The biggest challenge of DeepTech isn't technological; it is about hiring the right leaders
DeepTech's difficulties to scale up lie in its struggle to make money out of science, and the challenge isn’t just technological—it’s about people.
Despite Europe's dominance in scientific research, many DeepTech startups fail to scale commercially. We analyzed 10 promising European Energy startups to uncover how their founders—often deep technical experts—complemented their teams with commercial leadership. What we found reveals a fundamental challenge in DeepTech’s commercialization journey.
The DeepTech Commercialization Challenge
Europe is home to 21,000 DeepTech companies and boasts world-class science and engineering institutions. For years, the region has been recognized for its potential to lead in this sector. Yet, despite its strong academic foundation, Europe struggles to translate scientific breakthroughs into commercial success.
DeepTech refers to companies built on cutting-edge scientific innovations—think AI-driven drug discovery, nuclear fusion, or advanced robotics. Unlike traditional tech startups, these companies require significant R&D, long development cycles, and specialized commercial expertise to scale. The challenge isn’t just technological; it’s about finding the right leadership to turn innovation into viable business models.
Our executive search experience confirms this: identifying DeepTech leaders who have successfully navigated growth-stage scaling is difficult. Founders typically come from academic backgrounds; their products take years to develop, and many DeepTech startups are acquired early by larger corporations with established distribution channels. As a result, the pool of executives with experience in scaling DeepTech businesses is exceptionally small.
To understand how DeepTech companies tackle this challenge, we investigated 10 promising European Energy startups that recently raised between $30 million and $100 million and were actively growing their teams. Our goal is to determine how these companies structure their leadership teams and whether they effectively complement their founders’ technical expertise with commercial leadership.
Who are the Founders?
Founding Teams: Size and Backgrounds
We found an average of three founders per company, with a range from one to five. This is significantly higher than the traditional tech industry average of 1.72, which makes sense given the technical complexity of DeepTech businesses.
Unsurprisingly, founder teams were overwhelmingly male. While gender diversity in venture-backed tech has stagnated around 13-15% in recent years, only 3.4% of the DeepTech founders in our study were women. Though our sample size is small, this aligns with broader trends in STEM fields, where women remain underrepresented.
DeepTech founders spend more time in education than their traditional tech counterparts:
93.1% dedicated at least five years to their studies
48.3% pursued a PhD
82.8% have a STEM background
These companies are typically founded by individuals with deep technical expertise, often stemming from academia or corporate R&D.
Founder Roles in the Company
Among founders who remained actively involved in their companies:
24% serve as CEOs
10% as CTOs
10% as CPOs
7% as COOs
0% as CSO or CCO
9% had no C-level title (either due to their seniority or lack of structured leadership levels)
Notably, none of the founders in our sample took on a dedicated commercial role, though some CEO-founders likely absorbed commercial responsibilities. Of the founder CEOs, 67% had prior entrepreneurial experience, a factor that significantly improves their odds of success.
Commercial Talent: A Missing Piece?
Limited Investment in Commercial Teams
Across the 10 companies analyzed, commercial teams represented just 12% of the total headcount (an average of 9 FTEs per company). This is significantly lower than the broader tech industry, where commercial teams often comprise 30-38% of the workforce (e.g., 38% in the UK).
This is surprising given that 90% of these startups experienced an average headcount growth of 42% over the past year, yet only 40% were actively hiring for commercial roles. Moreover, commercial positions accounted for just 26% of all open job postings.
One possible explanation is that DeepTech sales cycles are complex and relationship-driven. A few well-placed business development professionals can secure multi-year, six- or seven-figure deals. However, given the sector's persistent struggles with commercialization, shouldn’t sales and business development be overemphasized rather than underinvested?
Hiring Commercial Leaders
We identified 15 senior commercial hires (C-level, VP/SVP, or Head of positions) across the companies. Here are the key takeaways:
80% of companies hired a commercial leader (C-level, SVP, VP, or Head of)
40% hired a Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) or Chief Sales Officer (CSO)
50% had a commercial leader dedicated to international markets (North America or Asia Pacific)
20% had no dedicated commercial leadership, suggesting these responsibilities might still be managed by founders
Interestingly, the average tenure of commercial leaders was 3.4 years, more than double the 1.5-year average in the broader tech industry. This likely reflects DeepTech’s long sales cycles and the complex nature of its customers (e.g., enterprise corporations, and governments). However, it also indicates a lack of market liquidity—with so few companies at scale, there are limited alternative opportunities for commercial talent to move between DeepTech startups.
Experience and Background of Commercial Leaders
DeepTech commercial leaders stand out for their highly experienced and academic-heavy profiles:
80% hold at least a Master’s degree
13% have a PhD (far higher than in other commercial roles across tech)
60% have a business background (finance, economics, business administration)
86.6% have at least 11 years of experience
50% have over 21 years of experience (!)
87% transitioned from a corporate energy background into a DeepTech startup
This last point is key: nearly all commercial hires came from large energy corporations rather than other startups. The reasons are clear—networking, deep industry knowledge, and an understanding of the technology's applications are critical. But this also reinforces a structural issue: since DeepTech companies struggle to scale commercially, there is no established talent pool of scale-up experts, forcing startups to recruit highly experienced individuals from corporate backgrounds.
Key Takeaways
DeepTech founder teams are larger than traditional tech startups, averaging three people per company.
89.7% of founders remain actively involved in their startups, with 62% holding executive roles.
48.3% of founders pursued a PhD, while 82.8% have a STEM background.
80% of companies hired a senior commercial leader, but only 40% hired a dedicated commercial executive (CCO/CSO).
The average tenure of commercial leaders was 3.4 years, more than double the 1.5-year average in the broader tech industry.
Nearly all commercial hires came from corporates, underscoring the lack of scale-up talent in DeepTech.
Conclusion: Will the next 10 years play out the same way?
DeepTech is at a crossroads. While the sector has gained momentum and investment, the fundamental challenge of commercializing deep science remains unresolved. The next decade will determine whether DeepTech companies can scale independently, creating category-defining businesses, or if they will continue to be absorbed by larger corporates before reaching their full individual potential.
The ecosystem must evolve—founders need to prioritize commercial leadership earlier, investors must support longer growth horizons, and talent pipelines should be developed to cultivate scale-up expertise. If these shifts happen, we may finally see DeepTech companies fulfill their promise as the next wave of industry-defining innovation.
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