Deep Tech’s Death Valley

And why communication in deep tech is harder than it looks

Communication for deep tech startups is tricky. The obvious challenge is the complexity of the technology. Quantum computers are harder to explain than food delivery apps, right? And so the standard advice is to abstract away the technical details and focus on customer problems. But in deep tech, that’s easier said than done. And even when it’s possible, it’s often not enough.

The complexity in deep tech doesn’t just make explanations harder. It brings in a wider range of stakeholders, each with their own language, incentives, priorities, and biases. It also stretches development timelines, creating a long gap between promising research and viable products. This gap sometimes goes by the memorable name the valley of death. In the valley of death, competition for resources is more fierce and you have to stretch further to reach what each group of stakeholders cares about, creating its own communication challenges.

To understand how the valley of death comes about, let’s look at what makes deep tech startups different from regular tech startups. But before we do that, we should know what makes startups different from small businesses.

So let’s start there.