VC's software-era metrics break down on capital-heavy energy startups
Dominant VC math is tuned for software: near-zero marginal cost scaling, recurring revenue, five-to-tenfold annual growth. Energy and materials startups live under different physics, where capital arrives early, stays long, and doubling revenue is often the ceiling. Their real traction signals are reaction yield, product stability, and customer qualification, not user curves. Investors who score them on ARR routinely demand impossible speed.