I share short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a creative director in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
Because you say so?
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If you’re scientifically minded, shouldn’t you question the entire premise of pitching? The idea that you are supposed to TALK people into investing in you. It’s not obvious to me that humans work that way. Don’t get me wrong, language is useful. It made us what we are as a species. But it’s also just noises you make with your mouth. It costs nothing and our subconscious knows it. Look at nature: A female wont "invest" in a mate unless he can present an impressive peacock tail or large set of antlers. Bees perform a waggle dance to signal to their hive mates that a source of nectar was discovered. The richer the storage house the faster they dance. That gives you a sense of our own wiring: we’re tuned for BEHAVIOURAL signals. If I see you energetic and enthusiastic about something, I assume you believe that the goal is truly worth the effort otherwise you wouldn’t be expending all that energy. This sensitivity is useful if you set out to recruit others into your vision, pay attention that what is spoken is but one layer of the communication in the room. Take the typical team slide. What you might think it says: “We’ve assembled a qualified team to solve this problem.” Should they take your word for it? What it actually signals: “This founder was able to recruit and pay strong people - who had other options.” That signal is independent of your words, has a real cost and it's verifiable. An exercise to get you started: Imagine your audience doesn't believe a word you say. Yours, |
Creativity in Deep-Tech
I share short, partly visual emails, crafted through my lens as a creative director in deep-tech. Join me for insights on effective communication, marketing, design, psychology, and the philosophy of value.
In the previous newsletter, I shared a talk I gave at Nest Catalyst about investor pitching. That first talk focused on the mindset behind pitching complex ideas. This second talk is more practical. It focuses on how to approach shaping your pitch - through principles and examples. The last five minutes are especially practical: an easy framework to help you craft your narrative. This was quite challenging. After years of doing this work, a lot of it has become intuitive. Breaking it down to...
If you've ever struggled to move people toward a complex new idea, or if you just want to finally understand what it is that I do (like my parents), Or you just feel like watching something interesting … I finally had the opportunity to record a talk I’ve been piecing together for years. I had the pleasure of speaking to a group of scientist-entrepreneurs at Nest Catalyst - a Bay Area program supporting life science founders building companies in the biotech ecosystem. The talk is visual,...
There's a way to improve your startup by orders of magnitude in 10 seconds.Here’s what you do:Go to your email signature and add this to your title: CVO, Chief Visionary Officer. (You can keep your CEO title or replace it — I don’t mind.)Boom! You just made your startup more effective and drastically increased your chances of building a great product.By assuming the CVO title, you made something explicit that most startups leave vague: that there is a single source of intent in the system....