🔍 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡

Everyone talks about the “Valleys of Death” in biotech — but here’s one few mention:

🚨 Building your business case around the wrong production scale.

10,000 t/year looks impressive. “Economies of scale.” Investor confidence. Bigger = better… right?

❌ Not if your 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐲 can’t support it.

Here’s what usually goes wrong:

𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐄𝐗 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐬 – custom fermenters, oversized utilities (steam, air, cooling), and working capital balloons

𝐂𝐎𝐆𝐒 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭 – utilization is low, yields vary, ops cost don’t shrink fast enough

 𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 – early buyers want samples or short-term contracts, not annual supply

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡 – your sweet spot was at 3,000 t/year. You just skipped it.

✅ That’s where 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨-𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬 (𝐓𝐄𝐀) changes everything.

A good TEA lets you test:

 ✔️ CAPEX & OPEX from 500 → 5,000 t/year

 ✔️ Ramp-up timelines & realistic throughput

 ✔️ How much cash is tied up before payment

 ✔️ Why raise $50M if $20M gets you to profitability?

🧠 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐞:

 A startup modeled 10,000 t/year. Looked great on paper.

 After running scenarios:

– 3,000 t/year was the sweet spot

 – Breakeven moved 𝟐 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫

 – Capital need dropped from $𝟓𝟎𝐌 → $𝟐𝟎𝐌

Same vision. Smarter execution. Stronger story.

💡 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬:

 There’s no one-size-fits-all.

 There’s only the right scale for your product, market, and capital strategy.

📩 Want to 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬-𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐞-𝐮𝐩 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧s?

 That’s exactly what I do for biotech and foodtech startups every week.

👉 DM me or visit sustech-innovation.com let’s make sure your business case scales with you, not against you.