Some of today’s greatest tech innovations were brainstormed in dorm rooms, which Josh Aviv can attest to.

In a previous interview with AfroTech, the SparkCharge founder revealed to us that his mobile electric vehicle charging station company started in college.

“While on the campus of Syracuse University, we were the definition of a dorm room startup,” Aviv told AfroTech exclusively in February 2022. From there, we had the opportunity to really receive some really good investments.”

He continued: “And we were able to grow the company from one founder to a team of just about 40 employees.”

By helping to solve the barriers for more people to tap into EVs by creating an on-demand mobile electric charging network, SparkCharge has generated $110 million.

In an interview with CNBC Make It, Aviv broke down how he was able to achieve this at just 30-years-old.

Back in 2014, Aviv learned of an opportunity that would eventually become life-changing.

“A [economics] professor came into class one day and said, ‘If you want to solve a huge problem for the world, solve the problem of infrastructure for electric vehicles,'” Aviv told CNBC. “And he said, ‘If you’re interested, meet me after class’ and I was the only person to show up.”

From there, Aviv created the idea of SparkCharge.

Timeline of SparkCharge's Funding:

  • 2017, won $4,500 in his first pitch competition at Syracuse; then, raised around $150,000 in total from other competitions
  • 2018, received $500,000 in an initial round from Point Judith Capital
  • 2020, gained $1 million from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner during his appearance on “Shark Tank”
  • 2022, raised $30 million

Word Of Advice From Mark Cuban

“I think some good advice that we’ve received from Mark would just be to manage your cash flow,” Aviv told the outlet. “I think startups come and go based off of how well they’re able to manage their cash flow. I think another big one is to make sure you pick the right team. So make sure that you invest in your team and invest in your culture.”

According to Aviv, in 2022, SparkCharge was on track to bring $10 million in revenue, as well as to deliver one million miles of range to EV owners and the company’s fleet partners.

What’s more, SparkCharge plans to expand to San Diego, Phoenix, and New York in 2023.