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Ep. 17 John Montgomery on How Branding Unlocks Funding
51 Plays3 months ago
John Montgomery of Goodlab joins us for a lively conversation about the visual side of biotech – how a good (or bad!) brand shapes the entire organization, and what elements are necessary at different stages of business. We also discuss how “safe” branding isn’t always the safest option.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mighty Spark Communications
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, everyone, and welcome to Spark Time. I'm Dani Stoltzfus. And I'm Will Riddle. Of Mighty Spark Communications. Our mission is to use scientific innovation to drive transformative change. We believe that compelling storytelling is the most effective tool we have in our arsenal to motivate and inspire audiences to invest themselves in audacious goals. We are scientists by training, storytellers by experience, and entrepreneurs by nature. Let's get started.
Design Guidance in Biotech
00:00:28
Speaker
It was a real honor to have John join us today on the podcast. He's provided design guidance to some of the biggest consumer brands and now is completely focused on bringing that experience to biotech.
00:00:41
Speaker
I completely agree with John's perspective that any company can build a truly great brand. And that always starts with boiling down their why to a single image or feeling.
The Role of Branding in Biotech
00:00:54
Speaker
And that's of course a difficult exercise unless you have an experienced hand alongside you. However, the effects of building that brand support so many different aspects of the business as John details.
00:01:05
Speaker
One part of this conversation I'm particularly excited to share is John's perspective on what small biotech really needs in terms of branding and what they don't. I think that's a really useful starting place for a lot of people, especially as we highlight in this episode that safe and conservative branding isn't always the safest option. Anyway, let's get into the episode.
John's Creative Strategy Journey
00:01:29
Speaker
Today we're joined by John Montgomery, who has extensive of experience specializing in creative strategy, digital marketing, and innovation. He began his career at College Broadcast, where he helped secure a Series A round and grew the team from 12 to 150, including a campus marketing force of over 2,500. His clients ranged from Taco Bell to Universal Music Group. John served as CEO and Chief Innovation Officer of Threshold Interactive, a digital marketing agency, and he was recognized as one of the 12 most creative people in advertising by Business Insider.
00:02:01
Speaker
Under his leadership, Threshold earned the Ad Age Small Agency of the Year Award and worked with clients such as Nestle, Disney, and Honda. John founded and currently serves as the Chief Design Officer of GoodLab, an innovation design studio. GoodLab has a focus in biotechnology, having worked with clients like Foresight Capital and Knate Biopharma. So John, it's really great to have you here. Thanks for joining us and and how are you doing today?
00:02:25
Speaker
I'm doing great and thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here today and have ah have a fun conversation. Yeah, I think we get the unique opportunity to talk to someone on the design side and we we haven't had anyone like that on the podcast um as of yet, so we're super excited. But I want to start out by asking, you know you've worked with household names like Nestle, Sony, and Spin, so tell us what brought you to the world of biotech and what's made it become a focus of GoodLab?
Transition from Consumer to Biotech Marketing
00:02:56
Speaker
Well, um a great question. i I spent years, as you talked about at the top, um running an agency and working with some of the biggest consumer product and in consumer brands in the world, from entertainment brands to apparel and food and in so many of the things that that we interact with daily. and um you know Those industries really have had some of the most creative strategists, marketers, writers, designers, ah working on their businesses for decades. And the work tends out to be incredibly emotionally impactful, um helps really build kind of awareness, loyalty, love, advocacy, all the things that we talk about in the world of marketing.
00:03:41
Speaker
um But when when i sold my agency and started i really got involved in venture creation and i really enjoyed and had a successful run at. You know in the marketing space working with these brands but you know what really struck me was that i you spending a lot of time.
00:04:00
Speaker
um you know marketing products to people that they don't necessarily need. um you know To be totally honest, I sold a lot of Butterfinger bars and a lot of different things which are great. But at the end of the day, you know I know I was asking myself a lot of questions about, okay, you know given this this this experience and and a lot of good fortune um and and have talent to put to to work.
