Thanks to the 100+ people who came to our November 11th event featuring Sapphire Energy–you can view all of the photos on the Flickr group we set up (feel free to add comments). We had a few glitches at the event, and got some good feedback on what you’d like to see next time. We had about 15 Sapphire employees in attendance, and people had a good time chatting with them and learning more about the company. They also presented at a Biocom breakfast the next day, and both events were covered on Xconomy, a “next generation” news organization. Our name tag color-based networking “system” worked–perhaps not exactly as we had planned, but it served to break the ice among the participants and to facilitate networking, here are some comments we heard:

• “I handed out so many business cards that I ran out and had to go get more out of my car.”




• “By far and away, last night I connected with more scientists and executives than I have ever before.”




• “When is the next event? You should hold these every month!” (echoed many times)

If you’ve got a comment to share, leave it below (just remember how shy and sensitive we are before being critical ;). We gave away a few small prizes from our SDBN Cafe Press store, and Comprendia provided USB keys with biotechnology career resources. Blue Horse and Trumpet helped with planning, PR, provided the marketing materials, and took pictures. Thanks to everyone who helped and participated (esp. our volunteers–not sure if they want to be called out here ;). With your help, we feel like we’re really on to something here, and it was exciting to see everyone connecting both in person and on-line using the LinkedIn group.

When and where will the next event be? We will likely move to another venue because we expect the turnout to continue to be larger than the Rock Bottom will accommodate. We’ll likely have the next event in January, and we are very actively looking for a new and/or exciting companies to cover, please give us your feedback on who you’d like us to feature. We do plan to ask the featured company to give a short presentation, as many of you commented that it would add value to the event. Thanks to everyone, and we’ll let you know as soon as we schedule the next event. If you didn’t attend the event, be sure to sign up for updates.

We’ve recently put together a presentation that will help you to grow your biotechnology career: Marketing 101: You First. The presentation describes how to position and promote yourself to make the most out of your career, using marketing principles. The presentation is specific to biotechnology careers, and includes relevant information for resources specific for the industry. On the San Diego Biotechnology Network website, we’ve put together a listing of more than 300 San Diego biotechnology companies, to help you with your job search: http://sdbn.org/directory. Also, check the Comprendia career page often for updates: http://comprendia.com/career. Our next two Marketing 101 Series presentations follow:

1. Marketing Your Biotechnology Company: How to present an image for your company that will help you to gain funding and successfully launch.
2. Marketing Your Biotechnology Product: Developing and promoting products that will lead to short and long term revenue growth.

Stay tuned to the “Marketing 101 Channel” so that you can utilize marketing principles at every stage of your biotechnology career, and sign up for updates to get messages in your inbox.

OK, maybe we’re getting a little too excited about this, but we’ve just ordered our first promotional item, USB drives branded with our logo (we’re excited because it’s kind of like the first dollar we made, or at least we’re telling ourselves that’s why we’re excited). We plan to load them with a presentation from our Marketing 101 series, and give them out at our San Diego Biotechnology Network Event Nov. 11th. Show up and you’ll get one!

p.s. if you REALLY like our logo, you can order merchandise (at cost–we don’t make any money off them) at Cafe Press: http://cafepress.com/comprendia

The San Diego Biotechnology Network (SDBN), a new professional organization, announced its inaugural networking event will feature a meet-and-greet with Sapphire Energy, a San Diego-based green crude production company.

SDBN was formed by two local marketing professionals, Mary Canady of Comprendia, LLC and Todd Backus of Blue Horse & Trumpet to meet the need for more face–to-face networking among Biotechnology professionals in the San Diego area, via casual, bi-monthly after-work events. SDBN events will feature a local company that represents the excitement and innovation of the San Diego biotechnology industry, and will provide a venue for their team to connect with the community in a casual atmosphere. SDBN’s choice of Sapphire Energy reflects the overwhelming interest that the biotechnology community has for the company and its technology.

Sapphire Energy was founded to address the overwhelming inadequacies of current biofuel approaches. The company has built a revolutionary platform using sunlight, CO2 and microorganisms such as algae to produce renewable fuel products – gasoline, jet fuel and diesel – that meet ASTM standards. The final product is not ethanol or biodiesel. Sapphire is led by a team of entrepreneurs and experts in cell biology, plant genomics and algal production, as well as investors with long histories of taking innovative technology to market, including co-founder ARCH Venture Partners, along with the Wellcome Trust, Cascade Investment and Venrock. Sapphire’s scientific supporters include The Scripps Research Institute; University of California, San Diego; the University of Tulsa, and the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Project. The company is located in San Diego. For more information, visit http://www.sapphireenergy.com and http://www.greencrudeproduction.com.

Contact for Sapphire Energy: Sarah Shahrabani, sarah.shahrabani@edelman.com, ph. 206.268.2228.

