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Deep tech requires deep experience.

Companies get built when three things line up: a founder who has operated in the market, technology the labs have already proven, and investors who reviewed it before the company existed.

We built COMPASS on one idea: lab science becomes a company when the right team and the investors who will fund it work together from the first day.

  1. We start from a problem worth solving.

    We don't start with a list of technologies looking for a home. We start with problems worth solving: where founders want to build and the national labs have a meaningful edge.

  2. Investor-informed direction.

    Our venture capital advisors give feedback on technology focus, market direction, and execution from the start, so what we build matches how companies actually get funded and scaled today.

  3. Experience around each venture.

    COMPASS matches advisors to ventures by technical domain, commercial network, and operator fit, based on what each team needs.

  4. Hands-on partnership.

    We build alongside founders on the work that makes or breaks a company: product, technology, go-to-market, hiring, and fundraising.

How we build ventures.

From first discovery to company launch, every venture follows the same five-step path.

  1. 01

    Identify high-impact opportunities

    We start in problem spaces where the national labs are developing technology with real disruptive potential. Rigorous analysis then narrows the field to the IP that could actually anchor a company. Not every discovery can.

  2. 02

    Test with investors early

    Before we commit resources, we ask our investor network to pressure-test the opportunity: the quality of the thesis, the plan to de-risk technical and commercial milestones, and the path to a fundable company.

  3. 03

    Build the right team

    We put together the best possible team for each venture, drawing on operators with deep sector expertise, the inventing scientists, and other experts as the company needs. From the first conversation, we back the team with strategic support, market insights, key partnerships, and access to capital.

  4. 04

    Build before incorporation

    The founder, the scientists, and an advisory committee of three to five experts with the domain knowledge, operating experience, and industry relationships the venture needs run a 90-day diligence sprint with SRI International: twenty to thirty customer interviews, the venture thesis, and the data room investors expect before a first check. A COMPASS partner works with the founder every week.

  5. 05

    Launch the company

    The founding team incorporates and owns the company outright. COMPASS transfers a $35,000 non-dilutive award to the company, takes no equity, and introduces the company to the full investor network when it is ready to raise.

Find where you fit.

Four ways to work with COMPASS. Each starts with a different conversation.

01

Founders

Three roles are open. A $35,000 non-dilutive award to the company once it incorporates, hands-on support, and no equity taken by the program.

See open roles
02

Investors

Differentiated deal flow from the national labs, with structured diligence already done and founders you've watched develop before you invest.

See what investors get
03

Venture Advisors

Bring operating experience, domain knowledge, and industry relationships to the teams turning national lab science into companies.

Explore the advisor role
04

Researchers

Lab scientists with a technology that could anchor a company start on the researchers page.

See what researchers get