Meeting Hard-tech Founders & Diligencing Startups at HAX

Ever since I was a kid reading the pages of Popular Mechanics and Tech Crunch, I've been obsessed with learning about new technology. That curiosity led me through engineering and now to HAX, where I get to engage directly with founders building critical new technologies.

Unlike software where an idea and some code can kickstart a company, physical technologies require a fundamentally different approach. You need deep technical expertise across multiple engineering disciplines just to prove feasibility. As part of SOSV's $1.5B deep tech platform and the world's most active pre-seed hard tech investor, I get to support founders tackling massive challenges in climate, industrial automation, and human health.

As a scout, I search for breakthrough technologies that could reshape major industries. This means diving deep into research labs and university programs and analyzing new approaches in advanced materials, robotics, and industrial processes. The challenge is seeing beyond interesting science to spot real commercial potential.

The technical diligence is where my engineering background becomes most important. I conduct deep dives with founding teams to:

• Break down their core innovation

• Map technical risks and dependencies

• Evaluate development pathways

What makes this fascinating is seeing how physical innovation actually happens. Building hardware is hard, but it's also desperately needed to take on the biggest challenges in climate, human health, and beyond. Getting to support founders who aren't deterred by the technical risk is incredibly rewarding. When these technologies succeed, they have the ability to shift humanity's trajectory on a massive scale. That's exactly the kind of impact I want to have.