Event Details (RSVP Required)
Who: Sapphire Energy, Inc., and biotechnology professionals in the greater San Diego area
What: San Diego Biotechnology Network November Happy Hour
When: Tuesday, November 11th, 5:30-8:00
Where: Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, La Jolla, 8980 Villa La Jolla Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037
Cost: $10
For more information about the event: http://sdbn.org, registration and confirmation required. Contact: Mary Canady, mcanady@comprendia.com, ph. 858.922.6640.

SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwire - September 24, 2008) - Comprendia, a newly formed biotechnology and life sciences marketing consulting firm, is announcing the launch of BioStartup Marketing Kits, which will help biotechnology startups obtain the marketing they need to grow. The kits will enable the new companies to easily obtain the materials they need to launch, allowing their management to focus on other vital activities. BioStartup Marketing Kits are designed to meet the specialized needs of biotechnology companies, including materials and services such as website design, logo and branding, brochures, public relations, and social media.

This announcement comes at a time when biotechnology firms are touted as being a “safe haven” for investors during the current financial crisis. Large pharmaceutical and venture capital companies are investing in biotech companies to re-fill drug pipelines and provide novel tools for drug discovery. Additionally, the restructuring of large pharmaceutical companies has spawned a host of new drug discovery startups, founded by former big pharma employees. Choosing the right marketing strategy is essential to the success of these new, largely unknown businesses, because it not only determines their image and direction, but also their ability to raise money and recruit top scientists.

“We see a real need for science-savvy marketing solutions for small biotechnology companies,” said Mary Canady, Ph.D., Founder of Comprendia. “We understand the science that drives these companies, and can translate it into a winning marketing strategy that will lead to rapid and sustained growth for our clients. BioStartup Marketing Kits provide the materials and guide scientific entrepreneurs through a process which helps them define their objectives and message.” Dr. Canady’s insights into biotechnology marketing arise from her unique background in both science and business. She worked ten years as a biochemist and eight years in marketing and business development roles at life science and biotechnology companies, including Invitrogen and EMD/Merck Chemicals.

Comprendia, LLC, formed earlier this year, brings together Ph.D.-level scientific consultants with talented developers, designers and writers. Comprendia is located in San Diego, a biotechnology hub known for its close ties to world class research institutions such as Scripps Research Institute, Burnham Institute, and UCSD. Recently, San Diego has become home to a burgeoning green technology industry, with Sapphire Energy, Verenium, Genomatica, and Synthetic Genomics joining the biotech community. Comprendia serves the biotechnology, life sciences, and green technology industries worldwide.

For more information:
http://comprendia.com/biostartup
Mary Canady
Ph: 858.922.6640
mcanady@comprendia.com

Release on Marketwire

You’ve surely noticed it in other areas–the news is chock full of stories about how businesses are using social media to get ahead. What about using social media in the biotechnology or life sciences industry to help your business to grow? Well, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that Biotech’s presence is lagging behind other industries in most social media. Searching “biotech” in Facebook and Twitter gives a small number of results compared to other industries, and most of the bookmarking sites don’t even have a biotechnology category (we’ll define these media below). The good news is that now is the time to get active in this media, so that you can get traction now before the competition discovers how useful it is. Besides further engaging your customers (a la Web 2.0), you can also use it to increase your web traffic by improving your search engine ranking.

We plan to publish several blog articles in our Marketing 101™ series on using social media to grow your business. Social media can be described as split up into the 4 C’s: Context, Contacts, Communication, and Collaboration. There is a broad range of applications and a lot to cover, and things change literally daily. In this initial installment, I’m providing the following guide to social media get us started, and you can also check out the Wikipedia entry.

Comprendia has recently become active on Twitter, and we have found it to be a great way to keep in touch with the (small) biotech and drug discovery community presence there, and to get people to visit the site. We have also used LinkedIn and Ning to create the Biotech Marketing Group, which will facilitate networking and exchange of information between professionals in the area. The capabilities of the “out of the box” tools such as Ning are growing daily, so you don’t have to build them from scratch. In addition, there is a wealth of biotech news, reports and research available in myriad places, allowing you to leverage the information to create interest in your website and products.

In the coming installments, we will provide tips on using social media to build your biotech or life science business. Let us know if you have any specific questions you’d like us to address. Also, check out our full Marketing 101 series to learn more about leveraging marketing tactics and strategies for biotech or life science business growth. If you can’t wait to get started, contact us about integrating social media into your business and marketing strategy, and you’ll get a leg up on your competition!

I attended the Biocom Open House in San Diego last Thursday, and had a great time. The theme was “Southern California Life Science Industry is Larger than Life,” complete with oversized nametags and summer “accessories” and food. I saw some familiar faces and met some new as well. I met someone from Pacira Pharmaceuticals, formerly Skye Pharma, who are actively developing and marketing their group of local anasthetic products. I met Stephen Chang, CSO of Stemgent, a relatively new company in San Diego developing products for stem cell research, an exciting new area. From a marketing standpoint, their website is impressive and “web 2.0,” meaning that it has interactive features such as a forum and a wiki.

