Most technical founders lose deals to the same gap. Brilliant product, working capital, sales motion that does not compound. SignalForge exists because that gap is the most underbuilt function in deep tech, and SaaS-trained playbooks do not survive contact with hardware buyers.
After 20 years building revenue inside hardware and deep tech companies, I noticed the same pattern. Brilliant technical founders. Working products. Capital in the bank. And a sales motion that did not compound. The default response was always to hire more salespeople. The default outcome was always the same. Cost doubled. Revenue did not.
I started SignalForge because the market has thousands of advisors for software companies and almost none built for the way technical buyers actually decide. SaaS-trained fractional CROs do not understand 9-to-18-month hardware sales cycles. Generic sales coaches do not understand procurement reality. Hardware founders end up paying for advice that fits a different industry.
SignalForge is the practice I wish existed when I was running revenue at hardware companies that worked but did not sell.
Energy Fox (Founder + CEO, 2022 — 2025). Mid-Atlantic commercial solar contractor handling engineering, procurement, and construction. Eight-person team: three founders and five contractors. Zero salespeople. Built $7M+ in contracted pipeline through demand engine 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.
Voltaic Coatings (Founder, 2010 — 2015). Deep-tech materials company. Italy Polymer Challenge top-3 finalist. Startup Chile awardee. NSF Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 awardee. Five years inside the hardware-startup grind taught me what kills commercialization in materials and energy.
KIZ Coordinator, East Stroudsburg University (Monroe County). Across that tenure I advised 30+ early-stage companies across five Pennsylvania-classified Keystone Innovation Zone industries: Homeland Security, Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Healthcare, and Information Technology and Advanced Manufacturing. Pattern recognition across 30 companies in five sectors is what the Proof to Pipeline methodology is built on.
Operator at scale. SolarCity (residential solar, 200% of quota and $25M+ in sales across 2 years). Clean Energy USA (213% conversion lift on existing inbound channel). Energize Delaware ($30M+ clean energy capital deployed). Plus revenue leadership across robotics, agtech, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and clean energy infrastructure.
Currently embedded. Tric Robotics (fractional Chief Revenue Officer, agtech robotics, Series A closed). Falchion Systems (Signal Extraction Sprint, defense-adjacent hardware). Active advisory across consumer hardware (Verde Mantis), natural products (Organtick), and India–US energy partnerships (Jesco Projects). Past advisory: Solid Innovations (acquired), Gameface Grooming (raised), Heudia (raised). Institutional advisor for TecBridgePA and Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
The product does not sell itself. The narrative does when it survives the buyer's journey from technical champion to CFO to procurement.
Hiring more salespeople multiplies activity. It does not improve design. A pipeline you designed is worth ten that you generated. Hardware companies that hire reps before they have a working motion punish themselves with the math.
The CEO of a company you want to sell to has 90 seconds in front of a board. If your value proposition does not survive those 90 seconds, you do not have a deal. Most hardware narratives die between the technical champion and procurement.
Most hardware companies confuse the two and burn 12 months learning the difference. 60% of pilots stall before production. The 40% that convert do it because of design choices made before the pilot started, not after.
Your pipeline is an output of your choices about ideal customer, channel, narrative, qualification, and deal design. Activity is not a strategy. We design the system, then run it with you until it works.
Every engagement has a defined scope, a defined price, and a documented output. No hourly billing. No surprise change orders. You know what you are buying, what it costs, and what you receive on day one.
I do the work. I do not staff teams of consultants. I do not subcontract delivery. The methodology is mine, the engagement is mine, and the artifact your team owns at the end of it is mine to defend in front of your board.
Every engagement produces an artifact your team can run after I leave. The signal map. The narrative architecture. The deployed engine. The runbook. The goal is not for SignalForge to live inside your company. The goal is to leave a system that compounds without us.
If you are looking for someone to write your cold emails, hire someone else. If you are looking for someone to redesign the way your company finds, qualifies, and closes hardware deals, this is the work.
Book a 30-minute working session, take the productized diagnostic, or read the methodology that runs every engagement.