This post is one of a series exploring how biotech startup communications need to evolve as your company grows from pre-seed through to Series A and beyond. It builds on our earlier article, Building a biotech startup? Don’t forget to evolve your story alongside your science, which looks at why and how your communications and marketing need to mature as your science and company develop.
To start with, our founder and Chief Creative Officer Kat Arney takes a look at the challenges faced by UK and European biotech founders at pre-seed stage who are preparing to raise a Seed round.
At pre-seed stage, most biotech startups are very small. Often it’s a founder, maybe a co-founder, and one or two others.
There’s no marketing team. There’s no comms lead. There’s barely enough time to do the science, let alone think about how to talk about it to the outside world.
That’s completely normal.
At this stage, communications isn’t about visibility or promotion. It’s about credibility and clarity. You need to get really clear on what you’re building, why it needs to exist, and how to explain that convincingly to investors.
The biggest communications challenge for pre-seed biotech startups: Going from ‘what’ to ‘why’
For pre-seed biotech startups, the biggest pressure is the need to demonstrate credibility and differentiation with very limited data.
Scientific founders are usually OK with talking about what they’re doing – such as the biology and mechanism that underpins a therapeutic approach, or the technology behind your platform – and the data they have so far.
This isn’t always easy. Investors aren’t always as science-savvy as we’d like to believe, and there are plenty of other bright ideas and bold founders competing for their attention.
Explaining an innovation with clarity for busy people beyond your immediate specialism can be challenging, especially with something that is highly technical. (We can help!)
Where it gets even harder is articulating the why.
- Why does this innovation need to exist in the world?
- What problem does it actually solve?
- What’s the value of solving it?
- And why should anyone care?
This shift – from explaining the practicalities of your innovation to articulating its value – is one of the hardest transitions early-stage biotech founders have to make. It’s also the most important.
How to avoid over-hyping your pre-seed biotech startup
At any stage of your startup journey it’s essential to find the balance between being bold and staying believable.
Pre-seed stage founders worry about sounding too early, too academic, or not ambitious enough. That can lead to pitch decks overloaded with technical detail, overblown commercial projections, or claims that don’t quite sit comfortably with the evidence.
Push it too far, and you’ll end up with a too-good-to-be-true story that falls apart at the first sign of proper due diligence – and a reputation to match.
On the flip side, a confused and cluttered narrative that fails to properly showcase a truly groundbreaking innovation runs the risk of not being funded at all. (We’ve written before about our guiding philosophy that bad communication wastes lives.)
The trick is to find the boldest story you can tell about your idea and its impact that can be supported by the data you have available, and lay it out in a compelling, coherent and consistent way.
Read more tips about storytelling for biotech startups here.
The best communications strategy for pre-seed biotech startups
From a strategic point of view, communications and marketing efforts at the pre-seed stage should be deliberately minimal. And from a practical perspective, it’s unlikely you’ve got the time and money to spare for this kind of thing. You may even want to stay entirely in stealth mode until the time is right to come out.
If you do decide to do some DIY comms, you’re not looking for volume and noise. You’re looking for a compelling story you can explain clearly and consistently.
First and foremost, you need a coherent, credible pitch deck that explains what you do, why it matters, and why you’re a good bet for investors.
Unless you’re planning to stay completely in stealth mode until your Seed raise, it’s also a good idea to create a basic website. This doesn’t need to be complicated. A common mistake we see with websites at this stage is reams of tedious text explaining the scientific background without actually articulating what the innovation is or why it’s needed.
Instead, keep it simple and stripped back. A homepage simply stating the basics of your innovation (don’t forget to include why as well as what), a page going deeper on the tech and pipeline (if relevant), your team, and how to get in touch.
It’s a good idea to build in functionality for news, but don’t make it active until you can commit to a reasonable cadence of updates.
Get started on LinkedIn
You should also have a LinkedIn page for the company that mirrors your website messaging and brand, adding another layer to your digital footprint.
However, most of the posting activity should sit with the founders themselves,
Posting regularly on LinkedIn about what you’re building, insights from meetings or events, or sharing the reality of early-stage company building helps people understand who you are and what you’re working on.
Showing up consistently compounds over time, growing your network and helping to get you noticed by the people who matter.
For the company page, you should be reposting the founder content, with occasional company-level posts to cover key announcements such as milestones, new hires, or funding.
If you have the enthusiasm and time, you may want to consider developing this content into a regular email newsletter or blog. This is particularly beneficial for startups aiming to develop commercial products or platforms.
I’d advise against significant media outreach and PR pushes at this stage. It’s usually a waste of time and effort at this stage unless you have a genuinely interesting scientific, personal or commercially significant story to share. Save it for your raise instead.
Start by getting your story straight
Early stage biotech investors don’t expect a finished company. But they do expect clarity of thinking, and a credible team and technology they can trust.
If you can clearly explain why your company needs to exist and the value it could create, you make it much easier for others to believe in it and to back it.
You need to move from simply explaining what the science is to why it matters, and making sure your pitch, narrative and language hang together coherently.
Many founders get helpful support through accelerators, incubators and mentors. I regularly teach storytelling for startups workshops to accelerator cohorts around the country – such as the BIA’s Pulse, Discovery sPark and the Wellcome Genome Campus Startup School – helping them find their story and tell it in an unforgettable way.
Check out our Pitch Perfect Bootcamp – a one-on-one deep-dive into your deck, with detailed followup and advice.
How First Create The Media helps pre-seed biotech startups
Need help with your biotech startup story? First Create The Media are life science storytelling experts, combining deep science knowledge with strategic clarity and creativity.
We’ve worked with many pre-seed life science companies in the UK, Europe and the US, helping founders sharpen their story, develop credible pitch narratives and lay strong communications and marketing foundations from the start.