Zach Dell, co-founder and CEO of Base Power Company, opened Georgetown’s 2026 Venture in the Capital speaker series with a virtual conversation moderated by Spencer Segura (MSB’28). Dell previously worked in private equity at Blackstone and as an investor at Thrive Capital before co-founding Base Power in 2023.
Dell explained that Base installs and owns batteries on customers’ homes, using them to support the grid and to back up homes during outages, which lowers monthly electricity bills. He described what makes an investor valuable, why the best people “want to work on the most interesting problems,” and how new tariffs in April 2025 pushed the company to cancel an overseas manufacturing plan and build its own factory in Austin. His advice to students was to stay curious, ask many questions and surround themselves with technologists.