Built by Operators. Driven by Mission.
Potomac Deep Tech Foundry was founded on a simple but powerful conviction: the most important technologies in the world deserve the most capable commercialization team in the world.
OUR STORY
Washington, D.C. sits at the center of the most consequential technology decisions in the world — defense procurement, federal R&D investment, national security policy, and the agencies that shape how emerging technologies are adopted at scale.
Yet too often, the most promising deep technologies stall between discovery and deployment. A brilliant concept validates in the lab but never finds its way to market. A capable founder has the science right but lacks the commercialization architecture to scale. A federal program identifies a technology need but can't bridge the gap to industry.
Potomac Deep Tech Foundry was built to close that gap.
Founded by Roland Probst, Ph.D. and Michael Doub, MBA — two operators who have spent their careers turning scientific breakthroughs into thriving companies — the Foundry is the commercialization partner that deep tech ventures need and rarely find.
THE FOUNDERS
Roland Probst, Ph.D. Co-Founder
Roland Probst brings over 15 years of experience at the leading edge of technology — and the rare ability to operate fluently across nearly every dimension of it. His expertise spans space technology, computer hardware and software, life sciences, microfluidics, and the full arc of technology commercialization: from ideation and IP strategy to technology transfer, patent portfolio development, and market entry.
Roland is not a generalist — he is a master of multiple disciplines simultaneously. Where most technologists go deep in one domain, Roland has built genuine expertise across many, giving him an unmatched ability to connect insights across fields, identify non-obvious commercialization paths, and build the technical foundation that turns a good idea into a defensible, scalable business.
His approach to commercialization is rigorous, strategic, and deeply practical. He has guided technologies from concept through patent, through licensing, and through market adoption — and he understands every step of the journey in between.
At Potomac Deep Tech Foundry, Roland leads the technical evaluation, IP strategy, and commercialization architecture for every venture the Foundry supports.
Michael Doub, MBA Co-Founder
Michael Doub is the kind of operator that every deep tech venture needs and few can find — a leader who can build a team on Monday, streamline a manufacturing process on Wednesday, and close a growth partnership by Friday. With over 15 years of experience spanning manufacturing, life sciences, commercialization, and organizational growth, Michael brings the operational horsepower that turns scientific promise into market reality.
Michael's strength is execution. He has built and led high-performing teams from the ground up, guided organizations through complex scale-up challenges, and developed the playbooks that allow emerging companies to grow without losing focus or momentum. His background in life sciences and manufacturing gives him a hands-on understanding of regulated environments, supply chain complexity, and the operational discipline required in high-stakes industries.
Where Roland brings the technical architecture, Michael brings the organizational engine — the team-building, the processes, the partnerships, and the leadership culture that allows a venture to grow with intention and speed.
At Potomac Deep Tech Foundry, Michael leads operations, team development, venture scaling, and growth strategy.
Shaped by Excellence
Every great team is shaped by great mentors. For Roland and Michael, that mentor is John Holaday, Ph.D. — one of the most accomplished and storied technology entrepreneurs of his generation.
Dr. Holaday's career reads like a masterclass in turning scientific insight into transformative impact. As the founder of EntreMed — the pioneering oncology company that brought angiogenesis-based cancer therapies into clinical development — he demonstrated what it looks like to build a company around a genuinely paradigm-shifting scientific concept. As the founder of DisposeRx, he tackled the opioid crisis with an elegant, chemistry-based solution for safe medication disposal that has been adopted nationwide. And across a remarkable portfolio of ventures, Dr. Holaday has proven again and again that the highest form of entrepreneurship is the disciplined pursuit of technologies that change lives.
Roland and Michael were mentored directly by Dr. Holaday — absorbing not just his frameworks and strategies, but his standards. His relentless intellectual curiosity. His insistence on rigor. His belief that entrepreneurship, done right, is one of the most powerful forces for good in the world.
That lineage is not a credential we mention lightly. It is the foundation on which Potomac Deep
Why Washington, DC?
No city in the world sits closer to the intersection of technology, policy, and national security than Washington, D.C. The Pentagon, the intelligence community, DARPA, NIH, NASA, and the full ecosystem of federal agencies that fund, procure, and shape technology policy — all within reach.
For a deep tech foundry focused on defense, space, AI, and life sciences, there is no better address. We are where the decisions are made, where the programs are funded, and where the mission-driven companies of tomorrow need to be represented.