Naco: Designing the Pilot Handover

Naco is a Series A advanced-materials company operating its own production facility to coat components for customers in energy, automotive, and chemicals. The traction is real: steady inbound interest and active pilots running with large industrial customers.

The commercial question at that stage is the one every hardware company meets once the first pilots land:

Which pilots convert to serial orders fastest, and where commercial focus earns the most

In long-cycle industrial sales, the structural feature of the market is that technical testing is owned by research and development, while the budget for serial production sits one level downstream, with the business unit. The handover between the two is where value leaks in any company selling into this cycle. Designing for it early is what separates the fastest-growing suppliers from the rest.

Through the Action Plan, we read the commercial architecture from the buyer's side and handed back a sequenced view: the best-fit customer profile to lead with, the accounts where engineering effort compounds fastest, and a testing structure that has the business unit at the table before a pilot ends.

The team sharpened its commercial focus around that sequence, and Q1 revenue came in 20% above plan.