Fourth Power’s Playbook: How to Build Credibility When Selling Unproven Technology to Risk-Averse Enterprises

Fourth Power’s Playbook: How to Build Credibility When Selling Unproven Technology to Risk-Averse Enterprises

“Credibility is gained in drops and lost in buckets.” In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Fourth Power CEO Arvin Ganesan distilled years of enterprise sales experience into this simple truth. For deep tech founders, especially those selling to risk-averse utilities, this principle shapes every aspect of go-to-market strategy.

Starting with Customer Reality Before Fourth Power could build credibility, they had to understand what credibility meant to their customers. “If you’re a utility in Thailand or a utility in Kansas, you’re really driven by the same exact thing, which is you got to keep the lights on and you got to keep costs as low as possible,” Arvin explains. This fundamental understanding shapes how they present their technology.

The Science of Trust-Building Rather than making bold claims about their technology’s potential, Fourth Power takes a methodical approach. “The ethos of fourth power, what we’re trying to do is speak very carefully, very deliberatively, use the scientific process, get things peer reviewed, and be very diligent in the claims we make, and try to support things with data where possible,” Arvin reveals.

This extends to how they handle uncertainties in deep tech development. “We embrace that,” Arvin notes when discussing projection variability. They “make projections… are very transparent with the assumptions that we make, and we toggle assumptions up and down to show kind of conservative and not conservative cases.”

Matching Enterprise Language Instead of positioning themselves as disruptors, Fourth Power speaks their customers’ language. “When we talk with our customers, we’re not talking about leading with carbon,” Arvin explains. “We talk about how we’re able to make their avoided cost tests when it comes to integrated rate plans easier for storage.”

Building Technical Credibility Their approach to technical validation is equally methodical. They’ve developed “world records with respect to the highest, actually Guinness world record around the highest temperature pump in the world.” Yet even when discussing such achievements, they remain focused on practical utility needs, ensuring their battery provides “the exact same control systems as a natural gas plant, to have instant response time.”

The Long Game of Enterprise Trust Fourth Power’s commercialization timeline reflects their commitment to building trust systematically. They’re “building a 1 demonstration about 30 miles north of Boston… that’ll be online in 2025,” followed by “the first pilot, which will be around ten megawatt hours” in early 2026, before scaling to “our first gigawatt hour battery to undergo construction in the 2028-2029 time period.”

Transparent Fundraising Even in fundraising, Fourth Power maintains this commitment to transparency. “Being able to say what you know is great, but being also able to say what you don’t know, I think is really important in the fundraising process,” Arvin shares. “My suspicion that is fairly well informed is that overstating things causes pretty significant damage to your credibility when you’re trying to raise funds.”

For deep tech founders selling to enterprise customers, Fourth Power’s approach offers a clear framework: understand your customer’s fundamental needs, validate methodically, communicate transparently, and plan for the long game. As Arvin puts it, “Don’t try to break it… deeply understand why it is the regulators are involved, understand the legal and regulatory dynamics of the markets you’re trying to get into.”

This methodical approach to building credibility might not generate flashy headlines, but it’s proving effective at winning trust in one of the most risk-averse markets imaginable. For founders selling unproven technology to enterprises, it’s a playbook worth studying.