Who are Our Customers?
Our joy knew no bounds when we heard the praise of words from the CEO of a top notch Indian company.
“If you can capture the heat and convert them into the electricity, it has a huge potential with companies that emit waste heat into atmosphere…” said he.
“But sir, the upfront investment is huge and the efficiency is very low compared to traditional approaches…!” said I.
Yes! We were talking about the waste heat recovery with thermoelectric materials we made with nanoparticles. Of course, more work is going on to beat the traditional waste heat recovery systems which work at the efficiency around 35% whereas the thermoelectrics is hardly touches 10% — 12% depending on the ambience.
“…however, the traditional WHR systems is economically viable only above 300 C. It needs a huge space and maintenance team as there are large moving parts like turbines, valves etc.”, I continued.
“… yes. How about yours?..” he asked.
“Thermoelectrics has no moving parts at all and needs no maintenance, and they occupy very very less space. The low grade heat (meaning stuff at 150C —300C) can also be captured for energy conversion with some compromises in efficiency and duration of ROI” said I.
Get Hilaal Alam’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
We finished the conversation and he asked me to approach once the prototype was ready.
Time passed by and we were up ready with our prototype standing in front of the team for the demonstration. The CEO and the technical team were very happy but one guy — the Financial Controller. He was not up to it due to the initial upfront expenditure.
“… The energy cost of the solar cell is around SGD 1,200 (INR 65,000) per kWhr while yours is more than twice that of…!” he declined the project. The story was the same with every other “customer”. They liked the product but the price. The solution seemed to be expensive and inefficient.
In fact, I tried to spin the story with the CAPEX longevity and not to equate it with the non-conventional energy systems, but all in vein. I received the same replies from every customer. I almost gave up the project.
On an occasion, I bumped into a banker during a dinner meet. I shared my story with him.
“…and may we buy your solution?”, the banker asked.
I thought he was joking! What would a banker do with the waste heat recovery solution? I simply smiled.
“… I am serious. My bank will pack your solution and resell to the companies as ‘a financial instrument’. The buyers will directly “buy” from you the puzzle through us. In fact we are your customers! Not they! They are the consumers!” said he.
That was the moment I realised the difference between the customers and consumers. In most of the cases, the customers and the consumers might be the same.
As a startup guy, one needs to build products for her consumers and sell them to her customers!
(PS. The story ended in another tragedy. We showed demonstrations to consumers and pilot tested at a major plant. We then set up a fabrication plant in February 2020 and then came Covid19 to swallow it all. Now I have re-initiated small with a friend with different strategy.)
