Unlocking Clean Energy Success: How the Square Hole Approach Accelerates Adoption of New Technologies

By Michael Applebaum and Warren Schirtzinger

No technology is born ready to serve every use case. Innovations take time to develop and mature. But in the rush to acquire customers, it's easy to shortchange the critical step of finding the right applications and segments for a startup's technology. This can slow company growth, burn precious cash, and ultimately jeopardize the venture’s existence.

When executed well, the search for best-fit use cases creates financial and market momentum, giving the startup time to expand its technology and pursue additional opportunity. While successful innovations look obvious in retrospect, they often struggle to find product/market fit initially, making this focus vital.

The drawbacks of new technologies don’t have to be blockers. Instead, they can be motivation to think creatively and dig deeper for the right use cases. We call this the square hole approach: rather than forcing square pegs into round holes, find the square holes where they fit beautifully. This means identifying niche markets where your technology's strengths align perfectly with customer needs, and where its limitations don't hinder its success.

Read the full article to learn how clean energy companies have achieved product/market fit with the square hole approach and get a framework you can apply in your business.