Build global, or get boxed in. Singapore is an exceptional launchpad for deep tech—world-class research, predictable regulation, dense talent, and brand equity that travels—but the world won’t bend to our advantages unless the execution is ruthless, market-led, and globally capitalized. The playbook is simple to say, hard to do: prove your science is best-in-class, lock real customer pain with a sharp ICP, market like a category winner to reach specialist deep tech capital, and hire a killer commercial bench through a global search. Do these in parallel, not sequence.
Start with the truth: your research must actually be world-leading. Not locally/regionally excellent—globally defensible. Strong patent estates correlate with outlier outcomes because patents aren’t just legal armor; they are signals of technical scarcity, negotiation leverage, and acquisition currency. In Europe, deep tech unicorns carry dramatically larger patent portfolios than general tech peers, and the same pattern holds across AI hardware, robotics, and biotech. If your tech wins only in the lab, you don’t have a moat—you have a demo. File early and internationally via PCT, cover where competitors operate, and budget real money for freedom-to-operate and continuations; it’s the price of building in hard tech. Then pressure test the science in public: publish, present, and partner with tier‑one labs. NUS’s new co‑investment flywheel and Stanford collaboration are the right instincts—cross‑border validation tightens the BS filter and compounds credibility with buyers and investors.
Next, stop letting tech chase the market. The fastest way to die in deep tech is mistaking novelty for need. Traditional PMF heuristics mislead here; what you need is technology‑market fit: a specific workflow, buyer, and willingness‑to‑pay that your product makes meaningfully better under real constraints (regulatory, reliability, integration). Work the TRL stack with intent: at TRL 1–4, mine “earned secrets” from the field before you write code; at TRL 4–6, validate multi‑stakeholder adoption (clinical, compliance, procurement); at TRL 7–9, convert pilots into lighthouse accounts with signed commercial terms, not vibes. Precision beats ambition: define a sharp ICP (role, budget, system dependencies, success metric) and a wedge (one or two killer workflows) that lands ROI in <90 days. Remember the graveyard: Lilium and Arrival raised billions and still cratered—multi‑front innovation without a narrowed use-case and industrial discipline is how you burn years and trust.
Now the uncomfortable part: you must be loud—and surgical—about your story to attract the right capital. Southeast Asia doesn’t have enough patient deep tech funding to carry you through multiple cycles; winning requires a global investor map and a narrative that decodes risk for them. The good news: specialized capital is abundant and hunting—Europe alone pushed ~€15B into deep tech in 2024; AI is swallowing the lion’s share of global deal value; Switzerland allocates a majority of VC to deep tech. But visibility is earned. Use credibility magnets: international conferences and trades shows for global stage time, third‑party validation, and platform grants; institutional tie‑ups to signal momentum; university venture programs to anchor de‑risked spinouts. Ditch feature‑speak. Lead with outcomes: “cut false positives 30%, lifted yield 12%, reduced cost per cycle 40%,” tied to buyer P&L. Then make the moat explicit—IP, data exclusivity, regulatory posture, and integrations that raise rip‑and‑replace costs.
Talent is the force multiplier. Technical founders don’t have to become CROs—but someone elite must own revenue, sequencing, and global expansion. Industrial-grade deep tech fails not because of bad science, but because management, manufacturing, and GTM never catch up to the physics. Time the hires. Pre‑PMF: keep the founder selling; add a solutions lead who speaks both code and plant floor. Approaching scale: bring in a CRO/CCO with credible enterprise cycles in your domain; under ~$2M ARR, hiring a full CRO is usually premature—prove repeatability first. Don’t local‑shop the search. Run a retained, global process: firms with deep tech benches can screen for dual fluency (technical rigor + enterprise sales), access passive candidates, and de‑risk culture/comp plans across geos. Yes, it’s expensive. A bad executive hire costs more.
Finally, design for global from day one. Keep R&D in Singapore for cost, quality, and IP control; put GTM leadership where the buyers are. Hub‑and‑spoke works: a “customer obsession” pod in the U.S. or EU (seller, SE, product) translating field signal into roadmap; core science and data ops stay home for velocity and security. Start narrow, win deeply—one metro, one buyer, one killer workflow—then expand into adjacencies with proof and references. Use platform distribution early (hyperscaler co‑sell, OEMs, integrators) to compress sales cycles and credibility debt. Make momentum visible: case studies, third‑party benchmarks, security certifications in flight.
The meta‑skill that ties it all together: adaptive speed. Ego last, evidence first. Install kill‑switch metrics. Run red‑team reviews monthly. Update the narrative when reality changes. Global winners aren’t the ones who never miss; they’re the ones who correct in public, recruit ahead of the curve, and keep the bar on science and outcomes where the world can see it.
Singapore gives you the runway. The world sets the bar. Make the science undeniable, the market signal unmistakable, the capital global, and the team formidable.