Taking a novel technology from R&D to commercial operation

A European company had proven its novel technology through R&D and raised institutional capital to support a major global commercialization effort. But investors still needed what R&D alone could not provide: an operating commercial deployment that proved the business model end to end at commercial scale.

I came in as a commercialization advisor to the CEO. The mandate soon expanded into building and leading the Americas business and getting the company to that first commercial proof point.

The challenge was not simply choosing a country and building a plant. We developed the opportunities and relationships already available to the company and tested which of them could realistically produce an operating facility within the required timeframe.

One of those opportunities was in Mexico. It came with significant internal resistance and unfamiliarity, but it also came with the right local partner, existing permitting advantages and a credible path to operation. I developed the scenarios, advanced the partner discussions and worked with leadership to turn Mexico from a high-risk possibility into an executable option. The board approved it.

Then the business had to be built around that decision.

The first commercial facility was structured as a greenfield joint venture that preserved the company’s operational and intellectual-property control while using the local partner’s ability to build and operate under existing permits. I established the Mexican operating entity and built the local workforce and operations around the project.

When capital markets tightened during COVID, the financing environment changed again. Spending was re-sequenced around the milestones that mattered to the next capital raise, while work that did not support those milestones was paused.

The route changed as the conditions changed. The objective did not.

I stayed through commissioning.

The facility opened and is still operating. It gave the company the commercial track record that R&D and pilot-scale operation could not, and that proof became important to its ability to raise further capital and bring in a significant strategic investor through a joint venture to scale the model.

The central problem was not whether the technology could work. It was whether the company could turn it into a financeable, operating business.