When you’ve invented something groundbreaking, nothing’s more frustrating than watching people’s eyes glaze over while you explain it. That’s exactly what was happening to two seasoned entrepreneurs with a breakthrough clean tech innovation. They pitched it to government funders and private investors, but the opportunity was buried under technical complexity. Unless someone had hours to spare and the right background, they simply couldn’t see it — and they moved on.
It’s a common trap for science and engineering founders: the world they live in is so specialized that outsiders can’t grasp the value fast enough to care. For these founders, that gap wasn’t just frustrating — it was threatening their ability to raise the capital they needed.
I brought two lenses to the table: my background as a computational physicist gave me enough scientific fluency to ask the right questions until I truly understood their innovation, and my experience leading national angel investor initiatives meant I knew exactly how investors want opportunities framed.
We distilled their story into a crisp, four-minute pitch — the kind that makes sense to investors without a translator in the room. Then we turned it into a slick, easy-to-share video, designed for a fast “litmus test” reaction. Instead of long, exhausting explanations, they could now hit “send” and get quick, meaningful responses.
Within 48 hours of sharing the video with a handful of carefully chosen investors from my network, three enthusiastically agreed to meet with the entrepreneurs. Those conversations not only validated the new messaging, they revealed exactly which proof points and funding paths would matter most.
When the founders sent that same video to people in their existing network, the reaction was instant: “Oh — now I get it.” Conversations that had been stalled lit up again. Meetings that had felt like dead ends suddenly had momentum. They walked away not just with investor interest, but with a message that unlocked understanding — and energy — everywhere they shared it.
