The Regulatory Roadmap: Why Your Compliance Strategy Is Your Funding Strategy

Why do teams with genuinely innovative technology often approach investors without a commercially-minded regulatory pathway? I’ve noticed this pattern with some of the deep tech, medtech and climate tech founders I advise, where regulatory work is seen as something distinct from building a company. I also see the results: stalled fundraising, or, if rushed, closing […]

Your Patent Is Not Your Moat

What investors see that most spinout founders don’t. A moat, in investor language, is the set of competitive advantages that make your technology hard to replicate. Your patent is one input to that moat. It is not the moat itself. I spent years in corporate finance and M&A, where part of the work was valuing […]

Leveraging the Venture Client Model

Why running a pilot before you set equity terms can change everything about your raise I’m currently working with an early-stage deep tech venture: a US-based, proprietary materials technology with strong proof-of-concept data and a founding team that combines deep scientific credentials with strong commercial backgrounds. This was a team that could have spent six […]

MENA, Israel, and Your University’s Deep Tech Door

This is the first in an occasional series on global research alliances, which many founders are sitting on without knowing it. I’ve spent over a decade building VersatilePhD into one of the largest PhD career networks in the world, with more than 120,000 members across 130+ research universities. Our fastest-growing segment is now founders: PhD […]

The 63-Year Clause: What One Term Sheet Taught Me About Structure

Why deep tech founders who resist structure don’t protect themselves, they just delay the reckoning Note: This piece was prompted by a real engagement. All details , such as geography, technology sector, deal terms, and financial figures, are illustrative. The structural pattern, however, is real and recurring. I was recently working with a founder who […]

The Spinout Negotiation: What Your University Isn’t Telling You

Most PhD founders accept the first term sheet. Here’s what to do instead. I’ve been running VersatilePhD, a leading career platform for PhDs, for almost a decade. During that time I’ve met hundreds of top-flight researchers, across many countries, who have struggled to define what to do with their work. The key question: should they […]

Deep Tech Angels: The Most Important Investors You’re Not Talking To

What a Swiss energy venture tells us the gap between great science and early-stage capital I’ve been working recently with a deep tech energy venture: Swiss-based, US entity, world-class science, provisionally protected IP, and a founding team with credentials that would stop any technical investor in their tracks. And yet the funding conversation is harder […]

The World’s Top Deep Tech Spinout University isn’t in America

What ETH Zurich’s global lead tells PhD founders about where to build, and where capital is moving Consider first that ETH Zurich has produced 192 alumni-founded, VC-backed deep tech startups since 2020, which is more than any other university or research centre in the world. Cambridge produced 67 over the same period. MIT produced 35. […]

The Non-Dilutive Playbook

PhDs are trained to build the future, so why is their funding strategy stuck in a pre-programmed loop? It’s a peculiar irony that PhDs — careers built on questioning everything — often become the most unquestioning sheep the moment they enter the startup ecosystem. Despite careers built on breaking down arguments, research-based founders often accept […]

Lost in Translation: Why Great Science Doesn’t Always Close Rounds

$398B is sitting in the European university spinout funnel. PhD founders are missing their share. Here’s why, and how to fix it. Deep tech founders face a real paradox: the very complexity that makes their technology defensible is the same complexity that makes it nearly impossible to pitch. Yet with a third of all global […]