Two decades inside the utility buying process.
Shawn Burns founded Burns Market Catalyst to give early-stage energy founders the operator-grade GTM partner he wished he’d had — and to give the investors backing them a way to de-risk commercialization across their portfolios.
Mission & perspective
I am a mission-driven executive with more than 20 years of experience scaling technology and energy-sector companies. My work sits at the intersection of physical infrastructure and digital innovation — helping companies navigate the complex landscape of utility partnerships, regulatory environments, and go-to-market strategy.
The reason Burns Market Catalyst exists: utility procurement is the hardest enterprise sale in tech. Founders waste 18 months and a Series A learning the rhythm of a regulated buyer. Investors watch portfolio companies stall in pilot purgatory. There is no good reason for either of those things to keep happening.
Track record
Commercialization & growth
I have led commercial functions inside multiple energy-sector startups, building large enterprise pipelines and translating new categories into deployed revenue. The pattern is consistent: identify which utilities and adjacent buyers can actually fund your category in a defined window, build the proof and the relationships in parallel, and close the gap from pilot to deployment with discipline.
Strategic partnerships
My relationships span investor-owned utilities, fuel majors, and government entities. The approach is grounded in win-win partnerships that expand platform usage and accelerate market awareness. Utilities are slow buyers; they are also durable buyers, and the relationships compound.
Operational scale
Beyond direct commercial work, I have built the teams, processes, and operating systems that enable sustainable growth — from scaling client-facing solutions organizations through periods of rapid hiring, to managing global P&Ls inside high-growth platform companies.
Focus areas
Today, I serve as a fractional GTM leader, advising early-stage energy founders on the transition from product development to commercial scale. I am open to fractional leadership engagements and strategic advisory projects focused on:
- Renewable energy and microgrids
- Grid modernization and DERMS
- EV infrastructure and charging
- Resilience, distributed energy resources, and the broader energy transition
How I work
I am an operator first and an advisor second. The most useful thing I can do for a founder is sit inside the company — on the calls, in the deal reviews, drafting the procurement plan — not deliver a slide deck and disappear. Engagements are scoped to fit and built to grow.
With investors, I run as a shared resource across portfolios: better outcomes for the founder, more predictable pipeline visibility for the fund.
The market doesn’t reward speed in the energy transition. It rewards founders who learn the rhythm of regulated buyers and stay disciplined long enough to close. My job is to compress that learning curve.
Get in touch
The fastest way to start: book a call. Thirty minutes, no slides. If we can help, we’ll tell you. If we can’t, we’ll tell you that too — and usually point you to someone who can.