A founder's journey is probably the most challenging, lonely and multi-layered. Then, you add in DeepTech, and the difficulty compounds. The founders are either young geniuses or seasoned technologists unraveling new intellectual property, and Akhilesh's compendium is their ready reckoner to navigate the pace and scale of their ambition. The practical efficacy of the advice in here is an essential tool for all founders building in DeepTech in India today, and we are just at the beginning of this wave.

Karthik Reddy, managing partner, Blume Ventures

'The ultimate survival manual for the “uncertainty” phase of your startup, where your tech is simultaneously dead and alive until you run the next experiment … A true Hitchhiker's Guide to DeepTech.'

Dr Peddi Shanmukh Srinivas, CEO and co-founder, Theranautilus

Akhilesh brings genuine depth to this topic, and it shows on every page. What he has done exceptionally well is distill DeepTech into something accessible for builders who are living inside it but haven't yet thought of themselves as founders. The frameworks he offers, from the mission–market fit to mapping your unknowns, are simple without being simplistic. For any researcher, engineer or technical builder who is thinking about making the leap, this book gives you the clarity and the language to take that first step and then helps you along the way.

Ankit Chowdhary, partner, South Park Commons

Most books on startups talk about markets and growth hacks. Deliberate Futures talks about something harder: the science, the engineering and the rare founder stubborn enough to sit at the intersection. Akhilesh has spent years building conviction in a space most investors still don't understand. This book is that conviction, written down as a thoughtful framework. If you are serious about DeepTech, as a founder, an investor, or just someone trying to understand where the next decade is being built, this is the book you need to read.

Manu Iyer, co-founder and general partner, Bluehill VC