00:04:27
Speaker
I really started focusing on on how can I put that to work on things that are actually making maybe more of a profound difference in the world and spent ah a good deal of time working in a venture studio and and really looking at some of the problems in the world and trying to build businesses to solve those problems. and And once again, after a journey, they are raising a lot of capital, building teams around ideas and testing those things in the market and and really deploying capital and thinking about that very differently and marketing very differently. um That's when I stood up Goodlab because at the end of the day, you look at biotech and it has largely been overlooked by modern marketing.
00:05:10
Speaker
um you know And it's it's it's a bit of a crime to have so much talent focused on all this consumer products. And it's great, but not really focusing on this incredible space that has the opportunity to save millions of lives. right and And when we looked at this, and I had a ah very good friend that I've worked with for years that she and I have collaborated on projects. She went over to Foresight Capital.
00:05:36
Speaker
ah little ah just under a decade ago and and took over comms there across across what they do across all their holding companies and brought us in because she really in working with Jim Tambam over there said hey we really need to kind of take a different look at at at at branding and brought us in and that was the really the starting of our journey in this space and the more that we have worked in biotech um It has just been an absolute pleasure. We worked with some of the smartest people on the planet that are so mission-driven. um and And so for us, you know, spending our time and effort in our experience and really a team we've assembled of people that worked on Apple and Nike and Sony and Nestle and so many others,
00:06:23
Speaker
It is just we feel like we are are really blessed to be working in this space because the people are really wonderful and everybody's so focused on that mission of saving lives that um You know for us.
Storytelling in Biotech Branding
00:06:37
Speaker
It's just ah It's kind of a dream come true
00:06:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm going to come back to a couple of concepts that you just talked about, John, because I feel like if you were to so say to a biotech CEO, you know you need branding like a consumer brand needs branding. They're going to be like, what are you talking about? It that you know often feels like these two worlds just have no overlap. and I'd love to hear how you think about bridging the gap between those two worlds and what the overlaps are and what the differences are.
00:07:11
Speaker
Yeah, great question. um I mean, I'd start by saying I think there's really more similarities than differences, um at least in the way that we view brands in storytelling. um Because we believe that any great brand ah We believe any company can. Create a truly great brand not just great products and great science in every great brand starts with a deep understanding of their why you know going back to simon cynic one oh one like.
00:07:45
Speaker
What is your purpose? What do you believe to be true about the world? Why do you exist? And why why why does it make a difference that your company exists? um And I think any brand or any company should be starting with those more esoteric questions of truly what their what is your DNA? What what really makes you different? and um And so when we approach branding, we approach it in the same exact way as we would with a consumer brand as we do a biotech. And I think that's the one thing that starts connecting with you know a lot of, to your point, people coming from a science background or a technology background, not necessarily a branding and marketing background, background
00:08:29
Speaker
um I think they're pleasantly surprised when we're really just talking about them and trying to help them figure out how to tell their story better. um That's the real big difference to me between these industries is that you don't have a lot of marketing professionals in this industry.
00:08:45
Speaker
If you do, they tend to be more channel marketing or really practical, but they're working in other categories generally. And um you know the these scientific leaders and technology leaders can be a little uncomfortable with this kind of esoteric around branding and and things that are more right brain focused.
00:09:05
Speaker
Right? um so you know But for us, it's like in some cases with consumer brands, it's almost too easy. like If you're selling running shoes, the benefits can be quite clear and you can you can dial those up and down. But you know sometimes our clients are working on various product pipelines that are built around ah multiple areas of focus or technological innovation that might have multiple benefits. And in taking that and trying to hone that into a clear and crisp message that not only only any audience could understand,
00:09:45
Speaker
But any deliverer of that message can actually articulate very clearly is, for us, an incredible challenge and an exciting
Simplifying Complex Biotech Messages
00:09:54
Speaker
one. um and and And I don't know if I actually answered your question completely, but that's kind of where my brain went from your question.
