What Business Are You Actually In?

This year I've met with dozens of founders struggling to raise capital from traditional climate investors. The most common mistake I see them making is simple: they have defined their business too narrowly.

The most important decision a founder makes is understanding what business they're actually in.

Venture capital runs on three things: narrative, hype, and thesis fit.

Your positioning determines who can invest, what companies you're compared to, and what you're worth.

Take batteries. A lot of climate VCs carry scars from a battery bet that took longer and cost more than expected, so "another battery company" often starts the conversation at a disadvantage.

But if you only view your technology as a battery, you aren't thinking big enough. Your battery is enabling data centers, strengthening the domestic supply chain, and serving defense, industrial, and mobility markets. The same technology can unlock five new investor pools.

Or take a robotics company built for solar buildout. On paper it reads as a niche climate play. Look closer and it's already AI for the physical economy, industrial automation, a labor and future-of-work story, and a domestic reshoring play. Simply calling it a robotics company is selling the whole business short.

Strategic positioning also changes your comps, and your comps set your multiple. That's the difference between getting priced like a hardware company and getting priced like a software one, a 3x revenue multiple and a 13x.

One catch: you have to do this honestly. The product, the customers, and the economics have to back the story, or investors see through it. Position with integrity, or you end up the next WeWork.

I started Cairn Climate Partners to help climate and energy founders figure out what business they're actually in before they walk into the room. I look at your company the way an investor will, find the thesis and comps that fit, and help you build a story that gets a check written.

If you're raising and struggling to get traction with VCs, let's talk.

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