Lab to Market Leadership with Chris Reichhelm

What if the real innovation engine in Deep Tech is not the spinout, but the lab itself? Professor Hod Lipson is one of the world’s leading robotics researchers – recently the subject of a major Financial Times feature on the future of robotics. He directs Columbia’s Creative Machines Lab , where breadth beats specialisation, portfolios matter more than grades, and academia’s greatest role is to ex...

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 V...

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 discipli...

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 promisin...

Dr Jan Goetz never planned to be a CEO. He wanted to be a professor. But when co-founder Professor Mikko Möttönen asked about starting a company, Jan followed his gut. Seven years later, IQM is Europe's largest quantum computing company, heading towards US public listing, and has just secured €50M from BlackRock. This is a rare, personal look at the founder CEO journey – not just the company...

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are the universal language of Deep Tech – used by NASA, the DoD, VCs, corporations and startups to measure innovation progress. But where did they come from?  Professor John Mankins co-invented TRLs and wrote the 1995 white paper that gave them to the world. In this Season 2 premiere, he reveals the origin story: from Apollo-era NASA research centres, through Sta...

Why do 55% of Deep Tech companies fail within five years? Hailey Eustace , founder of Commplicated , argues the answer isn't bad technology - it's bad communication. Product-market fit failures? That's a listening and messaging problem. Can't raise capital? Your story isn't resonating. Struggling to win customers? Trust breakdown. Can't build the right culture? Your m...

What's the value of a ridiculously audacious goal if you never reach it? Josh Western, CEO of Space Forge , argues the question misses the point - because the innovations accelerated along the journey often matter more than the destination itself. Space Forge manufactures advanced semiconductor substrates in microgravity conditions, returns them via reusable satellites, then grows them terres...

What happens when quantum computing startups can’t wait 15 years for fault tolerance?  Richard Murray , co-founder and CEO of Orca Computing , reveals how his team chose commercial usefulness over technical idealism - and why that decision drives everything from recruitment to product development. Operating from a University of Oxford spinout with limited resources compared to Google or IBM, Orca...

What if early-stage Deep Tech investing could be completely reimagined? Keong Chan, Managing Director of Out The Back Ventures, has spent five years building one of the most unique investment approaches in the industry - operating from Perth, Australia, whilst building relationships with leading universities and national laboratories across four continents. Rather than waiting for deals to come to...

What can we learn from the collapse of two billion-dollar Deep Tech unicorns? James Arnold held senior strategy and operations roles at both Lilium and Arrival - European companies that raised over a billion dollars each, employed thousands of engineers, and still ended in insolvency. This conversation reveals the hidden pitfalls that destroy Deep Tech companies: why rapid team growth kills startu...

Why do so few university spinouts make it from lab to market? Dave Grimm , Partner at Albion Ventures , has spent a decade answering this question through a groundbreaking partnership with University College London that's transformed how academic innovations become successful companies. This conversation reveals the blueprint for successful university spinouts: embedding VCs within academic e...

What does it take to build million-qubit quantum computers - machines that could fundamentally change how we solve the world's most complex problems? Dr Sebastian Weidt, co-founder and CEO of Universal Quantum, shares the extraordinary journey from asking an audacious research question in 2017 to building one of the world's leading quantum computing companies. This conversation reveals t...

In this captivating episode of Lab to Market Leadership, Chris Reichhelm speaks with Mark Bjornsgaard , the visionary founder and CEO of System Two Group. With a track record of eight successful exits - notably the £200 million sale of Deep Green Technologies to Octopus Energy - Mark brings a powerful, often counterintuitive, perspective on building businesses, especially in the Deep Tech sector....

Nuclear fusion has been the ultimate ‘30 years away’ technology for decades. But is that finally changing? In this episode, Dr. David Kingham , founder of Tokamak Energy , shares the extraordinary journey of building one of the world's leading nuclear fusion companies from just three scientists and £200,000 to achieving 100 million degree plasma temperatures - the critical threshold for comme...

The road from lab to market for chemical engineering startups is anything but smooth. In this episode of Lab to Market Leadership, Chris Reichhelm talks to Peter J. Nieuwenhuizen PhD , a chemical industry veteran and former CTO of AkzoNobel and Enerkem , and Board chair of Itaconix Plc ., about the brutal realities of scaling chemical engineering technologies. Peter shares the inside scoop on how...

In this episode, host Chris Reichhelm is joined by Dr. David Cleevely CBE FREng FIET , co-founder of Cambridge Angels and a leading figure in UK science and technology. Together, they explore the intricate process of scaling Deep Tech companies, the importance of talent and vision, and the systemic challenges facing the UK’s innovation ecosystem. David shares lessons from decades of investing, bui...

In this episode of Lab to Market Leadership, Marc Singer , Managing Partner at Osage University Partners , joins host Chris Reichhelm to discuss the transformative role of university spinouts in Deep Tech. With decades of venture capital experience, Marc offers valuable insights into what makes a successful Deep Tech entrepreneur and shares lessons learned from OUP’s portfolio of 150+ companies. ...

In this episode of the Lab to Market Leadership podcast, host Chris Reichhelm speaks with James Finlayson , CTO and Co-Founder of Impact Recycling , to explore the journey of scaling their recycling technology from lab prototype to market-ready solution.  Over the past decade, James has led the development of BOSS, an innovative technology that uses fluid dynamics to separate ‘hard-to-recycle’ pla...

In The Deep Tech Leaders Podcast , serial entrepreneur Chris Perkins discusses the most undervalued skill in Deep Tech – management. Listen as he reveals lessons from his journey through two successful exits, sharing insights on market alignment, team culture, and effective leadership. Perfect for Deep Tech founders looking to scale their innovations and maximise success. Chapter Notes: 00:00 The...

In this episode of Lab to Market Leadership , Chris Reichhelm sits down with Eric Mayes , CEO of Endomag , to explore the rare journey of building a medtech startup from the ground up. Eric discusses the strategies that propelled Endomag to the forefront of cancer detection technology and culminated in a $310 million acquisition by Hologic. Perfect for medtech entrepreneurs and all Deep Tech innov...

In this episode of Lab to Market Leadership, Chris Reichhelm interviews Rob Davies , Chief Operating Officer, at 6K Energy , discusses what it takes to scale novel battery technology. Rob, who has  background in both corporate and startup environments, offers valuable insights on the hurdles and strategies involved in progressing advanced materials from research to market. Tune in to learn how 6K...

In this episode, Lab to Market Leadership host Chris Reichhelm interviews the former CTO of the Ford Motor Company, Paul Mascarenas OBE . Paul discusses his experiences driving innovation at one of the world’s largest automakers and shares his insights into the complex relationship between startups and large industrial players.  Join us to learn about the innovation process within major companies...

On this episode of ‘Lab to Market Leadership’, Chris Reichhelm talks with Kevin Chen, Managing Director of Lam Capital, about securing funding and scaling in the semiconductor space. Kevin, with his extensive experience that spans MIT, founding startups, and leading teams at Applied Materials, is now responsible for strategic investments at Lam Capital, the venture arm of Lam Research, a $100 bill...

On this week’s bite-sized Reflections episode of the Lab to Market Leadership podcast, Deep Tech Leaders CEO Chris Reichhelm explores a vital question: ‘Does the starting point of a deep tech company matter?’ Through lessons learned from previous podcast guests like Peter Collins ( Permasense ) and Henrik Hagemann ( Puraffinity ), Chris reflects on the importance of a company’s starting point—whet...