We are in the midst of a manufacturing and hardtech renaissance – over $2 trillion in new private industrial investments have been announced in the U.S. this year alone. This boom creates enormous opportunities across energy, robotics, infrastructure, defense and more. However, capturing that opportunity hinges on startups navigating a critical go-to-market inflection point. Deeptech and “new industrial” startups face long enterprise sales cycles (often 6–12+ months) due to pilots, regulatory approvals, and complex integrations – so without a smart GTM plan, they risk depleting resources before gaining traction. 

In fact, less than half of industrial deep-tech startups manage to go from pilot projects to a full commercial deployment of their product, and only ~10–20% achieve multiple deployments. This makes the commercial GTM stage a make-or-break phase. It’s also fundamentally different from SaaS: unlike a SaaS app that can scale quickly on its own, a hardtech venture usually cannot scale alone – success often hinges on strategic industry partnerships (with manufacturers, integrators, etc.) to reach the market. 

Likewise, “traction” looks different: a B2B deeptech might have only a handful of promising pilot engagements in six months (versus hundreds-thousands of SaaS users) so the quality and conversion of those early industry engagements matters far more than vanity metrics. QC Growth views this GTM inflection as the pivotal moment to get right in the new industrial stack – bridging brilliant technology into scalable commercial adoption.

‍

Evolving Our Model for Techno-Industrial GTM

Traditional playbooks don’t fully apply here, so QC Growth has adapted its approach to meet the needs of hardtech founders. Our model is far more consultative and hands-on in these complex sales cycles. We deploy hybrid GTM teams – pairing a seasoned sales/operator with a technical “GTM engineer” who understands the product’s engineering context. This way, we engage potential customers in a highly consultative manner: building relationships with key stakeholders, deeply understanding their needs, and jointly crafting solutions rather than pushing a one-size-fits-all pitch. Long enterprise sales require patience and domain insight; our team essentially becomes an extension of the startup’s team, translating between the founders’ deep tech vision and the customer’s business pain points. We rigorously systematize the sales approach much like a product development process – ensuring founders apply as much structure and learning to GTM as they did to R&D. 

Importantly, QC Growth has also developed “pilot-to-deployment” playbooks to combat the dreaded pilot purgatory. We help structure pilot projects with clear success criteria and ROI benchmarks, and even plan next steps upfront so that a successful pilot naturally converts into a paid deployment. 

For example, we often negotiate that if XYZ performance is met in a trial, it triggers a broader rollout contract. By blending technical credibility with sales execution, and by planning the endgame of each pilot from the start, our model is purpose-built for the long-cycle, high-touch nature of industrial tech sales.

‍

When to Bring QC In: Ideal Client Profile

We work best with startups that have strong technology in place and are ready to commercialize, but haven’t yet built out a full sales organization. Typically this is post-seed through Series A/B stage, when the company has perhaps a prototype or MVP proven and maybe a few early customer interests or pilot projects on the horizon. Often the founders (or a small bizdev lead) are still running point on sales, and no formal GTM team exists yet – which is exactly where we plug in. The ideal engagement is when a startup is “pilot-ready” – e.g. they’ve lined up or completed a couple of promising PoCs and now need to convert these into scalable business.

Many investors themselves look for this inflection: at least a handful of successful PoCs that are about to turn into full referenceable customers is a sweet spot for a deeptech venture. 

In short, when a hardtech startup is entering that crucial phase of moving from just building the tech to actually building a repeatable revenue pipeline – that’s the time to bring in QC Growth as a partner.

Source: Canva link

‍

What QC Delivers in a 6-9 Month Engagement

When we embed with a portfolio company, our goals are clear and outcome-driven. Over a ~6+ month project, VCs and founders can expect us to deliver:

• Increased Enterprise Leads & Pipeline: We rapidly generate and qualify enterprise leads in the startup’s target sectors, leveraging our network and outbound efforts to fill the top of the funnel with high-value prospects. This jumpstarts the pilot pipeline and gets more irons in the fire for customer acquisition.
• Matured Pilot Opportunities: QC Growth doesn’t just create a list of leads – we drive them forward. We help shape initial customer conversations into formal pilot projects with defined scopes. Each pilot is managed like a program: we map the stakeholders (technical champions and economic buyers), set success metrics, and ensure the startup’s solution is solving a real pain. The result is a pilot pipeline that actually moves, with clear next steps rather than lingering science experiments.
• Conversion Playbook to Full Deployment: Critically, we establish a systematic conversion process to turn those pilots into full deployments. This includes developing case studies and ROI data from early trials, creating executive buy-in within the customer, and laying out expansion plans (e.g. additional sites, larger rollouts) once initial success is proven. By engagement’s end, the startup has a rinse-and-repeat playbook for enterprise sales: a defined sales process, proposal templates, and perhaps even an early sales hire or two trained to follow it.
• De-risked Customer Acquisition for Series A/B: Ultimately, our value is measured in making the startup’s commercial traction real and repeatable. After working with QC, a company will have tangible proof-points that VCs love to see at Series A or B: multiple enterprise customers engaged, pilots converting to paying deployments, referenceable use-cases, and a nascent sales engine in place. We essentially de-risk the customer acquisition question for the next round of investors. Instead of a deeptech startup with just cool IP, the company is now able to demonstrate a credible go-to-market motion and line-of-sight to revenue growth. This not only accelerates their revenue in the near term, but significantly increases confidence with the board and new investors that the business can scale commercially.

In summary, QC Growth becomes the go-to-market force multiplier for hardtech and frontier startups at the crucial commercialization stage. 

We help venture teams bridge the gap from breakthrough product to scalable business, ensuring that promising new industrial technologies don’t stall out in pilot mode but instead hit the market and thrive. 

‍