Ready to build your own Founder-Led Growth engine? Book a Strategy Call
Frontlines.io | Where B2B Founders Talk GTM.
Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Actionable
Takeaways
The familiarity trap is your biggest category creation problem.
When buyers see a new product that resembles something familiar, they skip the real evaluation. They glance at the sticker price, assume they understand the trade-offs, and move on. Weldon describes this as the core challenge in category creation: "People assume this level of familiarity — they see a basic spec and think they understand it." The unlock isn't better messaging about your product. It's reframing the actual decision. For Copper, that means showing a building owner the full infrastructure cost they're avoiding — lead remediation, panel upgrades, new service lines — not leading with stove specs. Find the real comparison your buyer needs to run, then make it unavoidable.
Identify what you're actually competing against — it's usually not another product.
Copper competes against a building renovation budget, not other appliances. In the LA example, the true alternative to buying a Copper range was $800,000 in electrical infrastructure work. Until you surface that real competitive frame, your positioning is aimed at the wrong target. Ask: what does the buyer actually do if they don't buy from us? Map that full cost — time, capital, logistics, disruption — and build your sales narrative around eliminating it.
Category creation unlocks distribution partners who were previously locked out.
In most states, HVAC installers can complete an install without an electrician on-site — meaning they couldn't sell a traditional induction stove that requires new wiring, but they can sell Copper's range. The installer is already in the customer's home, already having the electrification conversation, and now has a product to close with. Weldon's point isn't just that new categories open new markets — it's that the specific technical constraints of your category may give existing partners a capability they never had. Map the regulatory and licensing landscape of your channel partners. Your category's constraints might be their opportunity.
When a macro wave hits, cut your timeline — don't optimize it.
When RMI and other researchers published findings on gas stove health risks and the story went national, Copper wasn't ready to ship. Their response: cut their go-to-market timeline in half. Not refine it. Not de-risk it. Halve it. The window of peak demand creation — when someone else is doing the expensive work of shifting buyer awareness — is narrow. If you're close but not ready, fast is better than polished.
Support the wave rather than trying to own it.
Copper didn't run campaigns about the dangers of gas stoves. Instead, they partnered with health researchers who were already doing that work — facilitating studies of households transitioning from gas to electric, where Copper happens to be the market intervention point. This does three things: it keeps Copper out of the role of fear-based messenger, it generates independent third-party evidence, and it embeds the company in the research infrastructure that continues to produce credibility over time. Find the researchers, journalists, or institutions already advancing your buyer's awareness and make their work easier.
Match endorsers to identity, not audience size.
Copper's endorsement strategy is built around persona fit, not follower count. Jenny Slate — a parent publicly vocal about her kid's health — speaks directly to the parent-of-young-children buyer who's seen the asthma research and wants out of gas. The Milk Street team reaches serious home cooks motivated by performance. Neither is a paid spokesperson running a campaign — both are people who genuinely switched and wanted to tell others. Weldon's framing: "You are helping people see their own identity as part of a collective group of people all doing the same actions." The endorser's identity has to mirror the buyer's identity. Reach is a distant second.
Build D2C assets to carry your full channel stack.
Copper sells D2C, through HVAC installers, through solar companies, and into governments — but the core marketing collateral is largely the same across all of them. The B2B2C partners (HVAC, solar) use Copper's D2C materials directly with end customers. The implication: investing in D2C content quality isn't just a consumer play. If your product has any channel-partner motion, D2C assets that clearly convey the customer experience will do the heavy lifting in those channels too. Build them as if your partners' salespeople will hand them directly to buyers — because they will.
Conversation
Highlights
How Copper Built a New Category by Selling Against a $800,000 Renovation, Not a Competing Stove
It started in a Seattle kitchen in January.
Weldon Kennedy, Co-Founder and CMO at Copper, was visiting a friend — a former medical doctor turned public health researcher — and went to cook dinner. He turned on the gas stove. His friend sprinted in and threw open the back door into a cold rainstorm.
“Oh, sorry, we have a gas stove. You have to do this when you have a gas stove.”
Weldon had cooked on gas his entire life. He had never heard this before. In a recent episode of BUILDERS, he walked through how that moment led to a company redefining home electrification — and the GTM playbook built to sell something that looks like a stove but operates in an entirely different competitive frame.
When Your Real Competitor Is a Line Item, Not a Product
Copper makes battery-equipped induction ranges. The battery charges slowly from a standard wall outlet, then releases power quickly — no new circuits, no electrician, no permits. It slides into the space where a gas range used to be and plugs in.
The product looks like an appliance. The competitive frame is not.
