Turn product-market fit into deployed revenue.
Burns Market Catalyst is the fractional GTM partner for startups commercializing into electric utilities. Two decades of operator experience inside the utility buying process — embedded with your team.
Two decades of commercial work with utilities and the companies selling to them
- PG&E
- SCE
- National Grid
- NV Energy
- Portland General Electric
- Puget Sound Energy
- Berkshire Hathaway Energy
- LADWP
- SMUD
- Seattle City Light
- ATCO
- Liberty
- BoxPower
- FreeWire
- Opower
- Path Power
Selling to utilities is the hardest enterprise sale in tech.
Twelve-to-twenty-four-month procurement cycles. Buying committees that span engineering, operations, regulatory, and cybersecurity. Pilots that succeed but never translate into deployments. Sales playbooks built for SaaS that fall apart the first time someone says “we’ll need to add this to our rate case.”
Founders burn 18 months and a Series A learning this. Investors watch portfolio companies stall in pilot purgatory. We’re the shortcut.
Operator-grade GTM, embedded with your team.
We don’t advise from the outside. We embed as your fractional GTM leadership — building segmentation, pricing, the pilot-to-deployment playbook, and the relationships that move deals through procurement.
Two decades of operator experience inside the utility buying process: investor-owned utilities, co-ops, munis, and the regulators that shape what they can buy.
We’ve sold to utilities. We’ll help you do it.
Your investors didn’t fund you to spend two years learning how IOU procurement works, or how a co-op makes capital decisions, or why your pilot at one utility won’t translate at the next.
We embed as your fractional GTM leadership so your team stays focused on the product and your runway funds growth, not education.
- 9-figure pipelines built across utility-tech engagements
- Solutions launched that generate revenue inside the first quarters
- Direct relationships with investor-owned utilities, public power, and cooperatives across North America
Four ways we engage.
Every engagement is shaped to grow with the company. Most clients start with strategy and add execution support as deals get close.
GTM Strategy
Market segmentation, pricing, packaging, and ICP definition for the utility buyer. Decide which utilities you can win in the next 18 months — and which to pass on. Includes a regulatory and ISO/RTO market scan to flag where your technology has a viable policy path.
Pilot-to-PO Playbook
The mechanics of translating a successful pilot into a purchase order: champion mapping, procurement preparation, rate-case positioning, PUC engagement, and contract structure.
Sales Execution
Fractional sales leadership, deal coaching, key meeting prep, RFP response review. Sometimes a co-pilot on calls. Always a backstop.
Board & Investor Readiness
GTM narrative, traction packaging, customer reference choreography for fundraising. Translate “we have a pilot” into a story a Series B board will fund.
De-risk the GTM in your utility-tech portfolio.
Utility-tech is structurally hard to underwrite — the same product can win one IOU and stall at the next.
We work across portfolios as a shared GTM resource: senior operator coverage for your founders, and clearer pipeline visibility for the fund. Less surprise. More predictable revenue.
Discuss portfolio supportCommon questions about working with BMC.
- What does Burns Market Catalyst do?
- Burns Market Catalyst is a fractional go-to-market (GTM) consultancy for energy startups commercializing into electric utilities — and the venture investors backing them. BMC embeds as fractional commercial leadership inside startups whose path to revenue runs through utility procurement, and works with funds as a shared GTM resource across utility-tech portfolios.
- Who is BMC for?
- Early- and growth-stage technology companies selling into the electric utility industry — investor-owned utilities (IOUs), public power and municipal utilities, electric cooperatives, ISOs and RTOs, and federal utilities. Also the venture firms backing those founders. BMC is not a fit for companies whose primary buyer is residential or generic enterprise.
- How is BMC different from a generalist sales consultancy?
- Two decades of operator experience inside the utility buying process. Founder Shawn Burns built a $400M pipeline at BoxPower, launched solutions at FreeWire generating $2M in six months, and has direct relationships with investor-owned utilities, public power, and cooperatives across North America. The playbook is written from inside the deals, not from a framework.
- What does a typical engagement look like?
- Most engagements start as a 3-12 month focused project (a strategy build, a target-segment plan, a high-stakes pipeline push) and evolve into longer embedded GTM leadership as the work compounds. For investors, BMC runs as a portfolio-level shared resource on a retained basis.
- How do we start?
- Book a 30-minute introductory call via the contact page. BMC comes prepared with questions about your segment, your pipeline, and where you are stuck. If BMC can help, we will tell you. If we cannot, we will tell you that too — and usually point you to someone who can.
Got a utility deal that’s stuck?
Tell us where. Thirty minutes, no slides. If we can help, we’ll tell you. If we can’t, we’ll tell you that too.