A commercialization engine for deep tech, energy infrastructure, hardware, and robotics. We turn your engineering edge into pipeline, revenue, and adoption.
The technology works. The narrative doesn't translate to a buyer's CFO.
Headcount goes up. Conversion does not. The cost doubles. The revenue does not.
The pitch reads clean and converts no one. Generic narratives lose to specific ones.
We apply Lean Startup feedback loops to go-to-market. Lead quality before volume. Demand signal before headcount. Compound, not just grow.
The job is to hand the buyer the exact narrative they will repeat in three internal meetings you will never attend.
Most founders are talking to the wrong buyer.
Discovery framework that surfaces the full decision committee in the first call, not the fifth. Uncover the gap between board-believed pipeline and real pipeline.
If the buyer can't repeat it, it doesn't exist.
Translate your engineering edge into the exact sentence the buyer will repeat to their CFO on a Tuesday morning. Specs don't sell. Story the buyer can repeat does.
Pipeline is designed, not generated.
Inbound architecture, intent-triggered routing, qualification gates, stage conversion diagnostics. Not advice. Not decks. Systems.
Revenue shows up before marketing does.
The goal isn't to be found. It's to be in the room before the shortlist forms.
Fixed scope. Fixed price. Operator-led. Built to hand back.
Twelve-dimension assessment of your engine. The score tells you which tier is the next move, or that the next move is no outside help at all. The $4,500 fee credits in full toward a Sprint.
We identify why your product is not converting and what is structurally broken. A fixed-scope diagnosis with a prioritized fix list. The fee credits toward a GTM Engine Build.
Full system rebuild across positioning, narrative, pipeline architecture, and deal design. A working motion, documented and deployed. The fee credits toward a Fractional CRO Retainer.
Embedded operator in your seat. We run the engine until your in-house team owns it.
Twelve scored questions plus three free-text. Written diagnosis with a prioritized fix list lands in your inbox in 10-14 days. $4,500. The fee credits in full toward a Sprint. Self-qualifying. Operator-graded.
Named outcomes across deep tech, energy, hardware, and robotics.
Built $7M+ pipeline with zero sales team.
Founded and ran a Mid-Atlantic commercial solar contractor. Eight-person team: three founders and five contractors. Zero salespeople. Built $7M+ in contracted pipeline through architecture, not headcount. USDA Rural Energy for America Program grants secured for client portfolio with 100% success rate. Sold the contract portfolio in a clean exit in 2025.
Closed Series A after restructuring discovery.
Built the discovery framework that surfaced the full decision committee in the first call, not the fifth. Closed the Series A. NSF Small Business Innovation Research grant awarded. Repeatable motion documented and handed back for in-house scaling.
Turned credibility gap into funded validation.
Built the credentialing infrastructure in parallel with the discovery process. NSF Innovation Corps grant secured. TecBridgePA non-collegiate competition winner. Commercial credibility resulted in a subsequent recruited role at Lockheed Martin.
0-to-10 scientist team across three continents. Fortune 500 letters of intent.
University of Delaware materials spinout commercializing patented polymer coatings. Top-3 finalist Italy Polymer Challenge. Startup Chile awardee 2013, one of 50 selected from 3,000+ international applicants. Universidad de Chile research partnership established. Letters of intent signed with Fortune 500 partners across automotive, aerospace, and industrial coatings. $300K non-dilutive secured, including NSF Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 awardee. Concluded operations in 2015. The lessons fed directly into the SignalForge methodology.
Engineering differentiation translated into a story families could repeat.
Joe Sinclair founded Verde Mantis to build the world's easiest-to-use desktop 3D printer. The category was crowded with technically capable products that asked the user to be a maker. SignalForge translated the engineering differentiation into a narrative families could repeat: full automation across WiFi onboarding, repair, slicing, orientation, and bed leveling. TecBridgePA non-collegiate competition winner. Commercialized into the consumer desktop market.
Repositioned between botanicals and chemical incumbents. National grant secured.
Founded by an expert in tick-borne diseases. The category was dominated by chemical incumbents and weak natural alternatives, neither effective at scale. SignalForge ran NSF Innovation Corps customer discovery to surface real category positioning, then placed Organtick in the natural-and-effective tier between established botanicals and chemical incumbents. National grant secured. Consumer packaged goods launch executed. TecBridgePA non-collegiate competition winner.
Established 1983. A 43-year-old Indian firm representing international companies across India's energy and industrial equipment sectors: independent power producers, engineering and construction contractors, utilities, infrastructure developers, original equipment manufacturers, steel and mining. SignalForge worked with Yash Rawal to source and qualify US innovation companies through Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Keystone Innovation Zone networks. The result: a bidirectional commercialization channel where US innovators gain Indian market access and Jesco gains US technology pipeline.
Solid Innovations (acquired) · Gameface Grooming (raised) · Heudia (raised) · Energize Delaware ($30M+ clean energy capital deployed) · Clean Energy USA (213% lead conversion lift) · SolarCity (200% of quota · $25M+ in sales across 2 years)
Four pillars. The structural problems hardware founders search for at 11pm. We publish what we run.
Open the Insights hub →9-to-18-month cycles. Multi-stakeholder procurement. Technically literate, commercially conservative buyers. SaaS playbooks die on contact.
The four-stage methodology behind every engagement. Extract Signal, Translate Narrative, Build Engine, Drive Pipeline. Documented so your team can run it.
First sales lead. Fractional vs. full-time Chief Revenue Officer. The $1M revenue handoff. Where 70% of first Vice President of Sales hires fail and how not to be the statistic.
60% of hardware pilots stall. We publish the playbook for the 40% that convert. Innovation budget to business unit. Champion design. Last-mile procurement.
Deep tech and hardware companies post-product-market-fit. Sub-500 people. Stuck between $1M and $20M in annual revenue with a product that works and a pipeline that doesn't compound. Energy infrastructure. Robotics. Advanced manufacturing. Agtech.
Sub-500 person companies in the same sectors searching for a Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Commercial Officer. Operator-led, not consultancy-led. Founder-coded experience required. Hardware and deep-tech buy committees, not software product-led growth motions.
Architecture feels like delay because it is invisible.
Boards reward the visible. Operators know better.
Creativity isn't soft. It's a commercial weapon.
Most technical founders don't know they need it until they've lost the deal.
Two-Time Tech Founder. Energy Fox (Mid-Atlantic commercial solar contractor, sold 2025). Voltaic Coatings (deep-tech materials, Italy Polymer Challenge top-3 finalist, Startup Chile awardee, NSF Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1, 2010 — 2015). 20-year revenue operator across clean energy, hardware, robotics, agtech, and manufacturing tech.
Signal Extraction Sprint, GTM Engine Build, or Fractional CRO Retainer. Start the conversation about commercialization for your company.
Start a SignalForge engagement →For boards and CEOs searching for a Chief Revenue Officer or Chief Commercial Officer at a sub-500 person deep tech, energy, hardware, robotics, agtech, or manufacturing tech company.
Open a commercial leadership conversation →