A starting point for discussion: who we go after, how they find us, and how we spend as little as possible learning what works.
The honest truth
Price alone won't win it
We can beat the big retailers for non-solar homes, but not the cheapest plans on the market.
Cheapest plansa few small retailers
Renegadeabout 2 in 10 plans are cheaper
Big retailerstypical offers
Annual bill → · the cheapest plans are about $400 a year below ours
So how do we win? A story only we can tell, a top rank on comparison sites, and referrals.
Jude's pricing model (23 and 27 July), at a $10 per customer per month service cost, VIC, SA and QLD. Bar lengths are illustrative. Luke: "the pricing is not the product."
Positioning
The story only we can tell
1
FairYou don't pay for anyone else's solar.
2
Cheaper than the big retailersFor homes like yours, shown against the reference price.
3
Straight with youPlain bills, next-day usage, no quiet repricing.
How sharp should we be? Fairness on the homepage, the harder argument in founder media?
Saving or cost-gap figures (for example the $200 a year in the investor deck) stay out of advertising until modelled and defensible.
Who we go after
Homes and small businesses, from day one?
Non-solar households
The volume: millions of homes, many renters
Find us on comparison sites and through referrals
The fairness story lands most directly
Volume and the referral engine
Small businesses
Bigger bills, so more margin per customer
Daytime use matches the cheap midday power we buy
One talk in Springwood brought a request to price 32 meters
Margin and fast wins through founder networks
How do we split founder time between the two? Small businesses may need more hands-on selling, quoting and multi-site billing.
Both segments are in the 2 Oct launch plan. Margin per small-business customer is still to be modelled. Count sites (NMIs) separately from customers.
The customer journey
Every happy customer should make the next one cheaper
Find us founder media, comparison sites
Check the price 30-second check, waitlist
Switch simple, with clear consent
First bill clear, and as promised
Recommend review and referral credit
Most businesses stop caring after the sale. For us, stages 4 and 5 are where acquisition cost falls.
Adapted from Ryan Deiss's Customer Value Journey (eight stages, condensed to five).
Where effort could go
Three channels, a suggested order
1
Founder voices and earned media
Guest on podcasts, talks, news. Our real edge: people who've argued this in public for years.
Mostly founder time
2
Comparison sites and search
Rank well on Energy Made Easy, and be the answer when people ask Google or an AI.
Low cash
3
Referrals
Ready at launch, paid as bill credit, asked for after a good first bill.
Paid per customer won
Paid search as a test, not the engine: a fixed budget on high-intent searches, read weekly.$15–25k over 6 weeks
Held back until we have conversion data: YouTube ads, TikTok, influencers, programmatic, TV and radio.
Channel 1 · founder voices
One interview, many formats
Each week, one founder appearance (a podcast, a talk, a news spot) becomes clips, posts and an email.
Guest on existing shows before starting our own
One editor to cut and post; founders approve every claim
Who fronts it, and how often can we sustain?
Early signal: our October Meta posts drew more engagement than other brands' with almost no push.
Approach drawn from Eric Siu and Ryan Deiss. Meta engagement: founders' chat, 13 October.
Channel 2 · comparison sites and search
Rank where shoppers already look
Every bill links to Energy Made Easywith a better-offer message at least every 100 days
≈ 1 in 4 customers switched in a yearshoppers looking for the cheapest plan
Ranked by lowest unconditional pricesign-up credits don't help
An honest non-solar price ranks welllisted on day one, checked weekly
AI search is the new front page
What's the cheapest electricity plan without solar in Brisbane?
One genuinely useful page per state and question
Press coverage helps AI tools cite us
Monthly check of what ChatGPT and others say
Energy Made Easy plan-search rules; AER Better Bills; AEMC retail competition review. The chat answer is illustrative.
Channel 3 · referrals
Customers recruit customers
Both sides get bill credit once the new customer's first bill arrives, and we ask when that bill has proved the promise.
