Greg Jackson - Octopus | The UK's Biggest Job Creator | 200th Episode Special

Jimmy's Jobs of the Future

Boxlight Creative Studio

Technology, Business, Careers

5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Want your own Brand or Business Podcast? Try out our NEW Podcast Calculator: https://www.boxlight.io/ Greg Jackson: The Energy CEO Ripping Up the Rulebook For our 200th episode, we’re joined by one of Britain’s most disruptive entrepreneurs. Greg Jackson is the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, a $20 billion company built without corporate rules, rigid hierarchies, or playbooks. In this conversation, he shares how radical trust and freedom helped Octopus scale faster than anyone thought possible — and why AI will change everything about how businesses grow from here. Greg also opens up about leading during a crisis, battling the old guard, and why the future of energy might mean zero bills. If you want to understand how the next generation of companies will really be built — this is the one. 👇 Timestamps: 00:00 How Octopus Almost Had the Worst Name Ever 01:43 Scaling a $20 Billion Company (Without Corporate Rules) 02:56 Why Greg Hired Rebels, Not Professionals 07:44 Freedom and Responsibility: The Octopus Way 15:06 How AI Took Over Octopus Customer Service 22:59 Inventing New Products Customers Actually Want 31:22 Why Big Companies Never Really Listen 32:17 The Secrets Hidden Behind the Octopus Brand 32:46 The Power of Being Weird in Business 34:00 Rory Sutherland’s Hilarious Reaction to Octopus 34:06 How Octopus Built a Customer Army 40:45 Why CEOs Need a Personal Brand (Even If They Hate It) 43:17 What It Was Like Leading During the Energy Crisis 45:23 Why Greg Campaigned Against His Own Industry 46:03 How Family (and Al Gore) Backed Octopus 51:26 Zero-Bill Homes, AI, and the Future of Energy 56:09 Quickfire: Biggest Mistakes, Biggest Wins 🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with the founders, CEOs, and rulebreakers shaping the future. #GregJackson #OctopusEnergy #StartupCulture #FutureOfEnergy #JimmyJobs #BusinessPodcast #AIRevolution #EnergyCrisis ********** Follow us on socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimmysjobs Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jimmysjobsofthefuture Twitter / X: https://www.twitter.com/JimmyM Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-mcloughlin-obe/ Want to come on the show? [email protected] Sponsor the show or Partner with us: [email protected] Credits: Host / Exec Producer: Jimmy McLoughlin OBE Producer: Sunny Winter https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunnywinter/ Editor: Sunny Winter Junior Producer: Thuy Dong Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Jimmy's Jobs of the Future and our 200th episode with Greg Jackson, the CEO and founder of Octopus Energy.
0:08.4	Now there's a lot of reasons why I wanted Greg to be the 200 episode.
0:12.2	But the primary one was the fact that he has probably created more jobs in the United Kingdom than anyone else.
0:17.9	They now employ 11,000 people, having taken on the quite traditional static
0:23.1	energy market by founding Octopus Energy 10 years ago. And we listened to in this episode about
0:29.4	how it's very close to not being called Octopus Energy. And of course, a few years ago,
0:35.8	they took over Bulb as well, who were the first ever guest that we had on the show with Hayden Wood.
0:41.6	So it was a bit of a full circle moment on that as well.
0:44.8	But it's a great story.
0:45.9	It was great to spend the day at Octopus looking at some of the amazing kind of technology that they have coming down the line, how they're doing solar panels, how they're doing electric vehicles. It really was a fascinating time with them. And as Greg talks about in this episode,
1:00.3	we're going to see more change in the energy industry over the next 10 years than we've seen
1:05.2	over the last century. So it's pretty exciting. And energy is at the core of absolutely everything we do. We cannot power
1:12.2	all of these AI systems that we're developing as a species without having high quality
1:18.2	electricity brought to people. So it makes a real difference. So it was great to spend the day
1:23.8	at Octopus with them. Thanks very much for listening and engaging on 200 episodes.
1:28.7	We've only made it this far because you engage.
1:31.3	This is our 200th episode of Jimmy's Jobs to the Future.
1:34.3	To make sure we hit another 200, please make sure you subscribe.
1:50.1	Great, can you give us this idea at the scale of octopus energy and where you're at in terms of revenue and people employed?
1:54.7	It sometimes dazzles me a little bit, to be honest,
1:57.9	but I were a nine-year-old business.
2:01.1	We have a revenue of around $20 billion.
	...

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