Yessica Klein
8 min read
09 November 2025
Born and raised in Malta, Keith M Azzopardi never imagined he would be an entrepreneur. During the final year of his PhD in metamaterials, he expected to remain in academia, until frustration with research that rarely reached real-world application convinced him to take a different path. His first company, Thought3D, was inspired by a job at his university and grew into a global 3D printing venture with customers in more than 50 countries.
By 2020, Keith and his cofounders, Edward Borg and Andrei-Andy Linnas, had started investigating a new challenge: Smart Materials, which has pioneered a patented method for producing auxetic foam directly during synthesis. The technology, now being applied to mattresses, offers both environmental benefits and life-changing support for people with back problems. For Keith, the mission is deeply personal: he suffers from chronic back injuries himself, and his mother endured severe spinal operations when he was young. “If we can solve that for someone, it’s a big win,” he says. Today, Smart Materials aims to improve one million lives by 2030, proving that even a small team from Malta can take on one of the toughest problems in materials science.
What made you turn to entrepreneurship?
I was heading toward academia, but I got frustrated with how research often stops before it becomes real. Someone else has to pick it up, commercialize it, and only then does it make an impact. I didn’t want to spend my life working on things that stayed in papers. When I was doing my PhD, I took a job in 3D printing, which inspired my first company. That was my first real taste of bringing science into the world.
What made you decide to pursue Smart Materials after Thought3D?
Thought3D gave us global traction, but it was still a niche. We had developed the skills and asked ourselves: what could be bigger? I had worked on auxetics during my PhD and always believed it had potential. We licensed the background IP and early-stage technology from the university and began testing. At first it was very basic, but we validated the idea by going to conferences with a datasheet for a product that didn’t yet exist. The response was massive. All the big companies had tried and failed, so we knew if we could crack production, we had something special.
How different is it to build a deep tech company?
It’s daily uncertainty. We are trying to build something that has never existed. Some of the world’s biggest brands, companies with billions in revenue, have attempted this and failed. Sometimes there are even gaps in the fundamental science. And even once you make the material, you still need to turn it into products, then bring those products to market. Iterations are not just changing a line of code; you need equipment, facilities, and months of testing. It’s expensive, it’s slow, and unless you have resilience and belief, you won’t get through it.
Were there moments when you thought the idea would fail?
Every day you question your sanity. You are creating something that never existed before, where even giants have tried and failed. We’ve been close to burning through our runway, and we’ve gone through the team two or three times. Early employees take on huge risk and responsibility. It takes a special type of person to survive in this environment. But resilience and a belief in the impact we will ultimately have is what keeps us moving forward.
“I realized that taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it makes you a better founder.”
How have you learned to manage your well-being?
In my early years, I thought 100-hour weeks were a badge of honor. I collapsed a few times, ended up hospitalized, and missed important family events. Two years ago, everything changed when we won a startup competition called Pitch Black. The prize was a founders’ retreat, and I almost didn’t go because I thought it was self-indulgent. But those three days were life-changing. Since then, gym, time with family, and time in nature have become non-negotiable. It’s still a work in progress, but I try to spread that mindset to my team too.
What role does Malta play in your journey?
Malta is home. It’s where I was born, studied, and built both companies. There is no place like it. Of course, being a deep tech startup here has challenges; Malta isn’t an industrial nation, so resources are limited. But being unique instantly puts you on the world stage. We’ve had inbound interest from across Europe, the U.S., Australia, Japan and India. Malta gives you community, safety and access to Europe. Yes, it’s small, but that’s part of the strength.
What lessons has the ecosystem here taught you?
The ecosystem has changed a lot since 2014, when there was almost nothing. Today, there’s government support, communities like Silicon Valletta, and more investor interest. But one cultural hurdle is that Malta doesn’t celebrate success. We’ve had big exits worth hundreds of millions in Malta that went completely under the radar. That’s a missed opportunity; nothing motivates founders more than seeing someone from their community succeed at that level.
What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned personally as a founder?
First, leave ego at the door. The team is everything, and you need to give back to them. Second, don’t fall in love with your product, fall in love with the problem. Show your ideas early, even in scrappy form. Customers may lie to you, but you’ll still learn something. And finally, grit always comes first. Most of this job is grind. If you’re not ready for that, it’s going to be tough.
What advice would you give to early founders?
Play long-term games with long-term people. Expect pain: it’s 99.9% grind, 0.1% glory. Be obsessed with your problem, not just interested. Choose co-founders like spouses, because you’ll spend more time with them than with family. Hire missionaries, not mercenaries. Keep burn low, stretch your runway, and remember equity is your oxygen. Above all: survive. Staying alive long enough is what gives you a chance to succeed.
“Funding is not the end goal. It’s giving away part of your life, so it needs to make sure you’ll actually get your baby over the line.”