Why abandon your belief
3 Myths losers believe about winners
Photo by Luis Quintero
For, dear me, why abandon a belief
Merely because it ceases to be true.
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt
It will turn true again, for so it goes.
- Robert Frost, “The Black Cottage”
Intro
I looked at winners and losers on the Life Sciences Today podcast; people I talked to,
the ones that shined the ones that didn't.
To be honest, the losers end up on the cutting room floor. You’re only reading winning material here.
I discovered 3 myths.
Let’s go abandon some beliefs.
Myth#1 People like AI.
After over 30 episodes - our data says that it's better to just talk about what you do and tell an interesting story.
You could say, “We use AI-augmented, distributed tech-enabled services for fulfillment execution and sustainability of medication compliance”.
You might think that talking about AI will help your SEO and get you more customers.
You might be wrong.
Better to say, “We employ retired people to call up patients and remind them to renew their prescriptions. A lot of patients are older people, with weekly pillboxes and 10-15 medications. It’s hard for them to keep track of the pillbox let alone their prescriptions. The retired folks and patients they call are all over the US and Hawaii. We use an Open-source telephony platform called Asterisk - it was first released in 1999. Still being actively maintained - the latest security release was Jul 31, 2025. It’s free and it helps us keep our costs down and profitability up. We get 46% more renewals than our closest competitors, and almost zero employee turnover”.
Our data says that an interesting story is much better than Gen AI content about AI.
Myth#2 Keep it professional
I’m welcoming you to my podcast cast and I ask you, “Tiffany, tell me about your journey”.
You could say -
“I’m a global biotech strategist with a track record of unlocking transformational enterprise value for Fortune 50 companies across the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. I was a senior leader at Boston Consulting Group, where I spearheaded a category-defining biotech innovation agenda. Expert in scaling breakthrough platforms at the intersection of science, technology, and capital, convening global ecosystems to accelerate drug discovery and capture outsized market opportunities”.
You might be wrong.
Better to say,
“I worked at BCG for several years meeting biotech companies and writing reports. The stale smell of airplane air on Monday mornings was not my favorite way of starting the week, although I once had a good time with my colleagues in the Basel office. I decided to retire from BCG. I love trail-running, Ashtanga yoga and problem-solving. After a few months, a former client called me and I unretired. Today, I coach biotech executives on the eight-fold way to wealth”.
Our data says that your personal interests are what makes you interesting.
Myth#3 Focus on doing only one thing well, if you want to succeed.
Our data says in general yes - but having 2 value propositions also works.
Especially when your second value proposition drives sales to your main offer.
Our data shows that when you create network effects between your offerings that competitors can't replicate, you can build an unassailable strategic position.
Here's how one company turned myth #3 into a strategic advantage
This week I hosted Dr. James Hamrick from Caris. Caris is a molecular diagnostics company providing genomic profiling tools for oncologists.
They do tissue testing, liquid biopsy and whole exome/transcriptome sequencing for cancer patients.
The company was founded in 2008 with a vision to create point-of-care solutions AND aggregate data for research.
That stopped me.
Why would a diagnostics company want to aggregate data for research in a non-commercial data sharing model?
Dr. Hamrick runs Precision Oncology Alliance (POA), a not-for-profit, collaborative research community started in 2015. POA has published 1,000+ articles using Caris data.
POA has -
97 cancer centers participating globally
Access to multimodal molecular dataset with ~500K patient profiles
Combines Caris anonymized molecular diagnostics data with clinical claims data
That last one stopped me again.
They combine the patients’ clinical claims data with their test results.
That enables Caris to understand how their test results relate to clinical findings of the patients’ cancer.
And understand at scale.
Helps improve test ordering workflows and result interpretation.
Helps bridge the gap between complex technology and practical clinical application for oncologists and patients.
Helps focus on areas where Caris data adds the most value.
As I sit here, and oftentimes, I wish
I could be monarch of a desert land
I could devote and dedicate forever
To the truths we keep coming back and back to.
Robert Frost, “The Black Cottage”
This week on Life Sciences Today.
John took over from me once again for another episode of Life Sciences Today.
The podcast has really taken off - we’ll soon celebrate episode #40 with Raviv Pryluk, founder of PhaseV - an Israeli techbio startup on fire optimizing clinical trials.
John sat down with Andrea Douglas, Director Business Development Life Sciences at Surescripts, to talk about their electronic benefit verification!
Electronic Benefits Verification is a big and complex challenge. However, doing the benefits verification is really important. SureScripts is known for their ePrescribing network where they share medication information and prescriptions across healthcare. That means they have a wealth of data and knowledge that they can leverage. This includes their efforts to do electronic benefits verification which they can provide as a service to Life Sciences companies.
Check out this week's episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast to learn more.
About Me
I’m a former pharma-tech founder who bootstrapped to exit.
Now I run a private community with 900+ life science leaders helping them maximize their revenue with the right partners.
I hear these insights first-hand every week from the founders building the future of TechBio.
If you want to get them before your competitors do, join my private network for techbio entrepreneurs.
About Life Sciences Today
🎧 On my podcast, Life Sciences Today, I host techbio founders who are writing the future of the drug and device industry, using technology-driven approaches to accelerate biological discovery and therapeutic development.
We talk about your journey, value creation, and value capture.
If you are a techbio leader contact me here to be a guest on the Life Sciences Today podcast.