GTM for hardware startups in traditional industries - from someone who took on CAT.

I built an IoT startup in the construction equipment space that went through YC.

We signed up enterprise contractors - a slow, hard-to-sell audience and for a time it felt like we'd cracked it.

But eventually, we came up against established OEMs building competing solutions, such as the GOAT of construction equipment, CAT.

We learned some hard lessons about size, scale and picking your battles in the right order.

CAT has decades of brand equity and field sales reps everywhere. We had a website, early believers and a ton of energy, but it wasn’t enough.

Since then, I've been the GTM consultant for venture-backed hardware startups selling into traditional industries like home services, construction, and manufacturing.

Every GTM plan starts with the same three checks:

If you're a better version of something that already exists, there's already an established way people buy it today. That channel is the fastest, most honest feedback you'll ever get because buyers are in their natural habitat.

Going into new channels can be great, but it’s still worth testing your messaging in a controlled environment where you can compare directly with the competition.

How I think about this now: Spin up a ghost brand. If people buy online, run ads under a different name that has nothing to do with your real company. Test the value props systematically.

There’ll be zero brand damage, and when you're done you throw the account away.

This can be done in a week with a couple of thousand dollars in ad spend.

If the channel is field reps, speak to manufacturers’ rep agencies and give them a great deal to sell your product early on. Ask for feedback, learn from them quickly without having to hire a full-time salesperson.

Spend time understanding what’s already available in the places people are used to buying from. There’s almost always an available product that does 80%-90% of the new idea. These products are being sold through channels buyers already know and trust.

For consumer - If there's a demo unit on a Costco floor or at a dealer, talk to the rep. Stress-test your value props against what that product offers and watch how the rep handles the comparison.

For B2B - Go see the showroom or distribution center and do the same.

Extra features have to be worth more than the friction of buying from someone new. If they aren't, the incumbent wins, or it costs time and money to learn.

How I think about this now: Be ruthless about how strong an established, competing product actually is, and respect that it has distribution.

All the information you need is right there. If you come out of this process with a strong opinion on how to position against the incumbents that are readily available, it’s a good, fast win.

It's easy to look at an existing product and say, "this would be better with X, Y, and Z.", but existing OEMs have already considered X, Y, and Z and passed for a reason - they probably couldn’t prove the market enough to make it make sense.

How I think about this now: Put a price next to every premium feature and test it with tactics like pre-orders, letters of intent, landing pages, and conversations with distributors who'd carry it. If the market won't pay for a feature you love, consider cutting it for now and come back later.

The market is brutal, but you can use this to your advantage. It’s never been faster or easier to run tests in parallel before doubling down on what works.