"Technology is connected tools that accomplish a task." 6:03
From the episode
- Technology is wider than IT (4:05). When people say "tech" they usually mean computers, but microphones, lighting, cameras, cars, planes and lab analysers are all technology. His simplest picture is meshed gears: turn one and the others move (6:11).
- Arab roots (7:24). The word algorithm comes from the mathematician al-Khwarizmi. Many surgical instruments trace back to early Arab and Muslim medicine (7:52). Arabic even has a word pattern for instruments, ism al-āla (اسم الآلة) (8:46).
- Deep tech (10:13). Once a technology is routine, it stops feeling like "tech". Cars are technology; electric cars are deeper; self-driving cars are deeper still (10:43). Deep tech is technology that needs research depth and creates new knowledge before it can be used well (11:29).
The idea, explained
There is no single official definition of deep tech, but most investors use a version of the one given here. A deep-tech product rests on a scientific or engineering advance, not only on a new business model. Three features usually follow from that:
- It starts in research. The core idea comes out of a lab, a paper or a patent, not a pitch deck.
- It takes long and costs much. Years of development pass before the first sale, so it needs patient money. The episode returns to this in chapter 3.
- It is hard to copy. The knowledge, the data and the patents form a barrier, or "moat", around the business.
A useful test: could a good software team rebuild this in six months from the public description? If yes, it is probably not deep tech.
Try it
Step down the ladder to see how much new knowledge each kind of car needed before it could exist.
Key terms
Technology · Deep tech · Algorithm · Ism al-āla. See the Glossary.