Principal Consultant & Operator

Richard
Hanzlik

Materials · Markets · Revenue

I help organizations turn deep technical and material understanding into clear market strategy, compelling value propositions, and measurable commercial results.

Get in Touch
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What I Do

From material
reality to
market result.

A structured progression — from technical ground truth to commercial traction. Each step builds on the last.

01

Understand the Material and Process

Begin where most strategists don't — inside the technology itself. What does the material actually do? What does the process constrain? Understanding these fundamentals prevents the strategic misfires that come from abstraction too early.

02

Define the Right Market to Play In

Not every market that could use a technology is the right one to pursue. This step is about finding the intersection of capability advantage and genuine demand — then making a clear choice.

03

Clarify What Truly Matters to That Market

Most organizations build value propositions around what they're proud of, not what customers actually need. The work here is disciplined discovery — listening past the stated and into the underlying.

04

Build the Value Proposition

A value proposition is not a tagline. It's a precise claim about what you deliver, for whom, and why it's better than the alternative. It should be specific enough to be useful and credible enough to be believed.

05

Turn It Into Sales and Demand

Strategy only matters when it produces results. This means building the go-to-market approach, sales motion, and demand signals that connect positioning to pipeline — and ultimately to revenue.


How I Work

Comfortable
at every
altitude.

Engineering
Strategy
Commercial

I operate across the full range — from deep technical detail to executive decision-making — without losing clarity at either end. That range is rare and it matters, because the best commercial outcomes come from strategy that is grounded in how things actually work.

I'm comfortable working alongside engineers, directly with customers, and in the room with CEOs. The language changes; the rigor doesn't.

My focus is on judgment and prioritization, not volume. The organizations I work with don't need more ideas — they need the right ones, executed well. I help find those, and I stay close to outcomes.

Who I Work With

Built for
the technically
serious.

Technical Founders

Builders who understand their technology deeply and need help translating it into a business that the market can adopt and value.

Product-Driven Organizations

Companies where the product team is strong but the connection between product capability and commercial strategy needs sharpening.

Industrial & Hardware Businesses

Organizations operating in capital-intensive, process-dependent environments where technical nuance directly affects market positioning.

Materials & Adjacent Ventures

Companies at the intersection of advanced materials, manufacturing processes, and the markets those capabilities enable.

Contact

Let's work
on something
worth building.

If you're working on a technically complex problem and need someone who can operate across strategy, positioning, and commercial execution — I'd be glad to talk.