Founder · Futurist · Catalyst
Jay
Jay
Giraud
Five companies. One conviction: technology should make the world measurably better.
$200M+Raised
16+Years CEO
5Companies Built
Five companies. One conviction: technology should make the world measurably better.
In 2007, after intensive leadership training, Jay articulated a life purpose: to transform transportation. He concluded it has the single greatest effect on quality of life for societies worldwide.
That conviction led him from the halfpipes of Whistler through five companies across four industries — Gauge Clothing, REV Technologies, Mojio, Damon Motors, and TAVU Kava — each building on the last.
Today Jay helps founders compress decades of hard-won wisdom into faster, smarter outcomes. He brings the credibility of someone who has lived the pressure, the pivots, and the price of building from nothing — all the way to public markets.
"A clear vision is everything. It's the compass that aligns teams, attracts the right partners, and keeps you grounded when everything else gets chaotic."— Jay Giraud
Jay has been ahead of major mobility and energy transitions — not as a commentator, but as a builder operating inside them for two decades.
1.5 billion people commute on motorcycles daily — the global market sells twice as many bikes as cars every year. Yet safety innovation in two-wheels was nearly nonexistent until Damon. Jay saw this gap in Jakarta and spent seven years building the solution: sensor fusion, AI co-pilot, and adaptive ergonomics on a single electric platform.
As early as 2008, Jay envisioned EVs not as cars but as battery banks in a distributed, intelligent energy grid. His AutoGrid™ platform at REV Technologies demonstrated that thousands of vehicles in a city could function as a single virtual power plant. V2G wasn't a buzzword — it was a business Jay built for the U.S. military in 2008.
In 2012, before "connected car" was an industry category, Jay built Mojio — a plug-in device that turned any vehicle into a smart, data-streaming asset. T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, and Bosch validated the thesis with capital and global rollouts across 9 countries. Today connected car is a multi-billion dollar industry.
While the auto industry debated whether electric vehicles were viable, Jay was asking a harder question: what happens to the grid when millions of EVs plug in simultaneously?
His answer was AutoGrid™ — a cloud-based energy management platform that synchronized stored vehicle power with the fluctuating needs of the electrical grid. Rather than treating EVs as cars, Jay's system treated them as dynamic battery banks that could absorb surplus renewable energy and return it on demand.
AutoGrid could aggregate thousands of city vehicles as a single virtual power plant — providing frequency regulation, load shedding, peak shaving, and renewable storage. The U.S. Army contracted REV multiple times to deploy this technology at military microgrids.
Jay Giraud at REV Technologies with SAIC AutoGrid™ electric truck, c. 2010
By 2020, Jay projected, EV networking would be worth $40 billion. V2G has since become one of the most funded segments in clean energy. He was building it in 2008.
Solar & wind sources feed intermittent energy — AutoGrid stabilizes by absorbing surplus peaks in real-time
Plugged-in vehicles act as distributed battery banks, available on-demand from any network node
Patent-pending algorithms predict & optimize energy dispatch across thousands of vehicles simultaneously
Grid operators see an entire EV fleet as one controllable asset — frequency regulation, spinning reserves & more
Fleet owners earn $2,000–$3,000/vehicle/year by letting the grid access their stored capacity
U.S. Army, SAIC & Honeywell Aerospace contracted REV Technologies — multiple TARDEC programs
Jay has operated at every stage of the startup journey — from fashion to automotive tech to consumer beverages to NASDAQ. The numbers tell part of the story.
Tech startup Damon wants to bring shape-shifting and crash avoidance to motorcycles — and Jay Giraud is the founder leading the charge.
Forbes · July 2019Veteran entrepreneur on a quest to make motorcycling safer. Giraud is on his third startup — and it may well be his biggest challenge yet.
The Globe and Mail · 2019Jay Giraud figures he's logged 64,000 kilometres performing CEO duties over four years — all on motorcycles. "We don't take the time to breathe," he says of Damon's transformation.
Business in Vancouver · October 2021Motorcycling is 36 times more life-threatening than driving a car, killing over 3,000 people every single day. Giraud saw this as a massive market failure — and built the answer.
EP&T Magazine · 2020Hearing Giraud talk about the project, it doesn't sound like inflated ego — he actually believes in making the world a little better and a little safer.
Ride Apart · 2020Named among the Top 10 Most Perseverant Entrepreneurs — recognized for building category-defining companies through turbulence and unwavering conviction.
Mirror Review · Top 10 Perseverant Entrepreneurs"I used to always say attitude is everything — and it is. But I've learned to rank perseverance and grit above all other skills and talents in life."
In seven years at Damon, Jay built a company recognized by the most respected authorities in design, technology, sustainability, and innovation worldwide.
Jay works with a focused number of founders, boards, and investors at critical inflection points — where the difference between winning and stalling often comes down to one well-placed conversation.
One-on-one strategic guidance for founders navigating capital raises, pivots, team crises, and exit planning. Jay brings the full pattern recognition of someone who has done it five times — across fashion, automotive tech, and consumer beverages.
Jay takes a select number of board and advisory positions with high-potential companies in cleantech, mobility, and connected hardware — where his network and experience are most relevant.
For early-stage companies needing senior executive leadership without a full-time commitment, Jay can operate as a Fractional CEO or Entrepreneur-in-Residence — as he did with Yamaha Motor Ventures.
I've been lucky to have Jay as a mentor in both business and life. When things get sticky, he's always my first call. The clarity and reasoning he brings to any problem never fails to cut through the noise. I value his unwillingness to shy away from hard conversations and hold me accountable to the steps I've committed to.
Jay thinks outside the norms. His no-nonsense guidance has been key for me as we've worked through critical inflection points in our fundraising process in 2025.
Hearing Giraud talk about the project, it doesn't sound like inflated ego — he actually believes in making the world a little better and a little safer. That's what separates him from most operators I've seen.
Jay is a seasoned entrepreneur who has focused his efforts on redefining mobility. His greatest lessons came from the fire, not the classroom. Perseverance and grit are the skills he ranks above all others.
Jay has the ability to get deals done with large carriers like AT&T because he is a partner that you can trust. He shared his vision all the way up to the Officer level, building trust every step of the way. I'd be more than happy to work with Jay again in the future.
Whether you're raising capital, scaling a team, or planning an exit — Jay helps founders win.