Mastering Go-To-Market for Early-Stage Deep Tech Startups: Part 2
Continuing our guide to go-to-market (GTM) for early-stage deep tech startups, part two dives into the role of talents, internally and externally. We’ll also look at the resources needed to successfully reach the first level of revenue and grow from founder-led sales to a larger organization. To read about the key milestones for GTM on the road to Series A for deep tech startups, click here for part one.
+++
Deep tech startups are based on the principles of cutting-edge science and tech, but are unlikely to succeed without a robust go-to-market strategy and the right talent from day one. Deep tech is facing the challenge of selling complex solutions, with a longer time-to-market and higher barriers to entry. To succeed, founders must align both product development milestones with sales efforts, building a sales funnel from the start.
It is obvious that deep tech startups need founder(s) with exceptional scientific or engineering skills, to challenge an established market. However, pure technical founders are sometimes not comfortable — or less interested — in sales skills such as business development or customer relations.
Even if these technical founders have the right soft skills, sometimes, without extensive previous commercial experience, they can lack the right methodology or experience to lay the foundation for the necessary commercial elements of product development and the sales chain: good market timing, product market fit, negotiating complex agreements with enterprises, signing the first contracts or navigating into a complex value chain. A strong business profile should bring experience and expertise in all these areas and more, complementary to the founder’s technical savvy. This harmony is essential to a startup that goes from technological idea to a commercially-ready enterprise.
As with each approach to GTM, there’s no one-size fits all parameter — each company is unique and the answer to the right business fit is dependent on multiple parameters: from the type of business model to the company’s maturity, or co-founders’ background. If we take a step back, the hiring timeline, profile and location of a sales team depends on the type of commercial play. Examples can range from a community play (for open source foundational startups), targeting fast growing SMBs or classical enterprises for digital deep tech, or complex long-term partnerships for semiconductors or techbio.
In this article, we will dive into the following points with examples from the Elaia portfolio about business and GTM strategies to help you succeed in the early days of a deep tech startup:
Ensure the founding team has a well-balanced skill set
Choose your Business Angels (BAs) and VCs wisely, and make full use of their business expertise
Surround yourself with advisors and independent board member(s)
Thoroughly prepare for your first external business hire
From day one, the first key element is how to foster and structure a company culture that focuses not only on technological excellence but is also structu red to translate that tech for the market. It may seem obvious but, an oftentimes overlooked (and essential) factor for a company’s survival is to set a good basis from the start; a founding team with a perfect understanding and motivation for customer exploration and business development, and who feels passionate about it.
Let’s not forget that the skill set required to sell to a customer is similar at a certain level to the one needed to fundraise and drive a successful equity story. Given the first stages of the customer discovery process happen earlier in a startup’s lifecycle, it can be unrealistic, unhelpful and expensive to have a VP Sales at the pre-seed level. Instead, one of the founders has to take the lead and drive customer discovery and go-to-market in the company.
What is also critical is to leverage the board, investors, BAs, and advisors’ network and skills. To build this type of board, the founding team needs to have this sensitivity to business development, GTM and a clear profiling of the company’s ICP. It is always the same challenge: the key is to balance a top technical founder with founders or late founders with unique learning potential and a vision for business creation.
The main question we hear at Elaia is, when should a team restructure itself from having a founder-led sales strategy to an internal GTM team or head of sales? Although this shift is absolutely critical to scale a business, it’s always best to choose the right company structure as early as possible. Deep tech covers so many various models that we can’t always apply the classical SaaS platform when thinking about scaling the commercial team.
For B2B SaaS and a number of deep tech startups, the GTM roadmap is classically divided into three stages: customer discovery, first usage & contracts and revenue scaling. Each of these stages necessitate different tasks and can be achieved with each startup’s unique combination of business and tech talent.
Typically, the revenue scale will require higher technical skills, like sales pipeline management, top-line growth measurement, structuring and monitoring of KPIs, and analysis of the sales team’s efficiency and leadership analysis including performance. These skills might be adopted by one of the founders, transitioning to a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or by an external hire.
Another key question is the location of the resources, and when to hire the first CRO. Core markets for attractive deep tech startups will mostly be outside of Europe, so I often advise startups to develop quickly in the US or Asia. This can also mean a relocation of one of the co-founders to this market or hiring local talent like a Chief Business Officer or CRO. Many European deep tech startups have failed by being too Euro-centric, even though to scale revenue and secure growth investors it’s important to look internationally.
The typical B2B SaaS GTM process vs talents/resources
As shared in part one of this article, a deep tech startup can include software (which might integrate application-driven or a foundational infrastructure play), be a hybrid of hardware and software, or encompass foundational pure hardware tech. This differentiation is important as each kind of deep tech startup will have a different approach to building a GTM strategy, with its own challenges and opportunities. When looking at the role of talent in deep tech GTM, we’ve selected a few concrete examples of good practices from the Elaia portfolio.
We’ve identified four key profiles essential for driving GTM expertise in deep tech startups: the founding team, the group of VCs backing the startup, the board, and the broader startup team. While not exhaustive, these profiles reflect the most effective practices for building a solid foundation for GTM strategic success.
