It takes a special kind of company to build its brand on saving the planet… then spark outrage by selling gas.

Fuse Energy - launched in 2022 by ex-Revolut executives Alan Chang and Charles Orr - promised cleaner, cheaper, infinitely scalable power. In three short years, they rocketed to a £750M+ valuation and paraded as Britain’s brightest green unicorn.

Then came the plot twist. Fuse announced it would also supply gas.

Not exactly net-zero behaviour.

On the surface, sure, it looks like hypocrisy. But is it, though? 

I’d say it’s a calculated move: gas is the cash engine - a way to grab more of the energy market today and funnel those proceeds into wind and solar tomorrow. If anything, it’s the opposite: short-term gas to kill long-term gas. 

For SMEs chasing investment, there’s a bigger lesson hiding here - one that’s more about capital than climate.

Today, you’re reading this newsletter for: 

By 2024, Fuse wasn’t just ticking along - it was pulling in £90M revenue, five times the year before. Valuation? North of £750M. You don’t trip over numbers like that on your morning jog.

The gas move looks bad in the press, but from a strategy point of view, it plugs two problems:

History’s full of founders doing exactly this.

Take Amazon. Its online shop barely made a profit in the beginning - it was AWS, their cloud business, that started bringing in real money and kept the whole company afloat. And look at Uber - rather than waiting for permission from regulators - it launched regardless, paid the fines and only sorted the legal fights once it was too big to shut down.

The pattern is quite simple: winners don’t wait for perfect conditions. They use whatever keeps the wheels turning - even if it’s unglamorous or unpopular - to buy time and build breathing room. Cash flow today creates the space to execute the bigger plan tomorrow. The error is aiming for purity. The reality is: survival comes first, polish comes later.

A renewables startup moving into gas - it sounds backwards. But I rate the move. It’s a trade: PR points sacrificed for control and cash flow.

Old-school utilities are prehistoric: sluggish, over-administered and drowning in process. Fuse’s edge is simple: speed. They’re scaling while others are still ticking boxes.

I don’t buy the “betrayal” narrative. Gas is a lever. It buys them time and resources to build the future faster. I respect any founder willing to eat the criticism now for the payoff later.

So if you’re seeking investment, treat capital as a lever (not life support). Pull it when it moves the business forward, maybe leave it when it doesn’t. If you’re curious what your options might look like, it never hurts to take a look.

Too much to screenshot here (if you’re curious, find the thread on my LinkedIn post), but here’s the gist:

1/ Our governing class will happily argue about bike lanes for a decade while the real infrastructure bottlenecks rot in the background.

2/ “Building quietly” sounds romantic, but in energy the winner is whoever bags the customers, the distribution and the brand trust first.

3/ The best opportunities aren’t shiny, they’re gritty: wastewater, slurry, desalination. Where there’s muck, there’s money.

The common thread: Stop asking for permission. Move fast, grab the ground and let government paperwork arrive three years late as usual.

Now you know where I (and the LinkedIn jury) stand. But what can you gain from this week’s case study?

A) Build cash flow that funds your future
Cash isn’t just comfort, it’s independence. Fuse used gas to build a predictable revenue engine while renewables drown in planning delays. Glamorous? No. Effective? Yes. Sometimes the ugliest product in your line-up is the one that quietly pays for everything else. Ignore it at your peril.

B) Raise when timing tilts in your favour
More money ≠ more power unless you take it at the right moment. Fuse is holding off because they know raising now wouldn’t add leverage. Basecamp proved the point years ago: one Bezos cheque, then growth at their own pace - total control intact.

C) Let controversy filter your backers
Bad press isn’t always bad business. That’s the value of controversy - it sorts the tourists from the long-haul passengers. Ryanair turned outrage into a business model. The worse the press, the fuller the planes. Investors saw exactly what they were buying (and are yet to be put off): low cost base, high margins and not a shred of PR anxiety.

D) Raise to remove your biggest constraint
Fuse doesn’t need more cash; it needs engineers and approvals. That’s what they raised capital for - the things that were stunting their growth. Netflix is playing the same card. They’ve never been short on subscribers; the challenge lies in meeting the demand for new shows. So billions went into the likes of Stranger Things, not billboards. Smart move, because no one renews a subscription just to see more ads.

E) Fund proven demand, not guesses
Fuse isn’t out there trying to prove a market exists. Demand for both energy and renewables is already locked in. Their raise is about delivering into that demand faster, not testing whether customers show up. SMEs should follow suit: prove people want what you’re selling, then bring in investors to scale. Otherwise, you’re just asking someone to fund your daydream - good luck pitching that.

F) Be blunt with your narrative
Fuse didn’t dress up the gas move as something it wasn’t - they openly said it was a way to fund renewables faster. That honesty didn’t scare investors off, it attracted the ones who actually believed in the strategy. Airbnb did something similar. Instead of dancing around the awkward truth (i.e. strangers staying in your home), they leaned into it with campaigns like “Strangers aren’t strange”. Not exactly the stuff of glossy investor decks, but it attracted the people who could see the scale behind the discomfort.

In short: survive now, scale later, explain yourself never. If you’re already weighing up a raise, you can use FundOnion to see what’s on the table.

I first watched it when I was about 12 - probably a bit young to be taking life lessons from a con artist, but I’ve managed to stay out of prison, so it can’t have gone too badly.

What stuck with me was the salesmanship. DiCaprio’s character could walk into a room, slip into a role on the spot and have everyone convinced he belonged there. I work in sales now, and being able to walk into a room and make people see the value in what you’re offering is still half the job.  

Proof of how far confidence and storytelling can take you (founders take note - minus the fraud).

A) Gas (or plan B product) is a way to keep money flowing. The unsexy revenue stream sometimes funds the flagship vision.

B) Raising with cash in the bank gives you control. When you don’t need the money, you set the terms - not the investors.

C) Controversy filters out the weak investors. The headlines scare off the tourists and leave only those who actually believe in your strategy.

D) Use capital to fix real problems, not stockpile it. Investment should solve what’s actually slowing you down - hiring people, adding capacity, getting approvals. Not just sitting in the bank looking pretty.

E) Honesty is the best policy. Telling the truth brings better backers than spin. Glossy pitches only pull in the wrong crowd.

If you can’t explain what fresh capital is supposed to fix, you’re not ready to raise. Simple as that. Log into FundOnion to figure that out before you give away chunks of your business for nothing.

Till next time,

James