Deep tech founders, what is your real blocker right now? (I will not promote)
I am starting soon at an ecosystem builder and VC focused on deep tech. Before I form opinions from the inside, I want to hear from founders building in this space about where things are genuinely hard, especially if you are in Agrifood, Sustainability, Advanced Manufacturing, Health & Biotech, and Quantum.
A few specific areas I am trying to understand:
What is actually slowing you down right now? I am interested in the unglamorous stuff like procurement delays, hiring bottlenecks, lab time, regulatory ambiguity, anything that does not show up in founder podcasts or even marketing?
For those who have raised or tried to, what was the hardest part? Translating deep technical risk to VCs, finding funds with real domain depth, milestone-based tranching, valuation expectations in long-horizon plays?
How did you land on the right problem to solve? Did you start from a technology capability looking for a market, or a market need that demanded new technology? What do you wish someone had told you earlier in that process?
How are you balancing technical superiority with commercial viability? Where have you been pushed to compromise on one for the sake of the other, and how did that play out?
Excited for the opportunity to connect and have honest conversations with founders.