I’ve spent my career across the R&D spectrum, from pure research in applied mathematics through to embedded systems, control software, and now co-founding a biotech startup. That range has given me a clear view of one mistake I see made repeatedly, by founders, investors, and accelerators alike: treating “deep tech” and “tech” as the same category of company, and applying the same playbook to both.
A tech startup combines existing technologies to solve a problem. The risk is execution. A deep tech startup derives its competitive advantage from a technological capability that does not yet exist at commercial scale. The risk is the technology itself. That distinction changes everything. Deep tech sits at the intersection of research and business, and how you balance that tension is one of the most crucial things to get right. It’s also something that must be actively navigated.
The failure mode from the business side: pressure to ship an MVP before the core technology is ready produces a product without a genuine differentiator. Competitors catch up, or the company fails to deliver on the growth story it sold to backers.
The failure mode from the research side is subtler: founders commercialise their research without rigorously interrogating whether their particular technological advantage maps onto a large enough, hard enough problem. Great science and a viable business are not the same thing. If the problem you are solving has a solution by combining existing technology, you do not have a deep tech startup. You have a tech startup, and you should read the lean startup canon and race toward product-market fit.
The middle path is harder and slower. It requires building genuine technological capability while maintaining a clear view of the problem, the market, and when to make the shift toward being product-focused. It means building partnerships and finding market validation without a “product”. It means having one finger on the commercialisation trigger, while your foot is on the technology accelerator. That tension has been a constant across every stage of my career.
The cost is time, capital, and real risk. The payoff is not just a company, but a paradigm shift.
That tradeoff is the whole point of deep tech, and the companies that fail or stagnate in this space either do not understand it or lack the patience to honour it.