Lab to Market Leadership with Chris Reichhelm
With over 25 years of experience in recruiting leadership teams and boards for advanced science and engineering companies, Chris Reichhelm, CEO of Deep Tech Leaders, offers an insider’s perspective on the pivotal decisions and strategies that shape the success of startups embarking on the lab-to-market journey.
This podcast doesn’t just celebrate innovation for its own sake; instead, it highlights what it truly takes to build, scale, and sustain a successful deep tech company. Through conversations with entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and other key players, Chris will explore the management disciplines, cultures, and behaviours essential for commercialising and scaling deep tech innovations. Each episode will aim to unravel the complexities behind turning rich, research-intensive IP into commercially viable products across various sectors like computing, biotech, materials science, and more.
'Lab to Market Leadership' is for those who are ready to learn from past mistakes and successes to better navigate the path from innovation to market. Whether you're an entrepreneur, an investor, or simply a deep tech enthusiast, this podcast offers valuable lessons and insights to enhance your understanding and approach to building groundbreaking companies that aim to solve the world's biggest problems and improve our way of life.
Learn more about Lab to Market Leadership: www.deeptechleaders.com
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechleaders
Podcast Production by Beauxhaus
Lab to Market Leadership with Chris Reichhelm
The Hard Thing about Hard Tech – Greg Smithies on the TRL 4-5 Challenge
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How do you move from novel idea to working prototype in hard tech? And how can you bend the rules of the game to give you a better chance of winning?
Greg Smithies is a finance and operations leader who has worked with some of the world's most ambitious companies. He led finance and operations at Elon Musk's Neuralink and The Boring Company. He's also been an investor with Battery Ventures, BMW iVentures and Fifth Wall. He's helped raise over $2bn for startups, and over $950m for funds.
This episode focusses on TRL 4-5 – the prototype stage where many Deep Tech companies stall.
Greg shares how companies like Twelve (e-SAF / carbon transformation) signed a 14-year offtake agreement with British Airways parent company (IAG) while they were still at TRL 4.
You'll learn:
- Why storytelling starts earlier than most founders think
- The three types of hard tech – and why each needs a different capital strategy
- How Neuralink built teams before the company formally existed
- Why off-the-shelf components can be a major advantage
- The biggest hiring mistake – hiring industry insiders too early
Greg outlines three types of hard tech: fundamental new science (Neuralink), re-engineered systems (Boring Company), and economies of scale (solar, batteries, electrolysers). Each faces a different lab-to-market journey.
Essential listening for anyone navigating TRL 4-6
Learn more about Lab to Market Leadership: https://www.deeptechleaders.com
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechleaders
Podcast Production: Beauxhaus
