The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Alan Chang on Fuse Energy, the Revolut Playbook, and Building at Record Speed

Podcast: The Twenty Minute VC (20VC)
Host: Harry Stebbings
Guest: Alan Chang, CEO and Co-founder, Fuse Energy (Formerly Revolut)
Date: January 5, 2026
Episode Theme: How Alan scaled Fuse Energy from zero to $260M in three years, championed the "never settle" work ethic, and operationalized lessons from the Revolut hypergrowth playbook—while sharing unflinching takes on startup culture, ambition, energy markets, and hiring.

Episode Overview

This episode is a masterclass in high-performance startup building, fueled by Alan Chang's unapologetic take on ambition, speed, ownership, and what it takes to create category-defining companies. Emerging from pivotal roles at Revolut, Chang built Fuse Energy by ten-x’ing revenues yearly and carrying hard-won philosophies of "extreme ownership" and "no excuses" into the energy sector. The conversation dives deeply into management, culture, hiring, product strategy, fundraising, and Alan’s vision for abundant, cheap power—and how work ethic and urgency, not work-life balance, underpin generational companies.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Career, Joining Revolut, and the Importance of Speed

• Getting Hired at Revolut: Alan’s entry was a serendipitous, ultra-fast process (05:39).
  • “Nick replied within five minutes. I was like, oh wow, that’s very quick. ... He offered me a role right after the interview. I said yes and that was it. That was like the fastest interview process I’ve ever had.” - Alan Chang (06:02)
• Revolut's Unique Culture: Observed that they were always the last team in the coworking space, sparking Alan’s conviction in their ambition (06:45).
  • "Revolut was the only team that worked past 7pm on the weekday. … also the only team that worked on the weekends. So when I realized that, I knew there was something special." - Alan Chang (06:45)
• Execution as Differentiator: Early on, the thesis was clear: product ideas weren’t unique, it was execution speed and ambition that set winners apart (07:31–08:10).
  • "What differentiate[d] between us and everyone else was basically ambition and speed of execution. And that was it." - Alan Chang (08:04)

2. Management, Team Building, and the Playbook for Speed

• Team Structure & Accountability: Favors small, independent teams with clear goals and rapid accountability (08:24).
• Type of Team Members: Draws from Nick’s "self-guided missiles" analogy—the best people set and hit targets independently (08:42).
  • “You want to maximize the first and second group of people ... throughput of your company is basically sum of the number of people in the first and second bucket.” - Alan Chang (08:56)
• Relentless Urgency: Culture of "never settle." Execution was ‘4 out of 10’ last year—constantly push for more (09:51–10:06).
• On Work-Life Balance: No apologies for demanding work ethic; generational businesses require sacrifice (11:06).
  • “Don’t join Fuse… I have total respect for people who want, you know, like nine to five job... but the only way to build a generational company is like, very, very strong work ethic.” - Alan Chang (11:06)

3. Culture: The Revolut Legacy and Fuse’s ‘Never Settle’ Value

• Revolut’s Many Values vs. Simplicity:
  • “Revolut had a lot of cultural values. And to be honest... it’s a bit too many for me ... I think one [is best].” - Alan Chang (11:54)
  • Fuse’s core value: “Never settle. It’s the one that resonated with me the most.” (11:57)
• Perfectionism vs. Pragmatism:
  • “I think you have to pick your battles for sure. … Never settle on [critical] roles. But the roles that matter less, I think it’s perfectly okay to settle.” - Alan Chang (12:33)

4. KPIs, Product Diversification, and Outcome-Driven Management

• On KPIs: Use data-driven targets carefully—over-incentivizing numeric KPIs can create perverse incentives (12:51–13:52).
  • “Once you start incentivizing against that, teams find ways to game it … you should hundred percent do that [for health] but not incentivize everything.” (12:51)
• Aggressive Experimentation: Multiple product experiments at once was crucial to resilience during crises (14:15–14:49).

5. Ambition, Focus, and Scaling: “You Need to Work Weekends to Win”

• Contrarian View on Focus: Instead of hyper-focus, advocates broader ambition—pursue as many opportunities as you have great leaders to own them (38:10).
  • “I actually think there are not enough ambitious founders out there … the expansionist mindset would be I need to hire more leaders in my company so I can pursue more.” - Alan Chang (38:30)
• On Working Weekends: Essential for beating incumbents with smaller balance sheets and resources (40:57).
  • “We're going against big, big, big energy companies with huge balance sheets … the only way to win...is work ethic.” - Alan Chang (41:15)

6. Building Fuse Energy: Bootstrapping, MVPs, and Fundraising

• Fuse Energy’s MVP Story: Built a fully licensed, vertically integrated energy company MVP with just $1 million (41:31).
  • “We found a single wind turbine … for 750k ... a license for 75k … convinced the former CEO of Ofgem to become an advisor with just equity and no cash ... so my advice is...you don’t need a huge seed round to get started.” (41:31–42:22)
• Fundraising Stories: Alan tells the (true) story of turning up to a VC with his Ferrari and raising a $78m seed (43:12–44:07).
• Reflections on Raising: Regrets not waiting for a higher price; values honoring term sheet handshake over maximizing price (44:08–44:41).

