Guest Post
By Mark M.J. Scott
President of Northern Pixels Inc.
In my role, I have the privilege of meeting with over a hundred deep tech founders annually. Almost universally, these visionaries share a common ambition: to become category leaders, achieving sky-high valuations that pave the way to lucrative exits. There’s a widespread understanding that success in this arena hinges on the support of top-tier investors, business partners and clients. These key players form what I call the “Strategic Trio,” essential for catapulting a startup to the coveted position of category leader.
However, a concerning pattern emerges when I probe deeper into founders’ strategies for influencing this crucial trio. Often, I’m met with ambiguous responses or, worse, a complete lack of a concrete plan. This gap between ambition and strategy is a critical oversight that can significantly hinder a startup’s progress.
As deep tech startups mature and transition into the commercialization phase, they face a harsh reality: the competition for attention from the Strategic Trio is fierce. To stand out and secure their support, a sophisticated, purpose-built approach is necessary. This strategy must seamlessly integrate marketing, sales, product development, and public relations efforts. While it’s common to see these departments working in silos, burning through valuable resources, a truly effective category leadership strategy orchestrates their efforts, prioritizing activities that build awareness and influence the Strategic Trio.
The Power of Impactful Positioning
A fundamental step in this process is mastering the art of impactful positioning. Many deep tech founders excel at technical positioning, articulating why their solution outperforms competitors or traditional alternatives. However, the transition to commercial positioning often proves challenging. Effective commercial positioning demonstrates how your solution delivers superior business value compared to existing or emerging options. It’s crucial to remember that even if you believe you have no direct competition, you must position yourself against the status quo to create buyer interest.
Strategic Awareness: Valuable if done right.
Awareness building is another critical component, but it’s a double-edged sword if not executed properly. Many deep tech founders are drawn to public relations agencies, yet they often lack the knowledge to select, manage, and measure their performance effectively. Unlike in politics, where any publicity can be beneficial, media-driven awareness in the deep tech world must be laser-focused on reinforcing your foundational positioning, highlighting differentiators, and establishing category leadership.
Traditional PR agencies often fall short in understanding the nuances of deep tech solutions and the vital positioning tweaks that can make or break an awareness strategy. A successful PR approach requires powerful third-party advocacy from individuals who comprehend and can reinforce your unique value proposition. Without this, media exposure can be a risky gamble, potentially undermining your carefully crafted positioning.
Targeting the Strategic Trio: Beyond Basic Outreach
Targeting the Strategic Trio demands a sophisticated engagement strategy. Many founders mistakenly assume that increased awareness will naturally lead to an influx of strategic interest. However, the reality is that your coveted audience may not have seen your media exposure, despite its reach to thousands or millions of others. In today’s information-saturated world, only the most targeted, contextual, and meaningful messages break through to influential leaders.
To effectively reach the Strategic Trio, you need a purpose-built strategy that goes beyond simple social media posts or newsletter features. This involves leveraging advanced LinkedIn targeting techniques, creating contextual content, and optimizing organic search results on both traditional search engines like Google and AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Perplexity. It’s crucial to understand that the Strategic Trio often employs sophisticated tools in their decision-making processes, and your outreach strategy must match this level of sophistication.
Assessing Your Team’s Capabilities
As you develop your strategy, it’s essential to assess whether you have the right internal and external talent in place to execute it effectively. Just as there are millions of recipe books but only a handful of Michelin three-star chefs, having a top-tier team to bring these elements together is crucial. Evaluate your commercial team’s ability to target the Strategic Trio, their contextual strategies for prioritizing your solution, and the advocacy materials they’re leveraging to strengthen your position for category leadership.
Furthermore, conduct your own research using search engines and AI platforms to explore how your company ranks for key industry use case terms and recommended solutions. Assess whether the content served for these queries is purpose-built and influential or merely accidental and lacking in contextual effectiveness.
In conclusion, while the ambition to become a category leader with a lucrative exit is common among deep tech founders, the path to achieving this goal requires a well-defined, sophisticated strategy. By mastering impactful positioning, executing strategic awareness campaigns, and implementing targeted engagement techniques, you can significantly increase your chances of attracting and influencing the Strategic Trio. Remember, without a clear and sophisticated plan, your ambitions remain dreams rather than actionable strategies. Invest in the right talent and resources to turn your vision of category leadership into reality, and you’ll be well on your way to accelerating your path to a lucrative exit.
About the author:
Mark M.J. Scott is President of Northern Pixels Inc., the world’s only marketing firm owned and operated by experienced deep tech / advanced tech startup leaders, all of whom have successfully commercialized and exited via acquisition. Mark has played a leadership role in multiple startup successes, including a cryptography company acquired by AppDirect, an Optics company acquired by Toyota and a pioneering Enterprise Low Code Application Platform, TrueContext, acquired by Battery Ventures in 2024. Mark was recently hired by the Quebec, Canada Government’s Quantum Innovation Zone, $435M-funded, to devise a commercial strategy to bolster start-up success. Mark can be found on X / Twitter: https://x.com/MarkMJScott
