Howdy, I’m Brady.
I spend my days running a 100+ megawatt Virtual Power Plant, aggregating nearly 20,000 home batteries into a single dispatchable grid resource. Nights and weekends, I’m reading, building side projects, and thinking out loud about energy, product, and AI.
This newsletter is where those threads come together.
What you’ll find here
This publication has two named series. You can follow both or just the one that brought you here.
Negawatt
…is where I write about the energy transition. Virtual power plants, grid policy, distributed energy, climate tech startups, and systems reshaping how we generate and use power. The name comes from the concept of a negawatt, energy saved is energy produced. I’ve been working in this space since 2015, across smart thermostats, electric vehicle managed charging, utility-scale batteries, and residential storage. These pieces are written for curious readers, not just industry insiders. If you want to understand what’s really happening to the electric grid and why it matters for your bill and the climate, this is for you.
(If energy is your primary reason for being here, you can also find the full Negawatt archive at URL negawatt.energy or the Negawatt section of this substack.)
Ship’s Log
…is where I show my work. AI tools and workflows I'm actually using, products I'm building or shipping, experiments with new technology, and the craft of being a product leader in the middle of a significant shift in how software gets made. Less theory, more working notes from inside the process.
I may also include shorter, less formal dispatches. Including AI tools I’m tinkering with. Books I’m processing. Observations that don’t fit anywhere else.
Who I am
I’m a Staff Product Manager at GoodLeap, where I lead product strategy for the VPP business and the build out of our Distributed Energy Management platform. I hold an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from HEC Paris and a BS in Economics from Texas A&M. I’m a CELI Fellow, a marathoner, and devourer of books (50+ per year over the last decade).
I write because the energy transition is the most consequential infrastructure story of our lifetime, and most of the coverage either talks over people’s heads or undersells the complexity. I’m trying to close that gap and along the way, share what I’ve learned about building products and navigating a career at the edge of where technology influences how our world is powered.
You can find more about me at bradymanning.com
How to follow along
Subscribe and you’ll get everything. If you only want one series, you can manage your preferences after subscribing. Substack lets you turn individual series on or off without unsubscribing.
I’m glad you’re here!
