by Joanne Wong – Partner at REDDs Capital, and Caitlin Zubrowski, Strategic Program Director
IEEE Entrepreneurship is tackling a big issue with many entrepreneurship events that take place globally, trying to be all things to all people. In its first official Venture Summit taking place in San Francisco, California, USA, this June, Joanne and the Hard Tech Venture Summit team have curated an experience for attendees that aligns the startup development stage and business model with investment theses and eliminates common time fillers to optimize the chance of startups genuinely connecting with the needed resource providers and achieving tangible outcomes – investment and strategic partnership. This approach is very aligned with IEEE Entrepreneurship’s mission and core purpose, which is to deliver value at every stage of a startup’s journey to help entrepreneurs globally bring technological innovations to market faster and create solutions that benefit humanity by providing and aligning essential opportunities for networking, skill building, resource access, and exposure through our programs, partnerships, and resources.
Venture Summits Program
IEEE Entrepreneurship’s Venture Summits Program is specifically for the founders of startups that are investor ready, have early traction, and/or have validated their business model and are ready to scale. This program directly aligns to two IEEE goal(s):
The first is to provide opportunities for technology-related interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and knowledge sharing across industry, academia, and government. IEEE Entrepreneurship helps tech entrepreneurs access the academic expertise, strategic industry partnerships, and public and private sector resources their startups need to succeed. IEEE Entrepreneurship’s Venture Summits Program is the culmination of that work and is focused on providing access to the risk capital providers with essential financial resources. The success of this Venture Summits Program depends on established trust, mutual respect, and an understanding of the innovation ecosystem. As a result, attendees must be vetted to ensure that the startups invited are ready for investment and that the investors and service providers invited have these that align to the startups who will be in attendance.
The second IEEE goal that IEEE Entrepreneurship’s Venture Summits Program aligns to is empowering technology professionals in their careers through ongoing education, mentoring, networking, and lifelong engagement. IEEE Entrepreneurship feels that delivering genuine value and truly making it easier and faster for entrepreneurial technology professionals to commercialize technology and benefit humanity through the programs, partnerships, and resources we offer creates lifelong engagement. Our Venture Summits are just one example of how IEEE Entrepreneurship provides essential networking, skill building, resource access, and exposure opportunities to technology professionals that have chosen entrepreneurship as their career path.
IEEE Entrepreneurship Hard Tech Venture Summit
Event Details: Marriott Marquis – San Francisco, California, USA |18 – 19 June 2025, co-located with the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS).
As IEEE Entrepreneurship’s first official venture summit, the 2025 Hard Tech Venture Summit is focused on supporting technology entrepreneurs with a hardware component to their solution. These solutions are very capital-intensive and startups typically don’t have the ability to manufacture in-house at this stage, so the opportunity to meet relevant investors and prospective manufacturing partners is extremely valuable. This event focuses on climate tech, communications, defense, electronics, IoT, robotics, semiconductor, sensor, and spacetech domains. (Healthtech / medtech domains are not included at the Hard Tech Venture Summit as they have a very specific investor base.)
Agenda:
DAY 1
Wednesday, 18 June 2025 @ Marriott Marquis, San Francisco, California, USA
9:00 AM to 9:30 AM – Welcome
9:30 AM to 10:15 AM – Keynote
10:15 AM to 10:45 AM – BREAK
10:45 AM to 11:00 AM – Hard Tech Startup STARS
11:00 AM to noon – 1. Roundtable DISCUSSIONS, moderated by Investors
noon to 1:30 PM – LUNCH + Exhibit Hall
1:30 PM to 2:00 PM – Tales from the Crypt
2:00 PM to 2:15 PM – Hard Tech Startup STARS
2:15 PM to 3:15 PM – 2. Roundtable DISCUSSIONS, moderated by Investors
3:15 PM to 3:45 PM – BREAK
3:45 PM to 4:00 PM – Hard Tech Startup STARS
4:00 PM to 4:45 PM – 3. Roundtable DISCUSSIONS, moderated by Investors
4:45 PM to 5:00 PM – Closing Remarks
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM – IMS Conference Industry Reception
(Summit attendees meet @ Hard Tech/Startup Pavillon area, Exhibit Hall @ Moscone Center)
DAY 2
Thursday, 19 June 2025 @ Marriott Marquis, San Francisco, California, USA
9:00 AM to noon – Engineering Design to Manufacturing Workshop in partnership with the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
Those interested in attending can learn more and find the link to apply on our program page: https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org/programs. Those who apply should not register for the IMS event until they hear from IEEE Entrepreneurship regarding the status of their application. All applicants will receive an email within 24 hours of applying with a decision and next steps. Once participation is confirmed, a promo code needed to register and pay for the Hard Tech Venture Summit will be sent. The deadline to register online if accepted is June 13.
Looking ahead, IEEE Entrepreneurship hopes to offer at least one venture summit annually that provides the startups who are ready and in our IEEE Entrepreneurship Community (click here to join!) the opportunity to meet with the investors and service providers they need to accelerate their path to market. The IEEE Entrepreneurship Venture Summits Program also plans to incorporate resources and skill building opportunities around investor preparedness. Examples include building a due diligence checklist and hosting opportunities to practice and get feedback on startup pitch presentations to prepare for our venture summit and/or other pitch opportunities.
