Imagine that kicking a soccer ball for thirty minutes could generate enough energy to light a lamp for 3 hours or—better yet— imagine you could charge your iPhone’s dying battery by jumping rope for a few minutes. Not only is it possible, it’s already here. Jessica O. Matthews is the CEO and Founder of Uncharted Play, an energy generating play-products company with products on the market like the Soccket, a portable, power-generating soccer ball that President Obama himself has tried out.
Called the “Elon Musk of kinetic energy” by the United States Chief Technology Officer, Jessica Matthews has been named one of Forbes’ 2016 ‘30 Under 30’ and serves as an Ambassador of Entrepreneurship for Nigeria. And today she sat down to discuss how she discovered how to make playtime generate electricity on ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg.’
“My background is in economics. I studied how people think about the world. It’s all perception.”
“Once a company is over 20 people anything can boil down to a people problem.”
“The most mortifying thing in the digital age is sending something you shouldn’t say.”
“What Uncharted Play does special is that we’re really an energy company.”
“Women entrepreneurs qualify what we’re doing because we like to stay in our line.”
“We’re creating baby strollers you can push that charge your phone at the same time.”
“Motion Based Off –Grid Renewable Energy is MORE—it’s what we put inside of everything to harness power.”
“I’ve lived the life of unlikelys. I’m a dual citizen of Nigeria and the US and raised in upstate NY where its main export is Snookie from the Jersey Shore.”
“I’m trying to be a perfect balance between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Beyonce.”
“I got into energy because I have family who don’t know what to do when the sun goes down. In Nigeria the main issue is not having clean energy.”
“Living with a kerosene lamp is like studying under your car or smoking two packs a day. I got sick of that experience in Nigeria.”
“Soccket was a class project that came out of a real experience.”
“How can you take passion and hope and apply it to life?”
“My strategy every single day for the past 9 years is being so grateful for the experience to see what really moved me.”
“We just closed the largest Series A some say a black woman’s ever had in history.”
“When I was growing up I always wanted to be an inventor. I would make weird stink bombs.”
“My sister thought I was crazy until two years ago. Now she’s my director of marketing.”
“My parents are Nigerian immigrants. The only magical ruse they kept up was my believing in the Tooth Fairy. It turned me into someone who believed in science and magic together.”
“If you can give yourself a gel manicure you can start a B2B. I’m sorry, it’s not that hard.”
“Our mission shouldn’t just be to distribute a million balls, it should be to reach a million kids to give them a platform to build on.”
“The next Einstein is going to be someone who hasn’t had a chance to sit at the table yet.”
“We’re working on a program called Uplift One Million with a STEM curriculum to help kids grow.”
“I did a talk with someone who was a speechwriter at the White House. They brought me into the America Invents Act.”
“It’s one thing to invent a product but to scale it is an entirely different process.”
“Both the Soccket and Pulse are made in the US.”
“I wish they emphasized supply chain in 5th grade. Don’t teach me cursive.”
“Supply chain is critical for understanding business.”
“Attempt to see your differences as a competitive advantage.”
“As women we’re bringing a bank of observations and experiences.”
“Be comfortable with being creative of how you get to the next level.”
“Sometimes we can’t drop out of school because our parents would kill us.”
“You’re charging a new path. Be comfortable with mistakes and entering a space where you’re being innovative by getting up each time you fall.”
Make sure to tune into ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ next Wednesday, November 9th for an election recap with Brigade! Only on SiriusXM Channel 111 at 12pm ET/9am PT
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