“We were competing against a bunch of infrastructure work,” Weldon said. “We weren’t competing against another appliance.”
He described a Los Angeles apartment building Copper recently worked with. The walls were old enough that pulling new cable would trigger lead remediation, displacing residents for cleanup. A traditional electric stove needs 50 amps of service — doubling the electrical requirements per unit — which cascades into new panels per unit, a new load center, and a new service line in. Total cost of the conventional path: $800,000.
Copper’s solution: plug into the outlet already there. The one running the oven light.
The core problem Weldon identifies is that buyers apply the wrong evaluation framework before you’ve made your case. They see a familiar form factor and pattern-match to a familiar decision. The real cost comparison never gets run. “People assume this level of familiarity — they see a sticker price or a basic spec and they think they understand it because there’s some familiarity.” Copper isn’t competing against better stoves. It’s competing against a decision the buyer hasn’t correctly framed yet.
Inbound as Category Education
Weldon’s response to the familiarity problem wasn’t more elaborate outbound. It was building credibility infrastructure that reaches buyers who’ve already encountered the problem. Media coverage, reviews, strategic endorsements — each does category education before Copper enters the conversation. “We’ve lived off inbound business basically. It’s just people who are out there looking for the solution because the alternative is so hard.”
The limitation he names directly: none of that reaches buyers who haven’t hit the problem yet. “We need to do a much better job of explaining for people who aren’t searching for our category what this category means and what it does.” Surfing Two Waves — and Knowing When to Sprint
Copper’s demand is shaped by two forces they didn’t create but actively position around. The first is health research: a child in a home with a gas stove is 42% more likely to develop childhood asthma, and in California, 13% of all childhood asthma cases are directly attributable to gas stoves. The second is culinary: chefs including Matty Matheson, Alison Roman, Samin Nosrat, and the Milk Street team are publicly evangelizing induction on performance grounds.
The tactical move Weldon describes is easy to undervalue. When RMI and other researchers published findings on gas stove health risks and the story went national, Copper was early-stage with a long launch runway. Their response: cut it in half. “We need to get to market now.” The window when someone else is funding your demand creation is narrow.
Rather than owning either wave as a brand message, Copper embeds in the infrastructure producing credibility. On the health side, they partner with researchers studying gas-to-electric transitions — positioned as the market intervention point where studies happen. “We can help those health studies happen. We can help accelerate them. We don’t have to be out there saying this is scary. We can just focus on the good things.”
On the culinary side, genuine converts carry the message. Actress Jenny Slate, concerned about air quality for her child, reached out asking for a range and offered to make a video. A Milk Street chef bought one for her own home; the team subsequently put one in their studio. Neither was paid. “We’re finding those endorsers who speak to those personas of people who are most interested in this transition. You can’t just sit back and expect to surf. You have to tailor your work to match the people who are part of the movement.”
The Channel Architecture
When asked about the B2B, B2G, and D2C mix, Weldon laughed: “God, I wish there was only those three.”
Copper also runs B2B2C — and the mechanism matters. HVAC installers in most states don’t need an electrician on-site to complete an install. That licensing reality meant they couldn’t sell induction stoves requiring new electrical work. Copper’s plug-in design aligns exactly with what HVAC installers are already licensed to do. When a homeowner asks mid heat-pump installation whether the company handles other electrification upgrades, the installer now has a product to close with. The New York City Housing Authority selected Copper to supply 10,000 ranges across their buildings — a B2G contract that absorbs significant demand without consumer marketing spend. For D2C, Copper targets buyers who’ve already signaled intent: homeowners with solar installs, people engaging with electrification content. Critically, that same D2C collateral travels directly into the B2B2C channel. “The B2B seed work ends up being — you get to recycle a lot of those D2C materials.”
The Actual Work of Category Creation
“That’s what category creation and thinking is,” Weldon said. “Finding all these opportunities where, because of specific regulations, because of the nature of the market you’re competing in, there’s actually something fundamentally different about the product you’re bringing to market than everything that may look similar before.”
Move fast when the window opens. Embed in the infrastructure generating third-party credibility. Choose endorsers for identity fit, not reach. Design the product so its constraints become a channel partner’s unlock.
Copper isn’t selling a stove. It’s selling the elimination of a renovation, the removal of a health risk, and the only path from gas to electric that doesn’t require an electrician. The category just happens to sit in your kitchen.
Listen to the full conversation with Weldon Kennedy on BUILDERS.
