How Vaulted Built a Market That Didn’t Exist: Lessons in Category Creation for B2B Founders

How Vaulted Built a Market That Didn’t Exist: Lessons in Category Creation for B2B Founders

Having a great solution isn’t enough when your market doesn’t exist yet. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Omar Abou-Sayed shared how Vaulted turned this challenge into an opportunity by transforming early believers into market creators.

The Waiting Game

When Omar first conceived Vaulted’s carbon removal technology, he faced a founder’s worst nightmare: a solution without a market. “Unfortunately, when I had the idea originally there was no market for those carbon credits, and it took about a decade for that market to be able to emerge, for us to really pursue that business model in earnest,” he explains.

Instead of forcing the market before it was ready, Omar waited for two critical shifts: generational change and mounting climate evidence. “It took the baby boomers relinquishing the reins of power to generation X and to millennials, who in general grew up where climate change was not controversial,” he notes.

Building the Early Market

Today, Vaulted operates in what Omar describes as “a club” where “all the companies know each other, the carbon credit buyers all know each other.” But this intimate market structure isn’t a limitation—it’s a strategic advantage.

The company specifically targets “four thinking companies that are trying to catalyze and establish this necessary market and create a space for these companies to thrive early on.” These aren’t just customers; they’re market creators helping establish the carbon removal ecosystem.

The Two-Market Strategy

Omar identifies two distinct markets in the carbon and environmental space: “There’s a whole universe of technologies that just reduce the emissions or reduce the environmental footprint around preexisting industries. And then there’s this emerging industry of like carbon removal.”

Vaulted positions itself as “the net in net zero,” focusing on the latter market. “We are the thing that will balance off the hard to abate emissions from everybody else,” Omar explains. This clear positioning helps early customers understand their role in the broader climate solution.

Converting Buyers into Market Creators

Rather than treating carbon removal credits as pure commodity, Vaulted frames purchases as strategic investments. Omar notes that for current customers, “It’s some mix between marketing budget for them, corporate philanthropy, and also represents a lot of foresight.”

This approach transforms the traditional buyer-seller relationship. Early customers aren’t just purchasing credits—they’re “trying to catalyze and establish this necessary market and create a space for these companies to thrive early on.”

Planning for Market Evolution

Looking beyond the current “club” phase, Omar sees a transition coming: “We expect and hope that this market evolves where the economy has accepted an obligation around this type of balancing of this net and net zero.”

The goal isn’t just to serve the voluntary market but to help shape future regulations. While Vaulted isn’t “actively lobbying to create obligations on our customers,” they are “in the conversation with the policymakers who are looking at incentives that they can write into the tax code.”

For B2B founders building in nascent markets, Vaulted’s approach offers valuable lessons. Sometimes success isn’t about forcing market adoption—it’s about identifying and empowering the right early customers who can help create the market itself.

The key is understanding that in emerging markets, customers play a dual role: they’re not just buyers, but co-creators of the market infrastructure you’ll need to scale. By embracing this dynamic, founders can turn market immaturity from a challenge into a strategic advantage.