Dear all,

Where’s what I learned reading and listening to 1,000+ deep tech pitches.

A founder stands in front of us. On the screen is a real breakthrough, a laser that downs drones for the price of a coffee, a crystal grown several times larger than anyone thought possible, an AI that reclaims the factory time everyone had written off. The science is real. The team is world-class. And the room is quiet in the wrong way.

I have watched this play out hundreds of times. First as Managing Director of Techstars Germany, and now at Deep Tech Momentum, I have sat across from more than 1,000 deep tech and AI founders, and the pattern is stubborn: the venture that should win the room sometimes doesn't. Not because the technology is weak, but because the story is. 

Deep tech builders can explain how the thing works in exquisite detail. What trips them up is turning a breakthrough into a narrative an investor can repeat to their partners the next morning. The consequence usually isn't that ventures go unfunded, it is that it takes far too many conversations to get to the funding you need, whether from a venture investor or inside a corporation.

So I started writing down what the teams who won the room had in common, and condensed it into a single framework: twelve formulas, each answering a question every investor asks silently. There is no silver bullet here. The intention is clarity of narrative that gets you to funding faster

A. Future Vision

B. Value Proposition & Product

C. Market & Monetization

D. Traction

E. Why You

F. The Ask

Twelve questions. If you can answer each in one clean line with one real number, you have done something most deep tech founders never quite manage: you have made a hard thing legible in the few minutes an investor gives you. Get them sharp, and the room goes quiet in the right way.

With wishes that you invest in your narrative as fiercely as you invest in your science,
Martin

From high-power microwave systems and airborne drone defence to deceptive networks and autonomous security operations, a new generation of European companies is building the infrastructure for conflict beyond the visible battlefield.

→ AnGard’s core microwave technology was researched and spun out the University of Twente

→ The UK Ministry of Defence programme will be an important reference point.

→ Founded in 2021 as a spin-out from the University of Strathclyde

We just opened a new position — Event Director — to help build DTM27, Europe's marketplace for deep tech founders, investors, and corporates accelerating the continent's next wave of innovation.

And we're still looking for the right people for three more senior roles.

👤 Event Director — newly opened
👤 Chief of Staff
👤 Director of Strategy & Programming
👤 Director of Partnerships

If you know someone who'd thrive helping build the platform powering Europe's deep tech renaissance, send them our way.

Deep tech’s next frontier is the ability to manufacture complex technologies reliably, repeatedly and at industrial scale.

In his compelling article,  The Neo Industrial Age: What Comes After Deep Tech, Massimo Portincaso, argues that the dominant deep-tech narrative has focused too heavily on discovery, prototyping and technology transfer—and not enough on the harder transition from pilot production to industrial execution. Portincaso writes from both sides of that divide: he previously examined deep tech as a BCG consultant and co-authored a series of influential reports with Hello Tomorrow; today, he is Co-Founder and CEO of Arsenale Bioyards, which is building infrastructure for industrial biomanufacturing. 

His central thesis is that the next generation of industrial leaders will combine AI-accelerated innovation with manufacturing excellence, new financing models and control over critical value chains.

AI has accelerated the Design-Build-Test-Learn cycle, but faster discovery does not guarantee scalable production. Portincaso distinguishes between technology transfer—turning research into a prototype—and industrial transfer: making that prototype reliable, repeatable and economically viable.

That second step is becoming the real valley of death. Even well-funded companies can fail if they cannot achieve the required yield, quality, throughput or unit economics.

Companies such as Zymergen, Amyris and Northvolt show that strong technology can still fail when the production system does not scale.

The lesson is structural: manufacturing cannot be treated as a downstream task. The factory, supply chain and production process must be designed alongside the technology from the start.

AI can generate and optimise solutions faster, but physical systems still need to be built and tested in the real world.

As design accelerates, prototyping capacity, test infrastructure, equipment and responsive suppliers become the new constraints. The advantage will go to companies that can shorten physical iteration cycles as quickly as digital ones.

Instead of creating a digital twin of an existing asset, Portincaso proposes building the digital version first.

Companies would simulate and optimise the system in software before producing the physical “Real Twin”. This shifts experimentation out of the factory and turns validated designs and process modules into reusable digital assets.

The Neo-Industrial Company combines physical production with software-native feedback loops, AI, manufacturing discipline, supply-chain control and new financing models.

For Europe, the challenge is not simply to create more deep-tech startups. It is to convert scientific strength into industrial capacity, strategic autonomy and globally competitive production.

DTM-founder Martin Schilling will be speaking at the EUVC Corporate Summit in London where Europe's corporate venture leaders are convening in London this September — CVC heads, corporate innovation teams, and the GPs who work with them. One curated day: industrial resilience & sovereignty, corporate AI adoption, venture clienting in practice, and the LP investing playbook. ~200 seats, invitation-only.

As part of the Deep Tech Momentum community, you're invited free of charge — reach out to [email protected] to claim your seat.

There's also a closed-door LP Investing Day & Dinner in London on September 9th, hosted with Isomer Capital — limited to 20 seats, invitation-only, for corporates actively exploring LP allocation into venture funds. If that's relevant to anyone in your network, have them reach out to [email protected] directly and we'll see if there's a fit.

For any questions reach out to [email protected]