Casper’s Philip Krim Shares His Fast-Growth Blueprint With a First-Time Founder

Vinnie Campo wants a virtual power plant in every home. A former U.S. country man­ager at the British renew­a­ble energy company Bulb and general manager at Uber’s e-bike division, Campo, 35, co-founded the home battery startup Haven Energy in 2022 with a simple goal: to accelerate the adoption of home energy storage. While U.S. households have relied on ­solar power for decades, what they ­haven’t had is an affordable way to store that power and use it later.

“It was next to impossible,” says Campo, Haven’s CEO. “There’s no underlying infrastructure in place.”

Haven is changing that. The com­pany helps homeowners create custom home battery systems, connects them with electricians for installations, and makes software that tells the home when to pull energy from the grid and when to switch to batteries. Not only can Haven’s batteries prevent home power outages and reduce energy bills by up to $1,000 per year, but the company’s software-based marketplace even allows homeowners to earn money from their stored power.

Co-founded by Jeff Chapin, the former chief of product at the direct-­to-consumer mattress company Casper, Austin-based Haven has also had Casper co-founder and former CEO Philip Krim in its corner from day one. Before Haven raised a $4.2 million seed round in 2022, the startup was funded personally by Krim, 40, who continues to own a minority stake in the company. After leading Casper from its founding in 2014 through its $476 million IPO in 2020, Krim left to focus on investing in other founders through his venture firm, Montauk Ventures. Having served as CEO of a fast-growing startup, he knows how hard it is to run a business as a young CEO.

“You’re accountable to everything from business performance to fundraising efforts, and you have to find the hours to get it all done,” says Krim. “It’s lonely at the top because there’s no one else who has that shared accountability.”

We let Krim put that empathy into practice by bringing him and Campo togeth­er recently in New York City, where the pair discussed everything from making transformative hires to how to establish the right culture for your company.

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