Paleblue has carved out a distinctive place in the battery market by rethinking something most people take for granted: the humble household cell. Following a review of the Paleblue Earth battery series, in this Cubed3 interview, the team discusses the origins of the brand, the environmental mission driving its rechargeable line-up, and how thoughtful engineering can reduce waste without compromising performance. From material choices to USB‑C convenience, Paleblue shares the ideas shaping its approach to modern, sustainable power.
Adam Riley, Director at Cubed3: Paleblue’s mission is to replace billions of single‑use batteries. How do you measure progress toward that goal, and what milestones are you most proud of so far?
Tom Bishop, CEO of Paleblue: We’ve designed our batteries to achieve two goals, to be so great and convenient you would never go back to single use batteries and, second, to replace the need for as many batteries during their lifetime as possible. We think of every customer, every battery as progress toward those goals. We’re most proud of our continued efforts to make our products ever better to accelerate our mission. There’s no end to that, but it’s the glue that binds our entire team together.
Adam Riley: Many brands talk about sustainability, but you’ve built it into the core product. How do you balance eco‑impact with consumer convenience and price?
Tom Bishop: Well the cost part is easy – consumers actually save huge amounts of money compared to buying and re-buying alkaline batteries, as Paleblue batteries are rechargeable and save everyone money over time. Paleblue has sold several million batteries. With each battery having the potential of saving 1000 single use batteries, our sales so far could save the world several billion alkaline batteries and over 100 million pounds of single use battery waste. When it comes to convenience, we know that when you need a battery, you need it soon. Like all modern electronics, our batteries charge anywhere, any time by USBC. It’s as convenient as charging a phone or a laptop. The first time I recharged our earliest prototype Paleblue batteries, I thought to myself, “I didn’t go anywhere, buy anything, or throw anything away.” That thought has stuck with me ever since and it’s our hope that every customer has the same experience.
Adam Riley: What’s the biggest misconception people have about rechargeable batteries, and how do you overcome it?
Tom Bishop: We know that there are a lot of people who want to use rechargeable batteries. Unfortunately, the older generations of rechargeable batteries have been unreliable and underperforming so most people have the misconception that rechargeables are not as good as single-use options on the market. To combat this, we have always maintained a focus on creating the very best product possible, bringing together the best in class chemistry the and best in class charging method. We started with a simple question – what would it take to make a rechargeable so good that people would never go back to alkalines? Then the work started and we have never stopped that effort to bring the idea of modern rechargeable household batteries to life.
Adam Riley: Your batteries use lithium‑ion with built‑in USBC charging. What were the biggest engineering challenges in making them safe, compact, and user‑friendly?
Tom Bishop: The initial biggest challenge is creating a high quality battery management system (BMS) small enough to fit into a AAA. Advancements in micro-electronics technologies were really an enabling technology for us. The next level of engineering challenge comes in integrating a high quality battery cell with that BMS and the USBC port, and of course, our patented light ring user interface. The third, and most important goal, is making all the right investments and decisions at the chemistry, BMS, and system engineering level to be safe and reliable. We invest far more in these efforts and details than is visible to anyone, but anything but this mission is too important to compromise on quality, reliability and safety.
Adam Riley: How do Paleblue batteries compare in performance to traditional NiMH rechargeables in high‑drain devices like cameras or gaming controllers?
Tom Bishop: The performance of a battery is highly dependent on the device, but since we regulate a higher voltage Li-ion cell to 1.5V, we have more power under the hood. So, when power matters, Paleblue generally overperforms relative to others.
Adam Riley: You’ve chosen USB‑C on newer models — how important is future‑proofing in your design philosophy?
Tom Bishop: Product innovation is important to us and we know that in order to inspire customers to make the move to rechargeable batteries, we need to make the charging process as convenient as possible. With that in mind, we will continue to adapt products where possible to future proof them, always trying to do so in the least wasteful way we can. USB-C is the charging method of choice, by consumers, and by a EU directive focused on reducing e-waste. One of the benefits of choosing USB-C is that you can charge anywhere, using our cable or any cable you have handy.
Adam Riley: What’s next for Paleblue — are you exploring larger formats (like power banks or laptop batteries), or will you stay focused on household cells?
Tom Bishop: We’re still very much focused on household batteries. There’s still a lot of work to do to achieve our first mission, but we are of course looking at opportunities and are always listening to our customers to learn what else they might like to see from us.
Adam Riley: How do you see legislation around e‑waste and sustainability shaping your roadmap?
Tom Bishop: There is talk of a ban on single use batteries on the horizon in the EU. That would be great for accelerating our mission. The US and Canada have a patchwork of legislation on end of use disposal and that is evolving. We manage our compliance to that through our steward membership in Call2Recycle which helps support around 14000 locations where consumers can dispose of their used batteries.
Adam Riley: If you could redesign the way consumers think about batteries entirely, what would that look like?
Tom Bishop: We have found that a lot of the focus around batteries and battery quality is on the capacity of the battery and consumers are usually swayed largely by those numbers. We know that capacity is important, but we know that any time a brand prioritizes capacity, they are likely not prioritizing safety, and reliability. Our design philosophy is to never make a compromise on these aspects simply to push capacity. We also want consumers to ask themselves why they shouldn’t make the change to rechargeables – and we have tried to address the reasons that commonly occur such as cost and convenience – in the creation of our product.
Adam Riley: What’s the most surprising use case you’ve seen for your batteries?
Tom Bishop: We have heard from a STEM professor who works with Nasa that regularly use our batteries to power a payload computer that they send up to the edge of space, into the stratosphere (99,000 ft).
Adam Riley: If you had to pitch Paleblue in one sentence to a child, how would you explain it?
Tom Bishop: We make the best batteries so you can play with your toys over and over again without having to throw any dead batteries away.
Adam Riley: Gamers churn through batteries in controllers and headsets. Was the gaming community a target audience from the start, or did that emerge organically?
Tom Bishop: We don’t do much targeted marketing. We quickly knew gamers, musicians, parents were some of our super users, but this all developed organically.
Adam Riley: Do you see opportunities to partner with console makers or accessory brands to integrate Paleblue tech directly into gaming hardware?
Tom Bishop: 100%! We have some unique capabilities to partner thanks to our BMS. We’d love to partner with gaming hardware companies to help optimize their system for better performance to give their customers a competitive edge.
Adam Riley: How do you address concerns about latency or power consistency in devices where performance is critical, like wireless controllers?
Tom Bishop: Consistency of power was front of mind for us in the creation of Paleblue. We knew that it was an existing reservation that consumers had around the idea of rechargeable batteries, so we wanted to create a product that addressed that concern and proved that rechargeable batteries can maintain a competitive power consistency when measured against single-use options.
Adam Riley: With esports and streaming on the rise, do you see Paleblue batteries becoming part of the conversation around sustainable gaming setups?
Tom Bishop: We absolutely would like to be part of that conversation and we think that moving towards better sustainability standards in the gaming industry is a mission that we are aligned with.
Adam Riley: If you could design a “gaming edition” of your batteries, what features or branding would you include?
Tom Bishop: In an ideal situation, a gaming brand would help us understand what we could engineer together to optimize the system (their device and our batteries together) for better performance. That insight is the key component and with that in mind, we’d love to brand as Gaming Brand x powered by Paleblue.
