UChicago Deep Tech Demo Day Showcases Emerging Ventures During TechChicago Week

Last week, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation hosted founders, investors, faculty, corporate partners, and ecosystem leaders for the UChicago Deep Tech Demo Day, a showcase of next-generation ventures working across quantum and hardtech, healthcare, and data science and AI.

Held during TechChicago Week, the event highlighted University of Chicago startups translating breakthrough research into companies that are addressing complex challenges.

Heather Walsh, assistant vice president for tech ventures at the Polsky Center, opened the program by framing the event within TechChicago Week’s broader theme of “Solving Grand Challenges.”

Walsh highlighted that the theme couldn’t be more fitting as, “these companies are building solutions to problems that are difficult, important, and capable of changing the world.”

She also emphasized that the path from lab to market is rarely straightforward, particularly for ventures built on advanced research. 

“Deep tech companies often require years of discovery, specialized talent, rigorous technical validation, capital, mentorship, and commercialization support,” she said. “Bringing all of those ecosystems together is what today is all about.”

The program opened with a fireside chat between Chris Gladwin, cofounder and chairman of Ocient, P33, and The Forge Adventure Parks, and Jeremie Bacon, managing partner at Izou Partners, cofounder of The Forge Adventure Parks, and adjunct associate professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Bacon introduced Gladwin as an entrepreneur with a rare ability to see “10, 15, maybe 20 years down the road” in areas that others may not yet understand — a skill he described as especially important for deep tech founders.

Throughout the conversation, Gladwin reflected on lessons from building companies across several decades, including MusicNow, Cleversafe, and Ocient. 

Gladwin said one of the most important lessons for founders is to understand what customers truly need and what they are willing to pay for.

“It’s not just you coming up with ideas and convincing people to buy it,” he said. “You’re not the customer. The only opinion that matters is the customer — will they spend money on your product?”

For deep tech companies, Gladwin said, the bar for adoption is especially high. A new technology cannot be marginally better than what already exists. To overcome the cost, time, and risk of adopting, disruptive technologies often need to be dramatically better.

“If you’re a new vendor and you come in saying you’re 50 percent better, you’re not getting any business,” Gladwin said. “Generally, you need to be 5x or 10x better.”

Bacon and Gladwin also discussed fundraising, team building, and resilience. Gladwin said even successful companies go through long stretches of rejection, uncertainty, and difficult execution.

“I’ve been told ‘no’ by more than 400 people when raising money before; that’s a lot of work and a whole lot of rejection,” he said. “Most of the time when you approach a customer or an investor they will say no.”

“Success almost always, at some point, feels like a very rough time,” he continued. “You’re going to fail, and you need to find a way to pick yourself up and continue on.”

Following the fireside conversation, Nadya Mason, vice president for research at the University of Chicago, framed the event by placing it in the context of the University’s broader research mission.

“This mission of turning ideas into knowledge, and knowledge into impact, runs across the University,” Mason said.

She described deep tech as a natural extension of that mission, noting that many of the world’s most important technologies do not begin as fully formed products. They often start as discoveries, tools, or insights that require time, support, and collaboration before they can become useful to society.

“Universities exist as a way to create conditions where all these things work together,” Mason said.

Following Mason, each company took the stage to present their business. The companies reflected the range of deep tech emerging from the University of Chicago ecosystem, with ventures spanning quantum and hardtech, healthcare, data science, and AI. 

The event concluded with closing remarks from Samir Mayekar, managing director of the Polsky Center.

Mayekar emphasized that the day was about more than a series of pitches, and encouraged attendees to continue the conversations during the networking reception and to follow up with the companies that sparked their interest.

“The real value of Demo Day comes from what happens next,” Mayekar said.