From Lab to Market: The Art of Pulling Federal Innovations Toward Real-World Problems
In the world of deep tech commercialization, the challenge is rarely about finding groundbreaking innovations—it’s about aligning them with real market needs. Federal labs produce cutting-edge technologies with game-changing potential, but too often, these innovations sit on the shelf, waiting for someone to recognize their commercial value. The traditional approach—pushing solutions outward in search of a problem—is inefficient, costly, and leads to countless promising technologies dying in the valley of death.
At Highway Ventures, we take a different approach: pulling technologies toward validated market needs. Instead of force-fitting federal lab innovations into commercial applications, we reverse the process—starting with real-world pain points and working backward to identify the most relevant technologies.
The Problem with "Push" Commercialization
Historically, the transfer of government-funded technologies to the private sector has followed a “push” model:
A lab develops promising technology.
A tech transfer office licenses it out, hoping an entrepreneur will find a use case.
A startup or corporation attempts to adapt it for a commercial market.
This approach has fundamental flaws:
It assumes the market will find a use for the technology rather than designing the technology to serve a known market.
It prioritizes the technology over the problem, leading to products that lack fit, traction, or scalability.
It increases commercialization risk, as companies invest in technology before validating market demand.
The result? A high rate of failure, even for genuinely innovative solutions.
Flipping the Script: The "Pull" Model
Rather than starting with a technology and hunting for an application, we start with market pain points and match them to existing innovations. Our process follows these key principles:
Market-Driven Problem Identification
We engage directly with industries that stand to benefit most from deep tech—defense, energy, cybersecurity, healthcare, and more. Through structured customer discovery, we identify critical pain points that are:
Severe enough that companies will pay to solve them.
Ubiquitous across multiple potential customers.
Under-served by existing solutions.
Technology Matching & Due Diligence
With a validated problem in hand, we search federal labs, research institutions, and tech transfer databases to identify technologies that could be adapted to solve it. This ensures:
We only commercialize tech with a clear market fit.
We leverage existing R&D investments, accelerating time to market.
We avoid science experiments, focusing on applied, deployment-ready solutions.
De-Risking Through Rapid Validation
Rather than making heavy upfront investments, we run lean experiments to test:
Technical feasibility—Can the technology be adapted for the problem?
Customer interest—Are buyers willing to engage, pilot, or pre-commit to solutions?
Regulatory and operational fit—Does the technology align with industry standards and deployment models?
This reduces commercialization risk and increases the likelihood of securing funding, partners, and early adopters.
Building the Right Company Around the Technology
Once we validate product-market fit, we form startups designed for scalability. We bring in:
Industry-aligned leadership teams who understand the customer landscape.
Go-to-market experts to shape the business model and revenue strategy.
Investors and strategic partners who align with the market opportunity.
The Future of Deep Tech Commercialization
Federal labs are sitting on billions of dollars' worth of underutilized intellectual property (IP). To unlock its full potential, we must stop pushing solutions in search of a problem and instead pull technologies toward validated market needs.
At Highway Ventures, we believe the future of deep tech commercialization lies in market-first, problem-driven innovation. By bridging the gap between industry pain points and government-funded breakthroughs, we create startups that matter—ones that solve real problems, attract real customers, and drive real impact.
