#99 - Clara Ricard - Transition - "Hardware can scale as fast as software, China proved it"

#99 - Clara Ricard - Transition - "Hardware can scale as fast as software, China proved it"

From New Wave. by Hugo Rauch

June 30, 2026 · 41 min · Episode 99

About this episode

Clara Ricard discusses the unique challenges and mindsets required for hardware investing compared to software.

Subscribe to the newsletter: New Wave | Hugo Rauch | Substack **** 🌊 Building Deep Tech at Software Speed What separates the best hardware founders, and why conviction matters more than consensus. We’re joined by Clara Ricard , investor at Transition , focused on hardware and industrial deep tech, to explore what it really takes to build and back the next generation of climate and frontier technologies. Hardware startups don’t follow the neat trajectories investors became accustomed to during the SaaS era. Their paths are messier, more capital-intensive, and often require a fundamentally different way of thinking about risk, talent, and execution. In this conversation, we unpack why the best venture investments often begin with disagreement, how elite engineering cultures create outsized companies, and what founders can learn from organizations like SpaceX, Tesla, and ASML. In this episode, we covered: → Why hardware investing requires a different mindset than SaaS → Why great VC partnerships shouldn’t always agree → How SpaceX, Tesla, and ASML created cultures that move hardware at extraordinary speed → Why operator networks outperform impressive résumés → The role of luck—and…

People in this episode

Host: Hugo Rauch

Guest: Clara Ricard

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Transition, SpaceX, Tesla, ASML

Places: China, Europe

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