JUNO TALKS with Sophia Rödiger
From zero to 100,000 customers in three years – Sophia Rödiger describes the phenomenal rise of the brand 1KOMMA5° in a heated world.
Sophia Rödiger is the CMO of 1KOMMA5°. Additionally, she is a founder, entrepreneur, book author, and regularly appears as a speaker.
What is the current status of your brand?
By age, we are a young brand. We were founded in 2021. At the same time, we are a coalition of people who had been working on the vision of a new marketplace for energy for a long time – albeit in different roles – making mistakes or finding that the timing wasn’t right. So, people with a lot of experience came together at the right time. With this maturity, we were able to grow quickly and evolve from a startup brand to a profitable market leader in Europe.
How did you manage to become so well-known as a brand so quickly?
In the beginning, we didn’t need to invest heavily in marketing because the market was already absurd due to the war and the associated energy prices, and everyone wanted solar power. Our business books filled up by themselves. It wasn’t until 2023 that we started investing more in brand standards and expanding the marketing team. This year, the brand is really coming into its own. With Philipp Schröder, we have a very PR-savvy, approachable CEO. Our employees, just like many of our customers, identify with the vision of 1KOMMA5° and share it with the world. I don’t have to force anyone in front of the camera. Often we hear: “I never do anything on social media, but for you and your mission, I’m happy to share my experiences here.”
The term 1.5-degree target was already well-known at your founding. Did you deliberately choose a name that references this?
The term comes from the Paris Agreement. It symbolizes a tipping point and carries a call to action. The sharp provocation and the daily reminder that come with it were intentional and thus already answer the “why” of our movement in the brand name.
On one hand, you refer to yourselves as a movement. On the other hand, you call yourselves the “Apple of energy technology.” How does that fit together?
We are a clean-tech company when it comes to the software and hardware we offer, and at the same time, we are a movement in terms of how each customer becomes part of a large energy source and a collective storage system. We offer an innovative technological platform solution that allows everyone to contribute individually to climate goals. With us, clean energy becomes a new experience. You can now manage your entire energy needs at home, as well as on the go, and become independent of the corporations and states currently controlling fossil energies. Our app always shows your current electricity price, allowing you to save up to over 80% compared to regular electricity tariffs. It feels great! On one hand, you’re creating a new CO₂-neutral energy future, and on the other hand, you’re saving significantly on electricity costs. Communicatively, it has always been important for our brand to approach the topic of energy differently than competitors like E.ON, Vattenfall, Enpal, or others. In our latest TV ad, for example, it’s not sunny on a PV-covered roof at the start; instead, there’s a storm and thunder. We communicate in an unexpected, bolder manner and might even disrupt the eye with something unusual and striking. What’s important to us is always the combination with aesthetics, modernity, but also authenticity.
The topic of energy is more politicized than ever. How do you handle that?
The topic has moved out of the niche due to the Ukraine war. For years, many people didn’t know exactly how much they were paying their electricity providers. The war has awakened the masses and brought to awareness that electricity prices can fluctuate, and electricity isn’t always just stable. In today’s energy discourse, there is a lot of uncertainty, fear, and rejection. We raise awareness and spread the positive narratives here. Our goal is to answer every energy question on our channels and in our showrooms, regardless of whether you end up buying from us. People will do that anyway if they have experienced the Heartbeat AI-WOW moment and, figuratively speaking, the light goes on.
So, you also receive a lot of public opinion?
Yes, it seems that everyone has something to say about energy. Many express frustration with politics, costs, half-knowledge, and populist slogans. At times, it’s very exhausting, especially for sales. But I notice that the discussion is slowly becoming more nuanced. Through numerous informational events, podcasts, explanatory videos, ambassador rounds, and even a children’s book on energy, we contribute to this.
Aren’t you positioning yourselves politically by presenting yourselves as a movement?
No, the market and customers do not perceive us as a political brand. For us, it’s initially irrelevant what you vote for. We don’t talk about green electricity, and our corporate identity color is purple. 1KOMMA5° now serves over 100,000 customers, and we see very clearly what convinces people: clean electricity that is also the cheapest. I think for 80 percent of Germans, energy is not about ideology but about saving costs. We have solutions for everyone out there. This is about freedom and quality of life on our planet – I think the topic is bigger than a party affiliation.
You mention that you educate and explain things in detail. What makes it so complicated?
You have to explain the topic of energy production and energy markets in general, and our intelligent solution within it – PV, storage, planning, installation, networking, artificial intelligence, app, electricity tariff, amortization. To name a few points. That’s already a lot of information. In direct dialogue with people, often in our showrooms, we regularly create Aha moments.
How many showrooms do you have now?
We have 18 showrooms, and 11 more are in the pipeline. Nowhere else can we present our complete solution and the interplay of all elements as well as there. It works very well for education, conversion, and brand partnerships.
