What IEEE started in Menlo Park — at the lab that gave the world the internet, the mouse, and the first autonomous robot — is heading to Boston. The Hard Tech Venture Summit returns on June 10–11, and this time it brings the energy of deep tech to the East Coast.
In April, the Hard Tech Venture Summit of IEEE Entrepreneurship and IEEE Systems Council gathered at SRI International in Menlo Park — a venue that holds nine IEEE Milestones, more than any other organization in the world. What unfolded over those two days was something rare: an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to build hardware that works, and a business around it.
The room was full of investors, including Bosch Ventures, At One Ventures, Samsung Next, REDDS Capital, and Monozukuri Ventures. Ten startups took the stage, spanning semiconductors, navigation systems, power electronics, and robotics. And three roundtable sessions gave founders and investors the space to connect beyond the pitch deck.
Zuberi, 18 years between General Catalyst and Lux Capital, drew a clear line between technology risk and business risk. He warned that deep tech cycles repeat — boom, abandonment, rebirth — and that the "YOLO tourists" would not survive. He held up Applied Intuition as a model: while everyone else chased full autonomy, they focused only on simulation software. Today the company is worth $15 billion.
Daniel Renner, who has spent 34 years building four photonics companies, carried his own lessons to the stage. Three of his ventures succeeded as bootstrapped companies. The one he failed raised the most venture capital. "It's dangerous to fall in love with technology and lose sight of the business," he said — then described the opposite: a two-week sprint in 1994, sleeping in the lab, to deliver a fiber optic broadcast system for the Lillehammer Olympics on time. "A talented, motivated team can accomplish the impossible."
Don Tan, IEEE Vice President, opened the summit by noting that the IEEE Technical Activities Board has established a new ad-hoc committee focused on hard tech — specifically on AI adoption in hardware and systems. The signal is clear: this is not a niche conversation anymore.
The format carries everything that made Silicon Valley work: founders who pitch, investors who engage, and roundtables where the real conversations happen. Startups in semiconductors, photonics, robotics, energy, and beyond will take the stage. East Coast investors and innovation-driven companies will be in the room.
In April, the Hard Tech Venture Summit of IEEE Entrepreneurship and IEEE Systems Council gathered at SRI International in Menlo Park — a venue that holds nine IEEE Milestones, more than any other organization in the world. What unfolded over those two days was something rare: an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it actually takes to build hardware that works, and a business around it.
The room was full of investors, including Bosch Ventures, At One Ventures, Samsung Next, REDDS Capital, and Monozukuri Ventures. Ten startups took the stage, spanning semiconductors, navigation systems, power electronics, and robotics. And three roundtable sessions gave founders and investors the space to connect beyond the pitch deck.
"The world is ready to pay for hardware that works. The question is whether founders can build it."
— Bilal Zuberi, founder of Red Glass Ventures, PhD trained by Nobel Laureate Mario Molina.Zuberi, 18 years between General Catalyst and Lux Capital, drew a clear line between technology risk and business risk. He warned that deep tech cycles repeat — boom, abandonment, rebirth — and that the "YOLO tourists" would not survive. He held up Applied Intuition as a model: while everyone else chased full autonomy, they focused only on simulation software. Today the company is worth $15 billion.
Daniel Renner, who has spent 34 years building four photonics companies, carried his own lessons to the stage. Three of his ventures succeeded as bootstrapped companies. The one he failed raised the most venture capital. "It's dangerous to fall in love with technology and lose sight of the business," he said — then described the opposite: a two-week sprint in 1994, sleeping in the lab, to deliver a fiber optic broadcast system for the Lillehammer Olympics on time. "A talented, motivated team can accomplish the impossible."
Don Tan, IEEE Vice President, opened the summit by noting that the IEEE Technical Activities Board has established a new ad-hoc committee focused on hard tech — specifically on AI adoption in hardware and systems. The signal is clear: this is not a niche conversation anymore.
Now the summit moves east
Boston is not an accidental choice. The city is home to one of the deepest concentrations of engineering talent, research institutions, and venture capital on the continent. It is where hardware gets built seriously. On June 10–11, the Hard Tech Venture Summit arrives at the Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center, co-located with the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium — bringing the hard tech investment community and the technical community together on the same floor.The format carries everything that made Silicon Valley work: founders who pitch, investors who engage, and roundtables where the real conversations happen. Startups in semiconductors, photonics, robotics, energy, and beyond will take the stage. East Coast investors and innovation-driven companies will be in the room.
