A unique program specifically tailored for entrepreneurial scientists & engineers
We've trained hundreds of scientists and engineers, from the best research institutes across France and Europe. Deeptech Founders helped them create and strengthen their science-startup project's team, development plan, fundraising, and network.
400+ entrepreneurial scientists & engineers mentored
Quantum Physics | Synthetic Biology | Microfluidics | Cryptography | Imaging | Microbiome | Photonics | Nanotech | Stem cells | Medtech | Deep Physics | Neurology | Drug Discovery | Robotics | 3D Printing | Cloud Computing | Oncology | Foodtech | Agrotech | Signal Processing | Networks...
from 45+ research institutions an 13 countries
🇫🇷 CEA | CNRS | INRAE | INRIA | INSERM | IFPEN | Institut Curie | Institut d'Optique | Institut Pasteur | ICM | IHU Imagine | Ecole Centrale Supélec | IFSTTAR | Ecole Polytechnique | ESPCI | Mines Paristech | ESIEE Paris | ENTPE | ENS Lyon, Paris Saclay, Ulm | EHESP | CHU Nantes | CHU Paris | Universités de Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes, Rennes, Toulouse, Brest, Paris Descartes, Paris Diderot, Paris Sciences & Lettres, Paris Sud ...
🌎 Universities of Auckland, Southampton, Austin Texas, Washington, Politechnico di Milano, Heidelberg, KU Leuwen, CSIC
Learning by doing, experience-sharing, and real-world confrontation
"I would totally recommend Deeptech Founders to any scientist, regardless of the maturity of their project. DF is the most pragmatic, hands-on and interactive science-entrepreneurship program I have ever seen!" Elodie Brient-Litzler, TTO Institut Pasteur
5 months.
The right time to craft the perfect dev, fundraising and team strategies.
1 session/week.
To accommodate busy schedule of leading scientists & engineers.
100+ mentors.
An incredible community of the most successful and talented science-founders.
1 Operating Partner dedicated to your project.
An experienced Operating Partner from our team will be working hand in hand with you and your team for up to 2h per week to help you and your project grow.
The 3 main missions of an Operating Partner:
- They will accompany you throughout the program and introduce you to the ecosystem: mentors, investors, industrialists, potential cofounders, etc.
- They will provide an outsider’s critical perspective and prevent you from falling into confirmation biases.
- Finally, operating partners are there to transmit the tools and fundamentals required for you to evaluate a translational projects (time, costs, feasibility, team, etc.).
A virtual program structured in 4 successive phases
Weekly sessions can be accessed remotely via a dedicated web interface. If you can't attend one live, no worry, you'll have access to the replay!
1. Inside the lab (2 months)
The goal of this period is for you and your team to lay down all hypothesis for your project, discover the nuts and bolt of science entrepreneurship, and pick the brains of inspiring deeptech founders to avoid as many dangerous mistakes as possible.
Format
- 4h a week, usually between 4 and 8 PM, instructors and mentors will present during interactive sessions key tools and concepts through practical case-studies to cover: legal basics, IP strategy, go-to-market, fundraising, product development, building a board, recruiting a stellar team, sales.
Content
- Acquire the foundational knowledge about how to create and grow a science/engineering startup
- Understand how to evaluate your technology, team and project
- Build a pitch deck to pitch relevant stakeholders beyond your lab
Operating partner role
- To be a sounding board and help you put on paper your startup hypothesis & provide you with relevant resources
- Available 1-2 hours / week just for you, your team and your project
2. Bootcamp (2 days)
Two days to help you get ready, in a safe space, to go out of your lab and share your startup idea with experts, investors, potential partners...
Format
- Day 1: Refine your pitch and your investor deck during the first day during interactive group sessions
- Day 2: Test your pitch and deck with industry experts, mentors of the program, BPIFrance Dealflow team, etc.
Content
- The goal is to help you identify the key points you have to master in order to explain how your technology can become a product and convince others.
Operating partner role
- Provide you critical feedback and help you challenge and improve your pitch and your deck format & content
3. Outside the lab (2 months)
Time to get out of your lab and challenge your hypothesis about your project, your product, what problem it solves. This will be the test of fire to validate your idea's and team potential.
Format
- With the experience you acquired in the program, you will have to carry out 50 interviews with potential clients, industry partners, investors, mentors to challenge your hypothesis and validate your project potential.
- Recurrent feedback sessions in small teams to share key learnings from these interviews and help every project grow faster.
Content
- Weekly sessions tailored to answer the specific challenges faced by the different projects thanks to mentor sharing their own experience.
Operating partner role
- The operating partners will help you plan, secure and prepare in these meetings but also help you take a step back and reflect on the feedback from these meetings.
4. Closing ceremony (1 day)
At the end of our five-month program, a day will be dedicated to reflecting on participants’ experiences. Each team will present their journey and what they learned throughout the program in front of an audience of the Deeptech Founders ecosystem and the project stakeholders.
For those who have not yet created a startup, this will also be an opportunity to announce whether or not you have decided to start a company and, if so, how and with whom.
With all the relevant ecosystem stakeholders gathered in one place, you will be able to gather support and partners.
Who can join?
Interested in understanding what it takes to turn an invention into a real-world product? Deeptech Founders is made for you, whether you already have a project or not.
✅ You have a project or a startup
- Stage: ideation to pre-Series A
- Status: still in the lab, team assembled or not, startup created or not
- Student, academic, industry scientists or engineers, entrepreneurs
✅ You don't have a project
- You would like to find a project
- You would like to join a team
- You would like to attend as an auditor to better understand the nuts and bolts of deeptech entrepreneurship
What they say about Deeptech Founders
Find out how Deeptech Founders impacted our alumni and ecosystem partners
"Deeptech Founder one day, Deeptech Founder always"
After the program, you will become an official Deeptech Founders Alumnus!
Once the program has ended, several choices are open to you: you can jump right in and start a company, return to continue research in your lab, or join a company, etc.
Whatever path you choose to take, you will be a member of our community and benefit from our ecosystem. We continue to provide support to alumni wishing to carry their project further. As of today, roughly 50% launch their company after the program, and the first startups already raised over €150m since february 2019.
Click here to access the form // Deadline February 25, 2024