00:10:04
Speaker
Well, I love that your brain went there because I feel exactly the same way about a lot of the things you just said. Like for me and the way I think about it, just taking that complexity and finding the way to distill out what really matters and speak to the truth of what's going on in a really clear,
00:10:28
Speaker
articulated ways. Honestly, like one of the reasons I get out of bed in the morning and do this job, because I get so much joy out of seeing someone's face light up when you know they've got the message. oh yeah That is like the best feeling. and i think that you see and like i I imagine you see that with consumer brands much more frequently than you do with biotech. Just due to the different complexities. But yeah, I mean, we maybe we didn't answer the question, but we definitely found a place where we knew right in our thinking. if Absolutely. I want to i want to continue this this line of thinking around showing someone something and their face lights up because they just get it. And and that is helping someone find their hero image.
00:11:15
Speaker
So we're talking about the picture that tells their whole story in one image, so very creative process. But John, from your perspective, what about that strong visual or strong visual story pulls the viewer in, makes them want to learn more and you know partner with that biotech company in some way?
00:11:36
Speaker
Wow, what a great question. I could spend three days talking about this. ah as As a visual artist of of many decades, it's I continue to learn.
00:11:51
Speaker
ah how powerful images are. um and um you know It starts with the fact that I think imagery inherently has so much emotional potential and really so much so much more than words at the at the end of the day or not even at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, the very first impact.
00:12:13
Speaker
um And I think part of this has to do with the way our brain processes. um I've spent a lot of time like I worked in consumer packaged goods and and when you're designing, let's say, products to go on shelf in the store and you're sitting next to thousands of other products.
00:12:30
Speaker
you know What's important? How do you stand out? and And what happens a lot of the time in that, like I worked in in the supplement space for quite some time. And everybody puts as many words on their bottle as possible to see how their ultimate or it's the best fish oil, it's the ultimate fish oil, it's the maximum fish oil or whatever it happens to be. And the reality is that our brains process first color.
00:12:54
Speaker
Secondly, we process shape. Third, we process symbols. And after that, we process words and their meanings. and And what that kind of means is that when we see something, our brain is already touching our heart. It's already touching our memories. It's already touching so many things just from the visuals that we see, the colors, the shapes. That ah that already is working faster than the words that we're going to see over that image.
00:13:24
Speaker
um And we know images can tell so much story with metaphor in context, in recontextualizing things. And so imagery has so much power. I think one of the things we'll see in the biotech space is There's so much opportunity to have differentiating imagery, but a lot of people use the same exact types of images across all these different websites. The double helix and the people in the lab and you know some of those kind of tropes and some of it's very necessary, but there's so much opportunity.
00:14:00
Speaker
um And as you guys have probably seen, the industry tends to focus most of the time when we initially work with the client, get their first deck, look at their website. It is just chock-a-block full of words. um And you know it's like a white paper, a clickable white paper a lot of the time. and you know, ah getting into the granularity of the science and, um you know, boiling it down to a feeling and capturing that in an image is a process of pairing everything back to its essence. Like, you know, and really it takes, um it takes some discipline. It takes discipline on all parties parts of really
00:14:40
Speaker
Pulling back and pulling back and tell you say did we get to that that one? Feeling that image that idea that we're trying to communicate as clearly as possible um And in in you know, that is an incredible exercise every time what we think is so amazing. One of the reasons we're in love with the space is that the biotech category is inherently full of the most amazing imagery. It's a beautiful visual landscape. Like, you know, you guys have seen, ah you know, microscopic images inside of our bodies at the cellular level, and sometimes they can just look like a Picasso. They're just beautiful. oh um You know, we've we've worked with a few clients, um you know, we we had a a ah
00:15:26
Speaker
the company that we've been working with this for the last few years, and and they're called FEAST, P-H-E-A-S-T. um And their science is taking macrophages already found in the body and using our innate immune system to allow macrophages to actually feast on the cancer inside of us, so allowing ourselves to heal ourselves from within, which is freaking awesome.
