Fundraising Readiness · Strategic Partnerships · Deep Tech Commercialization
Turn breakthrough technology into a fundable company.
I work with early-stage deep tech and hardware founders to find the right path to their next round and get ready to run it. For most deep tech companies that path runs through a strategic partner, a grant, or a commercial deal that gives investors something real to underwrite.
How We Work
Two ways to work together
Which one fits depends mostly on your stage. Pre-seed and seed companies usually start with the sprint. Companies with a round or two behind them often go straight to fractional support.
Six to eight weeks
Funding Strategy Sprint
We figure out where your next round realistically comes from and get you ready to go after it.
What you walk away with
- A funding strategy that lays out your realistic sources of capital (VC, strategic investors, grants, or a partner deal that unlocks the round) and the order to pursue them
- Your pitch deck reworked around that strategy
- A detailed critique of your financial model (or I build it with you)
- A data room structure and checklist
- Introductions to partners and investors where there’s a fit
Ongoing
Fractional CSO
I work as part of your team to carry out the plan: running partner conversations, structuring joint development, licensing, and manufacturing deals, executing the raise, and planning the path from prototype to production.
Sprint clients decide at the end whether to keep me on or take the plan and run it themselves.
Current Work
Current engagements
UV-harvesting window film for building-integrated solar energy.
Bio-based plastics and materials.
Canopy ↗
Consumer app for food contaminant testing.
Electrochemical process for producing sustainable solvents.
Volumetric additive manufacturing, producing complete 3D structures using patented photopolymerization technology.
Next-generation magnetic sensing.
Ameen K. Saafir
Founder, Saafir LLC
Background
20+ years scaling advanced materials, lab to factory floor
Repeat operator across the full path from university spinout to full-scale production, in displays, electrochromics, and additive manufacturing.
2020 – 2026
Tynt TechnologiesCEO & Co-Founder
University spinout. Raised $23M from institutional and strategic investors. Structured a strategic partnership with VELUX. Took advanced materials commercialization from lab to product.
2012 – 2020
Halio (Kinestral Technologies)Chief Engineer / Sr. Director, Business Development
Scaled electrochromic window technology from R&D to full-scale production. Commissioned a 2M sq ft/year facility in Taiwan at >90% yield. Led business development with SK, AGC, Katerra, and Foxconn.
2005 – 2011
DuPont DisplaysSenior Process Engineer
Led joint development with Samsung on solution-processed OLED display technology.
2003 – 2005
Samsung ElectronicsR&D Engineer, OLED Group
Early member of Samsung's OLED group. Contributed to the world's first 40" AMOLED display.
2003
Stanford UniversityMaterials Science & Engineering
MS & BS, Materials Science & Engineering.