Breakthrough or Bust: Launching a Category-Creating Product for a Green-Tech Startup

Launching an innovative, differentiating product was game changing for WindESCo's longterm viability in a crowded technology space. We launched SwarmTM -- the industry's first commercial solution for collective control of wind turbines -- garnering attention from investors, turbine manufactures, and global energy companies.

The founding team had given their nascent product a technical and descriptive name. Working with the team, we crafted a story about how the new system, which incorporates hardware, IoT, AI & ML, local networks, cloud-based analysis and a workflow platform, improves the output of entire wind plant, onshore and offshore, by allowing turbines to work together. The team faced the challenge of communicating the value of a technical and complex solutions to a market that the crowded with products promising to increase energy production but providing limited measurable value.

Creating the Story

A few examples of print materials and ads for Swarm.

We named the product Swarm, inspired by groups of starlings that communicate with their closest neighbors in a flight, creating a murmuration. The birds work together to optimize air flow and to protect the flock form threats. Swarm allows each wind turbine to communicate with neighboring machines to optimize wind resource across entire plants and creates protective measures for turbines during storms.

While the academic community and some turbine manufacturers had conducted research into the efficacy of some aspects of the Swarm solution, no commercial offering existed within the market, and no one had brought together AI with IoT to solve common problems and provide continuous improvement. To differentiate our solution from other wake steering, endeavors, we coined the word swarm as a verb, which has now become a term of art for the industry.

Product Launch Timeline

The product launch rolled out over the course of two quarters to build interest and take advantage of several major industry events delayed during the pandemic.

Product announcement White paper publication Webinar IP development	First commercial deal announced Webinar discussing project featuring customer ABM program	Continued press outreach Content development US, EU, and UK conferences Lead nurturing programs
Fall 2021	Winter 21/22	Spring 2022

Results

The Swarm product launch resulted in an influx of interest from the wind energy industry including executives from largest global energy companies, investors and financial backers of wind energy plants, turbine manufacturers, insurance companies, consulting firms and beyond.

Following the spring 2022 conference season, our team had generated over $10 million in qualified leads for the product, accounting for about a third of total pipeline value within 6 months of the product release. Swarm continued to garner strong interest as our marketing team created new content documenting product success, built industry partnerships to help bring Swarm to market more quickly and promoted the benefits of the solution to targeted accounts. Four major contracts for Swarm, each valued in six to seven figures, were inked by 2023. Even more, the Swarm launch led to valuable partnerships with several of the largest developers and manufacturers, as billions of dollars in new wind plant development will benefit from the solution.