Hardware startups face significant hurdles in securing funding and navigating complex development cycles, with studies indicating roughly 90 percent fail due to financial constraints, extended R&D timelines, and manufacturing challenges. To address these persistent barriers, IEEE Entrepreneurship launched its Hard Tech Venture Summits in 2024, creating dedicated forums where founders of early-stage hard tech companies can connect directly with investors, engineers, and legal experts familiar with the unique demands of physical product innovation.
The initiative responds to a well-documented funding gap: hard tech ventures typically require up to 50 percent more capital than software startups, often needing at least $30 million to reach milestones—a figure double the average for software-focused firms. This disparity stems from the capital-intensive nature of developing physical products, which involves prototyping, tooling, regulatory compliance, and supply chain establishment long before revenue generation begins.
Joanne Wong, general partner at Redds Capital and chair of the Hard Tech Venture Summits, emphasized the program’s necessity during a 2024 interview, stating that while numerous investor conferences exist, few concentrate specifically on hard tech sectors like robotics, semiconductors, and aerospace. “Even though there are a lot of startup investor conferences, it’s hard to find those focused on hard tech,” Wong said. “Many investors are focused on AI software—which is good—but for hard tech companies, it is still hard to find support.”
Wong’s dual role as an IEEE member and entrepreneur informs the summit’s design. She founded SciosHub in 2020, a SaaS platform that automates data management for biomedical research labs, giving her firsthand insight into the translational challenges deep tech founders face. IEEE’s extensive technical societies—including the Robotics and Automation Society, Electron Devices Society, and Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society—provide a natural infrastructure for mentorship and commercialization guidance, she noted.
Summit Structure and Participant Experience
Each two-day summit follows a consistent format designed to maximize meaningful interaction. Day one begins with keynote addresses, followed by facilitated networking roundtables where three to five startup founders join one or two investors and a service provider at each table. This intentional grouping aims to foster relationships rather than transactional exchanges, a priority Wong highlighted as central to the events’ mission.
Startups then present their pitches to investor panels, which evaluate business plans and technology readiness. The top 10 scorers advance to a final round where they present to all attending investors. Past participant feedback underscores the value of this structure: Mark Boysen, founder of Naware—a Minnesota-based company that developed an AI-powered weed-removal robot for golf courses and parks—described the community connection as “fantastic, especially investors and founders in robotics.” Jeffrey Cook, founder of Gigantor Technologies in Florida, noted that attending a 2024 summit helped him “see what the hard tech venture climate is like” and meet “a lot of great contacts.”
The second day features a half-day engineering design–to–manufacturing workshop led by industry practitioners. At the 2025 San Francisco event, Liz Taylor, president of DOER Marine, guided founders through production planning, regulatory pathways, and quality control processes. Attendees also accessed an exhibition area showcasing startup demos and offering direct access to service providers specializing in areas such as prototyping, certification, and IP strategy.
Geographic Expansion and Accessibility
In 2024 and 2025, the Hard Tech Venture Summits have been held in key innovation hubs across North America. Events took place in Menlo Park, California, in April 2025, with a follow-up scheduled for Toronto in October 2025. A third summit occurred in Boston on June 10–11, 2025, hosted in collaboration with the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society at its International Microwave Symposium.
Planning is underway for expanded regional programming in 2026, with events under consideration for Asia, Europe, Latin America, and additional North American locations. Applications remain open for preseed, seed, and Series A founders through the IEEE Entrepreneurship portal, where a review committee matches accepted startups with investors and service providers based on technical domain and development stage.
Ji Ke, partner and CTO of SOSV—a venture firm focused on deep tech—attended the 2025 summit and affirmed its unique value: “I met a lot of young entrepreneurs tackling some massive challenges,” he said. “This is one of the best events to meet some very-early-stage companies.” Post-event surveys from the 2025 San Francisco gathering indicated that over 90 percent of attendees would highly recommend the summit to peers, reflecting strong satisfaction across founder, investor, and service provider cohorts.
For founders seeking to participate, the application process emphasizes readiness for investor engagement and clarity of technological value proposition. Those interested in upcoming events can contact [email protected] for details on eligibility, timelines, and regional opportunities.
As hard tech continues to attract attention for its potential to solve complex societal challenges—from climate-resilient infrastructure to advanced medical devices—the demand for specialized support systems grows. IEEE Entrepreneurship’s venture summits represent a targeted effort to bridge the gap between capital-intensive innovation and the investors equipped to understand its long-term value creation.
Those interested in learning more about upcoming Hard Tech Venture Summits or applying to participate can visit the IEEE Entrepreneurship ventures summits page for current schedules and application guidelines.
Worth a look