The Slide That Gets You Funded in Climate Tech 🌍

Hardware founders, this is the one investors will sweat over

Yoann Berno

Apr 12, 2025

Read time: 4 min

Building climate hardware?

Let’s talk about the slide investors stare at the longest.

No, not your glowing TAM.
Not your team of PhDs.

It’s your Traction Slide.

That one, lonely slide that answers:

"Have they actually built anything that works... and does anyone care?"

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What Is Traction in Climate Hardware?

Traction in hardware isn’t just revenue.
It’s proof that your big bold idea is crawling out of the lab… and into the real world.

You might not have ARR.
But if you’ve got a TRL 5 prototype running outside a lab?
Or a corporate pilot lined up?

You’ve got traction.

What’s your TRL? Find out here →
👉 How Ready is Your Tech? Find Out in Seconds (TRL Calculator included 🤫)

About to build your First-of-a-kind plant? This one’s for you →
👉 What the FOAK?!

What Should a Hardware Traction Slide Prove?

✔️ Your tech works — outside of a sanitized lab
✔️ Someone credible is testing it (corp pilot, research partner, offtake LOIs)
✔️ You’re not just building... you’re de-risking
✔️ You’ve hit major TRL milestones
✔️ You’re on a path to FOAK, with a map, a shovel, and capital

Early-stage traction isn’t just dollars.
It’s about risk reduction and momentum.

Pre-revenue ≠ Pre-traction

Here’s what good early traction can look like in climate hardware:

✅ Letters of Intent from future offtakers
✅ MOU with corporate partners or co-development agreements
✅ Technology Validation Reports
✅ TRL progression (3 → 5 → 7)
✅ Tech tested in simulated or real-world environments
✅ Pilot data, even from small runs
✅ IP filings, DOE grants, SBIR awards
✅ Engineering drawings turning into steel

If it’s moving your TRL up, it’s traction.

What Do Climate VCs Actually Want?

They’re not asking for Shopify dashboards.

They want to see:

⚡ That your tech works in the wild
📉 That you’re de-risking capex & scale-up
🔁 That offtakers are circling
🧪 That your TRL is climbing
📍That you know your path to FOAK (First-of-a-Kind deployment)

What Kills the Slide?

🚫 Claiming your lab prototype = deployable product
🚫 Vanity metrics with no impact (site visits, newsletter subs...)
🚫 Testimonials from advisors, not customers
🚫 Skipping this slide entirely because you're “too early” (you're not)
🚫 No mention of TRL or deployment milestones

What to Show

📈 Graph: TRL milestones or tech maturity curve
🤝 Logos: pilot partners, test sites, early offtakers
🧾 Quotes: from serious stakeholders (operators, corporates, OEMs)
📸 Photos: of the tech in the field or at the pilot site
🗺️ Roadmap: what’s next, what’s funded, what you need

Make it visual. Make it real.
This is the part of the deck where you build trust.

Design Like This

One big headline: “Tech validated at TRL 6 with 2 FOAK pilots scheduled for 2025”
Two clean visuals: your prototype + pilot partner logos
One roadmap: clear line from now to TRL 9 / Series A
Keep it sparse, clean, bold.