Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed? Working long hours yet somehow not making much progress on critical items? You may have been caught in an Interrupt Storm and not realized that you didn’t just need a break, you needed a full system reset.

Despite most deep tech startups being born out of academia, we don’t talk much about navigating the transition from academia to startup. This transition is challenging, and one can easily fall into the trap of thinking we should be throwing all academic rigor out the window. The most costly mistake is to leave behind the core practice of peer review.

This article was originally published by activate.org, and has been reproduced here with permission. It’s not a cautionary tale, but a candid exploration of what makes climate and deep tech uniquely challenging and incredibly rewarding.