Consumer-Driven Innovation: Achieving Product-Market Fit in Energy
Supply & Demand — it’s a term we hear constantly. Consumers’ demand for goods and services is met by the companies that supply them. But is all supply the same when it comes to a complicated space like energy?
In today’s deregulated energy markets, most consumers know they can easily get their energy supplied and delivered by their local utility. They are also savvier than ever, demanding more from the energy companies that they want to do business with. Consumers understand the impact their purchase decisions have, and many opt to remain loyal to brands that align with their own personal values.
When a company delivers products and services that meet the needs of their target audience, it has achieved something called “product-market fit”. The term, first coined by Andy Rachleff, helps explain how companies can meet the needs of a market that is eager to consume their goods.
At Inspire, our goal is to provide simple solutions to some of the industry’s biggest issues: non-renewable energy sources, price instability, and inefficiency — success means we’ve built technology that eliminates the use of unnecessary energy altogether.
How do we get there? Achieving product-market fit requires having a strong market in the first place.
There is accelerated consumer demand for clean energy options across the country, and we’ve been able to reach these consumers by offering a product that matches their values. We connect their homes to clean energy, which adds more renewable energy to the grid and reduces their carbon footprints. Collectively, our members have helped prevent 1.3 billion pounds of coal from being burned since 2014.
In addition to making it easy to switch to clean energy, we’re committed to partnering with homeowners to help them use less energy overall.
In an ongoing effort to continue to innovate, we’ve identified new products that give our members control over their bill through our Inspire One subscription plan. As we look ahead to the future, we intend to use our smart energy product to create more efficient Inspire homes — without requiring much input or effort from the consumer. Understanding our members needs today and tomorrow, through extensive research and analysis, will help us strengthen our product-market fit.
While finding product-market fit is important to a company’s success, market conditions, actions of competitors, and new technological advances will require companies to stay vigilant. Maintaining a pulse on trends and consumer preferences will be critical to hold onto any success.

