Market Clarification Innovation Norway
TLDR
- Completed a market validation project funded by Innovation Norway (Grant 1) on time and under budget, with successful application, final reporting and full grant approval.
- Produced the branding, BMC, pitch deck and stakeholder documentation that positioned Rafmer’s local AI offering for B2B customers and investors.
- Delivered the technical PoC behind the validation, including Agent Platform v1, the Edge Node and an initial 5-node cluster with multi-tenant Airflow and LLM serving.
- Validated market interest with a signed Letter of Intent from a pilot business customer, a 5.5% paid search conversion rate (vs the 3.8% SaaS benchmark) and 3 VC/PE investor inquiries after the brand rollout.
What?
Business validation for Rafmer through qualification for Innovation Norway Grant 1. The project covered building out a proof-of-concept local AI infrastructure to serve B2B and validate market interest. This involved getting branding ready, producing the necessary investor/stakeholder documentation, running paid ads across multiple channels, and producing a PoC product that could be marketed to businesses. Rafmer later pivoted from this B2B offering to local B2C inference in February 2026, following model and agent advancements.
Why?
The goal was to secure non-dilutive funding, test Rafmer’s thesis, get the demo ready and improve the company’s market presence.
How?
Rafmer already had the software partially ready, running on non-scalable hardware; this needed to be modified and finalized so it could be demoed. The initial product line was unfocused, but resulted in Agent Platform v1 and the Edge Node, with the on-prem infra serving as the demo for both.
My co-founder was responsible for the design and UI/UX alignment of the frontend app across Web, Android, and Linux, as well as productizing copy around the Rafmer Agent Platform in the context of branding and investor relations. He also managed ad copy, wireframes, graphical design, and short-form video ads. My co-founder and I both contributed to pitching, applying, and final reporting to Innovation Norway.
My responsibilities were:
- Managing the cost, timing, and reporting of the grant project.
- Running and adjusting marketing campaigns based on analytics.
- Handling accounting, tracking, and auditor feedback.
- Negotiating and securing Letters of Intent (LoIs).
- Coordinating hardware procurement and gradually spinning up the cluster.
- Finalizing backend software for the demo PoC.
- Deploying a business site and managing presence through SEO.
Results
The project was completed successfully, on time, and less expensive than budgeted, producing the following results:
Innovation Norway
- Successful application and final reporting, approved by an auditor.
- Created BMC, pitch-deck, and other relevant documentation.
- Successful procurement of infrastructure hardware and marketing campaigns below the initial budget.
- Project completed successfully and grant received.
Branding and Product
- Specification of a complementary product line.
- Full rollout of the brand on web and socials with complementary analytics.
- Pilot campaigns across LinkedIn and Meta.
Market Validation
- Letter of Intent signed by a pilot business customer.
- Successful Google Ads campaign at a 5.5% conversion rate for paid search versus 3.8% for traditional SaaS.
- Received 3 VC/PE investor inquiries post brand rollout.
Technical Results
- Successful MVP delivery of the backend infrastructure software for the LoI.
- Initial 5-node cluster with multi-tenant Airflow and LLM capabilities spun up.
Worth mentioning
Rafmer pitched one of the funds, but they wanted more traction since the company was technically a pre-product hardware startup. Paid search was competing with much larger incumbents like OpenAI and Anthropic, battling over bids for phrases like “AI Platform,” etc.