It’s said that necessity is the mother of invention. That old catchphrase couldn’t be nearer to the truth for John Yozamp.

Yozamp is the founder of Expion360 Inc., a publicly held lithium battery company based in Redmond. Prior to Expion360, he co-founded solar panel producer Zamp Solar, one of Bend’s most exciting tech companies.

But before all that success there was a restless night at Little Lava Lake. Thirteen years ago, Yozamp, at the time a sales and marketing manager, was on a summertime RV camping trip with his wife at the lake. After setting up camp and having an evening meal, he switched on his CPAP machine, a device that treats sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a disorder that occurs when a person starts and stops breathing while sleeping. If left untreated, sleep apnea can result in high blood pressure and heart trouble, and is even fatal, so a machine is used to help regulate airflow through the nasal passage. Unsurprisingly, Yozamp took the machine everywhere he went. But lack of electricity at Little Lava Lake was expected, so Yozamp brought along a Honda generator to power the device. You can almost guess what happened next.

“At 2 a.m. a fellow camper came over and knocked on my door. He asked if I could power down my generator. I explained it was for the sleep apnea machine,” said Yozamp. “The next day I told my wife I have to have a different solution for powering the machine.”

A search for quieter power options led Yozamp to the solar panel market. The unit Yozamp bought was good, but it seemed overpriced and didn’t offer much in the way of customer service.

Yozamp saw an opportunity to beat the competition with a better product at lower prices.

“I took a hard look at the industry and I thought I could do this better by offering more selection, better pricing and better service. And that is what I did,” said Yozamp, a native of St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Portable solar panels

Solar panels were relatively new for Yozamp, but he was no stranger to technology, having studied engineering briefly at Portland State University.

Yozamp had also served in the U.S. Air Force, where he was responsible for the upkeep of F-16 fighter jets. He worked on radar, weapons delivery technology, and pre-GPS navigation systems for the jets while serving in Utah and South Korea.

Yozamp shared his portable solar panel ideas with Steve Nelson, a business acquaintance, and financial specialist. Nelson saw potential in the product and together the pair started Zamp Solar.

They first marketed their products on eBay, but RV dealerships soon became their primary market. In those heady, startup days, Nelson described Yozamp as “high energy” and found it a challenge to keep up with his partner’s plans.

“He was always coming up with ideas, you can see his mind was always spinning. He’s very smart, creative. He has an engineering brain, a self-taught engineer,” said Nelson.

Zamp Solar soon became one of the country’s best-known brands for power options in the recreational vehicle space. Yozamp and Nelson produced a number of products, and in 2015 brought the production of the panels to Bend from overseas factories.

The switch to lithium

Solar panels had become a hot commodity, but there was another part of the power business that seemed to offer greater market growth: the lithium battery pack. Yozamp decided that part of the market needed his full attention.

With lithium batteries his new focus, Yozamp sold his share of the company to Nelson in 2016. He soon launched a new company, Expion360, which specializes in building battery packs. Expion360 went public earlier this year on the NASDAQ exchange, opening the door to financing the company’s next big projects, including a lithium cell plant. It trades under the ticker symbol XPON and has a market cap of $25.5 million.

Reflecting on his business career, Yozamp said a reason for his success was knowing when to leave certain tasks to experts in their field. “I was smart enough to surround myself with people smarter than me,” Yozamp said. “People that can assist me with development, so I reached out to the right people to make a vision a reality.”

Employee options

He hopes the expanding business operations will lead to increased benefits for his employees, including stock options and matching 401k plans. Down the line, he wants to open a day care center for his employees with small children. Yozamp plans to employ 300 people at his lithium plant, a number that would make it the fifth largest employer in Redmond.

The product line beyond the RV and marine space will also expand. Yozamp sees a day when Expion360 batteries are in homes and businesses, filling in power gaps when the electricity goes out or solar battery storage is needed. A focus on green technology and a phasing out of dated power systems such as lead acid batteries are other benefits, he said.

As for his sleep apnea machine, it’s still plugged in on a nightly basis at home or when camping by Oregon’s lakes. But his silent solar power and lithium battery inventions have been game changers since that fateful night by Little Lava Lake — those middle-of-the-night disruptions from neighbors are a thing of the past.