Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
At Davos 2026, Emily Knight, CEO of The Engine, joins Bill Fitzgerald, Vice President of Growth & Ecosystems at SandboxAQ, for a conversation on building and scaling tough tech.
The Engine, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, supports more than 150 startups working at the intersection of breakthrough science and real-world impact. Emily explains how the organization helps translate first-of-a-kind technologies out of academia and into companies tackling some of the world’s hardest problems.
In this conversation, they discuss:
- What “tough tech” really means and why it’s different from traditional startups
- How fusion, quantum, synthetic biology, and climate tech move from lab to market
- Examples of startups working on circular plastics, carbon capture, reforestation, and longevity
- Why commercialization is the biggest bottleneck in deep science innovation
- How AI, computational biology, and quantitative models are often embedded invisibly across tough tech startups
- Why resilience, infrastructure, and patience matter more than speed in breakthrough innovation
Rather than chasing incremental improvements, Emily makes the case for building companies that solve foundational, physical-world problems and for creating the ecosystems required to support them over the long term.
Check out our Voices of Davos playlist for more exclusive interviews like this! youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsyYLfyvI2H0E5dNwlP0qoI4s8Z8gdMK
Subscribe to stay updated on the latest breakthroughs in AI and quantum technology. Learn more about SandboxAQ’s innovative solutions at: sandboxaq.com
#sandboxaq #lqms
At Davos 2026, Emily Knight, CEO of The Engine, joins Bill Fitzgerald, Vice President of Growth & Ecosystems at SandboxAQ, for a conversation on building and scaling tough tech.
The Engine, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, supports more than 150 startups working at the intersection of breakthrough science and real-world impact. Emily explains how the organization helps translate first-of-a-kind technologies out of academia and into companies tackling some of the world’s hardest problems.
In this conversation, they discuss:
- What “tough tech” really means and why it’s different from traditional startups
- How fusion, quantum, synthetic biology, and climate tech move from lab to market
- Examples of startups working on circular plastics, carbon capture, reforestation, and longevity
- Why commercialization is the biggest bottleneck in deep science innovation
- How AI, computational biology, and quantitative models are often embedded invisibly across tough tech startups
- Why resilience, infrastructure, and patience matter more than speed in breakthrough innovation
Rather than chasing incremental improvements, Emily makes the case for building companies that solve foundational, physical-world problems and for creating the ecosystems required to support them over the long term.
Check out our Voices of Davos playlist for more exclusive interviews like this! youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMsyYLfyvI2H0E5dNwlP0qoI4s8Z8gdMK
Subscribe to stay updated on the latest breakthroughs in AI and quantum technology. Learn more about SandboxAQ’s innovative solutions at: sandboxaq.com
#sandboxaq #lqms
