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 […]

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. […]

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 […]