Woman in tech role model powered by renewable energy

Jordan Brompton fell into the renewables industry and now finds herself the co-director of a fast-growing firm which supplies solar-powered electric vehicle chargers. Her work building the business – Myenergi.com – through years of disruption and turbulence earned her the runner-up position for the Entrepreneur Award at this year’s FDM everywoman in technology awards.  

Jordan says she didn’t know what she wanted to do when she left school. She liked acting and singing, but wasn’t sure she was committed enough to make it so she did a series of different jobs, ranging from radio presenting to caring to being a zumba instructor. She had been travelling for a while when she began teaching zumba in the evenings and needed a daytime job to earn her some additional money. So she took an administrative job at an engineering company in Lincolnshire which produced a product that diverted solar power to heat water. It was there that she met her current business partner, Lee Sutton. 

Jordan had no idea about the renewables industry, but she did know about social media and she travelled to trade shows promoting the product and learning as much as she could about the solar industry. “I fell in love with it,” she says. She built her network and helped to develop the company brand, but the Government then decided to cut the solar feed-in tariffs, a government incentive scheme for small solar installations, which put many companies out of business almost overnight.

Jordan left and started up her own bicycle parts distribution business with a friend. Although it was not in renewables, she maintained her network and her passion for the industry. In 2016 Lee messaged her, knowing she was still committed to the renewables industry and convinced her to start up myenergi.com with him. 

Jordan sold her shares in the cycling business, got married and was texting Lee possible business names while on honeymoon.  When she came back in November 2016 she launched herself full time into the business, using all the business skills she had learnt from setting up her own start-up company. “My soul lit on fire again,” she says. 

Building the business

Over the last few years she and Lee have shipped nearly 300,000 of its energy control products, including zappi, a solar-powered electric vehicle charger, opened up overseas in countries ranging from Belgium and the Netherlands to Australia, and hired around 350 employees. Their headquarters and factory is in Grimsby and the company has also opened a small London office. 

Remarkably they have done all of this through the turbulence of Brexit, Covid, microchip shortages and shipping delays in the Suez Canal. Jordan says supply chain issues have been the biggest headache, particularly given the company’s fast growth. She has been on the frontline in dealing with the fallout from this and says honesty about delays is the best policy with customers as is telling them the company’s story, how they support British jobs by manufacturing in the UK and are developing technical support here too. So far that policy seems to be paying off. Jordan says simply: “Your vibe attracts your tribe. We care about where we are from and it is important to us to look after local people.”

The company is fairly evenly balanced at all levels between men and women, which is unusual for the tech sector, and Jordan says this may in part be due to the leadership being similarly balanced. She is spending a lot of her time on recruitment at the moment as the company continues to grow and on public speaking and marketing.

Working mum

Nearly three years ago Jordan had a daughter who arrived eight weeks early – the result of a placental abruption – while she was preparing for the launch of a children’s book she had written about climate change and the importance of renewable energy and electrification of transport. Jordan and her baby needed blood transfusions and her daughter was in the neonatal unit for three weeks. In hospital, Jordan was taking part in meetings and fundraising work, but she says her team pulled together, meaning she could ease back to work over the next months. 

In the first months back she describes being torn and suffering guilt because her mum was looking after her daughter. During Covid she worked from home while juggling childcare. However, her husband has since left his job and taken on the childcare, which has freed Jordan up to focus on the business. The Covid experience has, however, left her very aware of the pressures on working parents and she is keen to promote employee wellbeing, currently through trying to recruit enough people to take the pressure off as demand escalates.

Towards a sustainable future

Jordan says that, although there has not been the kind of official support for electric cars she would like to see, customers are very keen. “It’s the David Attenborough effect,” she says. “The consumer is very conscious of sustainability issues and rising fossil fuel prices have bolstered our message.”

For her energy independence – the ability to go off the grid – enables people to become more self-sufficient and sets an example for people all over the world when it comes to sustainable living. “We want to build a system that works for us and for the planet,” she says.

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