The 20-Year Commitment: Building Deep Tech That Actually Changes the World

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Mukund Karanjikar, CEO of CleanJoule, a sustainable aviation fuel producer that's raised $55 million in funding, shared a counterintuitive truth about building deep tech companies: the barrier to entry isn't capital or connections. It's time.

"Start with sequestering 20 years of your life if you're not prepared to do that," Mukund says. "I would think twice and three times and four times. Anything short of that, if you think you are going to make a substantial impact, I think you need to search elsewhere."

This isn't hyperbole. It's the lived reality of someone who spent three years in an empty office with four walls and a roof before even framing the problem correctly. And it offers a radically different GTM playbook than what most B2B founders are used to hearing.

The Dark Alley Phase: 2009-2012

Most startup advice centers on finding product-market fit quickly. Move fast, iterate, pivot if needed. But when you're working on molecular transformation of sustainable feedstocks into aviation fuel, there's no MVP you can ship in six weeks.

Mukund's journey started in 2009 when a serial entrepreneur in his eighties asked a simple question: "How do you like working in oil and gas?" The answer led to packing up the wife and dog and driving from Houston to Salt Lake City with no defined plan, just the opportunity to work with someone who had built deep tech companies ten times over.

Those first three years were what Mukund calls going down "many dark alleys, coming back, restarting." The team was learning something new every day, driven by three core objectives: what could they meaningfully contribute based on their expertise, what was relevant, and what would be impactful.

"By 2012, we thought we hit gold in at least framing the problem," Mukund explains. That year, they won their first government contract. Not a massive deal, but validation that others saw value in what they were building.

The Government Contract GTM Motion

For founders considering government contracts as a GTM strategy, Mukund offers tactical advice that contradicts the move-fast mentality of Silicon Valley.

"The very first virtue that you need is patience," he says. "You may have the next best idea after sliced bread, but it is still the next best idea. Government does not move at the same rate as a starry eyed entrepreneur wants to move."

But here's the critical insight most founders miss: government slowness is a feature, not a bug. "That barrier does two things," Mukund explains. "One is it doesn't let pass non optimal solutions, but even optimal solutions when they are about to pass, it's like that large diamond they just found. It's not shined diamond. Your innovation may be that largest diamond, but until it is going through that process of shining it, you really don't have a value on it."

The tactical approach? Read the reviews when proposals get rejected. Mukund admits he's torn them up and sworn within himself, but then learned from them and hit back harder. The key is understanding that when Department of Defense pays you to do something, "they have their hand on your throat, which means you are supposed to deliver something."

This created a unique funding dynamic. From 2009 to 2023, the US government essentially funded CleanJoule's entire development. This worked because their mousetrap solved problems relevant to national security and supply chain resiliency. The Department of Defense alone buys 4 billion gallons of aviation fuel every year across the world.

Why Standard VC Doesn't Work for Deep Tech

Here's where Mukund's GTM approach diverges most sharply from typical startup advice. CleanJoule didn't raise a venture round until 2023, fourteen years after founding.

"Some people do need to understand that standard venture capital model may be not for them," Mukund says. "Those early years, you don't need as much money as you need time. You just have to assume that you are going to be in it for a decade."

The logic is simple: standard VC firms operate on seven-year fund cycles. Deep tech often requires longer. "Skip the standard venture capital investment all along, forget about that, because they are not going to be your friends in the journey to come," Mukund advises.

Instead, focus on strategic partnerships. When CleanJoule finally raised their Series A in 2023, the cap table told a story about GTM strategy. Three airlines from three different countries participated: Frontier in the US, Volaris in Mexico, and Wizz in Hungary. These weren't passive investors. They provided offtake agreements, committing to buy large volumes at a future date, while also participating financially.

The round was led by Indigo Partners, a prolific aviation investor led by Bill Franke. Gen Zero, the climate tech arm of Singapore's Temasek, joined, along with Clean Hill Partners, a private equity firm focused on decarbonization.

"We were very selective in type of investors we choose because that money is for future performance. It's not truly for past performance," Mukund explains.

The Infrastructure Compatibility Insight

One of CleanJoule's most important GTM decisions was what not to disrupt. Their sustainable aviation fuel is what's called "drop-in" fuel, meaning it requires zero changes to existing aircraft, pipelines, or infrastructure.

"You're already solving a very hard problem, which is can I make new type of hydrocarbons and compete with an extremely efficient industry called oil and gas," Mukund says. "While we are at it, can I also sell it to an extremely conventional but highly efficient industry called aviation that hesitates to change anything. You go to them and you say, I do not want you to change anything. Just buy a different barrel of the fuel."

This is classic Clayton Christensen innovation theory applied to climate tech. Don't fight multiple battles simultaneously. Pick your disruption carefully.

Handling the Critics

Deep tech founders face a specific type of criticism that SaaS founders rarely encounter: the present-tense cost question. "Is this cost competitive with petroleum?" critics ask.

Mukund has learned to reframe this. "It's a wrong question to ask. The tense used in the question is wrong. Will this be cost competitive? At commercial scale, we are more than cost competitive with petroleum crude. No issues there."

But when critics ask in present tense, they're setting you up. They ask, you say no, and they stop listening to what comes after "but." The time value of innovation gets lost.

"I oftentimes tune out of the noise of critics because we have a mission to accomplish," Mukund says. "It is a game changer. It is a society changer when it gets fully adopted."

The Timeline to Commercial Scale

For founders trying to understand deep tech timelines, CleanJoule's roadmap is instructive. Up to 2022 was the "rear view mirror period" of solving technological problems. 2023 to 2025 is engineering scale-up, with an operational plant that serves as a blueprint for commercial manufacturing. Work on full commercial scale begins in 2026.

"Come 2029, we will have a full scale manufacturing operation at commercial scale," Mukund projects. From there, it's geographic expansion.

The Deep Tech Mindset

Mukund's final piece of advice gets to the heart of why deep tech requires a different founder psychology. "The promised land is when you come out, you are not coming out with a social network for people with six toes. You are coming up with something that changes our society, uplifts our civilization for the better."

Even if you look back 20 years later and haven't succeeded, "I tried and I was in it for the long haul and it just wasn't my time. I think that's a much better solution than making a quick buck in three quarters and walking away to do something else."

The vision? Make sustainable aviation fuel affordable and available everywhere on the planet. Use biomass feedstocks to lift millions of people in rural areas out of poverty. Make aviation 100% independent of petroleum, achieving not just net zero but real zero emissions.

It's a 20-year bet. But for founders willing to sequester decades of their life, the promised land isn't quick money. It's changing civilization.