7. Talent, Hiring, & Compensation: Radical Candor & High Bars

• Structured Hiring: Graded interviews for core skills and compensation based purely on grading, not experience or previous pay (28:55–30:19).
  • “As a company, we don’t actually use any comp bands, we simply look at the grades and the higher the grade, the higher a bit because ultimately we’re buying skills.” - Alan Chang (29:52)
• On Mis-hires: Used to overvalue IQ, now weighs “deeply caring” much more; asks candidates directly about their motivation and willingness to sacrifice (31:57–33:41).
  • “Even if you hire someone very, very intelligent, but they just don’t care, it’s also not going to work out.” (32:04)
• Non-obvious Red Flags: Never hire for ambition on title or salary expectation—both must be earned (33:33–34:05).
• Letting Go Quickly: No formal pips (performance improvement plans); quick, direct feedback and action (31:24–31:51).

8. Ownership, Accountability, and “No Excuses” Leadership

• On Excuses: Once you’re a leader, reasons for failure are irrelevant (34:21–35:12).
  • “Excuses don’t matter. If you’re a leader ... If you succeed, you get all the praise. If you fail, you get all the blame. And it does not matter why you failed.” - Alan Chang (35:12)
• Direct Feedback: Top performers take harsh feedback well and improve; if not, they’re not top performers (36:00–36:35).

9. Energy Market Realities & Chang’s Vision

• UK & Global Energy Crisis: UK has overregulated, under-built, and lagged behind China & US in energy capacity, affecting cost and quality of life (18:32–19:13; 23:42–24:47).
  • “In China, they build everything ... Clearly they understand the importance of energy costs and they’re just building everything. I think that’s a model economy we should follow for energy policy.” - Alan Chang (24:47)
• ‘Renewable’ Claims Are Misleading: No grid can be 100% wind/solar because storage and grid constraints make it impossible—companies claiming so are misrepresenting (21:09–22:49).
• If Energy Czar: Deregulate all building and ax all subsidies—let cost and efficiency win (22:56–23:34).
  • “A subsidy … means it’s actually not profitable to build this project. … I’ll delete all subsidies and let the free market do its thing.” - Alan Chang (23:07)

10. Personal Reflections, Wealth, and Long-Term Vision

• Relationship to Money: Beyond 'level five', it’s just a means to create and buy back time (46:11–47:17).
  • “For me ... money is great, but beyond levels of personal consumption ... it becomes a means to an end.” - Alan Chang (46:11)
• On Going All In: Leaving Revolut was hardest—Nick asked thrice if Alan was sure (50:05–50:41).
• On Fuse’s Potential: “We could be bigger than Shell.” (51:55)
• IPO? No rush; happy to stay private unless liquidity dries up (52:19).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Work Ethic:
  “If you have a gun pointed to your head today, would you have done more? If the answer is yes, that means you’re not doing a good job.” – Alan Chang (00:00, 10:20)
• On Accountability:
  “Excuses don’t matter. If you’re a leader of an area in the company, excuses don’t matter.” (35:12)
• On Focus vs. Ambition:
  “I actually think there are not enough ambitious founders out there … the expansionist mindset would be I need to hire more leaders so I can pursue more.” (38:30)
• On Culture:
  “‘Never settle’ is the one that resonated with me the most.” (11:57)
• On Product Diversification:
  “We need to do everything.” (38:01)
• On Building MVPs:
  “You don’t need a huge seed round to get started.” (42:22)
• On the UK’s Energy Woes:
  “The problem is not capital, the problem is it’s very, very hard to build.” (19:13)
• On What Money Buys:
  “I think it buys you time. Actually buys you quite a bit time back.” (47:17)
• On Leaving Revolut:
  “He asked me, are you sure? Three times. And I said, I’m sure three times.” (50:12)
• On Vision:
  “We’d love to build a world where power is so cheap and abundant that any builder, AI or otherwise, don’t even think about power anymore...” (53:00)

Key Timestamps for Major Topics

• Alan’s Revolut Origin Story: 05:39–06:14
• Culture & Execution at Revolut: 06:45–08:10
• Management, People, and Culture: 08:38–12:01
• KPIs, Gaming, and Incentive Pitfalls: 12:51–13:52
• Ambition and Focus in Startups: 38:01–39:26
• Energy Markets, Policy, and the Realities of Renewable Claims: 18:32–24:47
• Fuse’s MVP Creation Story: 41:31–42:22
• Fundraising Antics: 43:12–44:41
• Hiring Philosophy & Process: 28:55–34:16
• Accountability & Feedback: 34:21–36:35
• Personal Wealth & Relationship to Money: 46:11–47:17
• Fuse’s Scale and Vision: 51:39–53:00

Final Words

Throughout, Chang is clear: "nothing wrong with wanting work-life balance, but to build a generational company" demands relentless work, high standards, and total accountability—anything less, he says, belongs elsewhere. For founders (and investors) aiming for outlier impact, this episode is a riveting blueprint and a challenge.

“We’d love to build a world where power is so cheap and abundant that any builder, AI or otherwise, don’t even think about power anymore and they can just build more and economies start growing again as a result. That’ll be great.” – Alan Chang (53:00)