At LEAP 2025, FedTech's Founder and CEO, Ben Solomon, joined a distinguished panel to discuss one of the most critical challenges in deep technology commercialization: scaling innovation. The discussion, titled DeepTech Frontiers: Scaling Innovation and Driving Global Impact, tackled the hard truths about transforming cutting-edge research into real-world solutions.

Technologies vs. Products: Understanding the Gap

Deep tech is exhilarating. The discoveries made in labs and universities hold the potential to reshape industries, revolutionize how we live and work, and solve pressing global challenges. However, there is a stark difference between technology and a product. Technologies, in their raw form, do not immediately solve customer problems—they require extensive product development, business model innovation, and a robust delivery value chain to reach the market.

As Ben Solomon pointed out during the discussion, "Lab and university technologies spark excitement for their potential to change the world, but there’s a significant gap between scientific breakthroughs and real-world products that customers can use." Too often, brilliant technological breakthroughs fail to cross the chasm into viable products because founders underestimate the complexity of this transformation. A great technology needs a great product roadmap, not just great science.

The Multiple Valleys of Death in Deep Tech

Much has been said about the infamous "Valley of Death," where startups struggle to secure funding between early-stage research and large-scale commercialization. However, at FedTech, we’ve observed that deep tech startups actually face multiple valleys:

1. The Initial Commercialization Gap – Transitioning from lab-based research to a viable prototype, often before non-dilutive funding like SBIRs or early grants are secured.
2. The Post-Seed Capital Crunch – Even after securing initial funding, startups with 10-15 employees frequently struggle to scale further, as they remain too early for institutional investors.
3. The Market Validation Cliff – Many deep tech startups experience a brutal reckoning when they realize that their technology, despite investment and time, does not have a viable market fit.

Ben Solomon emphasized this challenge, stating, "Deep tech startups have multiple valleys of death. The traditional ‘Valley of Death’ refers to the period where a venture transitions a technology from a lab before large-scale funding is available for productization and scale. But we’ve observed that there’s a second and third valley even after a startup has won SBIRs or attracted a seed round, where funding runs short and now the company has 10-15 employees yet is not yet ready to attract institutional investors." Each of these valleys presents existential challenges. While the government and private sector are increasingly investing in deep tech, founders must strategically navigate these gaps with a combination of funding diversification, strong go-to-market strategies, and product-market fit validation.

The Art of Moving Fast and Knowing When to Pivot

Speed is critical in deep tech—not just in scaling a company, but in knowing when to pivot. Some technologies simply will not find a sustainable market, no matter how much time, funding, or emotional energy has been invested. One of the most difficult yet vital decisions a founder can make is to recognize when it’s time to sunset a technology and shift focus to a new opportunity.

As Solomon noted, "Some technology doesn’t have a market no matter how much has been invested—in dollars, time and emotional attachment. One of the hardest but most important decisions a founder can make is to put a technology ‘to bed’ and pivot to working on a different invention." Deep tech founders must balance resilience with adaptability. While persistence is key, so is the ability to critically assess market signals and make hard decisions about when to press forward and when to pivot. Founders should aim to fail fast, iterate quickly, and maximize learning to increase the likelihood of success.

Looking Ahead

LEAP 2025 reinforced what we at FedTech have long championed: commercializing deep tech is not just about science—it’s about execution. Our mission is to bridge the gap between groundbreaking technologies and market-ready solutions by equipping founders with the tools, networks, and strategies they need to scale successfully.

If you’re working on deep tech and navigating these challenges, we want to hear from you. Whether through our startup studios, accelerators, or corporate partnerships, FedTech is committed to ensuring the world’s most promising technologies make it out of the lab and into the hands of customers who need them most.