Deep Tech Still Needs Deadlines
If you’re building a company taking on a hard science problem, there is a tendency to avoid near term deadlines, as your larger milestones are too far away. This is a mistake, here’s why:
1. Daily Progress is Essential
Regardless of the timeline, you still need to measure your progress and deadlines are a great way to do that. If you’re going to deliver something novel, you shouldn’t be afraid of accountability.
2. Start With the Vision
It’s much easier to create near term deadlines, once you have consensus on the longer term goals. When you have the long term vision agreed, you can work backwards to the present.
3. Goals Allow for Experiments
There is a vague belief amongst deep tech founders that setting deadlines early removes the potential for experimentation. Quite the opposite, if you set deadlines around experiments, you will likely get more done.
Best of luck out there.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
