Building in Stealth Vs. Building in Public

Why I’m building in public (even though I spent most of my career advising against it)

When I launched my communications firm, I didn’t realize that “building in public” was trending on social media. I certainly didn’t intend to jump on the bandwagon.

In fact, for most of my career, I’ve advised life sciences companies to do exactly the opposite: To stay quiet, operate in stealth, and wait for a milestone moment to share their story.

But one day I told a close friend, also a founder, that I’d been getting a lot of advice from others who had taken the leap to start their own company. I was considering writing a LinkedIn article to share what I was learning, but I wanted to wait until my business was more established.

“Maybe you should write it now and document the process of building your company,” she suggested.

So I sat down to start writing. Soon after, The Build was born.

This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about building in stealth vs. building in public, the pros and cons of each approach, and why so many founders are vocal not just about the existence of their companies but also the process of building them.

The argument for building in stealth

My absolute favorite kind of work is helping companies emerge from stealth.

Since starting my career in biotech PR, I’ve helped dozens of biotech, digital health, and medtech companies through Series A announcements and their “launch moments.”

The core of that work is helping them articulate the story at the heart of their existence – their mission, vision, purpose, goals, and unique value proposition. From there, I work with the leadership team to pull the story through all corporate assets, and then to develop a strategy for sharing this story with the world with as big a splash as possible.

This work is exciting because it means sending a company off on a positive trajectory, and ideally, we do such a good job articulating the core company story that the messaging holds up for years. Sometimes I go back and look at the websites of companies I helped launch years ago, and I see little bits and pieces of what I helped them to create.

About a decade ago, nearly every life sciences company I encountered wanted to stay buried deep in stealth mode until they were ready to announce their name, their website, the technology platform, and their pipeline – even their team. They’d keep everything as secretive and below the radar until the day their Series A financing announcement crossed the wire.

This was done for several (good) reasons:

• To ensure media interest when they company launched – no one wants to cover a story that’s already out in the open.
• To protect intellectual property and keep competitors in the dark.
• Tradition – it was just the way biotech companies had always done things.

But over the past few years, this model has started to shift. More companies are coming out of stealth mode sooner by pushing their websites live before making any announcements, or putting out press releases and maintaining an active social media page long before they’ve raised a Series A.

These days, reporters don’t see the ‘big news moment’ as the company’s creation—they see it as the fundraise.

I attribute this to multiple factors, the biggest factor likely being the current fundraising climate. These include:

• Raising money is tougher than it used to be. VCs are more cautious. Investors want to see data, not just promise. Companies are operating longer on seed funding, and to operate well they need to be visible.
• Attracting talent is hard. Candidates want to feel like they’re working for a “real company” with a name, and a website, and a LinkedIn page.
• And reporters tend to see the real story not as “this company exists,” but as the news that it has secured a large funding round from reputable investors. The launch moment itself doesn’t carry the same weight that it used to.

Which approach is better: Under the radar or out in the sun?

And so, you ask, which approach best predicts success?

It depends. On the leadership team, the funding source, the competitive landscape, and personal preference.

Some companies simply don’t need to build in public. For example:

• Companies led by repeat entrepreneurs with a track record of success, or those with well-known boards, who can raise money based on reputation alone.
• Companies being incubated inside VC firms or pharma ventures. These founders have the good fortune (literally) of not having to raise money and can focus instead on building their companies.
• Companies with sensitive IP or competitive advantages they are trying to protect, like a novel disease target.

But for many other companies, sharing their stories sooner is a necessity.  Especially when:

• They are looking for pharma partners.
• They are selling or partnering out a technology or product while also building their own pipeline.
• They need to scale quickly and attract top talent fast.

Why I chose to build in public

If I’d waited for the perfect logo and website, I might’ve run out of cash before I landed my first client.

As a firm that provides services to the life sciences industry, my top priority was letting people know I was open for business.

I took about a month after deciding to start my own firm think about my brand, my story, the services I’d offer, and how I wanted to position myself. I didn’t want to make an announcement that I was doing one thing, only to tack and change gears a few months later.

For me, if I’d waited to launch my company until all my corporate assets – my logo, website, branded company deck – were complete, I’d be at risk of running out of cash before I even got things off the ground.

So I’ve taken a kind of middle-of-the-road approach. I’m sharing my story here on The Build and reaching out to people in my network to let them know I’m available to support their company’s PR and corporate communications needs. I’ve also been asking a lot of questions about what makes a PR firm great and long lasting.

While my colleagues prep the brand materials behind the scenes, I’m sharing my story here and networking within the life sciences community.

And once those materials are ready? I’ll start sharing my story more widely and reaching out broadly across the industry and more intentionally marketing my services.

---

Building in public is not the right move for every founder. But as a communicator in the life sciences, it’s made the early days feel less lonely, more connected, and helped me build the kind of business I want to run.

It’s not just a marketing move. I think best by writing, so this has been a way to reflect in real time, get good feedback and support, and remind myself that you don't have to have everything figured out to begin.

👀 Teaser for next week: Notice anything funky about my newsletter logo? That’s because I’ve been wrestling with ChatGPT to generate new headers each week. Bonus points to anyone who points out the discrepancies between each week's logo. Next time, I’ll share why I finally decided to hire a real designer, and what that says about where AI fits (and doesn’t) in creative work.

#BuildingInPublic #LifeSciences #FoundersJourney #StartupCommunications #BiotechStartups #BrandStrategy