Overcoming change inertia
- Emin Askerov
- Aug 7
- 2 min read
There’s something rarely acknowledged in cleantech sales: often, the main obstacle isn’t price, policy, or even technology. It’s change inertia.
During my podcast with Polina Vasilenko, founder of HelioRec, she shared a story that quietly reveals one of the toughest barriers for any climate tech company trying to sell into traditional industries.
To build her floating solar startup, Polina spent two years doing what many founders skip: she spoke with over 150 port authorities and operations teams across Europe. Not a few friendly leads. A full campaign of face-to-face conversations, exhibitions, and follow-ups.
Here are the most common responses she got:
> “Looks interesting, but call us next year.”
> “What if a ship hits it?”
> “We’d love to—if someone else pays for it.”
No active objections. But no movement either.
Because, as Polina put it, “Ports don’t exist to do energy. They exist to do cargo.” That’s the mindset you’re up against when you bring innovation to legacy infrastructure.
Even when the solution is technically viable, economically reasonable, and aligned with their public sustainability goals, taking action still feels like a risk. Not because of the panels or the floaters, but because of what it asks of the organisation: a break from business as usual.
And it’s not limited to ports. I’ve seen this in wind energy, in batteries, in district heating. The further your product is from what your customer already does, the more work you’ll need to do to reduce perceived risk.
This is what Polina has been doing since day one:
— Mapping out the operational objections
— Building installation and emergency response plans
— Speaking their language: timelines, layout constraints, insurance coverage
— And critically, identifying the people within the port ecosystem who are motivated not just by compliance, but by progress
For early-stage founders working on hardware climate tech, I think there’s an important lesson here: Don’t just validate the problem. Validate the willingness to change because that’s the real bottleneck. And it doesn’t show up on your pitch deck.
I am curious - what’s been the most persistent form of resistance you’ve faced when trying to introduce a new solution in a legacy industry?
