# Hami Babai

> Hami Babai is the founder and CEO of Power Kiosk, a Chicago-based cloud platform that turned the messy, paper-heavy world of energy procurement into an online marketplace connecting brokers, suppliers, and customers. An Iranian immigrant who landed in Chicago at 21 with $4,000 and no credit, he earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Northwestern, bootstrapped Power Kiosk for roughly four years, and grew it into one of North America's largest energy brokerage platforms - licensed across dozens of states and provinces and credited with returning well over $100 million in savings to customers.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Power Kiosk
- **Organizations:** Power Kiosk, Best Energy
- **From:** Iran
- **Nationality:** Iranian-American
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Engineering, Northwestern University, M.S., University of Maryland
- **Known for:** Built Power Kiosk into one of North America's largest cloud-based energy procurement marketplaces, Returned well over $100 million (reported up to $200M) in energy savings to customers, Bootstrapped the company for roughly four years before accepting outside funding

## Career timeline

- **circa pre-2011** — Arrived in Chicago from Iran at age 21 with $4,000 and no credit
- **pre-2011** — Served as CTO of Best Energy, an energy brokerage startup
- **2011** — Founded Power Kiosk with the mission to 'simplify complexity with transparency'
- **2013** — After the startup he worked for failed, committed fully to building Power Kiosk
- **2017** — Closed first fundraising round (Seed, ~$520K) and partnered with Steve Joung
- **2018** — Featured on tastytrade's 'Bootstrapping in America' podcast
- **ongoing** — Scaled Power Kiosk to 16,000+ customers, 110+ suppliers, licensed in 34 states and provinces

## Achievements

- Built Power Kiosk into one of North America's largest cloud-based energy procurement marketplaces
- Returned well over $100 million (reported up to $200M) in energy savings to customers
- Bootstrapped the company for roughly four years before accepting outside funding
- Grew from a single employee to a full-time team across Chicago and Atlanta offices
- Earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Northwestern University as an immigrant founder

## Latest updates

- **2018-10** — Featured on tastytrade's 'Bootstrapping in America' discussing how he built Power Kiosk
- **2017-02** — Closed seed funding round and partnered with Steve Joung

## Links

- Website: https://powerkiosk.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/hamedbabai
- Twitter/X: http://twitter.com/powerkiosk
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/powerkiosk

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/hami-babai
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-24