More than half of deep tech startups fail within five years.
For many founders, this is often blamed on technology, product, or timing. In reality, a large proportion of these failures come back to one issue: communication.
When teams struggle to explain what they are building, why it matters, and who it is for, everything becomes harder. Fundraising slows down. Customers hesitate. Partners lose confidence. Internal teams become misaligned.
Strong technology does not compensate for unclear messaging.
Where things start to go wrong
Many of the most common challenges in deep tech are rooted in communication.
Product–market fit suffers when founders are not listening closely enough to customers, or reflecting what they hear in their positioning.
Fundraising becomes difficult when investors cannot clearly understand the opportunity.
Customer and partner relationships weaken when trust is not built through consistent, credible messaging.
Teams lose focus when goals and priorities are not communicated well.
In each case, the problem is not technical capability. It is clarity.
Why this matters
Communication shapes how your company is understood at every stage:
- It affects how investors assess risk.
- How customers evaluate credibility.
- How partners decide whether to commit.
- How employees understand their role.
When communication is weak, even strong companies struggle to scale.
When it is strong, it becomes a competitive advantage.
A practical starting point
One of the simplest ways to improve communication is focus.
Every founder should be able to answer one question clearly: What is the single most important thing you want people to understand about your company?
Without that, messaging becomes fragmented. With it, fundraising, sales, hiring, and partnerships become easier to align.
Continuing the conversation
If these challenges feel familiar, our Founder and CEO, Hailey Eustace, recently sat down with Chris Reichhelm from Deep Tech Leaders to explore them in depth.
They discussed why communication is central to deep tech success, how founders can avoid common pitfalls, and what strong, strategic messaging looks like in practice.
You can watch or listen to the full conversation on the Lab to Market Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts:
➡ https://www.deeptechleaders.com/lab-to-market-leadership-podcast
