Great Technology, Wrong Story: How Climate and Energy Founders Leave Capital on the Table

Rachael Shayne & Diana Kaul (R&D Marketing) + Marc Patterson (Bennu Partners) Most cleantech founders don’t have a fundraising problem, they have a positioning problem. They borrow pitch templates. They mimic the popular deck structure. They run their story through ChatGPT and call it “refined.” Then they wonder why every meeting ends with: “Interesting. Not a fit right now.” It’s not the market, it’s investor cosplay. We break down why capital doesn’t respond to generic narratives — and what it actually takes to think like an investor. Drawing from Marc’s Capital Mindset framework and R&D’s work building market-moving brands across the energy value chain, this session bridges brand strategy and capital strategy — the two levers most founders treat separately. We’ll unpack: How investors pattern-match you in the first 90 seconds — and the signals that quietly kill dealsWhy templated decks erase differentiated value (especially in climate and energy infrastructure)The difference between business milestones and business weaknesses — and how investors read the gapHow to treat investors like Account-Based Marketing, not spray-and-pray outreachWhat a disciplined 90-day capital warm-up actually looks like (instead of a panic raise)