How should clean tech brand itself moving forward?
Cleantech was all the rage a decade to two decades ago, but then it kind of disappeared. How should we look at this field now that our technology has developed and our thoughts on it rejuvenated?
Its one of those startup spaces that seems rife with potential, yet never really seems to deliver on its promises. And thats probably because, aside from the field being a technologically challenging area, its mostly due to the way people pitch it.
The thing is, when most people hear about Clean Tech, it tends to be around the lofty ideals a startup has regarding the environment. But the thing is, while people care about the environment, they dont actually care about the environment.
Look at it from an individual perspective. When going shopping for food or daily necessities in the early 2000’s did you really bring your own shopping bag, or did you use the plastic bags provided to you during checkout? Im willing to bet that you’re most likely the latter.
Now, when Trader’s Joe and some other hipster supermarkets started charging 10 cents for those plastic bags, what did you do? I bet your ass that many more of you started bringing in your own bag. Now imagine what would happen if they started charging you a dollar. Exactly my point.
Its not the lofty goals of the startup that convince people of its value, its the convenience, cost saving, and time saving that people choose to use a certain service.
And so, the question we beg to ask is, how should you pitch your Clean Tech startup?
First, know that there are only 3 jobs that need to be solved in the Clean Tech space. They are Energy Storage, Resource Creation, and Resource management. And if your startup isn’t doing one of them, then you’re solving a problem in the wrong sector.
Energy Storage
Energy storage startups should aim to solve 1 of 2 sub problems. Grid storage electricity, or for individual energy storage.
Now if your technology aims to solve grid storage electricity, you should emphasize on the fact the current grid storage/power generation plants are inefficient and wasting a lot of money.
Why? Its because they’re built for maximum capacity where the power plants total energy generation has to equal the maximum potential electricity people may use at once. That means most of the time, a power generator isn’t actually generating its maximum energy that it can. Thats a significant waste of resources, time and money that went into building a machine that isn’t even in use for most of the time.
Storing energy in the form of a battery or compressed air can resolve that problem. Its simple.
The power generator now doesn’t have to be built for maximum capacity. It can be built at ~75% capacity or so where when the electricity usage of humans is low, the excess electricity generated can be stored in a battery. That energy can then be used when people want to suddenly increase the amount of electricity they want to use.
Its called load leveling.
If you’re going to solve individual energy storage, then what you pitch is entirely different.
Solar energy took off in California because of its progressive culture and general sunny weather. We have Elon Musk, a ton of other solar companies, as well as China to thank for that. Its helped a lot of people save from using electricity during the day time.
But the thing is, it only helps people save electricity during the day time. So obviously, what do they do when it turns night? Its obvious, they have to buy electricity from power generation companies again.
And thats the problem. They’re not completely self sufficient like they dreamed they would be, and they still have to pay an electricity bill. But thats where you come in with your battery storage capabilities. Saving people money, and making them completely off the grid — self sufficiency you know?
Resource Creation
If you’re in resource creation, you’re either creating energy, water, or some agro chemical. Remember, the goal is not to make the world a greener place, its to give access to a resource that people either don’t have, or to give it to them cheaper or more conveniently.
That means that if you’re a solar panel distributor/manufacturer, you’re not selling solar energy.
On the other hand, what you have to argue is that what you’re selling is free energy. No more fossil fuels, coals, or whatever non-renewable material that burn up. No more cost associated with that for them. Yeah, thats right, what you’re selling is free energy, just that theres a little upfront cost to it, and that you can’t use it all the time.
But still, its free. And thats what you have to emphasize.
If you’re in the water business, its a bit more tough. We haven’t reached a point where water is inexplicably expensive, and thats because we have access to our fresh water sources nearly everywhere in the world.
But remember, there are some places that don’t have access to water. Thats where you’re supposed to sell. Take the UAE for example, they show the biggest example of that with the biggest desalination plant in the world looks like. Therefore, if you’re creating water, thats your customer.
Resource Management
The problem with resource management is simple. Many times we use energy wasteless-ly without really thinking about the many inefficiencies and cost lost associated with it. It doesn’t really seem like a lot, but they add up.
For example, think about you keeping your air conditioning on throughout a summer day, in the whole of your house. Is that really efficient? Do you really need every room in your house cooled down all the time? And if so, do you really need to have the air conditioner on all the time?
My guess is no. You don’t.
Thats where you come in. You have to argue about the cost losses people are making by using energy inefficiently and how much your product can save them. Or you can argue about the convenience loss people have to cope with for having to remember to turn off and turn on their air conditioner from when they leave to when they enter.
Its your choice. But ultimately you should remember that people respond emotionally to cost and convenience. Target one or both of them.
To really understand what potential competitors are doing and why they are doing it great, look at Nest. They make the air conditioning system all automatic. Look at that, not only do they save you money, they save you convenience.
What about Andluca, they create windows that automatically tint themselves to control the temperature of the room. No more cost losses or convenience losses there. But remember, target the emotion of why people hire your product to solve the job.
For more information
To see a further breakdown of what the Clean Tech field is like, check out: tacosushi.github.io for visual depiction of the startup field.
To check out our previous post, click this link: Biotech
For the next one, click here: Food and beverages
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