Recommended Founder
Interviews
Michael Witte
CEO & Co-founder of Workrise
Michael Witte: Workrise: the GTM Story of Workrise ($3 Billion Valuation)
Matt Loszak
CEO & Co-Founder of Aalo Atomics
Matt Loszak, CEO & Co-Founder of Aalo Atomics: $33 Million Raised to Build the Future of Nuclear Energy
Jan Willem Rombouts
CEO & Founder of Beebop AI
Jan Willem Rombouts, CEO & Founder of Beebop AI: $5.5 Million Raised to Power Grid Orchestration for the Clean Energy Transition
Quentin Scrimshire
CEO and Co-Founder of Modo Energy
Quentin Scrimshire, CEO & Co-Founder of Modo Energy: $20 Million Raised to Build the Energy Asset Benchmarking Category
Troy Carter
CEO and Co-Founder of Earthshot Labs
Troy Carter, CEO and Co-Founder of Earthshot Labs: $11 Million Raised to Power the Future of Ecosystem Conservation and Restoration
Alex Siminoff
Director of Marketing of Parity
Alex Siminoff, Director of Marketing at Parity: Mastering HVAC Optimization with Effective B2B Storytelling
Dr. Ulrich Ehmes
CEO of theion
How theion’s CEO approaches pre-GTM deep tech strategy | Dr. Ulrich Ehmes
Omar Abou-Sayed
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Vaulted Deep
Omar Abou-Sayed, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of Vaulted Deep: $8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Carbon Removal
Haroon Inam
The crawl-walk-run sequence DG Matrix uses to convert disbelieving enterprise buyers into nine-figure contracts | Haroon Inam
Gary Lewis
CEO & Co-Founder of Resourcify
Gary Lewis, CEO & Co-Founder of Resourcify: $15 Million Raised to Build the Future of Recycling Management
Jason Marks
Chief Executive Officer of TELO Trucks
How Telo Trucks avoided the failure pattern that killed 60+ automotive startups in the last 40 years | Jason Marks
Francesco Volpe
Founder of Renaissance Fusion
Francesco Volpe, Founder of Renaissance Fusion: $30M Raised to Build the Future of Nuclear Fusion Technology
Greg Newbloom
CEO and Founder of Membrion
Greg Newbloom, CEO & Founder of Membrion: $23 Million Raised to Build the Future of Industrial Wastewater Treatment Solutions
Astrid Atkinson
CEO & Co-Founder of Camus Energy
Astrid Atkinson, CEO of Camus Energy: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Grid Management
Michael Belenkie
CEO and President of Entropy
Michael Belenkie, CEO and President of Entropy: $300 Million Raised to Spearhead Efficiency and Innovation in the Carbon Capture Economy
Sid Jha
Founder & CEO of Arbol
Sid Jha, Founder & CEO of Arbol: Over $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Climate Risk Management
Garrett Boudinot
CEO & Founder of Vycarb
How Vycarb’s ‘show, then tell’ marketing strategy converts prospects | Garrett Boudinot
Dillon Baxter
CEO & Founder of PlantSwitch
How PlantSwitch landed Walmart as an early customer | Dillon Baxter
Liz Gilligan
CEO & Founder of Material Evolution
Liz Gilligan, CEO & Founder of Material Evolution: $19 Million Raised to Build the Future of Sustainable Cement
Thibault Castagne
CEO and Founder of Vianova
Thibault Castagne, CEO and Founder of Vianova: $8.8 Million Raised to Build the Go-To Operating System for the Mobility World
Thomas Sisto
CEO & Co-Founder of XL Batteries
Thomas Sisto, CEO & Co-Founder of XL Batteries: $20 Million Raised to Transform Grid-Scale Energy Storage
Edward Chiang
Co-Founder and CEO of Moment Energy
How Moment Energy secured Over $30 million in government contracts by proving commercial readiness first | Edward Chiang
Manik Suri
Manik Suri, CEO and Founder of Therma: $30 Million Raised to Build the Cooling Intelligence Category
Adam Silver
CEO & Co-Founder of Plural Energy
Adam Silver, CEO & Co-Founder of Plural Energy: $2.8 Million Raised to Build the Future of Clean Energy Investing
Greg Fallon
CEO of Geminus
Greg Fallon, CEO of Geminus: $12 Million Raised to Help the Industrial Sector Prepare for the Energy Transition
Kameale Terry
Co-Founder and CEO of ChargerHelp!
