Field Notes

The hardest part of deep tech isn’t the tech.

Pieces on positioning, narrative and go-to-market. Written for founders, not marketers.

You Can't Patent Your Way Out of Being Forgettable Patents protect novel inventions. Brands protect perception of value. Why the strongest deep tech companies stop treating IP alone as their moat, and what to ask your last three buyers to find out which one you actually have.

Navigating the Australian Deep Tech Commercialisation Landscape The Lab-to-Market Map: an interactive blueprint of the Australian deep tech commercialisation ecosystem, from grants and capital to research partners and first customers. Tick what describes your company and your route lights up in order.

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Nobody Buys Technology They Don't Understand Deep-tech founders spend years removing technical risk, then meet a different one: narrative risk. Why the market rejects the work of understanding you, not your science, and how to fix it.

The Shopping List Defence just published what it wants to buy. The 2026 Innovation, Science and Technology Strategy names six technologies for the next decade; here is what that means for your positioning, with the sceptic's case from the room where it launched.

The Six Deadly Sins of a Founder Pitch Six patterns that separate exceptional pitches from painfully cringeworthy ones. These sins are fixable.

Navigating the Australian Defence Procurement Landscape An interactive blueprint of the Australian defence capability, acquisition and innovation ecosystem. Tick what describes your company and your way through it lights up, node by node.

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The Traction Problem Thiel Never Named No traction is the symptom every founder names and nobody can diagnose. Thiel blamed distribution. In deep tech there is a third failure sitting upstream of both.

The Cost of Being Misunderstood Misunderstanding is not a soft problem. It has a measurable cost — in fundraising timelines, sales cycles, talent and momentum. Here is how to put a number on it.

The Commercial Translation Gap The distance between what a deep tech founder has built and what the market can understand. What it is, why it exists, and why it is the most expensive problem most founders are not solving.