner on the
EnviroSpark homepage urging former Tesla Supercharger staff to apply for
their open positions.
According to Aaron, they have received
over 100 resumes since then, a significant number considering the Tesla
team was around 500 globally. They have already made their first major
hire - Joe Williams, who was previously Tesla’s Southeast Supercharging
lead, is now EnviroSpark’s new senior vice president of business
development.
In Aaron's view, it's a win-win situation. Musk gets
his layoffs, EnviroSpark can expand, and many talented employees have
the chance to find new jobs. Even Tesla won't suffer as it is far ahead
in terms of the Supercharger network.
However, there have been
some downsides. EnviroSpark's projects for Tesla have come to a
standstill. "We had 26 open projects with Tesla when this happened, and
we've received no communication since then about what we need to be
doing," says Aaron.
Despite the chaos, it's not surprising that
Musk is rehiring some of his former Supercharging staff before they find
employment elsewhere. It's reported that Max de Zegher, Tesla’s former
North America director of charging, has already returned.
Amid
criticism, Musk has had to backtrack on his initial stance. He has
promised to invest over $500 million in the Supercharger network and has
launched a new Supercharger community on his social media platform X.
For
EnviroSpark, Musk's sudden layoffs couldn't have come at a better time.
"The timing couldn't have been any better," says Aaron. "Right after we
closed a financing round that gave us the resources, the very next day,
the single greatest talent acquisition opportunity in the industry
opens up."
As their new SVP for business development can attest, even sad stories can have a happy ending.