00:15:50
Speaker
um When we look at macro images of macrophages online, they look pretty scary. They can look they they do they they don't look like the hero of the story, right? So what we what we did this is is we um rendered out, and and they're such a young and vibrant company, female driven, we rendered things out in this kind of these hot pink tones and these warm tones, and we turn the macrophage into a hero, right? And when people see the image, they don't even know what it is, but they just make them feel good. And then we say, oh, that thing's inside of you munching down cancer if you happen to be, you know, unfortunate enough to have that in you. um it's It's just, it was such an opportunity to flip it on its head.
00:16:37
Speaker
and and And for us, that's just we we we never stop being inspired by just the natural imagery that we find in this space, ah let alone inventing new ones to help to help bring concepts to life.
00:16:52
Speaker
it's yeah um I love turning you know something that's scary and unfriendly into the hero. And if it was warm and fuzzy, that's just such a cool concept. I could talk about that for a long time, but I'll spare everyone my thoughts of that and follow on with the theme of like this strong visual story, speaking to a vision and a purpose and having really true power to engage
Challenges in Biotech Branding
00:17:19
Speaker
your audience. and We all love bold branding and bold imagery and imagery that's emotive. But I think it's fair to say that in biotech specifically, you do see a lot of very blue conservative
00:17:37
Speaker
tone down branding and we find this a challenge and i'd I'd love to hear about how you think about balancing out the force that's within you and the forces that you might encounter from people that had traditionally seen branding as a more conservative blue vision.
00:17:57
Speaker
yeah Yeah, that's that's ah that's a a a fantastic question. I think you nailed it with this idea of like kind of connecting a strong visual story, um and we talked about it before, to a really strong purpose. um And for us, there's the you're asking about kind of conservatism. There's a lot of samism in biotech or a lot of yeah kind of conservatism. And um we kind of separate those things into a few things. One is some companies are going to have a more, want to kind of come across as more ah established or more conservative. Other ones are going to want to come across as more bold and and and and innovative and bleeding edge. And you know that's that's that is you know their positioning. And I think our job is to find the truth of who they are and express that as powerfully as possible. So
00:18:53
Speaker
We start everything we do with we've got ah a system we call the belief and purpose. And really it's a guided introspection and conversation among a lot of times the founding team or the you the key stakeholders. And we spend a good deal of time just having a conversation about like, what do you guys believe to be true in the world? Like in really getting up, what's the big problem that you're really trying to solve?
00:19:17
Speaker
um And sometimes it's straightforward and sometimes it's not like ah we've we've had some incredible conversations where people finally came to the conclusion like what we really believe is that Drug development is a completely inefficient process. There's so much money wasted and it doesn't need to be wasted. We could get to solutions quicker, right? And if that's really what they believe in, they say, okay, how's that tie into your purpose? What are you going to do about it? And they'll say, oh, well, we're actually building a new platform that completely revolutionizes the way drugs are developed. And we said, well, that is amazing.
00:19:54
Speaker
Okay, there' there's there's your belief, there's your purpose. and And now let's work with you to kind of understand your personality. Like, who are you guys? How do you want to show up in the world? And we never try to fake it. If somebody in an organization is super staid, and they are just conservative by nature,
00:20:16
Speaker
We're not going to try to create a BS brand that's like super young and vibrant and is not matching who they are, right? It's just, it's not. But that doesn't mean if we have to go back to the blue background with, you know, all the text in the double helix image, like we don't, we, you don't have to. I think, you know, the,
00:20:43
Speaker
That is really, there's room for all sorts of personalities in this space. There's room for all sorts of different ways of expressing yourself. um I just don't think, I think that the default is, hey, let's look like everybody else because that's safe.
