ThinkLabs AI Founder and CEO Josh Wong

ThinkLabs AI Founder and CEO Josh Wong

From Watt It Takes by Emily Kirsch

May 28, 2026 · 1h 26m · Episode 99

About this episode

Josh Wong discusses his journey in founding ThinkLabs and the challenges of modernizing the electric grid.

Josh Wong is the Founder and CEO of ThinkLabs, an AI-powered grid intelligence company building a copilot for the electric grid that uses physics-informed models to help utilities plan, simulate, and operate their systems in real time. In this conversation, Josh walks through the path that led him there, from being born in Hong Kong and moving to Toronto as a child, to studying electrical engineering and starting his career at Toronto Hydro, where he saw firsthand how difficult it is to operate the grid in practice. That experience led him to found Opus One, an early platform for modeling and managing distributed energy systems that was later acquired by GE. After the acquisition, Josh found himself returning to the same core problem that had defined much of his career: the grid is becoming more complex, but the tools used to understand and operate it haven’t kept pace, ultimately leading him to start ThinkLabs. He also speaks candidly about the personal side of his journey, including the mental health challenges he faced after his first company, and reflects on what it means to start over while tackling one of the most critical bottlenecks in modern energy.

People in this episode

Host: Emily Kirsch

Guest: Josh Wong

Topics covered

  • AI
  • electric grid
  • energy systems
  • entrepreneurship
  • mental health
  • technology

Keywords

  • AI-powered grid
  • electric grid
  • energy management
  • mental health
  • entrepreneurship
  • distributed energy systems

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ThinkLabs, Toronto Hydro, Opus One, GE

Places: Hong Kong, Toronto

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