Technology Commercialization | Hard Tech Startups

As a technical founder, you have devoted your time and research to bring a radical new technology into the world. You've also found others who believe in that technology, so much so that they've invested their money to commercialize it and bring it to market.

It gets simpler now, right? Wrong.

The reality is that the clock starts ticking as soon as you receive your first institutional round of funding. Your role must shift immediately from scientist to entrepreneur. And fundraiser.

Where do you start?

Market Operandi is a commercialization firm created specifically to help deep tech (hard tech) startups succeed and scale.

Using our proprietary and vetted process, you will avoid the traps that > 90% of startups fall into within the first year.

Market Operandi (MO) steers deep tech (hard tech) startups from their initial funding (seed money, angel investors) to their first institutional round, enabling them to move rapidly through the most challenging and precarious stage of startup evolution. By working with MO, you will successfully:

Identify the right group of initial customers that will allow you to bring your product to market and scale quickly.
Pitch your business in a way that will appeal to your investors as you work to secure your next round of funding – hint: it's very different from your first round.
Make the right hiring decisions and proactively manage your organization before your org chart is filled in.
Prioritize what you need to do right now and what to postpone.

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Market (not Marketing)

The goal at this stage is to identify the largest group of customers that will buy your product without customizations and one-offs.

First, you must:

Define the questions you need to answer to make your great idea into a sellable product that can scale.
Determine which subsets of potential customers would most readily adopt (this means buy) your technology.

This process has nothing to do with "marketing." It is not about advertising, slick sales brochures, or digital marketing. These are all important (and yes, we are world experts at them too), but marketing comes later in the process.

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Fundraising Strategy

After receiving your first round, it is all about SPEED: URGENT, FAST & EARLY!

We will show you how to:

Strategically apply for research grants that align with your mission and not distract from it.
Pitch your business in a way that appeals to the particular funding source: Grants vs. Angels vs. Venture Capitalists.

The clock starts ticking the moment you get the first check. Every month you delay progress is a month that you will regret later when trying to fundraise the subsequent round.

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Team Growth

How do you decide which role to hire next? For example, you might hire any of the following to improve early production: an engineer, a technician, a scientist, a project manager, or a buyer.

Based on your market stage, we will help you assess which skills are most important for your commercialization team or individual lead.
We will work with you to leverage your team’s inherent strengths and identify areas where you can outsource.

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"We formed this team because we've been through these stages multiple times with our own hard tech startups."

We see your future because it was in our past.

As deeply technical advisors, we can "dive into the weeds" with you and help you match to your market.
We will guide you through answering the difficult and uncomfortable questions that arise as you manage multiple aspects of your business simultaneously.
By answering those questions, you'll know how to prioritize what to do now and what you can postpone.
We'll recognize from experience the things that are coming, but you can't see yet, aka the "Unknown Unknowns." We know where and when these hidden traps will likely appear because we've seen them multiple times in our startups.