Climate and frontier tech commercialization
Hard tech, out of the lab and into the world.
I find the funding, the customers and the partners that climate and frontier technology needs, then close the deals.
Let's talkYour commercialization partner, from "it works" to "it's installed."
Twenty years on job sites, a $1M DOE Grand Prize, and 16 field pilots across 8 U.S. markets. Cornell Consulting brings a builder's eye and a closer's instinct to technology that is ready to leave the lab.
Fund it. Take it to market. Get it adopted.
Three jobs sit between a working prototype and a real business. Most founders are strong at one. I do all three.
How it works →
Builder-rooted
Twenty years on job sites and in real estate development. I know what a contractor will install and what a developer will pay for.
Grant capture
More than $4M in non-dilutive funding raised, including the $1M Grand Prize in DOE's Home Electrification Prize.
Field-tested
Sixteen field pilots in 8 U.S. markets, each with real-time performance monitoring and a public demonstration.
Excellent closer
I turn complex technology into language buyers, utilities and investors can say yes to. Then I close: 50+ letters of interest for a system nobody had installed yet.
From the lab bench to the job site.
Building energy, modular construction, utility programs, affordable housing, and space and lunar infrastructure.
See the track record →Different starting points. Same goal: installs.
Every engagement starts with a Site Survey, so we find the real bottleneck before you spend money fixing the wrong one.
start here ↓
01
The Site Survey
For the founder whose technology works and who isn't sure what comes next.
A working session on your technology, market and funding fit, then a written brief naming the grants worth chasing, the first customers to call, and which engagement makes sense after that.
Book a fit call02
The Grant Build
For the team that needs runway without giving up equity.
Strategy and writing for one non-dilutive application: SBIR, DOE, NASA, MIT programs or the California Energy Commission's EPIC. Technical narrative, commercialization plan and letters of support.
03
The Market Build
For the founder who has a product and no pipeline.
Customer discovery, a go-to-market plan, channel partners and AI-assisted prospecting, all built around one question: who buys first, and why now?
04
The Field Pilot
For the company ready to put product in real buildings.
A fractional commercialization lead: pilot design and deployment, utility and public programs, builder and manufacturer partnerships, investor materials, and the deals that turn interest into installs.
Run the site inspection.
Check what's true for your technology today. If two or more stay unchecked, the Site Survey is where to start.
Inspector: H. Cornell
The elements of the work
a periodic table of wins
Do
$1M
DOE Grand Prize
Nd
$4M+
Non-dilutive funding
Fp
16
Field pilots
Li
50+
Letters of interest
Js
20+
Years on job sites
Partners
the people I build with[Each dashed box becomes that partner's logo, in one soft grey]
" I don't have time to get out of research to test the market or go to events. I sent Helene, as my extrovert representative, and she brought me the partners I needed to scale my idea. She's like the golden retriever of climate tech"
Field report · Aris Hydronics
Taking an all-electric system from first demo to a $1M DOE prize
As co-founder of Aris Hydronics, Helene won the first early adopters for one system that heats, cools and makes hot water, ran 16 monitored pilots, and raised more than $4M without giving up equity.
Read the story
05 · The Commercial Engine
Dashboards and AI tools for hard-tech sales.
Custom tools built on the stack you already use, so your team gets answers without learning a new system.
a real scoring dashboard ↑
What I build
Market scoring
Customer profiles, readiness scores, objections and a first-90-days plan for every vertical.
Pipeline and BD boards
Every deal and every KPI your board asks about, in one place, updated from your CRM.
ROI and scale models
What it takes to fill your factory or your install calendar, and when it pays back.
AI operators
Agents that watch your data, find the opening and draft the outreach, then wait for your yes.
Failed comedian. Excellent closer.
Raised in Canada by builders, engineers and storytellers. Twenty years on job sites, plenty of time in front of a camera, and one comedy career that never quite launched. The timing stuck: I can read a room, hold it, and make a heat pump the most interesting thing in it.
Board member at WRISE Los Angeles and the Collidescope Foundation. Alumna of The Engine Blueprint at MIT, Berkeley Lab's Cradle to Commerce and LACI's Founders Accelerator.
Book an intro call