From Personal Problem to Grid Innovation: How Copper Labs Found Product-Market Fit in the Utility Sector
The best startup opportunities often hide in plain sight. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, CEO Dan Forman revealed how Copper Labs discovered its product-market fit by questioning an answer that millions of Americans accept without thinking: “We’ll go outside and look at that little wheel spin on your meter.”
The Problem Hidden in Plain Sight
“After he’d sold his last company, he was trying to figure out how to understand his electric usage and went so far as to call the utility,” Dan explained, describing how his technical co-founder stumbled upon what would become a massive market opportunity. The utility’s response – to physically check the meter – sparked a realization: in an age of real-time data, why were utilities still operating on monthly readings?
This simple question led to a technical insight that would reshape their understanding of the market: “Meters are already broadcasting usage data almost all the time. It’s just that in some cases, a truck will drive by to get it once a month. In other cases, a utility will bring it back over a latent mesh network.”
Finding the Technical Edge
While most startups might have rushed to build new meters or add expensive hardware, Copper Labs took a different approach. They discovered that the problem wasn’t a lack of data – it was the inability to access and use data that was already there.
“The whole market thinks you either have to replace the meter or strap on some really expensive hardware with AI chips,” Dan noted. Instead, they developed “machine learning algorithms that figure out how to read the targeted meters down to near real time overnight using really low cost hardware.”
The Market Reality Check
However, the team quickly learned that having superior technology wasn’t enough. “It takes some cultural transformation in the market to help people understand that there is a better way to do these things,” Dan explained. This insight led to a crucial pivot in their go-to-market strategy.
Instead of just selling technology, they needed to shift the entire industry narrative. As Dan put it, “We’ve all been marching in the same direction for a long time. It hasn’t worked. We’ve got new problems to solve.”
The Validation Point
The real validation of their product-market fit came from an unexpected source: regulators. “When regulators are mandating that northeast utilities, for example, engage in behavioral gas demand management during winter peaks, we’re really one of the only people that can help them to do that,” Dan shared.
This regulatory alignment turned into a powerful go-to-market advantage. National Grid, one of their largest utilities, became not just a customer but an investor, providing the strongest possible validation of their approach.
Scaling Beyond the Initial Use Case
What started as a solution for individual electricity monitoring evolved into a platform for grid modernization. The team discovered that their technology could address much broader industry challenges: “If you think about the electric grid here in the US, we have more outages than any developed country in the world. On the water side, we’re wasting something like 900 billion gallons a year just through easily addressable residential water leaks.”
The Product-Market Fit Framework
For founders seeking product-market fit in regulated industries, Copper Labs’ journey reveals several key principles:
- Look for problems that everyone accepts as normal
- Question industry assumptions about what’s possible
- Find ways to leverage existing infrastructure rather than replacing it
- Align with regulatory tailwinds
- Focus on cultural transformation alongside technical innovation
The Path Forward
Copper Labs’ experience shows that finding product-market fit isn’t just about building better technology – it’s about understanding and reshaping how an industry thinks about its problems. “I want Copper to be the company that helped prepare the utilities and this broader industry for that coming change,” Dan explained.
For B2B tech founders, the lesson is clear: sometimes the biggest opportunities don’t come from building something new, but from finding clever ways to unlock value from what’s already there. It’s about seeing the possibilities that others have overlooked in their rush to replace rather than optimize.