The Pili founders
In deep tech startups, having a co-founder with a strong business background — or at least a willingness to rapidly acquire business skills — is crucial from day one. In-house business acumen early on helps align the company towards GTM success from the start. Alternatively, bringing in later-stage founders with strong GTM expertise can also be a highly effective strategy.
Pili is a deep tech startup revolutionizing the pigment industry with sustainable, biobased solutions. Since its inception in 2013, the company has raised over €35 million and is experiencing rapid growth and success. Pili was founded by Jérémie Blache, Guillaume Boissonnat-Wu, and Marie-Sarah Adenis, each bringing diverse technical expertise and professional experiences to the table. Jérémie has a background in finance, Guillaume in chemistry, and Marie-Sarah in biology, complemented by their unique business acumen and soft skills.
Today, Pili is co-led by the dynamic duo of Jérémie and Guillaume. Jérémie excels in business strategy and finance, while Guillaume oversees the technical and product development aspects. A significant strength of their leadership lies in their ability to engage with and challenge each other in their respective domains, fostering a positive and innovative mindset within the team, and also to make early expert hires in each domain.
Jérémie and Guillaume’s complementary profiles have been helpful in closing potential customers, building out the product roadmap and developing commercial partnerships to drive Pili’s growth.
For deep tech startups, investors can be valuable sources of tech, business, and equity story expertise. When choosing who will lead or co-lead your funding round — or make a significant follow-on investment — consider the unique backgrounds they bring. Business angels and investors (even the smaller ones) with international exposure or GTM expertise from prior careers can offer practical, experience-based advice. Beyond the VC brand, assess the professional background of any future board member. Their individual expertise and alignment with your needs will directly impact your day-to-day success.
The Ncodin team
Semiconductor startup NcodiN’s CEO, Francesco Manegatti and his co-founders, all PhDs in photonics and former researchers, decided from day one to build an international VC syndication for their funding round, knowing their target market is global and very competitive. By bringing together global VCs for their first funding round, the board was complemented not only by VCs with different GTM geographic experience but also expertise in semiconductors, bridging two key types of knowledge (tech and business). Francesco, in line with his business talent, was convincing enough to bring onboard exceptional personalities: Leo Apotheker, former CEO of SAP and HP, as an independent board member and Eric Meurice, former CEO of ASML, as an advisor.
Independent board members or advisory boards can be key at the seed stage.These individuals are bringing specific expertise, business, human resources or technical, from pharma to quantum, and are typically selected by the founder for these connections and expertises.
The Hema.to team
In the case of Hema.to, a German startup that leverages AI for cytometry, Elaia, as board member, recommended that David Sourdive join as an independent board member. David is the CEO of Cellectis, a Nasdaq listed company and a very successful European biotech story. We might be biased (David is one of Elaia’s venture partners), but David brings enormous value, both in terms of understanding the complex healthcare value chain and driving business development.
With David on the board, the dynamic of discussions evolved from technical development and innovation to focusing on disrupting a huge market. The board charged Hema.to’s CEO with finding the right path for strategic business development and partnership. David was also instrumental in driving and identifying the new Chief Business Officer, Olivier Poulin, who is now leading sales for the company as part of the shift towards strategic business development.
At a certain stage in a deep tech startup’s lifecycle, bringing on a dedicated business lead becomes essential. Depending on the startup’s needs, size, and budget, this role could take various forms — such as hiring a VP of Sales, a Chief Business Development Officer, or engaging external sales consultants. Over time, as GTM takes center stage in the company’s growth, a VP of Sales might even assume the role of a “late-stage founder,” driving the company’s business success.
The Hummink team
Microprinting company, Hummink, drove its GTM approach in two parts: first, to help identify their key market, early-on Hummink launched a deep market study, enabling them to narrow down the semiconductor market as a key target. As they needed to continue moving forward on their GTM timeline, after months mainly focused on tech & product development, Hummink decided to hire a seasoned VP of Sales with a strong and proven experience in the semiconductor industry. Hummink has now signed integration deals with major international semiconductor equipment makers, driving revenue and accelerating growth.
Overall, crafting a successful go-to-market strategy for a deep tech startup demands a combination of technical prowess, strategic talent, and well-timed leadership transitions. From customer discovery to revenue scaling, the journey is anchored by a capable founding team, a well-rounded VC syndicate, a strategically composed board, and the eventual addition of experienced business leaders . These components are the cornerstone of a GTM approach tailored to the unique challenges of deep tech.
At Elaia, we’ve seen how this structured yet flexible approach drives success in startups like Pili, NcodiN, Hema.to and Hummink, enabling impactful industry partnerships and revenue growth. With the right talent and partners, deep tech startups can transition from foundational tech to strategic market players, unlocking scalable success.
As long-term deep tech investors, we are committed to supporting deep tech startups through these critical phases. Beyond capital, we leverage our extensive network and industry expertise to help startups in building effective, high-impact GTM strategies.