The Solo Founder Who Timed the Wave
Plug is announcing a $20M raise led by LSVP. Here’s the behind-the scenes story of a solo founder with an earned insight and incredible timing.
"Co-founder conflict is one of the top killers of a startup, if not the number one killer."
Jimmy Douglas spent years at Tesla watching the EV market take shape. He was well-compensated, working at what he calls "one of the best companies of all time." Staying would have been the safe play. But in 2022, two things happened at once:
First, his son was born. "Suddenly, my relationship with time changed overnight. Every minute spent working meant time away from being a father, so I needed to make it count." Jimmy had grown up in an entrepreneurial household, always figured he'd start something eventually. His son made him stop waiting.
Second, he noticed something in the Inflation Reduction Act that most had missed. The law included a provision that made any new EV eligible for the federal tax credit—as long as it was leased. Jimmy knew what that meant. Leasing would surge. And 36 months later, when those leases expired, a flood of used inventory would hit the market. He wasn't predicting—he was just doing the math.
So he left Tesla to build Plug.
The Floodgate relationship is its own story.
Jimmy didn't run a formal fundraising process. He spent a year building a relationship with Floodgate through what he describes as "a process of ideation" — meeting every two or three months.
"It wasn't me showing up with conviction, pitching them on funding a company. It was us mutually kicking a soccer ball around the concept of used EVs, what business models should exist, and where the venture-scale opportunities were."
By the time they put a term sheet down, both sides already believed. No formal process needed.
(In our conversations he also made a point about Ann Miura-Ko being a "marketplace master" and Mike Maples Jr. being a "business model genius" — both accurate)
The wave is here.
More than 1.1 million EV lease returns are expected to hit the U.S. market over the next three years. Plug launched in 2024. In Q4 2025, they sold more EVs than in all of 2024. Today, they announced a $20 million Series A led by Lightspeed.
Jimmy's take on the partnership with LSVP: "When you meet a team that you vibe with and build conviction quickly, you know it when you feel it. I felt that way when I interviewed at Tesla, like it was where I was supposed to be."
What's interesting about Plug now is how much bigger the scope has gotten. It started as a B2B auction. Now it's several business units feeding one another. "With our expansion of scope, our ceiling raised to much greater heights." Meanwhile, incumbents are pulling back as the EV market softens, which Jimmy sees as more room to fill, not a warning sign.
On equity.
When we interviewed Jimmy for The State of Solo Founding, he made a comment that stuck with me. He said solo founders can afford to be more generous with equity because they're starting with at least twice as much.
But when I asked if his dilution was consistent with co-founded peers, he said: "We've taken on way more."
Why? Partly because they really liked the partners at the table. Partly because they think they can skip the next round entirely with the right execution.
It's a good reminder that solo founding isn't only about control. It's about having more to work with.
