Marketing as a Product Accelerator for Deep Tech and XR Startups

"We don't have a product yet, so we don't need marketing."

If you're a deep tech founder who's uttered these words, Jussi Mäkinen has news for you… that's exactly when you need marketing most.

In Deep Tech and XR, most companies face the same deadly trap. They have spent years in R&D on their technology while remaining silent about their vision, but then they emerge and nobody understands what they've built or why it matters.

Revolutionary technologies that fail to find market fit, struggle to attract talent, and can't secure continued funding despite technical brilliance.

Jussi Mäkinen has spent his career solving this precise problem.

As the current CMO and Co-Founder of Distance Technologies (creating the world's first glasses-free XR solution) and former Chief Brand Officer at Varjo (human-eye resolution VR/XR), he's mastered the art of marketing technologies that don't yet exist - and turned them into category-defining companies that attract both talent and capital.

His counterintuitive approach flips the traditional deep tech playbook on its head: start marketing aggressively before your product is ready, not after.

Start Marketing Before Your Product Exists — Yes, Really

"We had zero evidence we could build what we were promising when we started talking about human-eye resolution VR."

That's Jussi's bombshell confession about Varjo's early days. While most deep tech founders are hiding in stealth mode until their technology is bulletproof, Jussi was out there telling the world about technology they hadn't yet proven they could build.

Insanity… or strategic brilliance?

"The biggest mistake deep tech founders make is waiting until their product is perfect before marketing it," Jussi explains with the weariness of someone who's seen this mistake destroy promising startups. "That's exactly backward. You need marketing most when you don't have a product."

This runs counter to the engineering mindset that dominates European deep tech. The mentality of we won't talk until it's done creates a vacuum where someone else defines your category.

"Plant your flag early," Jussi insists. "Tell the world what mountain you're climbing before you reach the summit."

This is not to be misleading - it's needed to vision set. A good deep tech marketer needs to understand the R&D capabilities enough to be confident that what they're promising can eventually materialise, even if the exact path isn't clear.

When done right, this approach creates a gravitational pull that brings resources to you: talent, capital, and partnerships that accelerate your journey rather than waiting until after launch to gain momentum.

Internal Marketing - The Foundation

Before your marketing team sends a single tweet or pitch deck for outsiders, they should be marketing internally.

"The first test of good marketing isn't external traction - but when your R&D team finally says 'I understand what we're building and why… That's when you know you're doing your job right."

This clarity is perhaps the most overlooked function of marketing in deep tech companies. The discipline of writing down your value proposition in clear, compelling sentences forces a precision that aligns everyone in the organisation.

"This one-degree sentence is your North Star," Jussi emphasises, leaning forward. "Your team builds on it, your PR agency amplifies it, and it becomes the first line of every press release and the headline of your website."

Without this foundation, different departments inevitably drift into telling contradictory stories about what you're building. Engineering describes the technical mechanisms, business development pitches immediate applications, and leadership talks about future potential - all using different language.

"I've witnessed this countless times… Without a North Star, everyone tells a different story about what you're building. That confusion kills momentum faster than any competitor could."

The remedy is to start with a single sentence that captures your value, then expand it into a consistent narrative that gives everyone in the company the same language to describe your mission. When everyone can explain your technology in the same compelling way, this is the foundation for effective external marketing.

Marketing is a Frontline Job - Customer Discovery as Marketing

One of Jussi's most passionate points is that marketing leaders in deep tech shouldn't be confined to the office – they need to be directly engaging with potential customers from day one.

"I'm always frustrated when I hear that marketing isn't meeting customers. Marketing is a frontline job. I need to be there where we're meeting customers, testing our technology with them, so I can assess if our value proposition resonates."

This direct contact creates an invaluable feedback loop, to learn from the first meetings with potential customers:

• What makes them lean in?

• What confuses them?

“When we try explaining our technology one way and see it doesn't click, I can quickly adjust. If someone else is having those conversations and reporting back to me, I can't trust the nuance is preserved."

This hands-on approach means the value proposition stays grounded in reality rather than becoming abstract marketing speak and it means marketing can influence product development based on real-world reactions.

"For the first meetings with defense customers or automotive partners, I want to be in the room. Then I learn and iterate the message based on what I observe directly."

Bridging Engineering and Storytelling With the Right Marketing Leader

Deep tech startups need a special kind of marketing leader – someone who can translate complex innovations into compelling narratives while genuinely understanding the technology.

