Meet the founder
Meet the founder
Meet the founder
Ben Jakeman Founders story
YO YO YO!
I didn’t want this to be another big ego bragging about what they’ve done in life!
Ben Jakeman here, QLD licensed electrician 1509003, ok that’s boring bit out the way!
I grew poor, one of 4 boys, a single mother, what a legend she was! Growing up in northern England then was tough, a council village of around 2000, you know the type, everyone marries each others sisters type of place 🤣, bullying, drugs and a very, very limited belief, it was time to escape!
I’m here to provide a solution to your problems, the same one I have at home in Andergrove, insane electricity bills.
We’re building a cool solution, driven by AI, starting with real readings so you can see where your money’s actually going!
I’m here to share how we do it if you’re interested, how I eventually came to this idea in life, now at 44, eeeeeeek! Skip here (link to how it works) if you don’t want to hear my dribble on.
It turns out I figured out my core values for the business from positive & negative experience in life, or I like to frame them, life lessons and especially adversity, it can really spin life’s view point on its head and use that to fuel personal growth.
Number 1 has to be transparency, don’t you hate it when people, things, products, governments and especially businesses are not transparent? I turns out I did, and I do!
Moving to the military at 21 from another trade I’d finished (boiler maker as my Aussie friends like to call it)
I felt like something was missing in life, frustrated by a lack of transparency and INTEGRITY (our 3rd company core value).
So joining the army was my solution at the time fixing this, it started my life as a sparky, being trained on helicopters, no not Apache! I didn’t last long enough for that, lynx helicopters, I learned I hated the lack of transparency you find in all big organisations, not all but dam near most!
I bounced around a lot in life until I was lucky enough to meet my wife, being from a broken home in reflection had a real fight or flight in me, it taught me to run when things were bad!
It did turn out to be very useful, even though all my life I’d been told by people, you need to settle in a job, a relationship, it looks bad they say!
It turns out it wasn’t bad at all, I’ve had the opportunity to work around the world and gather some amazing life lessons and skills, Thailand, Oman, Dubai, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, UK and obviously Australia, what an amazing country we have, especially this area of Mackay, working class people who don’t take themselves to seriously!
But what actually changed my trajectory in life was working 2 years on a small island in Sierra Leone west Africa! At 30 this began the phase of meeting my wife, it turns out I needed to go to Sierra Leone to realise how lucky I was in life
These boys, Men and girls taught me more about life than anyone has, part of a 10 year war, literally being forced into military life and forced to hack villagers arms off if they were on the wrong side!
These people are still the happiest people I’ve ever met, living in sheer poverty of houses built from sticks, no running water or toilets, pissing and Shitting in the streets!
They are the reason I’m a better person, and call people brother and sister now, because they did.
We are human and we forget to treat others that way. I see the person at the other side of the conversation now, even in conflict and people I’ll never be friends with.
Be kind to yourself, your neighbour and especially strangers, you never know the role they will play in your life, whether you believe In God or the universe, we somehow all connected on a level we haven’t come to Understand yet!
This time created a better me, not long after Africa and some other places, meeting my amazing wife, 11 years this year we’ve been together.
My wife encouraged me to start my own business at the time in the UK, ending up with a team of 11 of us, mainly self employed Contractors, doing it for the love. I grieve I ran that business, alongside a non profit before Covid collapsed it, moving to self employed under a new business before
Coming back to the sparky game and eventually Australia.
Just over 2 years now in Australia and I’m still work in my chosen profession, marine sparky, I mean what a part of the world to do it!
(And here’s where the business I now have, Aussie grid came from)
I was sat down one day with my boss Glenn, a great guy! Discussing what he’d used AI for, and I encourage you to do the same, I clearly did!. That along with inspiration from my favourite podcast on abundance and technology- Moonshots!
My boss Glenn punched in the company details, smooth torque marine and what opportunities lie in wait for us to discover with our current skills?, fast forward to us becoming a dealer for a Scandinavian company that builds electric drives for sailing boats, OCEANVOLT! It also showed me how much time small business owners lose to admin, and that stuck with me.
Weeks had passed till my Autism brain figured out I needed to do the same!
I fed into the only AI to use in my eyes, shout out to my chief technical officer CTO GROK! I fed in what I love, what my skills are, who I am as a person and what opportunities lie out there for me.
Going through all the ideas, we came to Aussie Grid. It starts with monitoring: weeks of real data from your system, explained plainly. Any optimisation comes later, and only if you approve it.
