From NASA to Startups: How TRLs Became the Universal Language of Deep Tech | John C. Mankins

Lab to Market Leadership with Chris Reichhelm · Mar 18, 2026 · 1h 21m

Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) are the universal language of Deep Tech – used by NASA, the DoD, VCs, corporations and startups to measure innovation progress. But where did they come from?

Professor John Mankins co-invented TRLs and wrote the 1995 white paper that gave them to the world. In this Season 2 premiere, he reveals the origin story: from Apollo-era NASA research centres, through Stan Sadin's combination of 'technology readiness' and 'levels' in the mid-1970s, to John adding TRL 8–9 in the late 1980s, to publishing the framework on the early internet in 1995 ('nobody even knew…