The Core Problem
“Herd Mentality”
Capital markets are inefficient. For a highly specialized, technically dense and poorly understood space like battery technology, they are that much more so.
In an ideal world intrepid VCs would seek out attractive risk-reward opportunities and carve through complexity to generate outsize returns.
In reality, investors are highly risk-averse and move as a herd from theme to theme. That may be cannabis 10 years ago, cryptocurrency 5 years ago or AI today.
Investors are creatures of risk. Their primary motivating emotion is fear. Whether that’s fear of losing money or fear of missing out.
Institutional advisors are not effective partners for battery companies. They don’t have the right expertise and they are expensive. Their extensive networks have amounted to throwing things at the wall and hoping something sticks.
Battery CEOs can not be expected to scale novel technologies and be fundraising experts at the same time. They are in need of a partner.
The Market Environment
“Creative Destruction”
The secular uptrend behind battery technology as the future of energy.
1
2020 - 2021
The Biden administration. A global conversation on climate change. Emissions targets. EV optimism.
2
2021 - 2022
The battery thesis is caught in the uplift of the SPAC bubble. Battery SPACs hit their near-term peak valuations.
3
2022 - 2025
The SPAC implosion severely punctures the battery thesis. Emissions targets are rolled back. EV growth slows. A new administration reconfigures industrial policy as it applies to the space. This culminates in one of the sharpest capital vacuums we have ever seen.
4
We are here
The secular thesis remains intact. The scars of the downturn remain but the outlook is constructive. The focus on EVs is out. The focus on strategic imperatives like grid stability and drones is in.
5
PROCESS
“Sharpening the tip of the spear”
Battery companies need to present investors with a compelling and cohesive thesis – the idea of why they should invest - constructed and expressed in a language they understand.
Thesis Formation.
A clear set of presentation materials that walk investors through this thought process from beginning to conclusion without losing them along the way or throwing up questions that derail them from forming conviction.
Thesis Propagation.
An investor-quality model and the ability to navigate diligence Q&A with insight into how investors are thinking about the company.
Thesis Defense.
Formation of conviction is the goal with each individual investor.
Conviction.
Success in a fundraise for a venture-stage company is not defined as raising the target amount of capital. It is defined as being 2x oversubscribed and being in a position to choose who gets to join the cap. table.
Close.