In 2006, Hudson Energy Services partnered with Lake Capital to build a leading, multi-state company providing commercial, industrial, and multi-tenant residential customers with a broad range of customized energy services. Hudson is an energy services company (ESCO), which is approved by a state's Public Service Commission and a local utility to supply gas and electric supply services to commercial and residential customers. The deregulated retail energy services market in the U.S. was valued at more than $50 billion in 2005 and is expected to grow 10% to 15% annually.

The partnership with Lake allowed Hudson to take advantage of a highly fragmented industry served by a large number of small firms, many of which are small, undercapitalized companies, and a very small number of larger industry players, many of which do not pursue the same small to medium-sized customers as Hudson pursues. Hudson broadened its service offerings in its original New York and New Jersey operations, where the company serves some 70,000 customers, to include fixed-price contracts for electric and natural gas services. This larger suite of services allowed Hudson to effectively offer retail energy services to all electric and natural gas customers in New York and New Jersey.

At the same time, Hudson expanded its geographic scope by launching operations in Texas, with a full range of retail energy services suited to commercial and industrial energy consumers across the state. Lake helped the Hudson team identify an experienced management team to start-up its Texas operation.