🤖 #13: Vivian's Deeptech Insider: Why Scientists and Engineers Make Great Deeptech Entrepreneurs

Hello and welcome to #13 edition of the fortnightly Vivian’s Deeptech Insider.

It’s founder series this edition! If you've been following our newsletters, you know we alternate between founder and investor perspectives. Last time, we explored 2024 Highlights and 2025 Outlook, so now it’s time to focus on investor insights.

We also track jobs to monitor market momentum, this time outlining opportunities at Unicorn Biotechnologies, Thymia, a16z, World Fund (scroll down for details).

Deep Dive (Founder Series):

Why Scientists and Engineers Make Great Deeptech Entrepreneurs

Scientists and engineers bring a unique skill set—they’re trained to think analytically, design experiments around hypotheses, and make data-driven decisions. These qualities offer a distinct advantage in building impact-driven companies.

If you’ve followed our previous newsletters (especially the founder series eg. #9) you already know that technical expertise provides a strong foundation for entrepreneurial success. But why does it matter so much?

Simply put, being a scientist or engineer makes you a translatable entrepreneur.

While technical founders and solution-focused deeptech entrepreneurs share essential traits like problem-solving and innovation, their paths diverge when it comes to scaling ideas into market-ready products. Let’s explore why this transition is so pivotal.

Key Advantages of Being a Technical Founder

Having explored these similarities and differences, let’s delve into how these factors translate into real-world advantages.

1. The Power of the Scientific Method As a scientist or engineer, you approach problems with a structured, hypothesis-driven mindset. Whether you're developing algorithms or testing materials, you first define the problem, create hypotheses, and experiment. This mindset is directly applicable to building a startup where your product is essentially a hypothesis being tested in the real world.

2. Risk Management: Failure is Data A technical background equips you to manage risk differently. You know that failure isn’t the end—it’s valuable data for the next iteration. This mindset allows technical founders to stay resilient and adapt quickly, refining their ideas based on feedback rather than fearing setbacks. Very important in decision and strategy thinking is to rely on the data rather than reactive market feedback or emotions.

3. Vision with Pragmatism While many entrepreneurs are driven by visionary ideas, technical founders bring a crucial layer of pragmatism. With a deep understanding of the technology underpinning your product, you’re equipped to design solutions that are not only innovative but also technically feasible and scalable. This enables you to set realistic goals and achieve tangible milestones with confidence. Striking the right balance between vision and pragmatism is key—ideally by focusing on a clear, commercially viable or impactful problem.

4. The Ability to Scale Innovations Scientists and engineers know how to turn discoveries into working prototypes. The challenge for technical founders lies in scaling those innovations to mass production. Technical expertise helps bridge this gap, guiding the scaling process from lab to market.

5. Credibility and Trust in the Tech Ecosystem Technical founders earn trust through their deep understanding of the product’s science or engineering, building credibility and defensibility. It’s often easier to teach business skills to technical experts than to impart technical knowledge to commercial professionals.

6. Effective Team Building As a technical founder, you’re better equipped to lead and collaborate with technical teams. With experience and mentorship, you can also learn to communicate your vision clearly to non-technical audiences. Whether working with engineers, scientists, or business developers, your understanding and shared language help create cohesive teams aligned to bring your vision to life.

The value of being a technical scientist or engineer in entrepreneurship, especially as the next wave of deeptech founders, cannot be overstated. The skills to define problems, experiment with solutions, iterate quickly, and manage risk are powerful advantages.

Technical expertise isn’t just for the lab—it’s a cornerstone for building companies that deliver real-world innovation.

Now, onto the jobs - Vivian

P.S. Move my emails to your primary inbox so you see the next edition!

Jobs at Deeptech startups:

• Scientist I - Tissue Culture & Cell Biology - Unicorn Biotechnologies (Biotech, Seed), Sheffield, UK

• Scientist II - Cell & Molecular Biology - Unicorn Biotechnologies (Biotech, Seed), Sheffield, UK

• Principal Data Engineer - Thymia (Healthtech, Seed), London, UK

• Director of Communications - Phagos Biotech (Biotech, Grant funding), Paris, France

• Internship: Machine Learning - CarbonFarm (Climatech, Seed), Paris, France

Jobs with Deeptech investors:

• Fund Strategy Associate - a16z (VC), San Francisco, USA

• Head of Investor Relation - World Fund (VC), Berlin/Munich, Germany

• MBA Summer Associates - Emerson Collective (VC), San Francisco, USA

• Velocity Investment Associate - TCV (VC), New York / Bay Area, USA

• Investment Associate (Food & Agriculture) - S2G Ventures (VC), Chicago, USA

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