Great article! On the deep tech VC side: completely agree with you. Software, which has dominated VC and corporate sector (Alphabet, Meta, Salesforce, etc) funding, doesn't really require as much basic research / R&D, so a lot of the "innovation ecosystem" has forgotten how to operate in the hey-day of semiconductors and early computing.
I see a lot of stuff out there that is really interesting, but not ideal to fund with private money, which is really looking for growth at a stage where things are more concrete/quantifiable, vs. speculative/R&D. SBIR and other grant funding is meant to bridge this gap, but it's a little too "applied" and meant to get companies to private funding ASAP. There isn't the time or space for this kind of integrated approach, which also has broader positive externalities.
Totally agree with you that this kind of thing is definitely where the money should go. It's just a tough sell on the political front since it doesn't yield as much immediate gratification as some factory opening up.
Great article! On the deep tech VC side: completely agree with you. Software, which has dominated VC and corporate sector (Alphabet, Meta, Salesforce, etc) funding, doesn't really require as much basic research / R&D, so a lot of the "innovation ecosystem" has forgotten how to operate in the hey-day of semiconductors and early computing.
I see a lot of stuff out there that is really interesting, but not ideal to fund with private money, which is really looking for growth at a stage where things are more concrete/quantifiable, vs. speculative/R&D. SBIR and other grant funding is meant to bridge this gap, but it's a little too "applied" and meant to get companies to private funding ASAP. There isn't the time or space for this kind of integrated approach, which also has broader positive externalities.
Totally agree with you that this kind of thing is definitely where the money should go. It's just a tough sell on the political front since it doesn't yield as much immediate gratification as some factory opening up.