The goal, once we have the evidence, is a mini virtual power plant. Homes that choose it could sell spare solar to a neighbour for a better return than the grid. That is not today. The Mackay pilot listens first, shows a plain report, and you decide any next step.
Then something happened I didn’t see coming. I was helping a local marine business owner sort out their CRM and stock system. We moved it off one AI tool and rebuilt it properly with Grok and a couple of other tools. Watching that come together, I saw the same thing I see at Smooth Torque with Glenn: the boss still doing quotes, invoices and admin long after the team’s knocked off.
That’s where Business Services came from. Practical AI tools that take the routine admin off small business owners, with you seeing the progress, the real cost and the hours, and nothing going out in your name until you approve it. It’s now our open line.
Solar Software stays in pilot, listening first and proving real readings. And marine work, my own trade, launches as part of Aussie Grid in 2027.
100% TRANSPARENCY! It’s that simple, a simple idea that’s a nightmare to create, but damn, I won’t give up till our app is finished and you’ve got a clear view of your electricity, and the choice of what to do about it.
From a broken home in North Yorkshire in England, to an awesome city in Queensland, I’ve been on a journey, gathered the skills and more importantly the right moral fibre to build you something, well transparent.
Aussie grid, LISTEN 1ST, OPTIMISE 2ND, YOU DECIDE.
Gratitude
Ben Jakeman 🙏
Ben Jakeman Founders story
YO YO YO!
I didn’t want this to be another big ego bragging about what they’ve done in life!
Ben Jakeman here, QLD licensed electrician 1509003, ok that’s boring bit out the way!
I grew poor, one of 4 boys, a single mother, what a legend she was! Growing up in northern England then was tough, a council village of around 2000, you know the type, everyone marries each others sisters type of place 🤣, bullying, drugs and a very, very limited belief, it was time to escape!
I’m here to provide a solution to your problems, the same one I have at home in Andergrove, insane electricity bills.
We’re building a cool solution, driven by AI, starting with real readings so you can see where your money’s actually going!
I’m here to share how we do it if you’re interested, how I eventually came to this idea in life, now at 44, eeeeeeek! Skip here (link to how it works) if you don’t want to hear my dribble on.
It turns out I figured out my core values for the business from positive & negative experience in life, or I like to frame them, life lessons and especially adversity, it can really spin life’s view point on its head and use that to fuel personal growth.
Number 1 has to be transparency, don’t you hate it when people, things, products, governments and especially businesses are not transparent? I turns out I did, and I do!
Moving to the military at 21 from another trade I’d finished (boiler maker as my Aussie friends like to call it)
I felt like something was missing in life, frustrated by a lack of transparency and INTEGRITY (our 3rd company core value).
So joining the army was my solution at the time fixing this, it started my life as a sparky, being trained on helicopters, no not Apache! I didn’t last long enough for that, lynx helicopters, I learned I hated the lack of transparency you find in all big organisations, not all but dam near most!
I bounced around a lot in life until I was lucky enough to meet my wife, being from a broken home in reflection had a real fight or flight in me, it taught me to run when things were bad!
It did turn out to be very useful, even though all my life I’d been told by people, you need to settle in a job, a relationship, it looks bad they say!
It turns out it wasn’t bad at all, I’ve had the opportunity to work around the world and gather some amazing life lessons and skills, Thailand, Oman, Dubai, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, UK and obviously Australia, what an amazing country we have, especially this area of Mackay, working class people who don’t take themselves to seriously!
But what actually changed my trajectory in life was working 2 years on a small island in Sierra Leone west Africa! At 30 this began the phase of meeting my wife, it turns out I needed to go to Sierra Leone to realise how lucky I was in life
These boys, Men and girls taught me more about life than anyone has, part of a 10 year war, literally being forced into military life and forced to hack villagers arms off if they were on the wrong side!
These people are still the happiest people I’ve ever met, living in sheer poverty of houses built from sticks, no running water or toilets, pissing and Shitting in the streets!
They are the reason I’m a better person, and call people brother and sister now, because they did.
We are human and we forget to treat others that way. I see the person at the other side of the conversation now, even in conflict and people I’ll never be friends with.
Be kind to yourself, your neighbour and especially strangers, you never know the role they will play in your life, whether you believe In God or the universe, we somehow all connected on a level we haven’t come to Understand yet!
This time created a better me, not long after Africa and some other places, meeting my amazing wife, 11 years this year we’ve been together.
My wife encouraged me to start my own business at the time in the UK, ending up with a team of 11 of us, mainly self employed Contractors, doing it for the love. I grieve I ran that business, alongside a non profit before Covid collapsed it, moving to self employed under a new business before
Coming back to the sparky game and eventually Australia.
