PRTI’s Playbook: Building Institutional-Grade Operations from Day One

Building a capital-intensive business requires more than just great technology – it demands institutional-grade operations from the start. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Chris Hare shared PRTI’s strategic approach to building operations that could scale from individual relationships to institutional partnerships.

The scale of PRTI’s ambition demanded this institutional mindset from the beginning. “Solving this problem is massive, and the problem is massive. Therefore, the solution has to be massive, which typically means that there’s a lot of money involved,” Chris explains. “You can’t go to the local coffee shop and keep going chatting with folks and get enough money to build this business on a global scale.”

This reality shaped every aspect of their operations, particularly their approach to communication and storytelling. “We have a slide deck and we have scripts and we have words we use that we change every day because the story changes and the landscape changes every day,” Chris notes. This dynamic approach ensures their narrative remains relevant while maintaining institutional credibility.

One of their key insights was recognizing that effective institutional communication requires building authentic alignment across the organization. “We spend a lot of time together, face to face, which means it’s not just speaking the script or speaking the narrative. It’s also osmosis. We’re hearing each other’s conversations and we kind of course correct each other,” Chris shares.

This approach extends to how they handle facility tours and stakeholder interactions. “We let investors or partners or the government members that might be visiting speak with our staff pretty much at will,” Chris explains. This openness builds credibility when visitors hear consistent messages delivered naturally by different team members, demonstrating institutional-grade alignment without appearing overly scripted.

PRTI’s commitment to transparency has been particularly crucial in building institutional relationships. “If you tell the truth, you never have to remember what you told,” Chris notes. Their approach involves “open communication with our investors… Speak frankly. Speak openly and honestly. And if you’re having a bad day, say you’re having a bad day and say why.”

The challenge of maintaining consistent narrative appeal across different stakeholder profiles required careful consideration. “You don’t know whether the same story for a smaller check writing investor is going to resonate the same way with a multibillion dollar fund or bank,” Chris shares. Their success in maintaining this consistency while scaling relationships offers valuable lessons for founders navigating similar transitions.

Their institutional approach extends beyond communication to operational validation. “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 explains. This methodical approach to validation builds the kind of track record institutional partners expect.

The strategy has paid off. “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, large companies, as well as large financiers,” Chris notes.

For founders building capital-intensive businesses, PRTI’s experience offers several key lessons:

• Build institutional-grade operations and communication practices from day one
• Focus on authentic alignment rather than rigid messaging
• Maintain transparency while managing sensitive information
• Invest in thorough validation to build institutional credibility
• Develop narratives that can scale across different stakeholder profiles

Their journey demonstrates that building institutional-grade operations isn’t just about processes and procedures – it’s about creating an organization that can effectively engage with sophisticated stakeholders while maintaining authenticity and operational excellence. As Chris notes, “No young company ever has only good days. Therefore don’t act like it. It’s not true.” This authentic approach to institutional operations becomes particularly crucial when dealing with sophisticated partners who can detect artifice.