I was interested to hear about Avitacor, which runs clinical trials in Mexico, from their co-founder Ciro Garcia. I’m betting this is something we’ll hear a lot more about in the future. I also learned of the UCSD $200K Entrepreneurship Competition from Dany Kitishian, UCSD student and CEO. He was looking to raise funds for the competition’s top award for a startup business plan, which has been increased from $50K to $200K. I also ran into Leo Lee of Pfizer, also the Membership & Communications Chairperson for the San Diego Biotech Discussion Group. They are having a meeting this week, and he indicated that they usually have around 200 in attendance.

Joe Panetta, CEO of Biocom, gave a short speech in which he highlighted the fact that Biocom has a new website, complete with a new Career Center via a partnership with BioSpace. Biocom put on a great event with what I estimate to be about 200 people in attendance. The food was great and I had a good time socializing and getting up to speed on San Diego Biotech.

OK, you collected a TON of business cards at BIO, now what? Get the most out of your BIO 2008 attendance with careful follow up:

1. First, keep the business cards as they were originally collected (mine are in groups according to the days I spoke to the people) and write any additional notes on the back of each card soon, while it’s still fresh in your mind. You might even want to write down when and where you talked to the person, so that you can refer to it during your initial contact with them.
2. Think about your strategy for following up, and organize the business cards accordingly. Are there some contacts you feel that are more pressing than the others? Did you make several different types of contacts? The categorization will be specific to your objectives for the conference. Also consider whether any upcoming business trips would be merited. For example, if you made many contacts in Boston, you can tentatively plan a trip there, and mention it in the email to your new Boston contacts.
3. Before emailing to your new contacts, make sure that your email signature contains all of the information needed to contact you, as well as a link to your website. Make it as easy as possible for them to evaluate your value proposition by including targeted links or small attachments.
4. In the email to your new contacts, be sure to refer to details of your conversation with them, and be sure to emphasize why they should remain in contact with you, or meet with you. In other words, answer the question in their minds “what’s in it for me?”
5. The LinkedIn online network is a great way to connect to people and to simultaneously show them your professional experience and network. However, you cannot send attachments in the LinkedIn invitation emails, and not everyone uses it. To get around this, you can include a link to your LinkedIn profile in your email text or signature, and those who use it are likely to follow the link and add you as a connection.
6. Short boilerplate paragraphs in the text of your email are fine, to describe your value proposition. Just be sure to personalize the email wherever possible by mentioning their needs, and ways you see that you can help them.
7. Close with an indication that you will follow up with a phone call. That way, if it appears that they have ignored the email, you can still have one more chance to make a connection. Remember also that connections may not be fruitful immediately, and be patient.

Good luck!

Is there a dearth of blog posts on Bio on the Road this morning because everyone was up late partying? Maybe. I went to the Women in Bio party early last night at the Mr. Tiki lounge, complete with leis and Hawaiian food and drink (no spam). I made a lot of great contacts and met very knowledgeable people in the field. After that, I went to the BIO 2008 Gala Reception Gaslamp Quarter Block Party on 5th. The party was complete with mimes, fire dancers, and other entertainment, along with great food from the restaurants on 5th street. Being from San Diego, I left early, as living in a great vacation spot is never as fun as visiting . . . hope you all didn’t stay up too late. Have a great day and see you in 2009 in Atlanta!

I’ve spent most of my time on the BIO 2008 exhibit floor, networking for Comprendia, and I’ve noticed that there are many environmentally friendly promotional items, with cloth bags being the most common. I even got a kit to help make my house more environmentally friendly from our local energy provider, SDG&E. Interestingly, at least one biotech company, Vertex, is using a fluorescent light bulb as the focus of their current marketing campaign “targeting a bright future.” Kudos to them for being ahead of the curve on realizing this new type of earth-friendly light bulb appeals to scientists and consumers alike.

In general, there is also an association between the color green and being environmentally friendly, and some companies are capitalizing on this. The “rage” at BIO 2008 are the bright green crocs-style shoes that one company is giving out (I can’t remember the name, but they are in the 1000 aisle). I walked by their exhibit yesterday and the line was very long! Some people even switched out their dress shoes to model these wonders of fashion . . . amazing how high level scientists and biotech professionals still have such an attraction towards free items.

I read somewhere that is an increase in the number of companies choosing the color green for their logos, to capitalize on this trend. Does this include Comprendia? Well, we do strive to be green in providing earth-friendly promotional options to our clients, and traveling only when absolutely necessary, relying on web-based services to meet, but we also just happen to like the color green.

Of course, the BIO 2008 schedule and logistics also center around green initiatives. All day today in Room 28 AB, the Industrial and Environmental track will have presentations on the development of clean technologies and affecting climate change. BIO 2008 organizers are also implementing a number of green , such as composting, leftover food donation, and recycled carpet.

Do all these initiatives and ties to being green just make us feel better, or do they motivate us to elicit change in the climate crisis? I think biotech should embrace the green concept in many ways, from the way we portray ourselves, to our operating logistics, and most importantly in the objectives we set for our businesses. Reversal of climate change is going to come from us, there is no question about it. Let’s get to work!