Just over 2 years now in Australia and I’m still work in my chosen profession, marine sparky, I mean what a part of the world to do it!
(And here’s where the business I now have, Aussie grid came from)
I was sat down one day with my boss Glenn, a great guy! Discussing what he’d used AI for, and I encourage you to do the same, I clearly did!. That along with inspiration from my favourite podcast on abundance and technology- Moonshots!
My boss Glenn punched in the company details, smooth torque marine and what opportunities lie in wait for us to discover with our current skills?, fast forward to us becoming a dealer for a Scandinavian company that builds electric drives for sailing boats, OCEANVOLT! It also showed me how much time small business owners lose to admin, and that stuck with me.
Weeks had passed till my Autism brain figured out I needed to do the same!
I fed into the only AI to use in my eyes, shout out to my chief technical officer CTO GROK! I fed in what I love, what my skills are, who I am as a person and what opportunities lie out there for me.
Going through all the ideas, we came to Aussie Grid. It starts with monitoring: weeks of real data from your system, explained plainly. Any optimisation comes later, and only if you approve it.
The goal, once we have the evidence, is a mini virtual power plant. Homes that choose it could sell spare solar to a neighbour for a better return than the grid. That is not today. The Mackay pilot listens first, shows a plain report, and you decide any next step.
Then something happened I didn’t see coming. I was helping a local marine business owner sort out their CRM and stock system. We moved it off one AI tool and rebuilt it properly with Grok and a couple of other tools. Watching that come together, I saw the same thing I see at Smooth Torque with Glenn: the boss still doing quotes, invoices and admin long after the team’s knocked off.
That’s where Business Services came from. Practical AI tools that take the routine admin off small business owners, with you seeing the progress, the real cost and the hours, and nothing going out in your name until you approve it. It’s now our open line.
Solar Software stays in pilot, listening first and proving real readings. And marine work, my own trade, launches as part of Aussie Grid in 2027.
100% TRANSPARENCY! It’s that simple, a simple idea that’s a nightmare to create, but damn, I won’t give up till our app is finished and you’ve got a clear view of your electricity, and the choice of what to do about it.
From a broken home in North Yorkshire in England, to an awesome city in Queensland, I’ve been on a journey, gathered the skills and more importantly the right moral fibre to build you something, well transparent.
Aussie grid, LISTEN 1ST, OPTIMISE 2ND, YOU DECIDE.
Gratitude
Ben Jakeman 🙏
Ben Jakeman Founders story
YO YO YO!
I didn’t want this to be another big ego bragging about what they’ve done in life!
Ben Jakeman here, QLD licensed electrician 1509003, ok that’s boring bit out the way!
I grew poor, one of 4 boys, a single mother, what a legend she was! Growing up in northern England then was tough, a council village of around 2000, you know the type, everyone marries each others sisters type of place 🤣, bullying, drugs and a very, very limited belief, it was time to escape!
I’m here to provide a solution to your problems, the same one I have at home in Andergrove, insane electricity bills.
We’re building a cool solution, driven by AI, starting with real readings so you can see where your money’s actually going!
I’m here to share how we do it if you’re interested, how I eventually came to this idea in life, now at 44, eeeeeeek! Skip here (link to how it works) if you don’t want to hear my dribble on.
It turns out I figured out my core values for the business from positive & negative experience in life, or I like to frame them, life lessons and especially adversity, it can really spin life’s view point on its head and use that to fuel personal growth.
Number 1 has to be transparency, don’t you hate it when people, things, products, governments and especially businesses are not transparent? I turns out I did, and I do!
Moving to the military at 21 from another trade I’d finished (boiler maker as my Aussie friends like to call it)
I felt like something was missing in life, frustrated by a lack of transparency and INTEGRITY (our 3rd company core value).
So joining the army was my solution at the time fixing this, it started my life as a sparky, being trained on helicopters, no not Apache! I didn’t last long enough for that, lynx helicopters, I learned I hated the lack of transparency you find in all big organisations, not all but dam near most!
I bounced around a lot in life until I was lucky enough to meet my wife, being from a broken home in reflection had a real fight or flight in me, it taught me to run when things were bad!
It did turn out to be very useful, even though all my life I’d been told by people, you need to settle in a job, a relationship, it looks bad they say!
It turns out it wasn’t bad at all, I’ve had the opportunity to work around the world and gather some amazing life lessons and skills, Thailand, Oman, Dubai, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, UK and obviously Australia, what an amazing country we have, especially this area of Mackay, working class people who don’t take themselves to seriously!
