MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Why You Should Tap Innovation at Deep-Tech Startups

Businesses across all sectors, not just research-intensive industries, can benefit from innovations at science-heavy startups.

In today’s business environment, firms must navigate labor shortages, market shifts, geopolitical tensions that strain supply chains and manufacturing, and mandates to adopt sustainable practices. Meeting these demands will require innovation rooted in breakthrough science and engineering. Even companies in less R&D-intensive sectors will need to look to science-based innovators — so-called deep-tech startups — as they seek solutions to their key challenges.

Deep tech describes a category of solutions rooted in atoms rather than bits — such as new materials, synthetic biology, fusion energy, and quantum computing — and grounded in cutting-edge research. Deep-tech ventures are startups dedicated to taking ideas from the lab bench to scaled global impact. And although these companies have great promise, adopting their breakthrough developments requires patience, a tolerance for risk, and capital.

About the Author

Stefan Raff is a professor at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and a research affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Fiona E. Murray is associate dean of innovation and inclusion and the William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Martin Murmann is a professor of innovation management and entrepreneurship at the Bern University of Applied Sciences.

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