MERIT™ Positioning Brief
85% of clean energy matches fail before they begin. Not because of poor execution, but structural impossibility. Your solar startup is chasing utilities? Structurally impossible. Your A1 project seeking C3 capital? Wrong risk currency. Your 18-month pursuit that went nowhere? We could have told you on day one.
US$499 | 80% creditable toward a future matching mandate
Delivery: 5 business days after we receive your intake and materials.
Who This Brief Is For
You've been trying to sell binary risk to variance buyers.
(Translation: Your startup is pitching to utilities who literally cannot buy what you're selling)
You're speaking Technology while they're speaking Compliance.
(Translation: You exist in different risk regimes with incompatible value languages)
You keep hearing "too early" but don't know what needs to change.
(Translation: You need to move from Existential to Commercial regime, not just wait)
If you recognize this pattern, you're trading the wrong risk currency
with the wrong counterparties. The Brief tells you exactly where you stand
and who can actually transact with you.
What You Get from the MERIT™ Positioning Brief
The Brief is a concise, decision-grade output — not a fluffy slide deck.
You receive:
- A brief written structural diagnostic of where you sit in today’s clean-energy ecosystem across: your solution, assets/projects, demand side, capital, and enablement.
- A clear statement of your current structural position — what kind of risk you are asking the market to take, and which types of counterparties can even consider it.
- Red-zone flags where the market architecture makes success extremely unlikely, regardless of effort or storytelling.
- Ready-to-use guidance for your next 3–6 months, including:
- which types of counterparties you should focus on,
- which deal shapes are realistic now vs. later,
- and which pathways to stop spending time on.
How We Diagnose Your Structural Position
Step 1: Position Mapping
We locate you in the 15-cell matrix across Solutions/Assets/Load/Capital/Enablement
and identify your risk regime (Existential/Commercial/Performance).
Step 2: Risk Currency Analysis
We identify what type of risk you're selling and what type your targets buy.
Mismatched currencies = structural impossibility.
Step 3: Path Viability Assessment
We trace all possible routes from your position to your targets.
Some paths: 70% viable. Others: <5% regardless of execution.
Step 4: Structural Prescription
Not generic advice but geometric navigation: which cells to occupy next,
which bridges through Enablement are mandatory, what regime shifts are required.
What This Step Does Not Do
To avoid confusion:
- The Positioning Brief does not immediately match you with specific investors, buyers, or partners.
- It does not rewrite your pitch deck, financial model, or legal documents.
- It does not act as a full fundraising or business-development mandate.
Instead, it answers a prior question:
“Given who we are and where the market is today,
what is structurally possible for us — and what is not?”
Everything else (target lists, introductions, deal work) becomes faster and more realistic once this is clear.
The Cost of Structural Ignorance
Every month you spend on structurally impossible pursuits:
- Burns 8% of your runway
- Degrades team morale
- Delays viable paths that could actually work
- Sends wrong signals to current investors
The median clean energy startup spends 18 months discovering what
our Brief reveals in 7 days: you're in the wrong regime talking
to the wrong counterparties.
$499 to avoid 18 months of structural waste.
That's 0.08% of a typical Series A.
Will this tell me my idea is impossible?
Possibly. About 30% of Briefs reveal structural impossibility requiring a fundamental pivot. Better to know now than after burning US$2M.
What if I don't understand risk regimes?
You don't need to. We translate structural analysis into plain English: “Stop chasing X, focus on Y, then Z becomes possible.”
Why can't I figure this out myself?
You could, after 18 months of failed attempts. Or read 50 pages of theory. Or pay US$499 for the answer next week.
Is this only for startups?
No. We work with early-stage ventures, growth-stage developers, asset owners, corporate buyers, and capital providers. The Brief looks at your structural position, not just your company stage.
Will you introduce us to investors / buyers after this?
The Brief itself does not guarantee introductions. However, if there is a structurally realistic path, it becomes the basis for a later matching or mandate discussion — and your Brief fee is mostly creditable toward that work.
How much background do I need in the MERIT™ framework?
None. The whole point of the Brief is that you don’t have to learn our internal architecture. You give us your situation; we give you a clear structural readout and next-step options.
Can we share the Brief with our board or investors?
Yes. The deliverable is designed to be shared inside your organization or with key external partners, as long as you keep the MERIT™ methodology and diagrams attributed to Terawatt Times Institute.
What if the Brief says our path is blocked?
That's valuable information. It saves you months of wasted effort and helps you either (a) pivot to a viable path, or (b) change your structural position first. The Brief will specify what needs to change.