"Look for marketers who have experience with R&D, who are comfortable working with engineers and design teams, who can ask the right questions to extract product definition," Jussi advises.

This person becomes the CEO's "battle buddy" in defining the product story. For technical founders especially, having a partner who can translate complex innovations into compelling narratives is invaluable.

"A big part of marketing is being the person who brings that outsider perspective into the company. Engineers may be building something incredible, but they're often too close to see how to explain its value clearly."

The ideal profile is someone who can speak both languages – the technical details that engineers respect and the clear benefits that customers and investors understand. Without this translation function, many deep tech companies struggle to explain why their innovation matters.

"When hiring marketers, look for people who naturally gravitate toward understanding the product deeply. If they show genuine interest in the technology and want to influence how it's shaped – that's a great sign."

Creating Relevance

How do you make your deep tech startup interesting to press, investors, and talent when there are countless others claiming to be revolutionary? Jussi suggests finding "friction" in your narrative.

"It's not enough that you're doing something amazing. You need to find hooks – how does your company story connect to existing PR narratives and trends?"

He gives the example of how Varjo positioned themselves against Magic Leap:

"Magic Leap had billions in funding. We were a small team with $10 million doing something much more focused and technically advanced. That creates friction that press and investors find compelling – the David versus Goliath story writes itself."

The narrative isn't just what you're building, but the contrast between your approach and conventional wisdom.

• Are you doing more with less?

• Taking a contrarian technical approach?

• Solving a problem others have abandoned?

"With Distance, we're creating a standard for mixed reality that doesn't require headsets. With Varjo, we focused on human-eye resolution when everyone else was compromising on clarity. Those points of difference create natural storytelling opportunities."

This friction-based storytelling helps startups stand out in crowded technology discussions and gives journalists and investors something distinctive to latch onto.

Fighting for Budget and Building the Right Team

In early-stage companies, marketing budgets are often the first to be cut. Jussi recommends allocating at least 10% of funding to marketing activities – and having someone who will advocate for this investment.

"If nobody's putting their career and job on the line to fight for that budget, it won't happen," he notes. "It's very easy to say 'we don't have a product yet, so let's skip marketing,' but that's when you need it most."

The budget reality connects directly to hiring the right marketing talent. Jussi emphasises looking for people who want to be on the front lines -

"Don't hire people who want to hide in the back office doing social media updates. Hire people who want to be taken to the front lines with customers and investors."

He offers a simple test for evaluating marketing candidates:

• Are they inspirational for the team creating the product?

• Can they influence how the product is shaped?

If engineers and designers aren't inspired by their vision and communication, they might look the part but lack the substance needed for deep tech.

Marketing vs. Sales: Different Muscles, One Body

"Don't confuse marketing for sales," Jussi warns. "Marketing plants the flag. Sales claims the territory."

In the deep tech ecosystem, these functions are symbiotic but distinct. Marketing creates the story and generates pull; sales converts that interest into signed contracts.

"Marketing owns the message and value proposition," Jussi explains. "Sales closes with a certain value. I deeply admire people who have that closing energy – that ability to get signatures on paperwork – because that's not marketing's primary muscle."

For early-stage deep tech startups, the most common mistake is jumping to sales prematurely, before the marketing foundation is solid. Without a clear, compelling story, salespeople enter customer conversations at a disadvantage.

"The best value propositions often come from users themselves," Jussi reveals. "Your most enthusiastic early adopters will have the perfect way to describe what you're building. My job isn't to invent terminology from scratch but to listen for those golden nuggets."

This listening approach extends to everything – even company naming. Both Flow Computing and Distance weren't names invented in boardrooms; they emerged organically from how people described the technology.

"Customers were already saying 'the code just flows like water' or talking about 'sending something over the distance.' We recognised those natural descriptions had power and adopted them."

This collaborative approach to marketing is being recognised at the highest levels of tech investment. "EQT's deep tech fund is run by a marketing guy, not an engineer," Jussi points out. "That signals how the industry is evolving to recognise marketing's strategic importance."

For deep tech founders navigating the journey from lab to market, this insight is critical: marketing is the accelerator that helps complex technology find its place in the world and sets up sales for success.

The companies that bridge technical innovation with clear storytelling gain an advantage that pure technical excellence alone can never provide.

Connect with Jussi here, and learn more about Distance here.