The Communicative Constitution of Organizations: Why Deep-Tech Ventures Are Built Through Conversations, Not Just Technology
Deep-tech ventures are often described as “technology-first,” driven by breakthrough science, complex engineering, and long development timelines. But beneath the surface of patents, prototypes, and TRLs lies a more fundamental truth: deep-tech ventures are communicatively created long before they are legally incorporated, financially funded, or technically validated.
In organization theory, this is known as the Communicative Constitution of Organizations (CCO)—the idea that organizations do not exist independently of communication. Instead, they emerge through the continuous interactions, narratives, framing choices, boundary negotiations, and meaning-making processes between people.
For deep-tech founders navigating uncertainty, ambiguity, and evolving ecosystems, understanding CCO is not an academic exercise, it is a strategic capability. It shows why a brilliant invention is insufficient and why every successful deep-tech venture is, at its core, a communicative achievement.
In this article, I explore how CCO applies to deep-tech venture creation and why communication is not a “support function” but the structural force that builds ventures, aligns stakeholders, and propels technologies into the world.
Deep-Tech Ventures Begin as Conversations
Before there is a company, there is a problem framing, an insight, a lab discussion, a narrative that turns a scientific anomaly into an opportunity. The earliest stage of deep-tech entrepreneurship is almost entirely communicative:
A postdoc persuades a PI that a discovery has commercial potential.
A founder reframes technical progress into a venture thesis.
Scientists negotiate how intellectual contributions will be recognized.
Early believers co-construct the story of “what this could become.”
CCO shows that these conversations are not simply describing a venture, they are constituting it. They create shared understanding, assign roles, set expectations, and delineate boundaries between “research” and “venture work.”
In this sense, deep-tech ventures are born through narrative alignment, not legal paperwork.
Communication Creates Objectivity in the Midst of Uncertainty
Deep-tech ventures operate with unknown markets, long time horizons, regulatory ambiguity, and deep scientific uncertainty. Yet investors, partners, and talent need a coherent sense of direction.
CCO explains how ventures generate a temporary and actionable form of “objectivity” through communication:
pitch decks that stabilize assumptions
roadmaps that turn hypotheses into commitments
technical narratives that frame what counts as evidence
boundary objects (TRLs, prototypes, design fictions) that hold diverse teams together
In deep tech, communication becomes the architecture of shared reality—a way to make the invisible (e.g., future potential, hypothetical applications) visible and actionable.
Ventures Scale When Communication Scales
Scaling a deep-tech venture is not just about adding capital or team members. It is the increasing complexity of coordination, role differentiation, identity management, and collaborative meaning-making.
CCO identifies four communicative processes that become critical as ventures grow:
1. Membership Negotiation
Who belongs to the venture? What counts as meaningful contribution—scientific, commercial, regulatory, or ecosystem-building? Deep-tech scaling requires continuously re-communicating identity.
2. Activity Coordination
Deep-tech ventures rely on lab scientists, engineers, translational researchers, patent lawyers, regulators, and early adopters. Communication is the invisible infrastructure that coordinates these heterogeneous actors.
3. Self-Structuring
Processes, governance mechanisms, strategic documents, and cultural narratives all emerge communicatively not from an org chart, but from teams negotiating “how we do things here.”
4. Institutional Positioning
Deep-tech ventures must position themselves to investors, industry partners, policymakers, media, academic collaborators, and civic stakeholders. This is a continuous negotiation of legitimacy.
In short: scaling is communicative coordination under pressure. The venture grows when its communication systems grow.
Why CCO Matters for Deep-Tech Leaders
Deep-tech leaders often underestimate the communicative dimensions of venture creation because they view communication as translation explaining complex science to non-experts. But communication is more foundational. It is the mechanism through which:
strategies become real
cultures take shape
governance structures are legitimized
investor confidence is built
partnerships are solidified
ecosystems recognize the venture
markets are created around new categories
Understanding CCO shifts leadership from “communicating the technology” to communicating the organization into existence.
A Design-Science Perspective: Communication as the Medium of Future-Making
My conceptual work including venture creation as future-making, design science in deep-tech innovation, and commercialization logics beautifully intersects with CCO.
Deep-tech ventures do not simply discover opportunities; they design them into existence through communicative acts:
imagining the future (visioning)
generating alternatives (designing)
transforming ecosystems (aligning actors)
Communication is the design material. The venture is the designed artefact. The ecosystem is the designed environment.
CCO shows that the venture is not just in communication, it is made of communication.
Conclusion: In Deep Tech, Communication Is the Technology
Deep-tech ventures operate under scientific ambiguity, market nascency, and ecosystem interdependence. In such environments, communication does not merely support the organization, it constitutes it.
The Communicative Constitution of Organizations gives deep-tech leaders a powerful lens:
If your venture is built through communication, then improving communication means improving the venture.
Understanding this allows founders, scientists, and innovation leaders to:
scale with coherence
collaborate across disciplines
build trust in high-stakes environments
craft legitimacy in emerging categories
accelerate the path from lab to market
And ultimately, it reminds us that behind every deep-tech breakthrough lies a simple truth:
Before the product, before the funding, before the prototype—there was a conversation.
My upcoming book, Strategic Communication and Leadership in Deep Tech, is launching soon — and I want you to be part of it.
Deep-tech innovation is transforming how organizations lead, communicate, and operate. This book distills years of research, founder coaching, and ecosystem work into a practical guide for leaders navigating complex technologies, multidisciplinary teams, and shifting geopolitical landscapes.
If you want to lead with clarity, communicate with precision, and build trust in high-stakes environments, this book was written for you.
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