Explore how energy marketers can move beyond unicorn hype to build sustainable growth through better choices, tighter alignment, and smart use of AI in complex industrial markets.
Unicorn stories are fun. Billion-dollar valuations. Hockey-stick charts. A press release every time someone updates a pitch deck.
But in energy and industrial markets, hype fades fast. The stakes are higher, the systems are messier, and “works in theory” gets exposed fast when it meets policy, procurement, and the field.
To unpack what sustainable growth actually looks like (and what unsustainable growth looks like right before it breaks), Arnaud Dasprez, CEO and Founder of HexaGroup, spoke with Jenny Salinas, Chief Marketing Officer at FutureScaleX. FutureScaleX spotlights commercially viable innovation across industrial sectors like energy, chemicals, and food & beverage — meaning they spend less time chasing shiny objects and more time asking the hard question: Will this work in the real world?
Keep reading for Jenny’s most practical takeaways: how to filter ideas with discipline, what legacy firms can borrow from startup speed, and why AI is changing the playing field.
Or, listen to the full article here.
Unsustainable growth usually starts with a great story and weak grounding.
The slides are crisp. The narrative is inspiring. The model “works” as long as you don’t touch the assumptions.
Then reality shows up: policy friction, cost inflation, adoption drag, safety constraints, procurement cycles, integration complexity. And suddenly the shiny idea that looked inevitable becomes… optional. Or worse: impossible.
Common red flags Jenny sees behind the scenes:
Energy and industrial markets feel this strongly. You see big bets pushed by strong pitches and big budgets. Later, teams admit the basics were not tested enough. The result is long cycles of work that add no real value and drain people.