7 Go-to-Market Lessons From Building a Sustainable Finance Platform in a Market That Didn’t Exist Yet

7 Go-to-Market Lessons From Building a Sustainable Finance Platform in a Market That Didn’t Exist Yet

The hardest GTM problem isn’t entering a crowded market. It’s building for a market that hasn’t opened yet.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Allen Kramer, Co-Founder and COO of Crux, a sustainable finance platform, shared how his team navigated this exact challenge when the Inflation Reduction Act created transferable tax credits as a new asset class. The Treasury Department wouldn’t release implementation guidance for six months. Nobody could transact. Most founders would panic. Allen built infrastructure.

Here are seven tactical lessons from Crux’s go-to-market journey that apply whether you’re building for new markets or established ones.

1. Use Pre-Market Periods for Foundation Building, Not Just Fundraising

When Crux incorporated in January 2023, their target market was legally defined but operationally frozen. “We incorporated the company January of 2023, but guidance hadn’t been released by the Treasury Department until June of last year,” Allen explains. “No one in this market was transacting because it was that new and guidance hadn’t come out.”

Most founders treat delays as obstacles to overcome. Allen treated the pre-market period as strategic opportunity. “It was this very unique moment in building, where we could lay a lot of foundation, do a lot of customer research upfront, start to build some of the infrastructure and foundations that we’d need.”

This meant hiring aggressively, building product, and conducting extensive customer research while competitors waited for clarity. When the market opened “over the course of mid to late Q three of last year into Q four,” Crux had already solved the technical and operational problems other entrants would need months to address. “From there, it’s just exploded.”

The lesson: Regulatory or market delays create temporal moats. Use them to build what competitors can’t build quickly later.

2. Partner With Intermediaries When Transactions Need Professional Guidance

Most marketplace founders default to peer-to-peer models. Allen rejected this immediately. “I think a critical early decision was that we wanted to partner very closely with players like banks, tax advisors, major institutional players, that were going to be on the front lines of advising that naturally we’re going to be on the front lines of advising their clients about entering this market.”

This wasn’t defensive positioning. Allen identified that transferable tax credits occupy a specific complexity zone. “These transactions are simpler than some of the precedent transactions. The tax equity market is a very complicated type of transaction and these transactions are much simpler, but they’re still going to require their people’s tax advisors or their bankers to advise them on actually conducting these transactions.”

When transactions are simple enough for advisors to learn quickly but complex enough that corporations won’t DIY, intermediary partnerships accelerate liquidity. “Being really flexible has helped us drive much more liquidity earlier. We can support not just buyers and sellers coming directly to the market. That’s a great fit for some types of players, but for others, working with an advisor that may be on our platform is the right strategy for them.”

The lesson: Complexity positioning determines distribution strategy. Map where your product sits on the complexity spectrum, then build for that reality.

3. Treat Data Aggregation as a Strategic Moat, Not Just a Feature

Allen’s intermediary strategy unlocked second-order benefits beyond liquidity. “It gives us access to more data to understand what is sort of actually standard for the market and then feed that through into the broader platform that we’re building.”

Each transaction channeled through the platform, even intermediary-facilitated ones, revealed pricing benchmarks, deal structures, and risk frameworks. This data became the foundation for market standardization. “It helped drive standardization in a lot of places.”

For new asset classes, standardization isn’t efficiency optimization. It’s market creation. Without standards, buyers hesitate and sellers struggle to find counterparties. By aggregating transaction data and publishing it as market intelligence, Crux shaped how the entire market functions.

The lesson: In new markets, whoever sets the standards owns the category. Use data aggregation to become the definitive source of truth.

4. Publish Market Intelligence to Create the Market Itself

Allen brought back Emily Hughes from his previous company Mobilize to lead growth. Her mandate wasn’t demand generation. It was market education. “We publish the leading market intelligence on this new market. Things like pricing reports, objective, standardized data on how people are conducting these transactions.”

