“I don’t know” are probably the most important 3 words in the lexicon of any scientist.
Scientists are driven by curiosity, wonder, and pursuit of questions that haven’t been answered. As a scientist, I read papers from other scientists, consider the limitations and future research questions, and use what I’ve learned to plan my attack for some other unanswered question. My mom was a scientist and so this pursuit of the unknown is in my blood and bones, this constant acknowledgement of uncertainty and curiosity central to my being…
… and then I co-founded Selva. While Selva is making an ecosystem for science, I was chosen by the co-founders to be CEO. As Scientist-CEO, I’m learning there is a massive difference between the culture of our users and the culture of investors & business folk I work with every day.
For starters, scientists talk a lot. Scientists give lectures of complex topics, requiring we talk sometimes for over an hour in free-formed discussions designed to trigger questions (versus commitments) and explore the space of possible ideas. Being long-winded - while eloquent - is a mark of sophistication and mental prowess, for how can one give such long and structured diatribe if not thanks to their unbridled intellect?
Business folk cut to the chase. Investors are busy. Time is money. Pitches must be structured but short. Brevity is brilliance and it is kind, helping busy people get to the point and fit more into their busy days. Calls are 20 minutes with hard stops requiring surgical focus and tactful execution.
I’d be lying if I told you I was a natural businessman. However, Humans are socially flexible and we can easily switch to adapt new cultural practices. As surely as I can code switch between my New Mexican public school dialect (“is that accent all sick, er what?”) and my Princetonian intellectual one, I’m finding it’s entirely possible to learn the ways of business. It helps to have friends who can provide honest feedback; I’m immensely grateful for Paralect Accelerator and my fellow co-founders Andrew Schwartz + Anthony Cortese for helping me learn & adapt.
All of these friends told me a hard truth: I ramble. While branching on tangents suits my phylogenetic scientist brain and served me well in science, it’s ineffective in the business world and I need to adapt to survive. To help, Andrew & Anthony (The A Team) sent me a series of YouTube videos that capture VC pitches immediately prior to a call with a potential investor. I watched the videos, studied the dialect, and came prepared.
I didn’t get through all the videos but I figured they were all the same. At the bottom of the stack of videos I didn’t have time to see were successful Y Combinator pitches from companies like DoorDash… at the top of the stack was a bunch of “Shark Tank” highlights. I showed up to our next investor call armed with Shark Tank dialect and unleashed a series of hilariously over-the-top pitches more suitable for reality TV than real life calls with investors.
Excitingly, the investor wanted to stay in touch to see the product post-launch! The A Team debriefed after the call and almost immediately erupted into laughter about how I had successfully adopted Shark Tank culture AND how Shark Tank was probably not the best cultural diet for a scientist-CEO. I went back & watched the Y Combinator videos and, to this day, I cringe at my adoption of Shark Tank reality TV VC culture in a real-world VC meeting.
I’m still learning. I’m reading books & articles and consuming (real, not reality-TV) VC pitch videos like I’m on a sitcom marathon. As I learn about the cultural differences between our users - my beloved, curious scientists I know well - and our investors - those busy, concise movers & shakers - I’ll be taking notes so other scientists can learn from my mistakes.
Lesson number 1: Talking to investors requires learning a new dialect. The dialect is simple: be concise & specific. To learn that style, watch Y Combinator’s Demo Day videos, and not Shark Tank.