Let me tell you a story:

A few weeks ago, a post-Series A biotech company called and said, “We need a public relations agency.”

My stock answer is, “We’re not a PR agency. We help clients grow. Public relations is just one of many growth tactics. Let’s figure out if that's what you really need.”

If you're a scientist-turned-entrepreneur, then your storytelling chops better be damned good.

Storytelling is key to selling your ideas to investors, customers, the press, the public.

It all comes down to how well you tell your own story.

Given the amount of information we process everyday, telling your story, sharing your vision of the future, is more important than ever. It is how you stand out.

CUE THE FREE JAZZ: We're running a marketing experiment.

Go ahead. Admit you care. You really do.

What? You don’t?

Well, you should because we’re all about to learn something together. Because we're running an experiment.

Messaginglab CEO and WHAT'S YOUR BIO-STRATEGY? PREPARING YOUR BUSINESS FOR SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY co-author, Karl Schmieder, will be hosting a panel at Ginkgo Bioworks on Monday, May 6th in Boston.

Here’s the Biostrategy Canvas mentioned in What’s Your Biostrategy? How to Prepare Your Business for Synthetic Biology.

Biostrategy confers the ability to incorporate biology or biotechnology into a business, to survive and thrive under rapidly changing conditions. Biostrategy begins as an idea, is expressed in words, then gets translated into actions.

According to our recent survey, 80% of our subscribers do not have a written marketing or communications plan.

80%.

That's pretty astounding. 

Without a plan, you have no direction. It's like trying to get someplace new without a map.

I just got back from this year’s SynBioBeta conference in San Francisco. It was the most well-attended, most exciting SBBSF so far. I ran two well-attended panels:

A C-suite executive at a clinical research organization wanted to increase his influence and get noticed among internal and professional audiences.

While the term “thought leader” may be overused in PR and marketing circles, the need for thought leadership continues to grow as consumers are overwhelmed by too much noise and too many choices. This is especially true in the life sciences where topics remain unfamiliar to most, while the impact on our lives significantly increases every day.

Captain Underpants is not a name generally associated with biotechnology. Yet, this wildly successful (70 million copies sold worldwide) series of children’s novels may be the first exposure many children have to biotech. Probably, it won’t be their last.

Growing a niche-focused social network requires leveraging existing tools and engaging an audience. Here's how Messaginglab helped grow a physician-only network.

Messaginglab helped an established company reposition and rename itself. Those efforts served as the foundation for a successful digital marketing campaign that led to an acquisition.

For Medikly, a marketing automation platform designed to help brands better engage physicians, Messaginglab developed investment, sales, and media strategies designed to attract investors, engage brands, and drive media coverage.