Nepo baby? My daughter was the best for the job
When Naked Energy CEO Christophe Williams hired his daughter, he knew people inside the business might question him. But he says family businesses offer Gen Z the purpose and longevity they crave – and that his daughter was the best for the job
There are few business decisions more likely to invite judgement than hiring your own child.
We all know the phrase. “Nepo baby” has become shorthand for unfair advantage and opportunities handed out rather than earned. In some cases, that criticism is justified. Businesses should be meritocratic and people should get roles because they are the right person for the job, not because of their surname.
So when I thought about hiring my daughter Luana at Naked Energy, I knew exactly how it could look from the outside. I had thought about it long before she walked through the door. I also knew people inside the business might question it. But I also think the conversation about nepotism can sometimes miss a more interesting shift happening in work.
Nepo baby discourse misses the point
Many young people are not rejecting work itself. Gen Z is rather rejecting a certain version of corporate life, where they see strict office hierarchies, no loyalty from employers and career ladders that no longer guarantee security. Working for a family business can offer something corporate life often struggles in the form of ownership, purpose and a clear stake in the future of the company.
I also know, from my own experience, working in a family business can be a delicate matter. When I was younger I joined my father’s film-editing company. It taught me a huge amount, but it also showed me how complicated family and business can become. After more than a decade of working there I decided to leave and start my own company.
That experience stayed with me and it meant that when Luana and I first discussed her joining Naked Energy, I did not take the idea lightly.
There was no master plan. Naked Energy got going in 2012, Luana grew up alongside the business. She saw the risk I took moving from advertising into renewable energy. She remembers me talking at the kitchen table about carbon emissions, our technology and my grandfather’s ideas. She came into the lab as a child and saw the science up close.
But familiarity is not a job qualification. What mattered was whether she had the skills, judgement and work ethic to contribute.
How I maintain boundaries at work
Luana earned a master’s in physics at Imperial College London and was headhunted by PwC. She has valuable experience in the sector. After we closed our Series B funding round with E.ON and Barclays, we began hiring seriously and doubled the team in over 12 months. We needed someone who could be the glue between a technical, data-rich business and its commercial growth. It became clear that her background was a strong fit.
A non-negotiable was making sure I was not included in the hiring process. The team interviewed her and decided whether she had earned the job. That mattered for the business, but it also mattered for Luana. If she was going to join, she needed to know she was there because she deserved to be.
But merit is not enough when the optics are complicated, you also have to design the working relationship properly to ensure there is no risk of blurred lines.
At work, Luana calls me Christophe, not Dad. She does not report directly to me. She has her own line manager, responsibilities and space to make her mark. That separation is vital because feedback should not come through me. Those boundaries matter because they protect her confidence, the team’s trust and the integrity of the business.
The truth is that family businesses can be both powerful and dangerous. They can also offer an alternative to parts of working life that younger workers are increasingly questioning. But done badly, they create resentment, favouritism and confusion. Done well, they can bring loyalty, shared values and deep commitment to a mission bigger than any individual.
My daughter earned her place at my company
At , that mission is the point. I don’t spend much time daydreaming about the family legacy. Our focus is on enabling millions of buildings around the world to decarbonise their heat at scale, whilst making them less reliant on an overworked electricity grid.
Luana understands that because she has lived with the mission for years. But she is not here because she is my daughter. She is here because she is talented, disciplined and useful to the company we are building.
The “nepo baby” criticism should not be dismissed. It forces founders to ask hard questions about fairness and opportunity, and a child should never get an easier ride because of their relationship to the boss.
But they should be fully supported like every employee at a company to reach their full potential.
The key is to ensure separation and establish clear boundaries right from the beginning.
That makes it easier for us to stay father and daughter outside of work, which has always been the most important thing to me. We still talk about work, sometimes too much. My wife has been known to tell us to stop talking about Naked Energy at dinner. But the aim is to make sure work never consumes the relationship.
That is the real test. Not whether it is right for a child to join their parents business, but whether they can grow inside it. If you can get that right, a family business can be a serious, modern answer to the search for more meaningful work.