At J.P. Morgan's 2026 Healthcare Conference and Demy-Colton/Informa's 2026 Biotech Showcase, even if you have 15 or 30 minutes with an investor, you only have two to three minutes to get them excited and wanting to know more about your company. That’s what the rest of the time is for.

Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller is a book about building an effective story for your company that will excite and compel investors or partners. Your company’s story is a key component to your fund raising success. Investors buy a vision that addresses an important problem. The science and data that follows is how the vision becomes a reality.

Building Your Company’s Story

1. A Character: The customer is the hero of the story, not your product. Science is cool, but unless it benefits patients and improves or extends their lives, so what?

2. Has a Problem: What problem does the customer have? How big a problem is it? How important is it for the customer to find a solution? How long have they had the problem and how aggressively have they been searching for a solution?

3. Meets a Guide: Your company is not the hero, but, rather, the guide who helps the hero find a solution to their problem. As Bill Clinton would have said if he operated in healthcare, “It’s about the customer, stupid.”

4. Who Gives Them a Plan: How your product benefits the customer and provides them the solution they are seeking.

5. And Calls Them to Action: How buying the company’s product will make customers happier and make them want to buy it.

6. That Helps Them Avoid Failure: New products always have an element of risk associated with their trial. It could be market access, price, dosage, side effects, delivery... demonstrating how the new product eliminates those risks is a critical aspect of driving future demand.

7. And Ends in a Success: Make sure customers know how great their lives will be after they adopt the new product your company is developing.

In two or maybe three minutes, you have to tell the story about how an investment in your company will help patients while providing them with both financial returns and feeling good about the investment they will be making. I call it “hooking the fish”. The remainder of the meeting, where you discuss your data, clinical trial plan, etc. is reeling the fish into the boat.

Is your story ready for the "So What, Who Cares" moment? 

If you're heading to JPM or Biotech Showcase, now’s the time to pressure-test your pitch. Investors don’t just invest in data, they invest in stories that move markets, solve problems, and create value. If your first two minutes don’t grab them, the rest may not matter.

We help life science companies turn complex science into compelling investor narratives. If you want to make sure your pitch hooks the right audience, let’s talk.