What arguments do you use to convince people?
We enable you to protect the climate while always having the cheapest energy. To do this, we equip your home with the necessary hardware – such as solar panels, heat pumps, energy storage, wall boxes. This way, you generate and store your own climate-neutral energy. If you need additional electricity, we automatically purchase it for you from the electricity exchange using AI when it is clean and the cheapest. This is always the case on particularly sunny and windy days when there is more energy in the system than is being demanded. Sometimes you even get paid because the electricity price is negative. Many people we talk to don’t even know that there is an electricity exchange and how electricity providers operate. We create foundational knowledge.
Are other countries ahead?
Yes, for example, Denmark. They have had an energy forecast in their weather report for years. In addition to the weather, it says: “Turn on the sauna today. The wind is blowing, and there is a lot of energy in the system.” Even Italy already has almost universal intelligent meters in every house; these devices are necessary to dynamically bill electricity. In Germany, we are still in the lower percentage range. The customer also gets this installed from us all in one go.
In many of your interviews or talks, you mention “beauty” in relation to your activities. Can you explain that a bit?
Because we find what we do beautiful. For example, a few days ago we visited our customer Roswitha “Rosi” Mende in Laatzen. She is over 70 years old and emotionally told us how she transitioned her house from gas to renewable energies with us. That she now checks the app every day and celebrates producing her own electricity. We thus reconnect our customers’ lives with the rhythm of Mother Nature: namely the inexhaustible sources of wind and sun.
What else do you find beautiful about what you do?
Currently, we are using fossil fuels that are environmentally damaging, limited, and have made us dependent. Now we use wind and sun, which are fundamentally free for everyone. We even make money from it and swing back in rhythm with nature rather than disconnecting from it. We find that incredibly beautiful.
Let’s talk about brand and identification. You said your employees identify with your brand. As a company, you grow by acquiring businesses that have been on the market for years. How do you manage to ensure that people identify with your brand?
Of course, we carefully select who we believe can join 1KOMMA5° and who fits well culturally. Many entrepreneurs of these businesses realize that they have completely different opportunities with us and can grow faster. I think of a 100-year-old company specializing in heat pumps that has been working with us for two years. They have grown from 50 to nearly 100 employees. In the end, the entrepreneurs need to have the same dream and values as 1KOMMA5°.
Okay, the business owners are on board. How about employees in the provinces when they suddenly become part of a Hamburg company?
Close collaboration is important, and a key part of getting to know each other is interacting with entrepreneurs who have already been on the path with us and have been part of 1KOMMA5° for a longer time. The shared dream of a new energy future and the same value system are crucial. We look for entrepreneurial-minded doers who want to grow as a team in their region. It won’t and shouldn’t fit every business. We go into the businesses, hold workshops there, and explain our vision. Internationality and the growth speed of our brand impress people, according to our experience. Many recognize that they can more easily attract new talent through us because they want to work for a well-known brand with several hundred developers, international locations, and a wide range of jobs. Also, the direct link to implementation motivates: meaning, if they notice a need in their trade, they can directly implement it technically – creating a sense of self-efficacy. Additionally, we connect the managing directors of the locations, who often had rare to no interaction and synergies with like-minded individuals before.
From AI developers in Berlin to solar installers in Lingen, you have very different company cultures with 75 locations in Germany, I assume. How do you manage to make these different tribes into a single 1KOMMA5°?
Firstly, we value this diversity of subcultures and don’t believe in a single company culture. What matters are the core values and the open, honest communication spaces. We talk a lot through Slack groups, but we also have an intranet. We follow each other on LinkedIn, and we all support each other in virtual visibility. We use Google Meet for our regular “All Hands” every two weeks, and there are groups and working areas for different fields like marketing, sales, product, or tech. Basically, everything is very transparent; you can see the calendar up to the CEO and join meetings if you’re interested in the content. But physical meetings in our showrooms are also crucial, such as our onboarding days for new talents or our academies, where we regularly ensure that everyone is trained, understands the mission, and can convey the Heartbeat AI dream.
Final question: What role does design play for you?
We incorporate design into all media and materials – from product to brand, end to end. Clean, futuristic, modern, a bit poppy and provocative – we invite everyone to (re)discover renewable energy as something cool and to recognize that electricity from wind and solar not only benefits the climate but also saves money. Many people enjoy wearing our merchandise – teaser: the 1KOMMA5° collection is already in the planning stage. As an AI-based energy platform, we are more of a tech company than just a solar installer and are therefore inspired by lifestyle brands like Apple or Tesla. Or by brands like Red Bull or True Fruits, which are bold in their industry and communicate differently than their competitors. This applies to our entire philosophy and appearance.
Thank you very much for talking to us!