90 Days to Market
90 Days to Market is a fixed-scope twelve-week programme that takes an analytical instrumentation or biotech startup from an unclear market to a written, defensible position — with the messaging and pipeline plan to act on it. Three phases: evidence, position, pipeline. It ends in documents you own, not a retainer.
Evidence
Before anything is claimed, I find out what is true. That means talking to your buyers rather than to your team, and reading the competitive field as an evaluator would.
Buyer interviews
Eight to fifteen conversations with scientists, lab managers, technical evaluators and procurement leads — including people who looked at you and bought something else.
Competitive read
What the entrenched instruments genuinely do well, by method rather than by brand, and where the switching cost actually sits.
Segment ranking
Every market your technology could serve, ranked by who pays first rather than by total value.
The uncomfortable finding
If the segment you assumed was yours is not the one that will pay first, you hear it in week three.
Position
One claim, stated plainly, that survives a technical evaluation. Then the language that carries it to each audience without changing its meaning.
Position statement
One paragraph, agreed with you, from which every other piece of messaging is derived. Traceable to the evidence behind it.
Messaging platform
A primary message, variants for each audience, and the objection handling underneath. Plus the phrases to avoid.
Claim defensibility test
Each advantage is tested against what a buyer will verify. What cannot be qualified is cut rather than softened.
Proof inventory
The data, methods and references that support the claim, and an honest list of what is still missing.
Pipeline
A capital purchase involves a lab manager, a technical evaluator, a procurement team and a budget cycle you do not control. The plan is built for that, not for a two-week trial signup.
Pipeline model
Stage definitions tied to buyer decisions, with the forecasting assumptions written down so you can see which one breaks the plan.
Content plan
What to publish, in what order, mapped to the questions each stage of the buying process raises.
Outbound approach
How to open a conversation with a lab that already owns a working machine, and what to send afterwards.
Named beachhead accounts
The specific laboratories whose adoption makes the next fifty easier. Accounts, not personas.
What is and is not included
A fixed scope only works if both halves are written down. This is the second half.
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| Buyer and competitor research | Primary laboratory testing or sample analysis |
| Position and messaging platform | Visual identity design and production |
| Pipeline model and content plan | Campaign execution and media buying |
| Named beachhead account list | Outbound prospecting on your behalf |
| Weekly working session with the founder | Day-to-day team management |
| Every document, yours to keep | An ongoing retainer commitment |
Questions about 90 Days to Market
What is 90 Days to Market?
A fixed-scope, twelve-week programme that produces a written market position, a messaging platform and a pipeline plan for an analytical instrumentation or biotech startup. It runs in three phases — evidence, position, pipeline — and ends with documents you own.
Why ninety days?
Long enough to interview buyers properly and let a position survive an argument; short enough that the market has not moved by the time you act on it. It is also roughly the point at which an open-ended strategy engagement starts producing activity instead of decisions.
What do I get at the end?
A market position statement, a messaging platform with audience variants and objection handling, a pipeline model with its assumptions written down, a content plan, and the interview findings the whole thing rests on.
What if the research contradicts our plan?
Then that is the finding, and you get it in week three rather than after a year of spending. This has happened, and the companies it happened to describe it as the most valuable part.
Do you keep working with us afterwards?
Some clients continue as a fractional CMO engagement, some take the documents and execute internally, and some do a single follow-on project. The programme is built to be complete on its own.
Who needs to be available during the programme?
The founder or CEO for roughly two hours a week, one technical lead for accuracy review, and whoever owns commercial numbers. Buyer interviews need introductions from you, which is the one dependency that can slow things down.
How soon can it start?
Depends on current commitments — I run a small number of engagements at a time. A first call will tell you the next available start.
Tell me the market and the question.
A first call is thirty minutes. If ninety days is the wrong shape for where you are, I will say so and point at the piece of work that fits.