Like so many great startups, it’s electric was born during the pandemic.
As an environmentalist based in New York City, Tiya Gordon considered buying an EV for safer traveling, but noticed a lack of EV chargers around the city. This need got her wheels turning, and while on a classic pandemic walk, she and her future co-founder Nathan King struck on a novel solution: power from local buildings.
it’s electric taps into buildings’ electrical supply, bringing easy-to-deploy EV chargers to the curb and revenue sharing with building owners. The tech connects behind the meter, meaning the startup and building owners don’t need to interface with the utilities, and a separate meter keeps the charging bill distinct from the rest of the buildings’ power totals.
The startup’s EV chargers are small and sleek, drawing on Gordon’s 20-year career of exploring “how to put hardware in public places”—she previously helped design the public-facing technology for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. These chargers aren’t eyesores; they’re meant to blend into a city street, much like fire hydrants. it’s electric’s chargers can be deployed in just two days once all permits are secured. The installation process is also more cost-effective and less disruptive compared to that of traditional, utility-connected EV chargers.
The startup’s chargers also don’t have attached charging cables, which both contributes to the compact design and addresses the fact that these cables are the most-broken part of EV chargers. Instead, it’s electric sends its users their own detachable cables, which they can keep in their cars. Gordon explains that detachable cables have already been standard in parts of Europe for about a decade.
it’s electric’s model is deeply integrated into the communities where it deploys. The startup first gets permission from city officials, then partners with local property owners—of all types of buildings—to install chargers and set up revenue sharing. Residents download an app to locate it’s electric’s chargers and receive their detachable cables.
The benefits are local as well: in addition to built-out EV-charging infrastructure, residents can enjoy cleaner air in their cities as more drivers transition to electric vehicles. In it’s electric’s pilot projects, three chargers eliminated 23.4 metric tons of tailpipe emissions over three months.
The startup cut the ribbon on its first curbside deployment this week, part of a partnership with the City of Boston to rapidly deploy EV chargers.
“We’re so excited to call Boston our first home,” says Gordon, the startup’s COO. “We won the opportunity to deploy curbside charging to meet Mayor Wu’s mandate that there be a public EV charger within a five-minute walk of every Bostonian.”
it’s electric plans to install its first 200 chargers in Boston, Los Angeles, and other cities over the next year. Chargers are deployed at no cost to the building owners, and revenue sharing can start at $1,000 per charger per year, according to the startup. Interested property owners can get in touch here.
The nine-person, seed-stage startup joined Greentown Boston in early 2025 as a way to help get embedded in the local climatetech ecosystem.
“We’ve had Greentown on our radar forever, and as soon as we were able to stand up our local team in Boston, we knew this is where we wanted to be,” Gordon says.