The five hardest questions investors ask deep-tech founders

Five questions deep-tech founders face from investors. Under each: what the investor is actually testing.

"Why now?" Testing timing and moat. What changed in the market, regulation, or technology that makes this the right moment — and why is the window closing? For Physical AI safety: EU 2023/1230 applies January 2027. The "why now" is a deadline.

"Why you?" Testing obsession and credibility. Is your insight earned, not borrowed? A safety engineer with years in IEC 61508 has a different "why you" than a software engineer who pivoted into robotics six months ago.

"Why won't Big Tech build this?" Testing defensibility. Feature or deep problem? The right answer: this requires hardware expertise, regulatory knowledge, and certification processes that big tech can't acquire quickly.

"What's the capital efficiency curve?" Testing burn vs milestones. How much to each proof point — and what if you raise half? More pointed for deep-tech: longer cycles, higher fixed costs, less forgiving iterations.

"What's the default exit path?" Testing downside protection. If the moonshot doesn't land, what returns capital? For Physical AI safety, the IP portfolio and regulatory expertise have standalone value.

The surface question is rarely the real question.