00:20:58
Speaker
yeah and I would argue that in today's world, and especially the way the capital markets have gone in biotech over the last several years, is being safe is not really safe. Yes, exactly. yeah youve You've got to stand out for the right reasons. yeah um and ah Honestly, and me and this in all due respect, if a company is not really looking to take its brand to another level, they're not really looking to differentiate and find their their true north and in their why, we're probably not the right fit for them to work with them. You know, it's just because that's really what we help companies do. um And if they don't need that help, then then it's like, you know, continue on doing what you're doing. um And and, you know, that might not be the right fit.
00:21:52
Speaker
Definitely. definitely love I love hearing how your vision helps bring the vision out of everyone else in in the field. It's so cool to hear, John. Thank you. I want to um want to turn the conversation a little bit to really early stage private biotech companies. Their focus is on getting that science right to build up their assets and their platforms. and you know Maybe they're thinking along conservative branding lines because they They don't know that you can go beyond that or they don't have time for the effort. But what do you think the advantage to building a brand is at at that stage?
Branding's Impact on Early-Stage Biotech
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah, that is awesome. I've been having this conversation quite a bit ah over the last six months. And, you know, to talk about more and more in ah in a bit. ah You know, we're really launching kind of a startup and incubator branding package right now um to help early stage companies because to answer your question,
00:22:53
Speaker
i I find it's mission critical. i have launch I've run companies, I've helped launch companies, and I've worked as a partner with our clients that are launching new brands and new companies. And I've seen it time and time again, those that have a really clear understanding of their mission, their purpose, their story.
00:23:13
Speaker
accelerate quicker. they they um you know It helps on every level because a lot of people just think about brand or colors and fonts and in in that sort of thing. um But when we think about brand, we're really thinking how it shapes your entire organization, not only how you present yourself to the world, but how you show up internally, how you shape your culture. yeah um and you know A strong brand is going to help you hire better talent.
00:23:40
Speaker
Which is a big engine of your of your acceleration, your growth. Telling a better, crisper story is going to help you raise capital. um It's going to help you with partnership outreach. And it's ultimately, and this to me is one of the most important things, it gives the leadership confidence.
00:23:58
Speaker
If you go out in the world with a strong image, if people are coming to your website or seeing your your deck or showing up to a conference and you have a clear message and it is clean and it is inspiring and it's professional, you just end up putting your shoulders back a little bit further and and and and walking with a lot more confidence in your step.
00:24:21
Speaker
um And so you know that is huge. That helps you move faster. yeah um I've got a ah fascinating story I want to share that yeah please do i we we just started doing an interview series with some of our clients that are are are have been quite incredible in our our experience with branding because some biotech clients, like we said, don't have much experience. And then we have other ones that have worked at Genentech and other big companies worked in marketing and have really kind of have a real great appreciation for it. um And one of our clients, Thomas Chalberg, who runs a company called Genesance, he's a serial entrepreneur um in the kind of gene therapy space.
00:25:01
Speaker
And ah when I was talking to him a couple weeks ago about you know the importance of storytelling and brand in in everything from you know it to raising money to building a team, he told this story, which I thought was incredible. And he said you know years ago when he had his first startup, they he said raising his first $50,000 was the hardest thing he'd ever done.
00:25:25
Speaker
You know that was that was uh, any any got the money from somebody who was suffering from the eye disease They were trying to they were trying to uh solve through gene therapy And he spent a couple years and doing what scientists do when they're starting a company collecting as much data as possible How do we get more data? Yes that our science works And they were going and trying to raise money and uh and They were raising ah for, for you know in hindsight, what was a relatively small round. It was around $5 million, $4 to $5 million. dollars and um And that took him literally a year and a half. And he said, we were just all we kept focusing on was the data. like Look at the data that proves out what we're doing. But they didn't have a compelling story. And yeah what was incredible is he said, then we figured out and we got some help.
