🌊 David Ferguson on pilot-to-scale partnerships.

Why corporate-startup partnerships fail and how to design the ones that actually work.

We’re joined by David Ferguson, Head of Innovation (UK) at EDF, a 20-year energy veteran working at the intersection of climate, technology, and large-scale infrastructure.

In this episode, we dive into why corporates love pilots but struggle to scale them, and unpack what it really takes for startups and big utilities to build collaborations that survive beyond the proof of concept.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why most climate pilots die before reaching scale

→ How to design a trial that stands on its own (not a fake path to procurement)

→ The four real ways corporates can work with startups, beyond selling

→ Culture clash: speed, risk, incentives, and decision-making

→ Why corporates need startups as much as startups need corporates

→ What EDF actually wants from climate startups right now

→ Why flexibility and long-duration storage are the next big battlegrounds

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