Growing your business with the support of an accelerator program with David Cassidy

David Cassidy, the Managing Director and founder of Clean Hydrogen Technologies, shares his experience being on the Decarbonize Program, the steps he took to prepare for the program, the key leanings and successes to come out of the 12 weeks.

Clean Hydrogen Technologies process natural gas to produce hydrogen and conductive carbon, used in batteries. For non-energy readers, natural gas is currently burned and used as an energy sources which releases CO2 into the atmosphere. Clean Hydrogen Technologies, converts the natural gas into two alternative forms of energy - hydrogen and conductive carbon - without releasing CO2.

Most founders would relate to the fact that, in the early stages of starting a business, the most difficult steps are usually finding the right partners, investors, and companies to partner with. For David, even more so with “gas” being a sort of taboo area in the energy space.

But eventually, after testing the proposition and refining their explanation with the aid and support of the Decarbonize Program, the Clean Hydrogen Technologies team was able to hone their message and gain a Proof of Scale partnership with one of the largest corporations in the world, Mitsubishi.

After going through the program and landing a successful partnership, here are David’s top 3 tips on how to improve your explanation of a difficult product to reach your audience effectively:

1. Test your proposition with your target customers. Get critical feedback, see if what you’re saying makes sense to them and refine where needed. Don’t just do this for one target customer segment, do this for as many as you can.
2. Test your explanation with your grandmother (or grandfather), someone not familiar with the energy, decarbonisation or technology space, so you can figure out how to dumb your explanation down (with all due respect to grandmothers).
3. Whatever you think your slides might be, figure out how to cut it down to fewer slides with 2-3 key words. That will really aid but not distract your audience.

If you’re inspired by David’s journey and want to find out more, apply to the Decarbonize Program: https://www.startupbootcamp.com.au/programs/decarbonize

Also make sure to follow David’s journey through their website: https://www.cleanhydrogentechnologies.com/