00:26:22
Speaker
And we actually started focusing on our storytelling around all this data. And we actually built a presentation that answered the investor's questions before they even asked them. It was crisp. We didn't have extra fluff. We like, and we practiced it. And we had our story down. And within nine months, they raised over $350 million. dollars yeah isn't that true And he said with the same literally, marginally, the same amount of data that we couldn't raise $500 with. yes Now, to me, that tells me everything I need to know about the power of storytelling. Yeah. 100% agree with you on that.
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah. And I love that you you you use the term, you removed all the fluff, because I think de-fluffing is one of my favorite terms when it comes to building a deck is to take out all the extra stuff that doesn't really speak to the why and the how and the why. this company, not a different company. And Will and I joke about this, you know, somewhat seriously, is that, you know, if you're not telling your company's story around what you're doing with the science and what your strategy is and what the data, how the data feeds into the science and the strategy, then you're not doing it right and you're not going to be successful. And your story is a great example of that being true and accurate.
00:27:47
Speaker
That's great. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. The de-fluffing. it's I'm going to steal that one if you don't mind. Oh, perfect. Yes. Yes, exactly. All right. So it sounds like you have some exciting things coming up this year with you know talking about doing an incubator. So let's let's hear more about that and anything else that's happening that's exciting for you in the next year or so, John.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, um kind of there's so much we we're we're fired up about right now. um Launching this brand, Incubator, is something we had. ah We actually had a client, um at actually our client at Feast, who is part of a building, Incubator. And they moved up from you know one lab up in Palo Alto to getting into the next bigger space. And they're part of a really great system with Alexandria, the ah real estate firm. um And what she said was, and after we'd been working together for about a year and a half, she said, you know the work that you guys did with us was so helpful on so many fronts that we didn't even realize at the time. She said, I feel like so many of I see these young companies coming in here and they've only raised
00:28:59
Speaker
$3 million, $6 million. dollars and I say only, but you guys know that's you know in the biotech space. That's not a lot because of of how much you need to deploy. um and She said, God, I know that they would be so helped with this. um and you know Do you think that it's possible for you guys to do what you do you know at a level to help startups? and It got me really really deeply thinking about it and I think a while back ah we spoke with you guys about this as well just like the then the needs for These you know these these young entrepreneurs who might be creating the technology that's gonna Save my daughter's life someday, right? Um They
00:29:46
Speaker
ah you know they need that help. And like we talked about before, it can help accelerate every aspect of their business. And so what we did is we spent some time really focusing on what part of the process needs to be totally bespoke, which part of this process do we need to bring in our you know incredibly seasoned but relatively expensive designers, strategist writers, and you know the traditional way of doing things. And we looked in and said, okay,
00:30:17
Speaker
What are the most important things that if I was going to share with a ah young company that they actually figure out early on? and How do we build how do we build kind of a package around that? and The reality is it's not about necessarily the design. It's not that they need a logo designed by the world's greatest logo designer ah or you know with the tools of AI to these crowdsourcing platforms, forums like Fiverr and the thousands of 99 designs out there. the The real problem is what they're they're doing is they're going out in there. They're just trying to cobble things together without having the strategic understanding, having it driven by that mission and vision, and really having the creative direction to understand what are the right choices to make.
00:31:15
Speaker
And so what we've really looked at is you know our belief in purpose work, our strategy work is really some of the most valuable things that we do. And how do we bring down the costs of the tactical things for that? Because at some point, yeah, they're going to want, once they get bigger, they're going to want to really bespoke everything, right? But for the time being, what they really need is a professional looking deck, a professional looking logo, a professional looking website, things that are not going to hold them back.
00:31:49
Speaker
And so that is what we focused on and we're really excited to do that. ah And, um you know, we're kind of rolling this out with with ah we kind of worked with a client or two and really gotten their feedback on it. and We're just about to roll this out. So I'm very, very excited.
00:32:05
Speaker
ah that we can do our part to kind of give back to this industry that's been so ah you so well welcoming of us to help those that are coming up right now. um And so that I couldn't be more excited about. And and then we're actually launching a our new websites.
