Elastic Energy

Dunky
July 28, 2026

This is Second Opinion, a newsletter created by Hustle Fund, where we weigh in (with our second opinion) and give tactical advice on founder situations.

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Today’s Edition

Most hardware founders chase a better product. Ben Hilborn is betting the real unlock is a better sales motion.

✨Today's episode: sell first, build second

Haley Bryant, Hustle Fund partner, talks with Ben Hilborn, co-founder and CEO of Elastic Energy, about why free pilots almost sank his company and what it took to turn things around. Two things stood out:

Charge for the pilot. Elastic gave away free energy routers for months, hoping customers would find value. Nobody touched them. The day Ben started charging for every pilot, traction flipped overnight. Money on the table is what makes a customer test your product.
Fall in love with the problem, not the pitch. Ben spent two years learning in public on a podcast before writing a line of code, obsessing over the grid itself rather than one customer's complaint. That conviction is what got him through cold calls, rejection, and a hardware-skeptical fundraising market.

Here's the episode:

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