Inside PRTI’s Multi-Year Validation Strategy: When Not to Move Fast and Break Things

In an era obsessed with moving fast and breaking things, some problems demand a different approach. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Chris Hare shared how PRTI’s methodical validation strategy challenged conventional startup wisdom, offering valuable lessons for founders tackling complex technical challenges.

The scale of their ambition demanded this methodical approach. “What we have is an automated, proven and protected technology that takes tires and cooks them, warms them up to the point where they become a gas stream, a liquid oil, a solid fuel, and also we recover all of the steel that goes into tires,” Chris explains. But proving this technology wasn’t a sprint – it was a carefully planned marathon.

Their validation journey has been extensive and deliberate. “We’ve worked very hard for the last seven, eight years to take this technology from an infancy position right to a point where we’ve run it nearly 10,000 times, where we’ve processed 50 million pounds of tires, where we’ve run it for literally over 100,000 operating hours,” Chris notes. This wasn’t just about processing material – it was about building a foundation for scale.

A pivotal moment in their journey came when they discovered their initial automation efforts weren’t sufficient. “We had automated the process and it still wasn’t performing the way we wanted it to, which meant that we hadn’t automated it the right way yet,” Chris shares. Instead of pushing forward with a flawed solution, they made the difficult decision to step back and rebuild.

This willingness to slow down and rebuild fundamentals proved crucial. “We may now have another year to not just make the algorithm that we’ve already done, but refine it to the point it’s robust,” Chris explains. This decision exemplifies their approach to validation: thorough understanding before scaling.

The complexity of their challenge demanded this methodical approach. “When you’re taking a manual process, you maybe don’t understand everything that the process does or what you are really seeing or hearing from the process. When you turn that into lines of code, you have to understand everything,” Chris notes. This insight guided their validation strategy – complete understanding before automation.

Their approach to measurement and data collection reflects this thoroughness. “When you try and grow a business, you have to figure out how to run it, how to measure it, what to measure, and then what to do with the data once you’ve measured it,” Chris explains. “And those actionable insights are really important, and you only get those over after a while of running.”

This methodical validation has attracted serious institutional attention. “The traction that we’ve seen, particularly over the last 18 months, is from more institutional partners… larger scale banks, larger scale investors as well as larger scale partners,” Chris shares. Their thorough approach has built the kind of credibility that sophisticated partners demand.

For founders tackling complex technical challenges, PRTI’s experience offers several key insights about validation:

• Recognize when problems demand thoroughness over speed
• Be willing to step back and rebuild fundamentals when necessary
• Focus on complete understanding before automation
• Build robust measurement systems from the start
• Use validation to build institutional credibility

Their story challenges the notion that all startups must move fast and break things. As Chris notes about running a business, “It’s never as bad as it seems and it’s never as good.” This balanced perspective has helped them maintain their methodical approach even when faced with pressure to move faster.

The validation strategy has positioned them for significant growth. “I would like our technology and our company to have much broader reach in the next five years,” Chris shares. Their journey demonstrates that sometimes the fastest path to scale runs through methodical validation, especially when tackling complex industrial challenges that others have failed to solve for centuries.