How do you move from novel idea to working prototype in hard tech? And how can you bend the rules of the game to give you a better chance of winning?

Greg Smithies is a finance and operations leader who has worked with some of the world's most ambitious companies. He led finance and operations at Elon Musk's Neuralink and The Boring Company. He's also been an investor with Battery Ventures, BMW iVentures and Fifth Wall. He's helped raise over $2bn for startups, and over $950m for funds.

This episode focusses on TRL 4-5 – the prototype stage where many Deep Tech companies stall.

Greg shares how companies like Twelve (e-SAF / carbon transformation) signed a 14-year offtake agreement with British Airways parent company (IAG) while they were still at TRL 4.

You'll learn:

- Why storytelling starts earlier than most founders think

- The three types of hard tech – and why each needs a different capital strategy

- How Neuralink built teams before the company formally existed

- Why off-the-shelf components can be a major advantage

- The biggest hiring mistake – hiring industry insiders too early

Greg outlines three types of hard tech: fundamental new science (Neuralink), re-engineered systems (Boring Company), and economies of scale (solar, batteries, electrolysers). Each faces a different lab-to-market journey.

Essential listening for anyone navigating TRL 4-6

Let us know what you think...

Learn more about Lab to Market Leadership: https://www.deeptechleaders.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechleaders

Podcast Production: Beauxhaus

Ian Temperton became CEO of Plastic Energy in 2021 after five years as Chief Investment Officer.

He stepped in as the company moved from pilot to industrial scale – executing multi‑million euro projects with SABIC and TotalEnergies.

This is what happens when the external CEO works.

Ian spent five years learning the business before taking over. The shift came mid-deployment, when execution discipline and governance became critical.

The team stayed. The focus changed: from raising capital to deploying it.

The core challenge: delivering complex projects on petrochemical sites while scaling the organisation to match.

The proof: nearly a decade of continuous operations in Spain.

The lesson: separate innovation from deployment, and rebalance rigour as you scale.

Essential listening for anyone moving from pilot to industrial scale in climate hardware.

Let us know what you think...

Learn more about Lab to Market Leadership: https://www.deeptechleaders.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechleaders

Podcast Production: Beauxhaus

Dr Simon Thomas never expected to be a founder. After 12 years inside TSMC, Samsung and LG, he was ready for a break from the pressure of the world’s biggest fabs. Then Professor Sir Colin Humphreys set him a challenge: could he make graphene at wafer scale – the same problem Samsung had spent $2.2 billion trying, and failing, to crack?

Five weeks of experiments later, Simon saw the first promising result. A short time after that, Paragraf was born, and by December 2024 the company had switched on the world’s first graphene electronics foundry.

In this episode of Lab to Market Leadership, Simon explains how a decade‑plus in Asian fabs gave him a process‑engineering lens no one else brought to graphene, how a chance train journey with Colin Humphreys became the turning point, and why copper‑free, transfer‑free graphene was essential to escape the industry’s 'trough of disillusionment.'

He also talks candidly about the hardest part of scaling a Deep Tech company: people. From hiring the first team to recognising when someone’s journey with the company is over, and from open‑door collaboration to faster, tougher CEO calls, this is essential listening for technical founders learning to lead as CEOs.

Let us know what you think...

Learn more about Lab to Market Leadership: https://www.deeptechleaders.com

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deeptechleaders

Podcast Production: Beauxhaus