Strategy Lab · Case Study 03 / 27
A complete StartBox consulting case study — market research, brand audit, positioning, GTM strategy, funnel design, financial modelling, KPIs, 90-day roadmap, AI automation, and founder recommendation.
01 / 10
Who they are and what they are building
"In industrial automation, trust is built over decades. We need to compress that to 90 days without breaking it."
Helix Industrial Systems provides AI-powered predictive maintenance and process automation solutions for US manufacturing plants. The technology reduces unplanned downtime by an average of 34% and energy consumption by 18%. Founded by MIT engineers, the product is proven — deployed in 12 facilities — but the commercial pipeline depends entirely on founder relationships and word of mouth.
The company has a 4-person sales team and zero structured lead generation. Every deal has come through a warm introduction. The problem: the founders' networks are now exhausted, and the next growth phase requires a repeatable inbound and outbound motion.
02 / 10
Market research, competitor landscape and brand audit
"Industrial buyers do not respond to cold emails. They respond to evidence — and Helix has more evidence than any competitor."
Industrial automation is a $395B market growing at 9.8% CAGR. Manufacturing digitisation, reshoring of US production, and labour cost pressures are all structural tailwinds. The competitor landscape is dominated by Siemens, Rockwell Automation, and ABB — all large, slow, and expensive. Helix's wedge: faster deployment (6 weeks vs. 6 months), plant-floor AI that works with existing equipment (no rip-and-replace), and a team that speaks manufacturing operations, not software.
03 / 10
Marketing strategy, brand story, UVP and channels
"Stop selling software. Start selling avoided downtime — in dollars per hour."
Reframe the value proposition: Helix does not sell automation software. It sells a guarantee — every hour of unplanned downtime costs the average mid-sized plant $260,000. Helix eliminates 34% of those hours. That is the number in every conversation, every piece of content, every proposal.
Channel strategy: Industry events (IMTS, Automate), manufacturing trade publications, LinkedIn ABM targeting plant managers and VP Operations, and a structured case study programme turning 12 existing clients into 12 active referral sources.
04 / 10 — SWOT
05–07 / 10 — Funnel · Financials · KPIs
08 / 10 — 90-Day Roadmap
09 / 10 — AI Automation
10 / 10 — StartBox Verdict
Buyers need to feel the number before they commit. An interactive calculator that shows exactly how much downtime costs their specific plant, and exactly what Helix eliminates, does more work than any sales deck.
These are the most valuable assets in the business — more than any product feature. Build a formal reference programme: quarterly calls, referral incentives, co-authored case studies. Each one should generate at least one warm introduction per quarter.
Automotive manufacturing is the highest-value, most relationship-driven, and most reference-driven sub-sector. Win 5 automotive plants, get named in Automotive News, and the rest of the sector follows. Horizontal selling at this stage dilutes everything.
Industrial selling requires sector credibility. The next commercial hire must be someone plant managers will take a call from. A LinkedIn message from a stranger with a software background gets ignored. A call from someone who ran operations at a tier-1 supplier gets answered.
The current funnel is leaky. Leads are generated, have one call, and go cold. A structured 6-touchpoint nurture sequence — case study, ROI calculator, reference call, plant visit, pilot proposal, close — will double conversion rates from the existing pipeline.
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