Kameale Terry, Co-Founder and CEO of ChargerHelp!: Over $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
Scott Graybeal
CEO of Caelux
Scott Graybeal, CEO of Caelux: $70 Million Raised to Transform Solar Energy with Perovskite Technology
Jaimi Klein
Head of Marketing of STAX Engineering
Seeing is Believing: How STAX Builds Trust
Dr. Kai-Philipp Kairies
CEO and Co-Founder of Accure
Dr. Kai-Philipp Kairies, CEO & Co-Founder of Accure: $18.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Battery Intelligence
Chinmay Malaviya
CEO and Co-Founder of Ridepanda
How Ridepanda landed Amazon and Google by repositioning within existing commuter benefit budgets | Chinmay Malaviya
Marc Borrett
CEO & Co-Founder of Reactive Technologies
Marc Borrett, CEO & Co-Founder of Reactive Technologies: $80 Million Raised to Build the Future of Grid Measurement
Joselyn Lai
CEO & Co-Founder of Bedrock Energy
Joselyn Lai, CEO & Co-Founder of Bedrock Energy: $9 Million Raised to Power the Future of Geothermal Energy
Saurabh Kapoor
CEO & Co-Founder of Metafuels
Saurabh Kapoor, CEO & Co-Founder of Metafuels: $22 Million Raised to Pioneer Synthetic Aviation Fuel Technology
Ankit Somani
Co-Founder of
How Conifer secured Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch exclusives within weeks of launch | Ankit Somani
Stwart Peña Feliz
Co-Founder and CEO of MacroCycle
Stwart Peña Feliz, CEO of MacroCycle: $7.6M Raised to Build the Future of Plastic and Textile Upcycling
Elizabeth Muller
Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Deep Isolation
Elizabeth Muller, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of the Board of Deep Isolation: Over $22 Million Raised to Build the Future of Nuclear Waste Disposal
Kenneth Herschel
CEO and Co-Founder of Viggo
Kenneth Herschel, CEO and Co-Founder of Viggo: Nearly $6 Million Raised to Build the Future of EV Charging Infrastructure
Rebekah Braswell
CEO of Land Life
How Land Life evolved from selling technology to delivering A-to-Z restoration projects | Rebekah Braswell
Josh Knauer
Co-Founder of Reseed
Josh Knauer, Co-Founder of Reseed: $5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Carbon Credits for Farmers
Michael Witte
CEO & Co-founder of Workrise
Michael Witte, CEO & Co-founder of Workrise: $750 Million Raised to Power the Future of the Energy Industry
Matt LeDucq
CEO and Co-Founder of Forum Mobility
Matt LeDucq, CEO & Co-Founder of Forum Mobility: $423 Million Raised to Power the Future of Zero-Emission Trucking
Rachael O’Brien
Head of Demand and Brand of Opna
The End of Marketing Specialists: Building AI-Native Teams That Scale
Khaled Hassounah
CEO & Founder of Ample
Khaled Hassounah, CEO and Founder of Ample: $290M Raised to Build the Future of EV Batteries
Kathy Hannun
Founder & CTO of Dandelion Energy
Kathy Hannun, Founder & CTO of Dandelion Energy: $175 Million Raised to Democratize Geothermal Energy for Home Heating and Cooling
Tara Bartley
Vice President of Marketing of REsurety
How to Squeeze as Much Value as Possible out of Each Piece of Content
Joshua Riedy
CEO and Founder of Thread
Joshua Riedy, CEO and Founder of Thread: $20 Million Raised to Power the Future of Energy Grid Maintenance
Kentaro Kawamori
CEO & Co-Founder of Persefoni
Kentaro Kawamori, CEO & Co-Founder of Persefoni: $114 Million Raised to Build the Climate Disclosure & Carbon Management Category
Iain Cooper
CEO of SeekOps Inc.
