Vicky Featherston’s journey is a masterclass in pivoting with purpose. With no formal background in energy or climate, she’s built a product that’s already reducing emissions in real buildings - and a company poised to scale into a market that’s hungry for smarter solutions. It all started with an uncomfortable atrium. And it continues with a vision: a world where every building uses energy wisely, and HAL Systems is the brain behind it.
The unlikely climate tech founder
When Vicky Featherston co-founded HAL Systems in 2020, she wasn’t a climate scientist, an energy expert or a serial entrepreneur. In fact, her background was in design. Vicky ran a consultancy for over 15 years that specialised in exhibition design for cultural institutions and 3D visualisation for commercial building projects. Vicky’s leap into climate tech was sparked by something much closer to home: a cold, inefficient atrium.
That atrium - in the iconic Featherston House, a mid-century heritage building she renovated with her then-husband and HAL co-founder, Julian - posed a technically complex heating and cooling problem. ‘When we did our renovation, we thought: here’s an opportunity for us to try to do something smart with our climate control problem.’ The result led to the creation of a fully functional smart HVAC control system. HAL Systems was born.
Solving her own problem
The original system, developed and installed by Vicky’s co-founder, Julian, used weather forecast data to pre-heat or pre-cool the building using strategies like natural ventilation and predictive control. Julian built a fully functional prototype and installed it in Featherston House. It worked. And that success raised a question: were they sitting on a solution that could transform energy management in commercial buildings?
Featherston and Julian began taking their prototype to industry professionals. ‘Around this time, we thought we were sitting on tech that could make a difference. Because we already had a network in the commercial building industry, we took it to building service engineers and said: are we sitting on something that could make a difference?’ The verdict from building services engineers was clear, this kind of predictive climate control could be game-changing. That early validation pushed Vicky and Julian to found HAL Systems, right in the middle of the pandemic.
Learning to be a founder
Starting a startup is never easy, but launching one outside your area of expertise during a global crisis certainly adds to the difficulty. Vicky spent her lockdown months in deep research mode. ‘I had lots of time [during the pandemic] and I had my own imposter syndrome, not coming from the climate space. I spent a lot of time doing research, tooling myself up.’ She learnt about HVAC systems, the commercial property market, climate industry, startups and funding models. She built a business plan, crafted a pitch deck, and started seeking validation from potential customers and investors.
But the early pitch meetings were a wake-up call. ‘We quickly realised we needed more validation.’ she recalls. ‘I realised, OK, I need to actually spend more time getting customer and industry validation’ That’s when she joined the WICEF program, where she doubled down on customer discovery and began to refine their value proposition, pricing model and go-to-market pathways.
‘I had lots of time [during the pandemic] and I had my own imposter syndrome, not coming from the climate space. I spent a lot of time doing research, tooling myself up.’
The fundraising rollercoaster
Like many founders on the fundraising journey, Vicky faced her share of rejection. ‘It was hard work, quite brutal at times. We were told, ‘we like what you do but you’re too early’’. After a near-miss with the Australian federal Accelerating Commercialisation grant, the feedback was: get your tech into real buildings and reapply.
Around the same time, HAL was selected for CivVic Labs, a Victorian government program connecting startups with public-sector departments, and applied to the Alice Anderson Fund - a government-backed angel sidecar fund supporting women-led startups. With a successful application to Alice Anderson fund and support from angel investor Tony Isaacson and DEECA (Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action), HAL raised $850,000 in May 2023.
“Don’t underestimate the power of soft skills in this process - getting other people excited about what you do is invaluable, whether it be investors, employees, customers or partners - bringing people along with you on the ride is critical.”
Recent progress
Since that fundraising milestone, HAL Systems has expanded to a team of six, set up business operations (marketing, HR, accounting, legal) for scale and launched an early release of their commercial product. This early release of the commercial product has been installed in a series of four buildings: two multi-storey office buildings, one university building and one mid-tier building. ‘Right now, we’re focusing on taking the learnings from our pilot, then refining our product development and also our business processes.’
What’s Next?
This year, HAL Systems will expand their reach into more commercial buildings, and prepare their business systems to meet that next exciting phase of growth. Vicky is also eyeing a Series A round by mid-2026.
Her advice to other founders?
“You are key to the success of your startup, not just your product. If you can see the startup journey as one of iterative self-development, where you learn and grow, take feedback and integrate back into your pitch to make it better and stronger, you’ll be more likely to make more gains. And don’t underestimate the power of soft skills in this process - getting other people excited about what you do is invaluable, whether it be investors, employees, customers or partners - bringing people along with you on the ride is critical.”
HAL Systems is a predictive building control startup using weather forecasts and smart software to reduce HVAC energy consumption in commercial buildings, without compromising comfort.
Want to follow Vicky and HAL’s journey? Follow Vicky on LinkedIn and visit the HAL Systems website.
If you are interested in joining EnergyLab's Women in Climate and Energy Fellowship, be sure to fill out an expression of interest form. If you have any questions, email Milly.
return to blog