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Sections
Climate founders often have strong technical evidence and a large systemic problem. Demand is a separate question. It asks whether a specific customer will allocate budget, accept switching risk or move on the founder’s timeline. Brand work pays once the same customer, problem and value pattern keeps appearing. Before that, it designs around guesses.
Write a hypothesis you can prove wrong
“Companies care about sustainability” is too broad to test. A useful hypothesis names a customer, a problem, the current cost and the proposed change, as in “European textile brands with recycled-content targets will engage with a new fibre-recovery supplier before industrial scale if the supplier can demonstrate material quality and a credible scale-up path.”
Climb the commitment ladder
Each rung costs the customer more, so each tells you more.
- Attention
Likes, opens and event interest.
- Conversation
A discovery call.
- Data
The customer shares internal data or requirements.
- Introduction
They bring in a technical or budget owner.
- Evaluation
They agree a pilot or structured evaluation.
- Letter of intent
A non-binding LOI or memorandum.
- Payment
A paid pilot or purchase order.
- Contract
Contracted recurring or scaled demand.
Landing-page clicks and form fills sit on the bottom rung. They test language and early interest. Evidence that a customer will buy a complex industrial solution starts higher up. An LOI can be strategically valuable, and it sits below payment on the ladder. A pipeline counts once it turns into contracts.
Test the problem, then ask for a step
Ask customers how they describe the problem, what they do today and what would have to change for them to switch. If the problem is unfamiliar to them, rework the proposition before the tagline.
Then ask for the next rung, whether that is sample data, a defined pilot or a conversation about budget. The step can be small, as long as it costs the customer enough to make the signal informative.
Allow for longer cycles
Enterprise procurement, infrastructure, regulation and technical validation make demand slow to show, so judge it by movement through the process. Map which stakeholder moves first, what evidence opens the next step and where the process stalls.
Price is part of demand
If every customer likes the product until price comes up, that is your finding. Test the economics early, so any commercial problem surfaces before enthusiasm for the brand covers it.
A 30-day demand test
- Choose one customer segment.
- Write one falsifiable hypothesis about the problem and its value.
- Speak to at least ten relevant people, decision participants first.
- Record their exact words, current workaround and the evidence they need.
- Ask for one meaningful next commitment.
- Track what happens after the first yes.
- Let the evidence change the proposition, whatever the team prefers.
False positives to watch
- Friends and ecosystem peers praising the mission.
- Investors who like the idea and stay out of the round.
- Corporates taking exploratory meetings that leave next steps unowned.
- Free pilots that stay free.
- Interest created mainly by a grant or temporary subsidy.
Each carries some information. Label it for what it is.
Tell us what needs to move.
Bring the brief if it is clear. If it is unclear, tell us where the work is stuck.
Bring us the problem
