Technology: JESSICA MATTHEWS IS POWERFULLY UNCHARTED

by Andrea Bazoin, M.Ed., Founder of everHuman

CEO. Jessica Matthews is about movement.

Her dual citizenship comes from her parents' movement, who emigrated from Nigeria to New York, USA, where she was raised.

As a junior at Harvard University, Matthews invented the

SOCCKET Ball, a soccer ball that captures and stores Motion-based, Off-grid, Renewable Energy (MORE) to power homes in the developing world.

In 2011, Matthews founded Uncharted Power with a mission to utilize the untapped clean, renewable, kinetic energy (the energy of movement) to power rapidly-developing smart communities across the world. In 2017, the team raised over $7M in Series A venture capital.

Now in its fourth iteration, Uncharted Power’s Think Out of Bounds educational curriculum has created a movement to empower young inventors through partnerships with local nonprofits in the United States (New York, Maryland, Florida), Africa (Nigeria and Swaziland), Europe (Germany) and Puerto Rico.

Today, Matthews and her team at Uncharted Power are preparing to make big moves to decentralize energy infrastructures in the developing world, which will catalyze change for utility industries, land developers, community developers, Tel-Co’s and 5G service providers, Internet of Things (IoT), and more.

Matthews’ moves generate powerful kinetic energy.

So, what sustains Matthews with all of this power?

“Regardless of where I was specifically born, who I am is very much is grounded in the fact that I am Nigerian-American. It’s not one or the other, and not necessarily one more than the other. It is my complete situation. I would not be who I am today if I did not have that juxtaposition,” shares Matthews.

“If you just see me as an African-American person in the United States,” Matthews continues, “you wouldn’t understand why it was so important for me to solve this problem - what I was doing in Nigeria and the root cause that pushed this.

Simultaneously, if I were calling myself Nigerian, you wouldn’t understand how I was exposed to enough resources to solve this problem. My Nigerian side made me believe that change was possible. My American side exposed me to the connections and resources I needed to make it happen.”

For Matthews, her hyphens have been her competitive advantage against those who would underestimate her.

Jessica Matthews with investors celebrity comedian and TV star Hannibal Burress and Z Digital PR Maven Zena Hanna.

For Matthews, her hyphens have been her competitive advantage against those who would underestimate her.

“As a woman,” Matthews explains, “people will inherently see you as less. Whether you’re speaking about what your technology can do, or you’re going to the hospital saying ‘I’m sick, and I need medication.’

You add on being a black woman, it multiplies. I decided this would be my competitive advantage. Being underestimated enabled me to have a safe space to till, nurture, and cultivate my vision without people immediately saying, ‘You’re a target. We need to end you.’ Instead, they thought, ‘You’re no threat.’ If you’re spending half your time blocking people, you’re not building. The mistake they made is they gave me enough time to quietly build a team, build out IP, and build a level of confidence.

Sometimes you don’t need everyone to believe in you; you just need time to figure out what you’re building and how you’re going to be prepared to stand next to it. So, now we’re entering a stage of the organization where we’re about to show everyone what we’re doing. Sometimes being underestimated can protect you.”

As a company, Uncharted Power is preparing to move from quietly building to boldly shining.

“In the last few years,” Matthews explains, “we’ve been working on technology for infrastructure, meaning not something you can buy off the shelf or on Amazon, but the things you find around you in your build environment. It required us to understand way more about energy infrastructure than probably 99% of the world. Everyone understands a soccer ball that generates energy. Very few people understand why decentralized power, transmitted through underground or above-ground transmission lines, is what’s holding us back. By 2020, we will begin showcasing our very precise solution, including the team we’ve built to make it happen.”

For Matthews, inspiration and service are at the heart of Uncharted Power.

“We want to serve and inspire a billion people,” Matthews shares. “We need as many people as possible to believe they can be part of the solution.”

Today, Matthews continues to lead a movement of empowerment by leveraging her hyphens.

“Our intersectionality shouldn’t be something you gloss over,” asserts Matthews, “It should be something you lean into because it enables you to build empathy with as many different types of people as possible. We should take the time to hyphenate, then lean in and understand it. We need to own our other.”

Jessica Matthews with NBA star and Uncharted Power investor Chris Paul.