Everything between a working technology and a repeatable commercial motion.
Selling deeptech is not enterprise software sales with longer cycles. The buyer is a plant, an OEM or an integrator, the decision is made by a group, and the risk they are weighing is production downtime rather than a subscription fee. The work splits into three parts: pick one market where the technology is urgently needed, reach the people inside those companies who own the problem, and make the commercial case in their language.
Most deeptech companies can serve ten markets and are urgently needed in one or two. Starting everywhere is the single most common reason a strong technology produces no revenue. The guides below work through choosing that first market, building the account list, and running the conversations that follow.
The second failure is timing the first sales hire. Founder-led sales stops working at a predictable point, and hiring a salesperson before the motion exists usually burns eighteen months and a salary. There is a section on that below too.