Inside Bedrock’s First Commercial Deployment: Lessons from the CIM Group Project
First deployments in deep tech are more than just technical milestones – they’re comprehensive learning laboratories for your entire business. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Bedrock CEO Joselyn Lai shared an inside look at their first major installation with CIM Group, revealing crucial lessons for founders bringing complex solutions to market.
The Customer Profile
The project partnered with CIM Group, which Joselyn describes as “an amazing firm that is nationwide in its real estate and infrastructure footprint, and they have emissions reductions targets.” This alignment of capabilities and needs made them an ideal first major customer.
Technical Innovation in Action
The installation demonstrated Bedrock’s key technological advantages. “Because of Bedrock’s technology, we are able to shrink the footprint of the geothermal system so that it fit into their real estate property lines,” Joselyn explains. They also proved they could “drill faster” and “drill more quietly” – crucial capabilities for urban installations.
Learning Across Multiple Dimensions
The project provided insights across every aspect of deployment. As Joselyn details, “We learned about the process of setting up a construction site right outside the windows of a occupied office building where people were working. We learned just about all the steps in the construction process, ranging from getting that city permit and the state permit.”
Integration Challenges
One of the most valuable lessons came from systems integration. “We learned about just the integration between the geothermal system that we’re here to innovate on and connecting that to the h vac system inside the building. We learned a lot about that process of working with H Vac contractors to kind of get the system into the building to connect that with the electrical, the plumbing and whatnot.”
Data Collection and Analysis
The installation served as a crucial data gathering opportunity. “Getting all the experience with this project meant that we got user research that goes back to our hardware engineers, as well as subsurface data that goes back to our software engineers,” Joselyn notes.
Regulatory Navigation
The project helped establish their regulatory approach. “This is not like other forms of big, clean energy infrastructure projects where you have to get federal permitting,” Joselyn explains. “Instead, geothermal heating and cooling for buildings… is usually regulated at the local or state level, and it’s often regulated like a water well.”
Key Learnings for Scale
Several crucial insights emerged from this first deployment:
- Site Management: Working in active business environments requires careful planning and execution
- Permitting Process: Understanding and streamlining local regulatory requirements
- Integration Complexity: Managing multiple contractors and systems
- Data Collection: Setting up processes to capture learnings for future improvement
- Customer Communication: Managing expectations and maintaining relationships through complex installations
Impact on Future Deployments
The CIM Group installation now serves as a model for future projects. It demonstrated that Bedrock could deliver on their promise to make geothermal energy viable in urban settings, while providing a wealth of operational insights to streamline future deployments.
For deep tech founders approaching their first major deployments, Bedrock’s experience offers valuable lessons in using initial installations as learning opportunities. The key is to view these projects not just as technical validations, but as comprehensive proving grounds for your entire business model.
This approach aligns with Bedrock’s larger vision to transform geothermal from “a cool novelty” into “a really scalable category.” By treating their first major installation as a learning laboratory, they’ve built a foundation for scaling their solution across “many tens of thousands of rigs operating around the world.”