$50–100each side
Paid on resultsonly when a customer is won
For comparison: Amber gives $120 each side over a year; GloBird $50 each. Should solar homes be excluded?
Referral credits count as acquisition cost. Terms need legal review before launch.
What we have to spend
After the licence, roughly $220–270k is left
Marketing competes with prudentials, settlement working capital, systems and legal for the same money. How much do we ring-fence for marketing?
Raised: ≈ $470k committed by 29 May plus Patrick's $50k in June; the investor share issue is still being verified (RNGD-175). Licence price as currently discussed, $250–300k. Hatched sections show the range. Prudential and working-capital needs depend on whether we own the licence from day one; not yet modelled.
Cash, November to March
A realistic range: $30–150k
Video editing and channel helpus with AI tools, up to 6–12 hrs/wk × $85–130
$0–30k
Podcast and press bookingfreelance, Nov–Jan, or founders do it
$0–12k
Website and search copyagents draft; paid edit of key pages if needed
AI agent subscriptions1–2 × US$200 a month, five months
$1.5–3k
Paid search testmedia, 6 weeks; we can set it up
$15–30k
Referral credits100–200 referred customers
$10–40k
Total
$31–147k
Low end: we do it ourselves with AI agents. High end: we add specialists for video, booking, copy and design.
Against the $220–270k left after the licence, this plan would use between a tenth and two-thirds of it.
For comparison: Jae estimated about $150k for a full acquisition-cost test. The R6 agency quote comes to about $420k for three months, more than all the cash we'd have left.
Rates from published Australian freelance guides (video editor $85–130/hr mid-level; senior copywriter $75–130/hr, if we pay for an edit); confirm with 2–3 quotes. Electricity click prices unknown; check Google Keyword Planner before setting the test budget. AI subscriptions at about A$310 a month each. Founder time is not costed. R6: our three-month arithmetic from their 27 May quote.
Now to launch
Cheapest things first
We are here
Now → mid-Nov
Agree and start
Targets, budget, who owns it
Relaunch the waitlist: "coming January"
First founder podcast bookings
Checklist for every claim
Under $1k
Late Nov
Build the basics
State pages and pricing page
Analytics and a weekly dashboard
Welcome and first-bill emails
Small-business outreach list
$1–4k
HoA expected early November
December
Ready to launch
Lock offers; Energy Made Easy listing
Press pack and briefings
Referral terms reviewed
Paid search built, paused
$2–30k
Gate: entity in hand, offers approved
Jan → Mar
Launch and learn
Waitlist first, then comparison sites
Founder media push
Referrals and paid test on
Weekly cost per customer
$27–112k
First customer 1 January
An agency or a marketing lead needs lead time, so that conversation belongs in the first phase (founders' chat, 26 Oct). Victoria waits for the ESC licence.
How we learn what works
Test small, back the winners
1
Test
A small, fixed budget in each channel. Nothing scales on a hunch.
→
2
Measure
Weekly: where customers came from and what each one cost, founder hours included.
→
3
Back or stop
Put more into what works. Pause what doesn't, with no favourite channels.
And keep sign-ups within what we can serve, so a viral moment doesn't outrun operations.
Suggested weekly view: waitlist, sign-ups, activations, cost per customer by channel, comparison-site rank, reviews, referral share, complaints.
For discussion
Six questions to settle
01
Which channel gets our effort first?
Suggestion: founder media, with comparison sites ready for launch
02
How much cash, November to March?
Suggestion: $30–150k, released in stages
03
Households and small businesses from day one: how do we split effort?
Suggestion: both, with founder networks leading on business
04
Who fronts the media, and how often?
Suggestion: weekly appearances from November
05
Who owns marketing: us, Jae or an agency?
Suggestion: compare written 30-60-90 day plans
06
Relaunch the waitlist now, with honest "coming January" wording?
Suggestion: yes
Draft for discussion, 29 October 2026. Not an approved plan or budget.
