Founder of Frontier Deep Tech Conference
Sometimes it takes an outsider to see an obvious opportunity.
That was the case with deep tech in the UK. The leading region in Europe for investment in deep tech, the UK invested $5.1B in 2022, more than double the investment made by France and Germany combined.
And yet, there was no centralized hub where players across the deep tech ecosystem could connect with each other.
Cristina Esteban wanted to change that.
In October 2022, she launched Frontier Deep Tech, the UK’s first deep tech conference, attracting 200 start-ups, VCs and corporate partners from 15 countries for two days of in-person panels and start-up pitches.
What’s interesting is that Cristina was not the obvious candidate to lead this initiative. Originally from Spain, she was a practicing dentist when she moved to the UK in 2011.
So I was curious to hear the backstory and connect the dots.
Renita: What a powerful example of taking initiative. How in the world did you make the transition from being a dentist to founding a conference for deep tech?
Cristina: I had been practicing dentistry for 13 years and, in 2017, I got the itch to try something new. So I launched Green & Mango, an ecommerce site, selling eco-friendly products as a side hustle. That helped me get outside my comfort zone and learn business skills like marketing and sales.
In 2018, I got interested in investing and started to educate myself, reading SeekingAlpha and the Financial Times, and start-up oriented news in Sifted and TechCrunch. I’ve always been interested in science and physics, so that led me to the likes of MIT Technology Reviews and Nature. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.
Eventually, I started making investments in deep tech companies like Meatless Farms, Marine Power Systems and Seraphim Space. And in 2022, I made my first investment as an LP [Limited Partner] in Silicon Roundabout Ventures, a UK-based deep tech VC fund.
At that point, I realized something. All the tech conferences in the UK were either focused on technology in general or, at the other extreme, focused on specific sectors, like quantum or semiconductors.
Even though the UK leads deep tech investment in in Europe, we didn't have a vehicle for bringing all the players in the ecosystem together. I started cold-messaging founders and investors on Linkedin about the idea of a deep tech conference, and everyone got very excited. So, I thought, there’s something here.
Renita: Definitely. Facilitating connections in an ecosystem is so important, isn’t it, and especially in deep tech, which relies on the integration of multiple technologies. Because maybe somebody in quantum computing listens to a panel on SpaceTech and gets an insight on how to structure funding milestones or crosses paths with somebody they wouldn’t have met otherwise.
Cristina: And that’s exactly what happened. One participant, Anmol Manohar from Blue Bear Systems Research, told me the event allowed him to spend quality time with some of the best deep tech investors in the UK and Europe – one has already decided to invest and two others are considering a later round.
Then, as you said, there’s the exchange of “best practices.” Anmol mentioned he spoke with a hardware founder, for example, who said he was focused on selling early MVPs to more customers (not just early adopters) to better understand their needs before a hard launch of their product – that might have seemed totally counterintuitive if they hadn’t had a real-time exchange.
Renita: The power of serendipity. Also, right out of the gate, you put together 13 panels across different sectors of deep tech and they were impressively diverse – 43% of panelists were women or people of color. That’s definitely not the status quo at most tech conferences. How did you manage that?
Cristina: I’m a strong believer that when you bring together different perspectives on a topic, magic can happen. As a female founder, I was determined to show the diversity of the deep tech ecosystem. So I purposely focused on identifying experts from underrepresented backgrounds in whatever space we wanted to cover, rather than passively going for the "easy option" or only following inbound suggestions.
Renita: And it showed in the results. So, there are plenty of challenges ahead. But in your opinion, what’s one of the key strengths in the European deep tech ecosystem?
Cristina: The quality of talent, definitely. We have some of the world’s top universities in Europe and the UK and a long history of developing innovative technology. Now we need to encourage students to take up the route of venture creation and build disruptive global champions.
Renita: I agree – and look forward to seeing some of them at the next Frontier Deep Tech Conference in October.