00:32:23
Speaker
ah We're creating a bunch of content. Like I said, we've been interviewing for these blog series and stuff. And you know if you went to our website now, you wouldn't know that we're solely focused on biotech. um But we made that decision a few years back. And ah now we're going to create all the tools and assets that we need so we can practice what we preach and tell our story a lot more clearly and a lot more crisply and our value proposition to the biotech industry.
00:32:50
Speaker
um So those two things are are we're we're really excited about as well, of course, all the exciting client work we have coming up. I mean, I'm just we're working with like Nobel, you know, winners and incredible entrepreneurs, technologists. And every time I get to get in the room with them, I feel honored to be speaking with these people and and learning from them. So I, you know, that that's always going to keep me going.
00:33:15
Speaker
Wow, that's very, very cool to hear. and um Oh, I had a thought I was going to say, and it just escaped my mind. I tend to talk too much, so I probably just talked all the way through it. Okay, I remembered what it was. It's like those of us that work in communications, whether it be marketing or branding or design, I think we are the worst at updating our own websites and our own stories as they evolve.
00:33:40
Speaker
Because we're actually in the process of doing the same thing. And so I i heard you say that, and it's like, yes, we we desperately are doing that process as well. And yeah, I think it's a really common story with people in the industry that we talk to as well. It's like, yeah, it's been like three years since I did that. But I'll get to it someday when the fireworks slows down. so Very cool. Well, just to ease your mind, I went to your site recently and I think it looks awesome. I think you guys do a heck of a job telling your story and there's some beautiful visuals on it. so Not just saying that to blow smoke, but i yeah I don't think you have to stress too much on it. You can always improve things, but you guys are doing a great job. job yeah I appreciate that. Wow, thank you. and you know i've I've had a smile on my face this whole discussion. It's been so cool to hear you
00:34:29
Speaker
share all of these different perspectives from ah a side of biotech that we don't usually hear about. And as as we wind down, I want to ask our final question, which we ask every guest is, what single piece of advice would you give to the founding team of an early stage biotech?
Storytelling vs. Scientific Focus
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think we just talked about this a second ago, but I could summarize, like, I'd say, remember, all of your science in tech is rightfully your biggest focus. Learning how to be good storytellers is almost as critical to your success. um You know, as human beings, we've always captivated the imagination of others through stories. um So don't start with all the details, paint a big picture. That would be That would be my advice. And I've kind of talked about this all day long with with clients. But um if you could develop that muscle ah along with all your other muscles, watch out. John, it's it's been such a wonderful time um discussing all of these things with you. So thanks so much for joining the podcast. It's so wonderful to have been joined by John today. I appreciate him breaking down for our listeners what happens when we encounter visuals. First, we see color.
00:35:45
Speaker
then shapes, and then symbols. Finally, we read the words. The feelings that we experience, whether we realize it or not, happens faster than we can interpret the meaning of the words. And that's such a powerful tool to use in communication.
00:36:01
Speaker
Right. And when we connect a brand's purpose to the feeling that's generated, the team captures people's imagination, their engagement and their interest before they even share the real ideas. And I think John put it rightly that this is an essential tool that can be used both on the bleeding edge side of design, but also even in the more conservatively positioned companies.
00:36:24
Speaker
Well, my biggest takeaway from this discussion for our listeners is echoing John's thoughts that those who have an understanding of their mission and their purpose accelerate faster. The story he told around using the same data for a $5 million dollars raise versus a $350 million dollars raise is so informative. It's not just the data, although that has to be excellent, of course, but the story of the data and how it can impact the world is what's driving investment.
00:36:55
Speaker
Yep. And of course we at Mighty Spark love the opportunity to work with our clients on building that story and telling it well. So join us next time as we continue this journey to power scientific innovation with storytelling to drive transformative change and solve our most demanding challenges.