What I've built - and What It Cost Me

The cases below are not a highlight reel. They include the moments where things broke, because that's where the real learning lives — and because any advisor who only shows you the wins hasn't been tested enough to be useful.

Operator

FOAK in Wind: Building Russia's First Utility-Scale Wind Turbine Manufacturer

REDWIND B.V. / NOVAWIND — CEO/CSO

The strategy was straightforward on paper: license turbine technology from a proven European manufacturer, build a joint venture, and capture the emerging Russian wind market with 2.5–4 MW turbines.

What we didn't ask early enough was the question that nearly broke us. Our Dutch partner, Lagerwey, made exceptional turbines — about a dozen per year. We had committed to delivering sixty in our first year of operations. When we turned to them and asked how to manufacture at that volume, the honest answer was: they didn't know. They had never done it themselves.

We had signed the license. The JV was formed. The clock was running.

We had to build a full manufacturing training programme from scratch, and brought in Enercon — one of Germany's largest wind turbine manufacturers — to help us close the knowledge gap fast enough to matter. We got there. But it was an expensive lesson in the difference between licensed technology and licensed capability.

In the end, we carved out half of the Russian wind market, secured over 1 GW of wind power plant commitments, and closed a turbine sales agreement worth over $900M.

FOAK in Batteries: Building Russia's First Lithium-Ion Gigafactory

RENERA / EnerTech International — CEO and Chairman

When I took over, RENERA was a small cathode lab in Siberia. EnerTech International, our Korean partner, was struggling to grow its cell business. The mandate was to build a path to 10 GWh of manufacturing capacity — and to make the combined business commercially viable.

Many things went wrong. The one I think about most was a hiring mistake.

I recruited the wrong Chief Commercial Officer. On paper, the credentials were there. In practice, the commercial judgment wasn't. When COVID hit and supply chains fractured, we couldn't adapt fast enough — and we missed the sales growth we had promised. The targets I had committed to publicly weren't delivered. That one hire cost us months of momentum at the worst possible time.

The recovery required rebuilding the commercial function, refocusing on the customers we could actually serve, and pushing through the disruption rather than around it. ETI became profitable in 2022. RENERA became Russia's leading lithium-ion cell manufacturer. The gigafactory was funded and construction finished in 2025.

Turnaround in Conventional Energy: Resolving a Political and Financial Deadlock

OTEK — Business Development Director

We inherited a 400 MW heat and power station supplying a town of 50,000 people — at prices that were crippling the local economy. The previous management had raised tariffs aggressively. Legally sound. Politically catastrophic.

The regional administration owed us a debt they couldn't and wouldn't repay. The mayor was hostile. Any attempt at investment or operational improvement ran into the wall of that unresolved conflict. The station was haemorrhaging goodwill and, with it, any prospect of a viable future.

The solution wasn't operational — it was political and commercial. We negotiated a debt relief arrangement and sold the station to a regional power company. In doing so, we recovered $30M in outstanding obligations, reduced heating tariffs by 30% for the town's residents, and freed the business to focus on assets that had a future.

Sometimes the right move is to exit cleanly. Knowing when to stop defending a position is its own skill.

Consultant

Creating a Commercial Pathway for a Battery Toll Manufacturer

Electrode and Cell Manufacturing — Undisclosed Client

My client manufactured electrodes and cells for lithium-ion batteries on a toll basis — producing to customer specification rather than selling a finished product. The problem was pipeline: he needed customers, specifically among the wave of European battery technology startups looking for manufacturing partners.

I identified and approached the right targets, assessed fit, and negotiated a full commercial roadmap — from initial Terms of Reference through to legally binding contracts covering testing and scale-up. A term sheet was signed.

For a toll manufacturer, that contract is the beginning of a long relationship. Getting the terms right at the start determines whether the relationship creates value or creates conflict.

Taking an AI Solar Founder from Idea to Pre-Seed

AI-Based Solar Company — Undisclosed Founder

A founder came to me with a genuinely interesting idea at the intersection of AI and solar energy. What he needed wasn't a consultant in the traditional sense — he needed someone who understood both the renewable energy industry and the realities of scaling hardware, and who would push back hard when the thinking wasn't tight enough.

I worked with him as a thinking partner and executor: market assessment, pitch deck redesign, investor teaser, and a financial model built to institutional standard. The goal was to give investors enough rigour to say yes.

He raised his pre-seed round.

If any of these sound familiar - lets talk.