This content strategy serves a more fundamental purpose than thought leadership. “Especially for something like a new asset class, it’s been really important to lead with insights, lead with a unique take on the market, and an objective perspective.”

When intermediaries advise clients about participating in transferable tax credits, they reference Crux’s reports. The platform generates transaction data that informs market intelligence that drives more intermediaries to use the platform. Each cycle strengthens Crux’s position as market infrastructure.

The lesson: In nascent markets, content isn’t marketing. It’s market-making. Publish the intelligence that defines how people think about the category.

5. Reject the Efficient Market Assumption for New Asset Classes

Allen’s entire strategy rests on rejecting a dangerous assumption. “The inflation Reduction act passed and it just became so clear that this new asset class would need new solutions. And because an efficient market was not inevitable.”

Most founders assume markets naturally trend toward efficiency. Allen recognized that new asset classes need active infrastructure building. Someone has to create the standards, transparency, and transaction frameworks that allow markets to function.

This shaped Crux’s positioning from inception. They weren’t building a better version of existing infrastructure. They were building the first real infrastructure for a market that had none. The transferable tax credit market would eventually function efficiently, but only if someone made that happen.

The lesson: Market efficiency is constructed, not inevitable. In new categories, someone needs to build the infrastructure. Decide if that’s you.

6. Use Strategic Investors as Domain Experts and Distribution Channels

Allen’s cap table architecture reinforced his GTM strategy. “We’ve publicly raised capital from folks like Orsted or LS Power, people that are really large in this industry.” These strategic investors served dual purposes: “It’s helped drive a lot more insight early into the business, as well as, of course, adoption of the platform.”

Strategic investors from renewable energy and power sectors provided domain expertise during product development while creating platform credibility. When intermediaries evaluate new platforms, seeing major industry players on the cap table reduces perceived risk.

Allen also maintained continuity with previous investors. “Clay at lower Carbon had invested in our last company. Ian Samuels from new system Ventures had invested in our last company, Shamiq Dutta from Overture. But previously higher ground Labs had invested in our last company.”

The lesson: Strategic investors in new markets provide more than capital. They’re domain validators, distribution channels, and credibility signals. Choose them accordingly.

7. Build for the Full Transaction Range to Capture Market Evolution

Crux serves three personas simultaneously: sellers, buyers, and intermediaries. Within each, transaction sizes span dramatically. On the seller side, deals range from “$80,000 up to very large scale, utility scale players, generating hundreds of millions of dollars of credits, or billions of dollars of credits a year.”

This range defies conventional ICP wisdom that says pick one segment and dominate it. Allen instead built for the full market because different transaction sizes need different completion paths. Some require direct marketplace connections. Others need intermediary facilitation.

“We have three Personas that we partner with renewable energy developers and manufacturers, people generating credits,” along with “family offices that are looking to transact in this market up to the Fortune 100.” The flexibility matters more than segment focus in new markets where transaction patterns haven’t stabilized.

The lesson: In emerging markets, premature segmentation limits learning. Build for range until transaction patterns crystallize, then optimize.

The Compounding Effect

These lessons connect into a reinforcing system. Pre-market foundation building enabled intermediary partnerships. Intermediary partnerships generated data aggregation. Data aggregation informed market intelligence. Market intelligence attracted more intermediaries and direct users. Strategic investors provided domain expertise and credibility. Serving the full transaction range revealed market patterns faster.

Allen’s vision for Crux extends beyond transferable tax credits. “There’s such demand and pull from our existing customers to be able to access additional types of capital, not just this tax credit transaction.” The goal is “a much more integrated, one stop shop for our partners to be able to access capital markets.”

The intermediary-first strategy that solved the cold-start problem becomes the moat that enables expansion. As Crux adds financial products beyond transferable tax credits, the same advisors and banks can offer broader solutions through the platform.

For founders building in new or emerging markets, Allen’s approach demonstrates that go-to-market strategy isn’t about capturing existing demand. It’s about constructing the infrastructure that allows demand to flow efficiently. The company that builds that infrastructure doesn’t just participate in the market. They define how the market functions.