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Why This Ex-Google Leader Is Building the Future Grid’s Operating System
The utility software market hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades. While tech giants poured billions into cloud computing and AI, utilities continued running critical infrastructure on premises, using systems designed for a simpler era. But as Camus Energy co-founder Astrid Atkinson shared in a recent Category Visionaries episode, this technological debt creates a unique opportunity for startups willing to tackle systemic change.
Finding the Blue Ocean in Legacy Markets
When Astrid first explored the utility space, industry veterans warned her away. “I heard a lot of concern that folks in the utility space were pretty slow moving, very conservative, very resistant to change, perhaps not very much fun to work with,” she recalls. Instead of seeing these traits as barriers, she recognized them as signs of a market ripe for transformation.
One advisor gave her pivotal advice: “You don’t want to build software that you’re selling to utilities. That’s a bloody ocean… go find a blue ocean space, find a way to do this that doesn’t involve fighting tooth and nail with incumbent vendors.”
This insight shaped Camus Energy’s entire go-to-market approach. Rather than competing directly with established players like Siemens and Schneider Electric in their existing categories, Astrid focused on creating an entirely new category: software for managing the transition to a decarbonized grid.
The Technology Gap as Strategic Advantage
The incumbents’ technological approach provided an unexpected advantage. “Almost all utility software is on prem today. So there’s really not a lot of maturity around like cloud scale technologies or really big data approaches or cloud scale machine learning or AI type approaches,” Astrid explains. This gap meant that when it came to building solutions for the future grid, giants like Siemens were “starting from nearly as much of a blank slate as we are.”
Building Trust in a Conservative Market
Instead of trying to sell to every utility, Camus Energy focused on forward-thinking early adopters. These customers proved surprisingly innovative: “Our current customers are generally early adopters but they are so creative and so dedicated to demonstrating models of dramatic change in some of the areas we need it most around decarbonizing our energy supply.”
This approach has yielded seven utility-scale customers – a significant achievement in an industry where sales cycles are measured in years and individual contracts are substantial.
Ecosystem Over Competition
Perhaps most striking is Astrid’s perspective on competition. While many startups obsess over beating competitors, she takes a radically different view: “Success for us isn’t whether we beat out another fledgling software company, it’s whether we can grow the market enough for all of us to be successful together.”
This collaborative mindset extends to how Camus Energy approaches potential partnerships. “I pretty much always say yes, I would like to have a conversation about that because in my mind, success for us isn’t whether we beat out another fledgling software company, it’s whether we can grow the market enough for all of us to be successful together.”
Creating Categories Through Industry Transformation
For founders considering category creation, Astrid offers a crucial insight about timing: “There often are times when the existing solutions don’t serve the needs of the market… And eventually those changing needs really shape the solutions that succeed.”
The key is identifying moments when fundamental industry changes create opportunities for new approaches. “I don’t think it’s crazy to try to redefine your problem space in a way that lets you tackle something really big and new, but I think that it makes the most sense in contexts where there really is a very big change in the environment that you’re working within.”
For Camus Energy, that change is the rapid evolution of the grid itself. As Astrid explains, “The decarbonized grid of the future is one in which we can leverage the resource, the platform, represented by the existing physical connectivity of the current grid… That future grid, it has a ton more participants, millions to billions, instead of kind of thousands of active participants today.”
This vision of systemic transformation, rather than incremental improvement, guides everything from product development to sales strategy. It’s a reminder that sometimes the biggest opportunities lie not in disrupting existing categories, but in creating entirely new ones shaped by the future you see coming.
Actionable
Takeaways
Leverage Expertise in Niche Areas for Broader Impact:
Astrid’s transition from contributing to Google's early cloud computing efforts to addressing climate change through grid management underscores the power of applying specialized knowledge to solve global challenges. Founders should consider how their unique skills can address broader societal issues.
Focus on Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship:
The motivation behind Camus Energy was not just to create a successful business but to make a significant impact on climate change. Founders should align their company’s mission with critical global challenges, enhancing motivation and potentially attracting like-minded talent and investors.
Navigating Conservative Industries Requires a Clear Value Proposition:
Selling into traditionally slow-moving sectors like utilities demands a compelling argument for change. Highlighting the future needs your product addresses, beyond the current landscape, can distinguish your solution and accelerate adoption among early innovators.
Category Creation as a Strategic Advantage:
Astrid’s focus on establishing Camus Energy within a new category—grid management platform—demonstrates the strategic advantage of category creation. It not only differentiates your company but also allows you to set the rules in an emerging market. Founders should consider how redefining their problem space can open up new opportunities.
Systemic Change Over Individual Actions:
Emphasizing the need for structural solutions to climate change, Astrid points out the limitations of focusing solely on individual consumption habits. For founders in the sustainability space, this underscores the importance of targeting systemic changes through innovations that can be adopted at scale, influencing industry standards and practices.
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