Iain Cooper, CEO of SeekOps, $23 Million Raised to Build the Future of Emissions Monitoring
Mukund Karanjikar
CEO of CleanJoule
Mukund Karanjikar, CEO of CleanJoule: $55 Million Raised to Power the Future of Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Virginia Klausmeier
CEO and Founder of Sylvatex
Virginia Klausmeier, CEO and Founder of Sylvatex: More Than $15 Million Raised to Build a Better Class of Sustainable Materials and Drive the Green Revolution
Curtis VanWalleghem
Co-Founder & CEO, Board Member of Hydrostor
Curtis VanWalleghem, CEO of Hydrostor: $322 Million Raised to Build the Future of Energy Storage
Dan Forman
CEO and Co-Founder of Copper Labs
Dan Forman, CEO and Co-Founder of Copper Labs: $13 Million Raised to Enable the Data-Driven Utility of the Future
Ben Christensen
CEO of Cambium Carbon
Ben Christensen, CEO of Cambium Carbon: $5.5 Million Raised to Build a new Category of Sustainable Wood
Adrienne Pierce
CEO of New Sun Road
Adrienne Pierce, CEO of New Sun Road: $6 Million Raised to Accelerate Renewable Energy Deployment
Andre Fernandez
CEO & Co-Founder of Invert
Andre Fernandez, CEO of Invert: $26 Million Raised to Build the Future of Nature-Base Carbon Credits
Matthew Besch
VP of Marketing of ACCURE Battery Intelligence
Building a New Category: From Zero to Market Leader in 3 Years
Javier Marti
CEO and Founder of Divirod
Javier Marti, CEO & Founder of Divirod: $7.6 Million Raised to Build the Google Maps For Water
Tim Weiss
CEO and Co-Founder of Optera
Tim Weiss, CEO & Co-Founder of Optera: $17.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Carbon Management and Accounting
Steff Gerhart
Co-Founder & Co-CEO of ecoLocked
Steff Gerhart, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of ecoLocked: $6 Million Raised to Transform Buildings into Carbon Sinks
Allison Wolff
CEO of Vibrant Planet
Allison Wolff, CEO at Vibrant Planet: $34 Million Raised to Build the Future of Land Management Restoration
Doron Myersdorf
CEO & Co-Founder of StoreDot
Doron Myersdorf, CEO & Co-Founder of StoreDot : $200 Million Raised to Power the Future of Electric Vehicles
Daniel Betts
CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Frontier
Daniel Betts, CEO of Blue Frontier: $47.8M Raised to Revolutionize Air Conditioning with Energy-Storing Smart Climate Technology
Zak Lefevre
CEO of ChargeLab
Zak Lefevre, CEO of ChargeLab: $20 Million Raised to Build the Operating System for EV Chargers
Chris Hare
CEO of PRTI
Chris Hare, CEO of PRTI: Over $25 Million Raised to Transform America’s Billions of Waste Tires into Valuable Commodities
Allen Kramer
Co-Founder & COO of Crux
Allen Kramer, Co-Founder and COO of Crux: $27 Million Raised to Power the Future of Sustainable Finance
Arvin Ganesan
CEO of Fourth Power
Arvin Ganesan, CEO of Fourth Power: $20 Million Raised to Build the Future of Energy Storage
Antoine Welter
CEO and Co-Founder of Circu Li-ion
Antoine Welter, CEO & Co-Founder of Circu Li-ion: $8.5 Million Raised to Build the Future of Battery Upcycling
Gary Ong
CEO & Founder of Celadyne
Gary Ong, CEO & Founder of Celadyne: $5 Million Raised to Power the Future of Green Hydrogen Production
Matei Stratan
CEO of Ogre
Matei Stratan, CEO of Ogre: $2 Million Raised to Build the Future of Energy Management
Preston Bryant
Co-Founder, Executive Chair, & Chief Commercial Officer of Momentum
Preston Bryant, Co-Founder of Momentum: $20 Million Raised to Transform Battery Recycling Through Materials Science Innovation
Alisa Valderrama
Co-founder and CEO of FutureProof Technologies
Alisa Valderrama, Co-Founder and CEO of FutureProof Technologies: $10 Million Raised to Translate Climate and Weather and Financial Risk with Unprecedented Accuracy
Marina Azcarate
Head of Marketing of Mitiga Solutions
Marina Azcarate, Head of Marketing at Mitiga Solutions: Driving the Future of Climate Risk with Cutting-Edge Tech
Chris Bernkopf
Co-Founder & CEO of Podero
How Podero avoids “pilot purgatory” | Chris Bernkopf
Martin Kosak
CMO of Sensoneo
Event Marketing Mastery: Martin Kosak on Sensoneo’s Success at Trade Shows
Troy Helming
Founder & CEO of EarthGrid
Troy Helming, Founder & CEO of EarthGrid: $63 Million Raised to Build Underground Super Grids with Plasma Torch Technology
Chris Tolles
CEO & Co-Founder of Yard Stick
Chris Tolles, CEO & Co-Founder of Yard Stick: $18 Million Raised to Build the Future of Soil Carbon Management
Susan Stone
CEO of Blue Current
How Blue Current pivoted its entire go-to-market from EVs to stationary storage after identifying the cascading adoption slowdown | Susan Stone
Kaitlyn Albertoli
CEO and Co-Founder of Buzz Solutions
Kaitlyn Albertoli, CEO and Co-Founder of Buzz Solutions: Nearly $6 Million Raised to Build the Future of Infrastructure Inspection
Ali Javidan
Co-Founder of Range Energy
Ali Javidan, Co-Founder of Range Energy: $9 Million Raised to Build the Future of Electric Semi-Trucks
Alexis Normand
CEO & Co-founder of Greenly
Alexis Normand, CEO & Co-Founder of Greenly: $78 Million Raised to Build the Future of Carbon Management