Technical to Commercial: How Accure Rebuilt Their Messaging

Deep technical expertise can become a communication barrier. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Accure Battery Intelligence founder Kai-Philipp Kairies revealed how their team of PhDs learned to translate complex battery analytics into compelling business value.

The PhD Problem

The challenge started with the founding team’s background: “Our CTO, George, has a PhD on aging behavior of batteries, our COO, Hano has a PhD in thermodynamics, and I have a PhD on battery usage in the grid,” Kai explains. “The three of these people will not come up with crisp language when describing what they do at day one.”

The Fundraising Wake-Up Call

This communication gap became painfully clear during fundraising. Despite having strong technology and market opportunity, investors weren’t connecting. “In our view, there’s the market opportunity, there’s the amazing technology, the rest will follow. Come on, that’s a no brainer,” Kai recalls. “And just as academics, for us, that was all we needed, right? And no one understood it, and no one wanted to give us money.”

The Turning Point

The breakthrough came when one VC saw past their poor messaging: “Hey, I really think that there’s something there, but you’re so bad at telling the story. Can we please sit down for 2 hours to fine tune your pitch?”

This VC’s guidance proved transformational: “After we had the fine tune pitch deck, we also send it out to a few other vc’s, and we got positive responses five out of five times, and we got term sheets.”

Learning to Speak Business

The team realized they needed to broaden their communication: “As we want to grow, you know, we want to grow as a company. And that means also selling to people who don’t have a PhD on the topic. And it’s so important to communicate the value and not the details in the back end.”

Building Market Understanding

Their improved messaging coincided with growing market awareness: “Three or four years ago they didn’t [know about battery analytics]. And I believe that we’re a part of this education of the market.”

This evolution in market understanding helped validate their approach: “Now, as these batteries become a vital part of their business, all of a sudden performance safety lifetime really matters… they’re much more open to solutions.”

The Value-First Approach

For their core market of grid-connected batteries, they developed a clear ROI message: “This is the revenue you would make without us. This is the revenue you would make with us. Give us a three or six month trial period to prove that, and then you’ve got a positive return on investment on whatever you pay us. That’s a great pitch.”

Different Audiences, Different Approaches

They learned to adapt their message for different verticals. As Kai notes: “If you go to an automotive company, on the other hand, it’s more of a strategic project. They have their internal teams, they have their internal capabilities. Do they really want to work with a startup instead of taking that money and increasing their own internal teams?”

Key Lessons for Technical Founders

1. Technical expertise alone won’t convince investors or customers
2. Find mentors who can help translate technical value to business terms
3. Focus on communicating outcomes rather than technical details
4. Adapt messaging for different stakeholder groups
5. Use market education to build understanding of technical value

For technical founders, the journey from deep expertise to clear business value isn’t just about simplifying language – it’s about fundamentally rethinking how you communicate value. As Accure’s experience shows, this transition often requires outside perspective and a willingness to move beyond technical comfort zones.

The key is recognizing that while technical excellence is crucial, business success requires translating that expertise into terms that resonate with investors, customers, and partners who may not share your technical background.