Way too much what. Too little why, which, how, when and who.

I have been speaking with a lot of climate tech startup founders and leaders, who have a ton of passion and great ideas, and are working like crazy. But passion, ideas and effort alone are not enough to turn an idea into a commercial product, much less a successful company. 

As is typical to many startups, particular those with founders who are scientists/technologists/engineers and relatively new to the business side of things, I am observing a ton of focus on “what” (e.g. a technology of some sort) and a vague “why” (e.g. it will reduce carbon emissions), and not enough hard thinking and research on the more specific questions of: 

• which market, who in that market and why are they going to care

• what product, who is going to buy it, who is going to use it, and how to deliver it

• what are the alternatives (including doing/changing nothing) and how are you better in a way that can’t easily be copied

• how to reach the buyers and users, how do they make decisions, and why will they be motivated to actually buy

• how to accelerate product adoption and successful usage/deployment

• when should you go after the next thing

Some of these areas– particularly target market (broadly defined), addressable market size, competitive alternatives and differentiation– are usually fairly well delineated because investors ask about them. But a lot of the other topics are below the waterline for investors, and it’s easy for founders to skip over the hard thinking, research and testing needed to answer all these questions– questions that are critical for commercializing a product and developing a viable business. Questions like: within your target market, who specifically is your buyer– down to the role and the pyschographic profile? Are you really sure you are sufficiently better than “doing nothing” to overcome inertia? Are you building into the product the avenues to reach your target users?

In the coming months I’ll be digging into areas that I commonly see overlooked or deprioritized, and which deserve more time and attention.