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While established firms dedicate a significant amount of their resources to maintain ‘business as usual’ and aim to improve current technologies by sustaining innovations, new entrants are more motivated and able to develop disruptive innovations to gain a bigger share of the market. However, the barriers and challenges new entrants face and the capabilities required to develop disruptive innovations have been less studied. In this single case study, we identify and describe the challenges that a new entrant in the oil industry faced when developing a potentially disruptive technical process innovation. The identified challenges are: a) a lack of resources (i.e., capital, technical and human), b) a vertical leadership style, c) the tension between the investors` expectation to gain quick profit and the lengthy process of technology development, and d) lack of internal collaboration. The study suggests that when faced with …