Release date: March 3, 2026
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Welcome to Season 3 of the Transfer Files! We are so glad you're here, and we're kicking things off with a conversation that gets at the connective tissue of innovation, the organizations that help move ideas out of the lab and into the world. Today, we're joined by Joanne Wong and Cassandra Carothers, two guests from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity.
Joanne is an engineer by training with a career spanning IBM, HP, SAP, and Cisco, who later founded her own startup and found her way into venture capital and now volunteers with IEEE Entrepreneurship. Cassandra brings a global perspective, having started her career advising C-suite executives in Asia before moving into early-stage deep tech investing and founding Departure Capital, a firm focused on frontier tech for existential resilience. Together, they've been building something really exciting within the IEEE ecosystem that we'll get into today.
If you work anywhere near research, standards, startups, or industry partnerships, chances are you've touched IEEE in some way whether through their publications, conferences, standards development, or their growing work in entrepreneurship and technology commercialization. That reach is exactly why this conversation matters so much for the federal tech transfer community.
We talk a lot about moving inventions to market, but standards, industry alignment, and global technical networks are often the difference between a promising prototype and a technology that actually scales. So today we're digging into how IEEE connects researchers with industry, where standards intersect with commercialization, and what opportunities exist for federal labs and tech transfer offices to plug into that ecosystem.
We also have an important update from the broader FLC community. Our Executive Director, Paul Zielinski, recently announced that he'll be retiring. His leadership has shaped not just the FLC, but the federal tech transfer ecosystem more broadly including expanding programs, strengthening interagency collaboration, and helping position tech transfer as a core part of the federal innovation mission. Paul is here to reflect on that journey, talk about what's changed in the field, and what he sees ahead for our community.
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In This Episode:
[02:18] Joanne shares her background as an engineer, moving from IBM and major tech firms to founding her own startup.
[02:54] Joanne describes how she fell into venture capital and connected with REDD's Capital out of California.
[03:11] She introduces her volunteer role with IEEE Entrepreneurship and gives an overview of the organization.
[03:55] Cassandra takes over and walks through her global career path from Hong Kong consulting to US-based venture capital.
[05:33] Cassandra introduces Departure Capital and her focus on frontier tech for existential resilience.
[06:02] The conversation turns to why they launched the Hard Tech Venture Summit and what "hardware is hard" really means.
[07:22] Discussion of Moore's Law limitations and why innovation must return to hardware fundamentals to support AI growth.
[08:47] The case that the world's biggest problems are physical, requiring atoms not just bits.
[09:14] The roots of venture capital and the US government's early role as the first tech investor are explored.
[10:28] Why manufacturing is a critical and often overlooked piece of the hard tech startup puzzle.
[11:10] Where hardware founders most commonly get stuck between the lab and the market.
[12:00] The challenges of team building, go-to-market strategy, and moving from prototype to mass manufacturing.
[12:48] Funding gaps, regulatory hurdles, and the stigma around investing in hardware-heavy startups.
[14:30] Stakeholder misalignment explored with manufacturers, engineers, investors, and regulators all optimizing for different things.
[15:44] The origin story of the Hard Tech Venture Summit and its inaugural event in San Francisco.
[16:30] Why startups and investors are regional and why that drove the decision to host multiple summits.
[17:22] How the summits are volunteer-driven through IEEE and interest in expanding to Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
[18:52] What makes the Hard Tech Venture Summit different from a typical startup conference or demo day?
[20:09] How attendees are hand-selected and vetted to ensure genuine hardware focus with no deep tech tourists.
[21:35] The roundtable format explained with small curated groups designed for real conversation, not pitching.
[22:02] How the safe, judgment-free environment encourages honest feedback between founders, investors, and ecosystem partners.
[23:29] Day two of the summit is a half-day manufacturing workshop designed for early stage founders.
[24:13] How mentors help founders understand manufacturing contracts, yields, and timelines in a personalized setting.
[25:59] Future goals around tracking data, capital mobilization, and measuring real outcomes from the events.
[27:00] Where federal labs and the FLC fit into the hard tech ecosystem and how they can get involved.
[29:14] How people from federal labs can find and connect with the Hard Tech Venture Summits.
[30:23] Hopes for a joint partnership between IEEE Entrepreneurship and FLC and spreading the word to 500,000 IEEE members.
[31:43] Three to five year vision includes concrete metrics, capital mobilized, and building a true sense of community and continuity.
[34:08] FLC Executive Director Paul Zielinski has announced his retirement.
[35:05] Paul reflects on how difficult it was to walk away from something he's been passionate about for decades.
[36:24] Paul is most proud of the sense of community that the FLC has built over the years.
[37:42] Why modernization was a priority from launching the podcast to redesigning FLC Business and embracing digital tools.
[38:20] How COVID unexpectedly accelerated digital transformation at FLC while reinforcing the value of in-person connection.
[39:04] The focus on professional development, learning tracks, and positioning tech transfer as a respected profession.
[40:43] The mentorship program, online learning, and a teaser about an upcoming announcement to raise the prestige of the profession.
[42:02] How the FLC has evolved and grown its facilitate pillar and moving from administration to action.
[44:06] How Paul has seen the role of federal labs in the innovation ecosystem evolve over his 30-plus year career.
[45:04] The parallel growth of environmental law and tech transfer law in the 1980s and how that shaped his career.
[46:09] Looking ahead to AI, quantum science, and how FLC platforms are beginning to adopt AI tools.
[46:44] What qualities Paul hopes to see in his successor including passion, advocacy, vision, and the ability to listen and act.
[49:25] Reflections on serving at the White House level and across multiple agencies throughout his career.
[50:03] Paul shares his retirement plans and his hope to stay connected to the tech transfer world and see the many friends he's made along the way.