But what actually changed my trajectory in life was working 2 years on a small island in Sierra Leone west Africa! At 30 this began the phase of meeting my wife, it turns out I needed to go to Sierra Leone to realise how lucky I was in life
These boys, Men and girls taught me more about life than anyone has, part of a 10 year war, literally being forced into military life and forced to hack villagers arms off if they were on the wrong side!
These people are still the happiest people I’ve ever met, living in sheer poverty of houses built from sticks, no running water or toilets, pissing and Shitting in the streets!
They are the reason I’m a better person, and call people brother and sister now, because they did.
We are human and we forget to treat others that way. I see the person at the other side of the conversation now, even in conflict and people I’ll never be friends with.
Be kind to yourself, your neighbour and especially strangers, you never know the role they will play in your life, whether you believe In God or the universe, we somehow all connected on a level we haven’t come to Understand yet!
This time created a better me, not long after Africa and some other places, meeting my amazing wife, 11 years this year we’ve been together.
My wife encouraged me to start my own business at the time in the UK, ending up with a team of 11 of us, mainly self employed Contractors, doing it for the love. I grieve I ran that business, alongside a non profit before Covid collapsed it, moving to self employed under a new business before
Coming back to the sparky game and eventually Australia.
Just over 2 years now in Australia and I’m still work in my chosen profession, marine sparky, I mean what a part of the world to do it!
(And here’s where the business I now have, Aussie grid came from)
I was sat down one day with my boss Glenn, a great guy! Discussing what he’d used AI for, and I encourage you to do the same, I clearly did!. That along with inspiration from my favourite podcast on abundance and technology- Moonshots!
My boss Glenn punched in the company details, smooth torque marine and what opportunities lie in wait for us to discover with our current skills?, fast forward to us becoming a dealer for a Scandinavian company that builds electric drives for sailing boats, OCEANVOLT! It also showed me how much time small business owners lose to admin, and that stuck with me.
Weeks had passed till my Autism brain figured out I needed to do the same!
I fed into the only AI to use in my eyes, shout out to my chief technical officer CTO GROK! I fed in what I love, what my skills are, who I am as a person and what opportunities lie out there for me.
Going through all the ideas, we came to Aussie Grid. It starts with monitoring: weeks of real data from your system, explained plainly. Any optimisation comes later, and only if you approve it.
The goal, once we have the evidence, is a mini virtual power plant. Homes that choose it could sell spare solar to a neighbour for a better return than the grid. That is not today. The Mackay pilot listens first, shows a plain report, and you decide any next step.
Then something happened I didn’t see coming. I was helping a local marine business owner sort out their CRM and stock system. We moved it off one AI tool and rebuilt it properly with Grok and a couple of other tools. Watching that come together, I saw the same thing I see at Smooth Torque with Glenn: the boss still doing quotes, invoices and admin long after the team’s knocked off.
That’s where Business Services came from. Practical AI tools that take the routine admin off small business owners, with you seeing the progress, the real cost and the hours, and nothing going out in your name until you approve it. It’s now our open line.
Solar Software stays in pilot, listening first and proving real readings. And marine work, my own trade, launches as part of Aussie Grid in 2027.
100% TRANSPARENCY! It’s that simple, a simple idea that’s a nightmare to create, but damn, I won’t give up till our app is finished and you’ve got a clear view of your electricity, and the choice of what to do about it.
From a broken home in North Yorkshire in England, to an awesome city in Queensland, I’ve been on a journey, gathered the skills and more importantly the right moral fibre to build you something, well transparent.
Aussie grid, LISTEN 1ST, OPTIMISE 2ND, YOU DECIDE.
Gratitude
Ben Jakeman 🙏
Aussie grid story
Aussie grid story
Aussie grid story
After years in the trade, in the UK and here in Australia, I kept seeing the same thing. Homes had solar on the roof and still weren’t getting a clear picture of what it did.
Electricity prices are still high, even in Queensland. That was the necessity. People were generating their own power and still paying a lot for the rest.
That’s why I started Aussie Grid.
We connect a Sungrow(Tesla or Sygenergy) , pull real readings, and write a plain weekly report. The dollar on it is an estimate against Ergon time-of-use. Not a bill, and not a promise.
The Mackay pilot is the first step. Starting small. Staying local. After a few weeks of evidence, you decide any next step. Nothing is shared with anyone. Control is a choice, not a claim.
Listen first. Optimise second. You decide.
Want a clear picture of what your solar is really doing? Join the Mackay pilot. Listen first, then you decide.